Football flexes its new found confidence
Roar Guru By Pippinu, 29 Oct 2009 Pippinu is a Roar Guru
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- A-League, AFL, Andrew Demetriou, FFA, football, Football World Cup, Frank Lowy, Mike Cockerill, NRL, Rugby League
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Melbourne Victory's Matthew Foschini in action against Newcastle Jets' Ljubo Milicevic during round 5 of the A-League Season, played at the Ethihad stadium in Melbourne, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. The Jets drew against Victory 1-1 after full time. AAP Image/Joe Castro
As we all await to see whether the FFA is capable of putting together a bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 that is at least half credible, we remain with the uncertainty as to whether the largest sporting competitions in the land will need to shut down for up to eight weeks.
What has taken me aback the last few days are a couple of articles that have attacked the major football codes in this country with unrestrained venom, when in truth, there appears to be no good reason to do so.
Firstly, Mike Cockerill, of Fox Sport and the SMH wrote an article that accused the major football codes of causing an uproar at the news of a possible eight week shut down, and even labeled them as saboteurs.
But had there truly been any sort of reaction that warranted this sort of attack?
A few league CEOs had expressed concern at the possibility of an eight week shut down, and to be honest, you would expect no less of a CEO under those circumstances.
The AFL boss, Andrew Demetriou gave no comment except that he was awaiting further details from the FFA.
Not a word has been forthcoming form the rugby fraternity of any description.
So it remains a mystery as to why Cockerill would choose to label the other codes as saboteurs, especially when the FFA is doing a good enough job on that front on its lonesome by completely underestimating the technical requirements of hosting the World Cup.
Then yesterday, I came across this online article in The World Game by Phillip Micallef.
If we can charitably describe Cockerill’s article as premature, we can label Micallef’s as absolutely venomous.
He opens with this statement: “rugby league’s feral mentality was at its height of hysteria …”
Micallef goes on to use offensive terms such as: insular, chest beating frenzy, boofhead, narrow minded, fools and head in the sand.
If that wasn’t enough insulting language for one day, he closes with: “… rugby league could stage half a dozen tin pot World Cups of its own.”
Quite vicious, even if it is slightly unoriginal.
But two questions that come immediately to mind:
1. What on Earth has the NRL, and league supporters generally, done to deserve this sort of treatment?
2. Is it smart of someone who is interested in promoting football?
The answer to the first question is “nothing.”
The answer to the second question is, “probably not.” But it’s even more complicated than that.
League is a huge sport in NSW and Queensland, two markets where one could argue the A-League is underperforming.
SFC has never got back to the healthy crowds it attracted in its first season (which ultimately bore a championship).
The Roar’s attendance figures have gone from bad to worse over the course of the last few years, while their near neighbours, GCU, have become an absolute laughing stock of Australian sport (while at the opposite end of the spectrum, league clubs the Broncos and the Titans rule this part of Queensland).
So why would a pro-football journalist be so keen to denigrate league?
Part of the answer is to be found in the new confidence Frank Lowy has brought to all football lovers across the country. They have been uplifted by an influential figure, a talisman, who is intelligent and has plenty of business acumen and foresight.
This has been compounded by the current close relationship with FIFA, in the lead up to the deadline for putting a bid in to host the World Cup.
This has enraptured and emboldened football fans who for the most part are imagining that FIFA will walk into the country and crush the AFL and NRL forever on their behalf, or at the very least, take over Parliament, and pass legislation that winds them down as corporate entities.
Football fans across the country have a new sense of confidence, of being able to stand up to the school yard bully – with the help of their older brother from the secondary school across the road who happens to be momentarily passing by.
But older brothers are notoriously unreliable, and generally don’t really give a damn about their kid brother, especially when other adventures await, where there are more important people to impress, who offer far more cachet.
Recommend this story.
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- A-League, AFL, Andrew Demetriou, FFA, football, Football World Cup, Frank Lowy, Mike Cockerill, NRL, Rugby League
October 29th 2009 @ 9:25am
dasilva said | October 29th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
In the end those articles are pretty counter productives.
