Articles by Paul Williams

About Paul Williams

Paul Williams is an Adelaide-based football writer who has reported on the comings and goings of Asian football for the past decade. Having covered the past two Asian Cups, he writes regularly about the J.League for Optus Sport in Australia, while he also regularly contributes to Arab News. Further, he has previously been published by outlets such as FOX Sports Asia, Al Jazeera English, FourFourTwo, and appeared on numerous TV and radio shows to discuss Asian football.

Matildas clash ‘just another game’: Stajcic

January 18, 2022 Paul Williams

New Philippines coach Alen Stajcic would have every reason to be out for revenge when his Philippines side face Australia on Match Day Two of the upcoming AFC Women’s Asian Cup, such was the way […]

Expanded Women’s Asian Cup offers hope for developing nations

January 15, 2022 Paul Williams

For the first time in almost two decades, the AFC Women’s Asian Cup has expanded to feature 12 teams at this year’s tournament and with more FIFA Women’s World Cup spots available than ever before, […]

Is the AFF Suzuki Cup too important?

January 4, 2022 Paul Williams

Anyone who has borne witness to the passion and noise in the grandstands at the AFF Suzuki Cup will tell you just how significant and important this regional showpiece is within Southeast Asia. For the […]

Defining week for Asian giants as Qatar 2022 looms large

November 10, 2021 Paul Williams

The opening game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is just over one year away – 376 days to be precise. Despite that, with the final round of Asian Qualifiers reaching its half […]

Home comforts – is history repeating?

August 13, 2020 Paul Williams

Remember when Omar Abdulrahman burst onto the scene at London 2012, dazzling football pundits the world over and winning an army of admirers in the process? There was such hope that Abdulrahman would become a […]

OPINION: Durakovic earned a chance at A-League redemption

August 12, 2020 Paul Williams

If you believe the rumour mill, Melbourne Victory has their heart set on Arthur Papas, Ange Postecoglou’s current right-hand man at reigning J.League champions Yokohama F.Marinos, as their new manager, while Adelaide United look set […]

The ‘Lion King’ continues to roar

May 20, 2020 Paul Williams

“I was in Korea but I did not watch a single World Cup game. Instead, I drank a lot of alcohol in an attempt to numb the pain.” Lee Dong-gook’s career, and life, could have […]

Australia still waking to its Asian future

May 15, 2020 Paul Williams

“Asia is expecting us to be a contributing member to the Asian Football Confederation and we will be.” Those were the words of then Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy the day after that historic […]

K League goes global

May 6, 2020 Paul Williams

With the K League set the resume this weekend, not since 2002, when South Korea co-hosted Asia’s first FIFA World Cup (of the men’s variety) with Japan, has Korean football garnered such international attention. The […]

OPINION: Back to the future for the AFC Champions League

April 28, 2020 Paul Williams

No one really knows what a post COVID-19 world will look like, especially when it comes to sport. The pandemic has wrought havoc on the sporting landscape in every corner of the globe, and Asia […]