It’s easy to identify when Australian soccer reached its nadir. While some may point to the match at the MCG between Australia and Iran in November 1997, when the Socceroos seemed on their way to the following year’s World Cup tournament before being denied by two late goals, worse was to come. Far worse.

A loss to New Zealand in Auckland in July 2002, watched by just a few thousand spectators, was the true symbol of a sport that had hit rock bottom.

At the time, Australia was a member of Oceania, one of six regional confederations in the world of soccer. (The others are: Europe; South America; Africa; North & Central America and the Caribbean; and Asia.)

The match was the final of the Oceania Nations Cup. Few people cared because Oceania is the ugly duckling among the confederations. Did it really matter if we beat New Zealand and a few small Pacific countries?

Except there was something else worth playing for – qualification for the Confederations Cup.

The Confederations Cup brings together the six confederation champions, the world champion, and the nation that will host the following year’s World Cup (so we already know that Australia, Germany and Russia will participate in the 2017 edition).

The Confederations Cup’s importance is debatable but it does provide money for the teams that participate. In 2002, Australia would have received around $US1 million just for qualifying for it.

Back then it was money that Soccer Australia (the then governing body) desperately needed. Its debts were mounting and most of the clubs in the National Soccer League were close to insolvency.

You’d think that in these circumstances, Soccer Australia would have been doing everything in its power to maximise Australia’s chances of winning the Oceania Nations Cup.

But three weeks before the tournament began, Soccer Australia hadn’t even confirmed that Australia would be playing in it. Then, at short notice, a team of National Soccer League players was assembled – the players were out of season and would only be given a bit of travel money. More than 100 Australians were playing for European clubs but none were asked to join the squad.

Everything you need to know about the rottenness of Australian soccer in 2002 was summed up by this debacle. In 2003, Soccer Australia ceased to exist and it was replaced by a body that would eventually be known as Football Federation Australia, under the chairmanship of Frank Lowy. The last ever National Soccer League match was played in 2004.

In 2002, if someone had said that, by 2015, Australia would have left Oceania to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), that both our men’s and women’s national teams would host and win the Asian Cup, that the Socceroos would qualify for three straight World Cups, and that we’d have a domestic competition in relatively good shape, I might have suggested a career as a writer of fiction.

The transformation has been remarkable enough but its pace has been extraordinary – so extraordinary that 2015 will bring the tenth anniversary of three important events.

The announcement of Australia’s move to Asia was made in March 2005. In August of that year, the first ever A-League match was played. Then, in November, the Socceroos qualified for the World Cup after an absence of 32 years.

While John Aloisi’s penalty against Uruguay in 2005 will remain one of the greatest moments of Australian soccer history, the move to Asia was the event that provided the biggest pot of gold.

Some people, even knowledgeable fans, continue to say that the move to Asia was about improving our chances of qualifying for the World Cup (because there was no direct entry for winning Oceania – it just gave us playoffs against tough opponents from other parts of the world).

I don’t know where to begin with these people. Yes, World Cup qualification is important but there were other reasons for making the move. Our best clubs are able to play in the Asian Champions League (recently won by Western Sydney Wanderers) and, as we’ve seen over the last three weeks, it puts the Socceroos into a truly great tournament.

Indeed, Saturday night’s final between Australia and South Korea exceeded all expectations – a match of intensity and unpredictability worthy of any international stage. Had the Koreans won, they too would have deserved the title.

Still, the greatest benefit of the Asian Confederation is that the Socceroos have regular competition even if they fail to qualify for World Cups in the future.

In Oceania, the qualifying series could only include a few matches over a short period of time (and against poor opposition). The rest of the four year World Cup cycle meant trying to organise friendlies. This sometimes resulted in long periods between games (for example, in 2003, the Socceroos only played three times).

Even though the 2018 World Cup in Russia is more than three years away, Australia will begin its qualification path through Asia in June. It is likely to last two years and should include 18 matches against decent teams. If we don’t qualify, there will be the next Asian Cup to look forward to 18 months later and soon after that World Cup qualifiers for 2022 will begin.

While the benefits of Asia are great, some media recently suggested that they might not be permanent. It was reported that Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, the AFC president, said that he was aware “that momentum for Australia’s removal from the confederation continued to strengthen among Gulf nations”.

Sheikh Salman quickly tried to quash the story, praised Australia’s hosting of the Asian Cup and said that his comments were “manipulated”.

Whatever the truth, it’s unlikely that Asia will show Australia the door, as it would require three quarters of the AFC’s 47 members to vote for it. And I’m confident that our leaders at Football Federation Australia are trying to keep strong relationships with them. They would know that losing Asia would be the worst thing that could happen to the sport … since 2002.

Paul Marcuccitti is an adviser to Health Minister Jack Snelling. Paul remembers being taken to his first Socceroos match as a child in 1981. He has been somewhat obsessed with them ever since.