You are not going to get anywhere by insulting NRL and AFL. As Pip and Geoff Lord pointed out 50% of MV members are members of AFL club. It seems to me that AFL fans are more understanding of the concept of supporting your local club then a lot of football fans in Australia. The AFL mentality that they don’t care about what other countries think about their sport is actually pretty useful thing when compared with the Eurosnobs who will make unflattering comparison of A-league to overseas league. So quite frankly I don’t think Football is in any position to burn any bridges with other football codes.
I know some people will end up saying that Football get some sticks over the years and now we are paying back.
Look just because we were attacked years ago doesn’t mean that we have to be arseholes in return.
Living well is the best revenge not retaliating.
October 29th 2009 @ 9:35am
AndyRoo said | October 29th 2009 @ 9:35am | Report comment
Very good attitude to have.
October 29th 2009 @ 9:48am
Robbos said | October 29th 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment
Dasilva, where is Football burning it’s bridges? We are just sick of copping the crap. The people attacking football are not those who will convert to the game at a later date. There are many like you who follow more than 1 code, so am I, but my love for football is far far bigger than my love of Rugby league.
Eurosnobs have every right to prefer overseas league to the A-League. You have no issues calling these guys Eurosnobs.
It’s these so called Eurosnobs who has a better chance of converting to the A-League than diehard AFL fans. So be careful what bridges you are burning.
Any reasonable football follower understands where football stands in this country & they are (in most cases) alot happier than they were 5 years ago. We are leading the way in participation & we have the world game, but as far as being in the Australian pysche, we are way, way behind both the Rugby League & the Aussie Rules. The potential to grow is far bigger than either Rugby League & AFL, this is a fact.
October 29th 2009 @ 10:25am
dasilva said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:25am | Report comment
Look I was up in arms just as much as anyone when Rebecca Wilson posted her drivel about Football in Australia. So I agree that I don’t like copping crap by other codes.
However I don’t think articles like Cockerill or Micallef are really productive for our cause (or the likes of Foster). WE really shouldn’t be going along attacking other codes.
Let’s look at this way. We are making a world cup bid. Instead of having a bid that is using solely rectangle stadiums and getting the government to fund that, we are also including oval stadiums that AFL regularly using. Therefore we need AFL to do us a favour and let us access to the stadium. Well what a great way to get that support by attacking them for not letting us used something that they legally have exclusive access to. The fact is AFL or NRL are not sabotaging the bid. The only people who are sabotaging our bid are the commonwealth and state government more then anything else
To be quite honest, I seriously doubt the assertion that people who are solely european football followers are more likely to make a switch to the A-league in the near future. It will take a generation before people will grow up in the atmosphere to support your local A-league club.I have taken european football followers to the a-league matches and they just leave concluding that A-league is boring. The ex-NSL brigade a fervently against supporting A-league as a principle.
My gut feeling is telling me that it’s easier to get an AFL fan to support the A-league then to get the die hard euro-fans and ex-NSL fan to support the A-league club.
October 29th 2009 @ 4:38pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
Das
personally, I thought Bucks should never have given that article the time of day, let alone do an official response to it – it really wasn’t deserving of such an exalted status.
Then, with plenty getting stuck into her, at the end of it all, I ended up agreeing with her that the response was largely misogynistic.
October 29th 2009 @ 9:55am
True Tah said | October 29th 2009 @ 9:55am | Report comment
dasilva
who attacked futbol years ago?
Most of futbol’s problems in this country are self-inflicted, and some of the old Soccer Australia management was diabolical. The fact that the clubs were ethnically-based for so long really prevented it from being widely followed by a wider section of the community. I cant speak for Melbourne, but in Sydney, rugby league has for sometime been the most inclusive sport by a margin. And its clear that many immigrants wanted to support a sport that allowed them to interract with people from differant backgrounds to their own.
