Why does the mainstream media ignore football?

Columnist

By Adrian Musolino, 13 Jan 2009 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: Adelaide United, development, football, Germany

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Despite the giant strides made in the game from the Socceroos World Cup showing and the development of the A-League, football continues to fight for attention in the mainstream press, on free to air television and in print. It seems an ingrained ignorance still exists, judging by the pitiful coverage in certain sections of the media.

But why is this so?

The A-League is competitive and national, the Socceroos look set for another World Cup tilt and Australian players are starring in leagues around the world. There is no excuse for why the media shouldn’t commit more time and space to football.

Many pundits view the lack of significant football coverage as a barometer of the sports popularity, but this can be inaccurate.

In the main, it works the other way.

The amount of media attention a sport receives dictates how popular it is, especially in enticing the casual fan and raising awareness. In that regard, it is important for the game to break through the stagnation and win over the media.

But it is a very difficult task. The mainstream press have developed a very insular view of sport.

When Aussie sports stars and teams succeed, it’s expected. When they lose, it’s a crisis.

A sport such as swimming, hardly a headliner in other parts of the world, is so popular here because we are so successful at it.

With our football history one of unfulfilled potential, and our record relative to other countries unimpressive, there has been little to entice the media.

There is also the investment the local media have in the other codes, a sense that the AFL, NRL and cricket need to be protected.

There is a larger issue at play here too.

During that remarkable few weeks in 2006 when the Socceroos shone in Germany, the mainstream press jumped on the bandwagon. But there was still ignorance in some quarters, as this clip on a Channel 10 morning show demonstrates, and highlights the fact many still consider football to be an ethnic game.

Many multicultural Australians, myself included, can better connect with the Socceroos as a team that truly reflects our nations cultural heritage.

But you have to wonder how widespread David Reyne’s views on the ethnicity are and what impact that has.

Perhaps editors and journalist share this view; many grew up with soccer firmly in the background, as predominantly an ethnic game, while the likes of cricket, Aussie Rules and rugby were unchallenged.

Do they still see football as an outsider’s game?

Hence, when there is a dip in crowd figures or a setback (such as Adelaide United’s ACL thumping), the media reminds us all of the sports previous failings, no matter how inaccurate the comparisons are.

Rehashing the same old stories of ‘soccer in crisis’ is easier than analysing the sports’ current and future prospects.

There have been giant strides made in some sectors.

Foxtel should be congratulated for its commitment to the game, especially in the early development of the A-League. But the fact the outlet is only seen by approximately 30 percent of Australians also contributes to the lack of media awareness.

Also, the Internet has given football fans an outlet, and the huge number of fans viewing sites like this is no doubt a reaction from the missing mainstream coverage.

Overcoming those decades of ignorance will take time, and it does also require the A-League to sharpen up its product.

But in the main, the mainstream press need to truly wake up to the world game. Not just in time to jump onto the bandwagon when it rolls into town.

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The Crowd Says (403) | Page 1 of Comments

Scott B said | January 13th 2009 @ 4:12am | Report comment

Yes and No,
Your comment -
Many multicultural Australians, myself included, can better connect with the Socceroos as a team that truly reflects our nations cultural heritage.
How do you better connect than me???
I dont understand
OK,
if in eg. 20 years football is totally mainstream, and the socceroos team consists of jones, smith, johnson, bradley, o’neil, davidson etc, will YOU feel less connected?

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Forgetmenot said | January 13th 2009 @ 7:52am | Report comment

I think it has to do with the arrogance of soccer supporters saying that they have the best game in the world, and that they KNOW that the sport will be the biggest in Australia one day.

Adrian states “Many multicultural Australians, myself included, can better connect with the Socceroos as a team that truly reflects our nations cultural heritage.” ..
But dont you think that also shows that people have failed to integrate successfully into Australian society if they are unable to connect to teams like the Wallabies and the national cricket team.

Most of the people i hear complain about the coverage soccer gets in Australian media are the people who already know the news and simply want to promote the game. Every person in Australia knows what soccer is and how big it is, there is no awareness factor about it. Australia has a much larger array of sports than other countries, a sport for everyone, a sport that is not always soccer.

