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
403 Have your say
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.
Recommend this story.
- Explore:
- Adelaide United, development, football, Germany
January 13th 2009 @ 9:35am
aussie_sly said | January 13th 2009 @ 9:35am | Report comment
anyone who thinks its wogball only needs to read johnny warrens book ‘sheilas, wogs and poofters’. In my opinion it should be required reading for any aussie football fan
January 13th 2009 @ 9:38am
Michael C said | January 13th 2009 @ 9:38am | Report comment
Soccer is just another sport.
No one owes it anything.
Soccer is in Australia in many respects still 4th in line of the ‘domestic codes/leagues’.
In Melb, more people by far are talking about Dave Warner, an almost cricketing no body who scored 89 in a meaningless game, the result of which no one really cares…………..and yet, there he is, the biggest sports story by far………………whilst MVFC lost a crucial HAL game in Perth.
Is it right or wrong the media coverage???………………well………..firstly, 1.9 mill or so watch the 20/20 on FTA in off peak summer time. 60K or so turned up to the MCG,………compared to sub 10K in Perth.
So – - – there’s still the scale of displayed interest in the first place.
THe HAL crowds this year, the lack of SFC gelling with Sydney sports public,……….the greater interest by many in overseas soccer, i.e. Beckham, Man Utd etc,…………..many reasons why soccer still struggles for broader coverage.
but, on radio SEN last night they spoke for 10 mins to Ernie Merrick, and this morning Danny Allsopp was on. That never happened in the past (well, okay, before there was a 24hr sports radio station that is still talking MORE about Dave Warner than MVFC too!!!!).
Actually – that last point is probably the key indicator – - – what people are wanting to ring up a talk sport radio station and talk about – - that’s as good a barometer as anything. Start there, perhaps – with your questioning of fairness of coverage. (and remember, radio SEN broadcasts the MVFC matches).
January 13th 2009 @ 9:47am
Koala Bear said | January 13th 2009 @ 9:47am | Report comment
Adrian,
interesting piece once again.. Yes that clip really makes you cringe being an Australian doesn’t it ..? There are some still yearning for the good old days to remain.. Like the ones when Australia was riding on the sheep’s back. Or the Chipps Rafferty’s mundane movie I once saw on the Silver Screen in the 50′s at my local cinema “Smiley”. The Australian epic reappearing with a digital enhanced retake to enter in this years Golden Globe Awards .. (For those who were too young to have seen the movie you did not miss much) ..
I also can remember in that period my uncle bought his first VJ Holden and the boring picnic days we had at the Jenolan caves somewhere in the Blue Mountains in NSW taking happy snaps with his Kodak Brownie Box Camera.. Ha the days they can’t leave behind ..
What is it with these people still yearning for the unsophistication of the past that had held Australia back in the backwater of the most important sporting tournaments of the world, that every other nation wanted to participate in and achieve success .. The FIFA world cup..
Yet we still have a stubborned ignorant xenophobic lot in the media wanting to remain in the good old days of the 50′s; the Rip Van Winkle years zzzz zzzzz zzzz .. For heaven’s sake Australian media there’s a new dawn out there and it’s called HAL, ACL, and the Asean Confederation National Football Championships …
~~~~~~~~~
KB
January 13th 2009 @ 9:50am
Michael C said | January 13th 2009 @ 9:50am | Report comment
Finno -
recently on radio SEN in Melb, the discussion was around a particular topic, and a fellow called in and indicated that back in his day coming through school in Melbourne, he was a talented soccer player (outside of school) but just wanted to play footy (Australian Football) with his schoolmates for the school. But, the school insisted that he had to play in the school soccer team.
Just to illustrate that the reverse did happen sometimes!!
btw – the ‘safer’ to play than Rugby I can see as a huge issue for many – - especially these days with many smaller families coming through (1 son instead of 5 sons can make parents rather ‘protective’). This would be a bigger issue in NSW being Rugby heartland. It’s interesting, because, relative to Aust Footy – - that ‘safer’ equation is less obvious………..on certain fronts, soccer can be more damaging from the hips down. And headers themselves can cause issues. It’s an interesting dynamic…….but………also with respect to the potential for ‘growth’ of the various codes in non-core regions, especially for the Rugby codes to seriously seek expansion into the more AFL states….i.e. if they are deemed less safe. It would also appear that some of those ‘rugby’ schools really were ‘rugby institutions’.
January 13th 2009 @ 9:58am
The Link said | January 13th 2009 @ 9:58am | Report comment
This goes both ways.
The HAL hardly breaks into the Top 10 shows each week on Foxtel. God knows what it would rate on FTA. These numbers need to rise before it can legitimatley argue about more Media space.
For Socceroos games there may be more of an arguement.
January 13th 2009 @ 10:03am
Luke W said | January 13th 2009 @ 10:03am | Report comment
I have to disagree with you on this one Adrian, based on my experience. I live in Newcastle which everyone probably knows is the home of the Newcastle Jets and the much more popular Newcastle Knights. I could easily forgive our local media for shying away from Jets news in order to protect their interests in the Knights, however, the local newspaper (the Newcastle Herald) has a comprehensive match preview every week for the Jets upcoming game, at least one article about the Jets on the slow news days and a dedicated football liftout in Tuesday’s edition (mostly A-League with a bit of EPL thrown in). Also, despite the terrible season our team has had, the Herald manages to bear the bad news while keeping an opitmistic view of things with the upcoming ACL and some exciting youngsters (rather than some sections of the media who would have a field day with poor results and falling crowds).