A lot of people pointed to the fact that the Socceroos are representative of our multicultural history. The 2006 Socceroos had over 30% of their players with Yugoslav backgrounds, I wasnt sure if this was reflective of the Australian population as a whole. Relative to AFL/RL, futbol has not historically embraced our first Australians, Im sure even more Aboriginals have played union for Australia than futbol.
The fact is futbol has been the biggest participation sport since the 18th century and it has over 2m registered players. It was the first sport that I (and pretty much every other guys who i have played rugby or league with) ever played. This is not something that just happened because of the Crawford Report. Yet despite this massive natural advantage over any other sport, AFL and RL are the two dominant professional sports in Australia.
October 29th 2009 @ 10:31am
AndyRoo said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:31am | Report comment
This doesn’t change the fact that what you say is true. I agree it’s time for Football to get over how big the other codes are. They do provide a healthy measuring stick though of progress and what’s possible.
But as too “who attacked futbol years ago?”
The very first Futbal game played in Victoria was attacked by the Age describing it as only suitable for Degenerates when compared to the great Australian game.
It’s been downhill ever since.
October 29th 2009 @ 10:33am
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:33am | Report comment
Maybe they witnessed some hooligans and ultras lighting flares?
October 29th 2009 @ 10:36am
AndyRoo said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:36am | Report comment
I think back then flares would have been a real novelty that would have packed the crowds in.
Ultras in those days had to throw candles onto the field.
October 29th 2009 @ 10:46am
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:46am | Report comment
…although gun powder existed.
October 29th 2009 @ 10:52am
AndyRoo said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Ok you caught me out, I didn’t make it to the game as I had to clean a chimney and then read about a game played between East Harford and Stirling old boys in a journal of an English sailor…. the very first Euro Snob.
October 29th 2009 @ 10:48am
dasilva said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:48am | Report comment
who attacked futbol years ago?
There’s story about people going on football pitches and putting shards of glass on the pitch to sabotage football in school grounds
Attempt to exclude football from schools by other codes
Articles linking football to homosexuality that Warren spoke a lot about.
Linking Football with un-Australian, that it’s only played by wogs.
There was a parade for a NSW state league side that Warren played for that won the league. During the parade he ended up getting abused and heckle by the local population.
then there’s Channel 7 attempt to bury football in Australia
Although I do believe that majority of problems with FOotball in Australia were mostly self-inflicted. i don’t think the other codes were particularly innocent either.
October 29th 2009 @ 12:11pm
True Tah said | October 29th 2009 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
dasilva
Im not sure about Sydney, but I have never heard of people putting glass on futbol grounds, and in Sydney, futbol has been in most private schools for the past 20 years at least.
Not sure about the whole linking futbol with homosexuality has any grounds, considering futbol itself has a pretty poor history of treating homesexuals, wheres rugby league is a bit more “enlightened” in that sense.
Look at the UK, if you say you play rugby or league, most blokes will think you’re a fat poof, despite the fact that most pommy blokes are generally overweight themselves!
October 29th 2009 @ 5:46pm
Freud of Football said | October 29th 2009 @ 5:46pm | Report comment
“Most of futbol’s problems in this country are self-inflicted” – I’m sorry but how can you say football creates its own problems?
That’s the sort of ignorant rubbish the game has to deal with in Aus, that is Australia’s media, all sections of it are anti-football except the multi-cultural SBS and of course FOX who stand to make a buck or two out of it.
Boofheads/household names like Rebecca Wilson and Greg Baum write their completely insular views on a topic they obviously have no idea about (football) and this is for many, the only exposure they get to the game.
If Reyne had of said the same about AFL or the NRL everyone would have torn him apart for his insolence but seeing as half the country still think football is a “Wogs game” then this sort of thing goes relatively undetected.
October 29th 2009 @ 6:00pm
True Tah said | October 29th 2009 @ 6:00pm | Report comment
Freud
issues with management, I take it you have never heard of Tony Lazzabozetta, he used to be a big wig in the old Soccer Australia set up. He owned a travel agency which the Socceroos had to use whenever they travelled representing Australia. He was from the school of management which rejected a massive cash offer from Kerry Packer in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Ever wondered why Frank Lowy left the game for so long after putting in a heap of effort at Hakoah?