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The Bear said | January 13th 2009 @ 8:25am | Report comment

Adrian… thanks for raising the issue here at the Roar. Interestingly the first two posts on this blog are bringing up the “connection” debate… I believe part of our national culturally diverse heritage includes those dastardly English with such ethnic names as Jones, Smith et al.

Personally, i think Foxtel are dragging the chain here, too. Many of the “news” items (yes, it is the off season for many other football codes – and how does AFL have so much air time, of the three, i just don’t know!) are on anything but the weeknd’s games.

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Kazama said | January 13th 2009 @ 8:26am | Report comment

Adrian, there’s an academic journal article out there by Roy Hay called “‘Our Wicked Foreign Game’: Why has Association Football (Soccer) not become the Main Code of Football in Australia.” You may be interested to read this if you can get your hands on a copy.

As a multicultural Australian, I too feel that the Socceroos better represent me as an Australian than the other national teams. The fact that there are players of African, Anglo-Celtic, European, South American and Indigenous Australian ancestry regularly representing the Socceroos is a symbol that we all have a right to be called Australians if we live in this country, not just those of British & Irish descent. It also says to me that we are all equally Australian, and that I am not less of an Australian than others because of my background.

I also absolutely feel that football is still seen as un-Australian for some reason. When I was in high school, which wasn’t too long ago, the sport was known as ‘wog ball’ by the Anglo-Australian students and whenever I bragged to my mates about scoring a goal they would say ‘of course you’re good at soccer, you’re a wog.’ I think the media can play a role in changing this mentality, however as the clip linked in the article shows, they seem quite keen to keep football from being seen as an Australian sport.

Adrian Musolino: “But in the main, the mainstream press need to truly wake up to the world game. Not just in time to jump onto the bandwagon when it rolls into town.”

That’s the key. If the media is seen to be behind football and the Socceroos, and not just whenever we are playing a sudden-death WCQ or a World Cup Finals game, it will go some way as to encouraging people out there that have never had an interest in the sport because of the “Shelias, Wogs and Pooftas” mentality to at least have a look at it.

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El Capitan said | January 13th 2009 @ 8:40am | Report comment

Not being a rabid “football” supporter I do find it strange that certain media stations show clips of the EPL and scores but not report on the A-League. Even the fact that the A-League has moved its playing season to Summer, when the only sports that dominate the papers are cricket, tennis and golf also baffles me that there is not much of a mention in the print. Surely the news reports can concentrate on local sport than getting highlights of overseas sports?

I think hopefully things will change once a 24hr sport channel come on board, providing that they have a sports news channel.

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Scott B said | January 13th 2009 @ 8:43am | Report comment

Kazama-
Australia is a little bit of a special situation. Having a sport called “Australian Football” , i can understand why some people would consider football un-Australian.
people of african , s amer, euro descent, can play any sport for Australia if they are good enough.
Gregan was Australian captain.
I feel like the attitude is that some people feel they “own” the game more than others. This drives a gap in support. Our football and their football.
Maybe because people dont support the a-league so much doesnt mean they dont love to support their country. That for me is very Australian.

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Dave said | January 13th 2009 @ 8:47am | Report comment

” l think it has to do with the arrogance of soccer supporters saying that they have the best game in the world, and that they KNOW that the sport will be the biggest in Australia one day. ”

Errr bit of an arrogant assumption and generalisation on your behalf to make such a comment. If you want to hear arrogance when talking about the supposed best game in the world then talk to a group of AFL people! This for a game only dominant in a few states of one small (population) country!

The media coverage is a generational matter and having lived in melb for 40 years l can only comment on the situation here. Overall reporting on football here is much improved on what it was in the NSL days but it is still a long way from where it should be and that in part is down to the largely conservative AFL sporting media. They are employed in relatively large numbers to report on AFL and that is all they do. There are a few general sports commentators but they also speak from and are influenced by their AFL backgrounds.

