Ian Brusasco AO, AM[1](4 October 1928 – 13 May 2021) was an Australian businessman who served as chairman and director for WorkCover Queensland, Queensland Investment Corporation, Gladstone Ports Corporation, Foodbank Qld, Port of Brisbane Corporation, Australian Soccer Federation (now Football Federation Australia), Queensland Soccer Federation, Oceania Football Confederation, Brisbane Strikers, Radio Station 4TAB, Radio Station 4KQ, and Labor Holdings.
His parents, Felice and Irma (nee Torre) emigrated to Australia in 1923 from the small, northern Italian village of Cuccaro Monferrato.
As a young man, Brusasco's father, Felice, had been a political prisoner for opposing Mussolini and after completing his 2 year compulsory military service, it was quietly suggested he flee the country for his own safety.
Felice had wanted to follow the big migration of Italians to Argentina, but unable to get there, he instead boarded a ship for Sydney with the brother of his fiancee.
[4] Brusasco spent many decades chairing and serving on a variety of boards, spanning the political, sporting, industrial and philanthropic life of Queensland and Australia.
[4] In his maiden speech in the council chamber, he outlined why he felt it was important for a town like Brisbane to have proper, world-class sporting facilities.
Just a few months prior, Brusasco had returned from leading an Australian soccer team on a world tour and had been inspired by the synthetic running track he had seen in a small town in Greece.
[citation needed] The ALP eventually sold the station to Wesgo in 1986, at the height of the boom years, in what proved to be an extremely profitable deal.
He led a revolution to sweep out the old administrators from the game, helping to introduce semi-professional soccer to Queensland in 1960 and creating a new governing body in the process.
Solving the stadium problem proved difficult, until Cambodia's head of state, Norodom Sihanouk, an ally of North Korea's leader, Kim Il-Sung, allowed the matches to be held in Phnom Penh.
North Korea won both matches to qualify for the 1966 World Cup in England, famously beating Italy in the group stage, before going on to make the quarter finals, where they lost to Portugal 5–3.
Brusasco also led delegations of Australian (U-16) soccer World Cup teams to China (1985), Scotland (1987) and Canada (1989).
He was the Chairman of the Trustee Management Group of the Brisbane Strikers from 1993 to 1999 and was in charge when the team won the National Soccer League grand final in 1997.
Many within the 45,000 strong crowd at Brisbane's Lang Park ground (now Suncorp Stadium) likened the atmosphere to rugby league's showpiece State of Origin contests.
Previous NSL finals had been played in front of modest crowds, but this day has been cited as heralding the emergence of the "sleeping giant" Brusasco had always predicted would awaken.