The fact that for the greater part of its history in Australia, futbol at the highest level in Australia was based on largely ethnic lines is whose fault? Was it the fault of racist, old-school AFL and RL clubs who wouldnt let new Australians in? Take it the names El Masri, Elias, Fenech, Yakich, Krilich, Conescu, Sedaris, Skandalis, Peponis are foreign to you?
October 29th 2009 @ 6:35pm
Freud of Football said | October 29th 2009 @ 6:35pm | Report comment
TT,
I don’t really follow your line of thought here.
It is the media that exposes the game to the public, football has always been marginalised by Australian media outlets. The game is far more popular than the NBL or Netball and receives little more coverage. Most of the reporting on the sport revolve around “negative” issues as the journalists are too lazy and disinterested to report anything knowledgable about the sport.
“Futbol” was played along ethnic lines as it was the game of many immigrants, however many more changed to other codes and you wouldn’t hear a bad word in the press about R. Barassi or S. Silvagni would you?
I’m sure Reyne knows who those guys are but the very anglo-saxon name “Johnny Warren” probably doesn’t ring a bell.
Point being that Australian’s are accepting of immigrants, god the country was built on their backs so long as they play what we perceive to be “Australian” sports (AFL, Rugby, Cricket).
Football is still viewed as ethnic as it doesn’t have the traditions in the country and this comes predominantly from the media who like to beat that drum any chance they get, it gives biggots like Ms Wilson (is she married? Can’t imagine anyone wanting to spend 5 minutes with her let alone a life time) the chance to express their veiled racist views in the public domain.
October 29th 2009 @ 6:54pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 6:54pm | Report comment
Freud
there’s some truth in that.
On the other hand, SBS has been promoting soccer (almost exclusively), for over 25 years.
On top of that, right up to the mid 70s, the VSL used to be on commercial FTA (one live game per week).
October 29th 2009 @ 6:57pm
Freud of Football said | October 29th 2009 @ 6:57pm | Report comment
Point Pip?
SBS is not a mainstream media outlet are are you disagreeing with that?
October 29th 2009 @ 8:01pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 8:01pm | Report comment
Freud
that’s true – but it still amounts to a shitload of coverage – which pretty much most of us have enjoyed at one time or another.
October 29th 2009 @ 10:27am
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:27am | Report comment
Good post Das.
My 8 year old son is about to go through his first reconciation (or confession, as we used to call it when I was a kid).
The main mesage is one of forgiveness.
October 29th 2009 @ 9:54am
Con Stamocostas said | October 29th 2009 @ 9:54am | Report comment
Nice one Pip.
The media love get the gloves out and have a bit of a bitch fight.
October 29th 2009 @ 10:47am
Gweeds said | October 29th 2009 @ 10:47am | Report comment
I think that some football people (both journalists and fans) have developed a big chip on their shoulder over the years being denigrated and I think they are now over-reacting.
The issue here is that it makes the whole debate pretty unbalanced. Let’s take the A-League for example. I believe that the drop in attendances are just a natural re-adjustment of crowds to a more sustainable level. There are a couple of teams (Gold Coast and Newcastle in particular) that should do better, but overall it is not to the bad old days of the later years of the NSL. Of course initially the crowds were much better than expected, and some fans, after seeing their sport being belittled for decades became over-optimistic about the popularity of the code.
The A-League is still a new competition and will need time to re-adjust itself. But many of the same fans that thought that fotball would take over the country are running around with their arms in the air shouting ‘panic!’ and of course those who were irritated by all this ‘football uber alles’ talk are going ‘na na na naaa na..I told you!’
The fact that the government has put lots of money and effort in this bid, and the fact that the magnitude of the event is huge is too much of a temptation for some football people to use as a tool to assert some superiority, but all they are doing is just pissing people off. We don’t need to do this.