FTA would ignore Sokkah if it could because of its own self interests in the sports they have paid to cover eg 7 and 10 AFL, 9 Cricket and RL. Ch 10 news at least give some coverage to MV (1 hr bulletin helps) but all FTA still seem to view EPL as more newsworthy here than HAL. Again that comes from those in charge growing up when it was only the EPL that held any interest and NSL was seen as too ethnic.
The Herald Sun is a tabloid rag which reports to the lowest common denominator to achieve the highest sales…they long since stopped being a paper that reports on news. Their sports staff are AFL dominated and the column inches reflect that…therefore even a newsworthy HAL game such as top of the table MV v AU on a Tuesday night recently with no other sport on in Melb was placed 12-14 pages in from the back of the paper. That the game drew over 27,000 midweek with such pathetic local coverage was truly remarkable.
The Age is a sponsor of MV and gives better coverage of MV although not really HAL in general. Sometimes interstate games aren’t even reported (even a paragraph would be something).
SEN sports radio is pretty much the only one that gives football a decent run and broadcasts MV games (unless clashes with AFL which is crazy because the AFL is broadcast on FTA and other radio stations).
It will take a generation for this situation to change in Melb. As football continues to increase in value and patronage media will slowly begin to devote more time/space to it. AFL which has already reached saturation coverage cant increase on that here. Media will continue to go through technological changes eg internet/streaming etc and this will enable football to gain more of a foothold. The older members of the population (50 and above) who have really only known AFL, Cricket, bit of Tennis, Horse Racing and Swimming will move to a better place and the new “old” will have grown up with greater choice and be more technologically savy.
Therefore it may take 30 years but the situation has already began to change and will continue to do so more at an evolutionary rather than revolutionary pace. 2010 WC will help to reinforce the value of football and each time the Socceroos achieve a palce this will continue. If Oz does hold the 2018/2022 WC it will be a massive boost and in that sense one can understand the local media being nervous.

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sledgeross said | January 13th 2009 @ 8:51am | Report comment

It comes down to “who cares”. Yes, media dictate what sports they want to be popular, but it also comes down to money made from advertising and bums on seats.
The socceroos did capture the hearts of the public last world cup, and continue to have fantastic support. But the A League is a fairly mundane nonevent when joe average is concerned. Being “indoctrinated” by the EPL gives people unralistic expectations on football quality, and we are nowhere near that standard yet. The point about the A League being only on foxtel also meants terrestrial stations will not want to “endorse” something that is seen as the pet of a competitor.
To sum up, if there was money to be made, there would be more mainstream support.

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Finno said | January 13th 2009 @ 9:18am | Report comment

Its funny how times change really,

I went to a private school and before they ever had a soccer ( football ) team all 5 div of rugby teams had to be filled.

I ran into my old football coach who is still coaching and now parents tend to prefer football rather than rugby. There is now 3 div of football in every grade. While year 11 and 12 or Open teams have 5 to 6 teams.

The reasons for the success is, football is deemed safer to play, more media coverage with the socceroos, A – League , more personalities, Beckham, Neill, Kewell, Cahill have become house hold names. Football is has grown so much in Brisbane in the last 15 years.

You also have to remember that channel 9, channel 7 pay millions of dollars for the rights to screen AFL and league. They are hardly going to screen, report, comment or advertise football they could potentially take away viewers. PBL has built so much of it success on league in Brisbane and still rate very highly with the Footy Show, Friday Night Football and Sunday Afternnon telecast whilst State of Origin in the big draw card for viewers.

I think that the main area is the Socceroos (or should they be the Footballroos) but the World Cup is the biggest draw card for football in this country the success of the Socceroos will only increase the media coverage of football here. Hopefully the World Cup the Asian Cup and World Club Champs will be hosted in Australia and football will never look back. I think that all good thing that have merit will grow slowly and steadily give it time and all stations and all media outlets will report on football.

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The Bear said | January 13th 2009 @ 9:28am | Report comment

Finno, i have seen tremendous strides at schools as well. But i don’t get the line of thought about potential viewers being taken away. These seasons are non-overlapping. It’s all about “dominance”, imo. Petty, EGO driven agendas.

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