We also have our local television station NBN, who while not as good as the Herald for daily Jets news will always show match highlights of Jets games and results from other A-League matches. They occasionally have a piece on the EPL (whenever there is a big match, or an Aussie contributes to a result) or an interview with a Jets player or coaching staff. They also had a great piece on our W-League team when they made the semi-final against Canberra United.
So it’s not all doom and gloom. If the Jets had a better season to build on their premiership last year, combined with the strong media presence they receive, I could easily see an average of at least 15k attending home games.
January 13th 2009 @ 10:07am
Dave said | January 13th 2009 @ 10:07am | Report comment
“But the A League is a fairly mundane nonevent when joe average is concerned”
Over 27,000 turned up for a midweek game in melb recently with very little media. I would say that crowd would have been 40,000 plus if it had received attention that an AFL friday night game normally receives.
The interest is there although certainly not to the AFL/NRL level by a long shot yet…but things are improving. HAL will get another shot in the arm with the Socceroos at the next WC and with more Socceroos returning to play here.
January 13th 2009 @ 10:07am
Towser said | January 13th 2009 @ 10:07am | Report comment
Lets try & answer the basic question “Why does the mainstream media ignore Football” in 2 parts .
Firstly do they? Answer not to the degree they used to. When I migrated here it was a foreign sporting planet. Coming From a football culture used to the back page of our local paper dominated by the exploits of Wednesday & United, Australia as far as sport goes may as well have been Mars to me. Nevertheless the benefits of living in a decent house & improving my quality of life as opposed to living in a slum, outweighed football interest . Since Frank Lowy took over it is not ideal but much better than previously.
Then to the basic thrust of the question Why.
My observation is that it is a reflection of Australia as an evolving society & within any society mainstream media is not a body that is required to have an abundance of “Vision” to operate. Tried & true that will do. However In todays quickly changing world it wont(I’ll come to that later).
So my observation of Australia over the 40 years I’ve lived here is that because of its youthfullness& favourable climate(Australia) sport has become an instant indicator of the countrys success/worth/self respect & so on. There’s not thousands of years of hatchet chopping, eye out with an arrow, bloody battles on foreign fields or great Bards, Adventurers, Composers, Artists etc to draw on. Instant fix sport. But not just sport succesful sport & not just succesful sport consistently succesful sport. So in this sentence, Adrian you address this:-
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.
Then in this sentence you also explain your own basic question:-
“With our football history one of unfulfilled potential, and our record relative to other countries unimpressive, there has been little to entice the media. ”
Thats it in a nutshell. I would go further & say that Football for me has been the opposite of consistently succesful brought to a head in 1997 by ‘The disaster”. The mainstream media werent going to “Raise the Titanic” after that. Why bother when there were already brightly coloured sailing yachts above consistently crossing the winning line called Cricket,Swimming,RU,RL etc. That would have required vision that the battered hull could have been refloated & refurbished to master the ocean liners of the world. Vision not the bag of mainstream media.
So lets see Football become a consistent succesful Australian sport. 4 years of a fledgling A-League/member of AFC & one trip to the WC after 32 years does say “Consistent Succesful Australian Sport”.
Perhaps your next article Adrian should be “Who gives a toss what the Mainstream media does” as far as I’m concerned their a dinosaur anyway in dictating to society what their interests are. I get all my football info from the internet nowadays. I watch football there also. I’m of a generation where the mainstream media dictated our interests so if I have adapted to the modern forms of media to get my info then as sure as eggs up & coming generations brought up on it will dictate the terms not the mainstream media. The days of the “Big Kerrys” of this world are gone.
January 13th 2009 @ 10:10am
Towser said | January 13th 2009 @ 10:10am | Report comment
“So lets see Football become a consistent succesful Australian sport. 4 years of a fledgling A-League/member of AFC & one trip to the WC after 32 years does say “Consistent Succesful Australian Sport”.
The last bit should read “does not say “Consistent Succesful Australian Sport”.
January 13th 2009 @ 10:21am
Michael C said | January 13th 2009 @ 10:21am | Report comment
btw -
for every stupid comment like David Reyne – - there’s any number of other stupid comments about other sports. Stupid, ignorant, and potentially damaging.
Don’t think for a minute it’s only soccer that get’s a bad rap. Or that this comment was particularly noteworthy……other than as a curiousity……..as…….it’s hardly an opinion shaping comment on a moot topic.
The assertion of ‘media protection’ for AFL (NRL etc) is blown out the door via the following 2 examples of the same stuff up a year apart on first ch 9 (in 2006, at the time completing their 5th year of broadcast rights) and then a year later on ch 7 (2007, their first year of the current rights). On national breakfast tv, first Cameron Williams on Ch.9 Today show and then Mark Beretta on Ch.7 Sunrise stated that Wendall Sailor – if playing AFL – rather than Rugby – would still be playing unknown to anyone. Absolutely wrong – he tested positive to WADA/ASADA testing and the AFL, signed up to this – would have seen the same result – an automatic 2 year suspension.
This was so topical at the time – that the misrepresentation within the media in general became very – and unfairly – damaging to the AFL. Hardly an example of media protection of their own ‘product’.
The only defence is that they are effectively separate business units – - i.e. breakfast tv – - is that news and current affairs? or just the popcorn department. At anyrate – it’s not the sports department.
The point there being – - – that wasting your time whinging about an off the cuff comment by David Reyne (i.e. NOT even trying to present himself as an authority on sports – unlike Williams and Beretta in the above instances – in that they are the ‘sports’ presenters on Today and Sunrise respectively) – - – well, that just seems like unwarranted self flagellation.