I must say though that what we have to challenge is not whether other codes protest that they would have to stop their seasons etc. (which they are entitled to IMHO) but are the comments from some quarters that providing all this support to the World Cup is somewhat un-Australian.
October 29th 2009 @ 11:50am
Midfielder said | October 29th 2009 @ 11:50am | Report comment
Gweeds
Good post as too Das above..
Football has copped heaps for years … that it exposed itself was sad… what is more sad nay break down and cry emotion is that the Old Soccer needed to be reported on … those in management… those who ran the old NSL clubs… but the media by and large left them alone and kicked the game itself…. thats what hurts a lot…
Having said that the other codes have a good arguement… I am still unsure if those comps are closed or just the stadiums … me thinks it’s just the stadiums and RU & Cricket tests… as the other codes by and large do not get huge numbers jumping on plans to watch interstate games…
Also for how long … I assume at most four 4 weeks…. and those cities that do not get the finals only two weeks…
Somebody from FFA should actually state what it is … or maybe they are waiting a FIFA response….
Meaning two things 1) both NRL & AFL close for between 2 & 4 weeks and loose stadium use for 6 to 8 weeks. 2) loose stadiums for 6 to 8 weeks…
Either way both can be worked out I am sure …. but we need to know what is the ask….so planning can be done … otherwise someone will write soon …. if not alredy…
AFL & NRL ….. need to cancel their seasons in the world cup year… all AFL & RL & RU grounds at all levels are to be converted to Football grounds… All media reports about Football most be positive…
October 29th 2009 @ 5:47pm
Freud of Football said | October 29th 2009 @ 5:47pm | Report comment
mid…field….er………..do…you….know……………how…annoy..ing…….it…is……to…………….read……..your…….dots?
October 29th 2009 @ 1:24pm
keeper11 said | October 29th 2009 @ 1:24pm | Report comment
Seems football can only be dicussed if its perceived as either :. .
1. an all conqeuring foreign threat ready to devour our fragile ‘real australian’ dinky di local codes…
or..
2. a perennial joke …always in ‘crisis’ and doomed to struggle on the margins of australian mainstream sport….
me thinks reality is somewhere between but that doesn’t suit the paper editors and some on this forum i guess…;
October 29th 2009 @ 1:29pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 1:29pm | Report comment
…or:
3. doing ok, much better than 5 years ago, worthwhile place in the Australian sporting landscape, pretty good product, but making out as if they are bigger than they really are and deriding of all those who follow something else.
October 29th 2009 @ 1:44pm
Luke W said | October 29th 2009 @ 1:44pm | Report comment
Most popular sport in Australia. FACT.
October 29th 2009 @ 1:50pm
Robbos said | October 29th 2009 @ 1:50pm | Report comment
Is this why some people spend so much of their time on football blogs putting it down Luke W?
October 29th 2009 @ 2:19pm
Michael C said | October 29th 2009 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
by what measure?
October 29th 2009 @ 5:01pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 5:01pm | Report comment
I think Luke is referring to soccer having the highest participation rates in Australia, which it does by a long way.
Another measure might be the ratings that the Socceroos pulled during the WC in 2006 – which were higher than the AFL/NRL grand finals.
If Luke has other measures he is referring to, it would be great to see them, no problem from me.
October 29th 2009 @ 7:28pm
Luke W said | October 29th 2009 @ 7:28pm | Report comment
Pip, I like the cut of your jib. But yeah, combine all the mediums of football, it is most popular.
October 29th 2009 @ 8:10pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 8:10pm | Report comment
Luke
I don’t really understand what you mean by “combine all the mediums”.
I’m not really all that motivated to do this, but I could come up with a very long list of indicators and metrics that show the exact opposite.
October 29th 2009 @ 1:48pm
Robbos said | October 29th 2009 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
fair assumption, so why do you spend so much time deriding the A-league when it’s so insignificant, is it any opposition big or small is opposition? Is this why yoy deride the sport so much?
October 29th 2009 @ 2:08pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 2:08pm | Report comment
Robbos
Is that question directed at me?
I actually like the A-League. I watch far more A-League than I watch of any other form of soccer. I never miss a Victory match.
Das said it above somewhere – Melburnians really follow their clubs.
October 29th 2009 @ 3:36pm
Firestarter Bob said | October 29th 2009 @ 3:36pm | Report comment
Didn’t Cockerill start out as an Australian rules football journo for the Sydney Morning Herald in the 1980s? Maybe he converted!
October 29th 2009 @ 4:40pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 4:40pm | Report comment
I thought he was from NZ?
October 29th 2009 @ 6:35pm
Tifosi said | October 29th 2009 @ 6:35pm | Report comment
Look what the daily telegraph came up with today.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/soccer/sydney-fcs-2000-missing-fans/story-e6frey4r-1225792222477
Someone spent time analysing pictures to determine how many people went to the Sydney FC game on a horrible weekend !!
What possible reason could anyone think of that this is a valuable use of time.
Then you wonder why the likes of micalleff/cockerill have a go.
October 29th 2009 @ 6:54pm
Freud of Football said | October 29th 2009 @ 6:54pm | Report comment
Hilarious. Really, their “picture analysis [that] was so detailed” was probably some git who took photo’s of each section of the stadium at half time and then spent 10 hours counting heads, got a close all-excited when he saw an ex-red devil and got a few close-ups of Dwight Yorke no doubt.
“But neither the Trust nor Sydney FC officials would sit down with reporters to analyse the pictures.” – Any wonder, would anyone sit down with the sort of goon who counts heads in photo’s? I mean really, if you are working for Sydney FC and you get contacted by some journo who says something along the lines of:
“eh mate, I took some photos at the stadium on the weekend, just finished counting heads, I only counted 6266 so why didn’t I get the reported 8456?”
Wouldn’t you be tempted to answer “because you can’t count that high”? I mean really, this is farcical, that is the nonsense they publish in a newspaper, not some local rag out in the sticks but in The Daily Telegraph in Sydney! They want to contact Sydney FC and talk about pictures of the crowd, like they haven’t got better things to do?
October 29th 2009 @ 8:08pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 8:08pm | Report comment
It’s an absolutely idiotic article – even half the comments say so.
October 30th 2009 @ 1:00am
Kurt said | October 30th 2009 @ 1:00am | Report comment
That is a pretty weird article. I remember a couple of years ago I went to watch Hawthorn play Carlton at the dome and the posted attendance was close to a ground record – 55K+. But TV showed big banks of empty seats around the middle tier and it was suggested the attendance was overstated. What they didn’t show were the literally thousands of people crammed into every bar & restaurant (I was one of them) because it was an absolutely freezing night and even with the roof closed it was pretty unpleasant in the stands. So assuming a couple of thousand people were huddled under cover out of sights of the spy satellite is actually pretty reasonable.
October 29th 2009 @ 8:15pm
Lmacca said | October 29th 2009 @ 8:15pm | Report comment
If I can add some context, Phillip Micallef was a football writer/sub-editor at the Telegraph for many years. He eventually left (on what terms I’m not sure) and headed to TWG site. Ever since, he has been very quick to jump to football’s defence. He has a slanging match it seems with Phil Rothfield, the sports editor of the Telegraph and possibly the biggest football basher in Sydney media. Which is why you see so many negativefootball articles in his sports section.
So Micallef appears to think he needs to combat ever anti-football story with a bit of league bashing of his own. I think it’s totally counter-productive, but it seems like he feels that he’s in the trenches so he’s taking what shots he can.
If football fans can get past the siege mentality that has been around for a long time we’d go a long to finding greater acceptance in the wider community. As has been mentioned countless times, participation rates are high, so it can’t be all bad!
October 29th 2009 @ 8:21pm
Pippinu said | October 29th 2009 @ 8:21pm | Report comment
Lmacca
good to hear from you and thanks for the context – I didn’t know Micallef’s background at all.