If this was the NFL, NBA, NHL in USA – they’d be far more vocal than the AFL has been. Of course that won’t happen because only MLB on diamond fields is played in June/July in USA and soccer wouldn’t use NBA or NHL stadia – but would FIFA want them to shut down – maybe, and if so they’d tell FIFA and MLSoccer in USA to get …..

So why should AFL and NRL be any different to similar counterparts in USA?

Major stadium works in Perth and Adelaide have been getting delayed because of this WC talk.

btw – ‘stadium usage’ may seem simple – but, there’s also the scope of the ability to continue competitions within host cities as well.

Let’s see how the AFL behave should the FFA come back and say, “Guys, sorry, FIFA says ‘NO’, cheerio!”

The crux of the issue is the Fifa Wcup bid needs 10 venues (the more in your book the better but the nitty gritty is you need 10) for 6 to 8 weeks in 2022. It seems 4 of them will be predominently AFL venues, 3 of which will be receiving significant upgrades with commonwealth funds. Possibly a 5th will go in the bid book (geelongs stadium)
The remaining venues required are 1 venue pretty much built up just for the World cup (Cambltown) and then 5 rugby league venues 3 of which are getting significant works because of the Wcup the other twp (Suncorp and SFS) aren’t getting anything.

it’s up to the codes themselves what they do with that and wether they accept that or not. For all the fuss AFL seems to have pretty much agreed to it, and their call of Docklands as off limits seems fair to me. That’s actually being pretty reasonable and what more can you ask for really.
I think people waiting for all the codes together to agree exactly how 2022 will go down will be dissapointed, this is only really about stadium usage and that’s the only scope of interaction really.

Both the AFL and NRL have rejected their ambitious plans for Australia’s two main winter competitions.

Their strategy is to kill off 2-3 AFL or NRL clubs through revenue destruction leading up to and including the World Cup. They want the disenfranchised to then folow their A League. They seriously want Australians to follow that crap.

What evidence is there that the FFA, Buckley or Lowy lied to anyone?

The one who is lying is Demetriou who says that the AFL will “be forced to cancel its season” if Australia wins the WC bid.
That is not the case.

The WC can be played in Australia without having any fooball WC games played in Melbourne.

If Australia fails to win a WC hosting spot, the blame will be squarely on the AFL and there will be a big backlash from Sydneysiders.
The AFL will have Ben Buckley’s chance of ever having a successful AFL team in Sydney.

the AFL and NRL should not be so crucial to the bid,

the FFA should not be in the position to be asking these things of the AFL and NRL,

govt had best avoid attempting to legislate,

the organising committe probably should be a multi-lateral one, but, FIFA might not permit that.

WE need to consider that perhaps we just aren’t a big enough nation, let alone a big enough ‘soccer nation’ to do it, and that the event is about deriving 90% of FIFA’s revenue…..that’s what it is – it’s their biggest fund raiser.

The FIFA world Cups of 2018 and 2022 will still be played with or without AFL parks.

You and the AFL flat earthers have only made it more unlikely that a football WC game will be played in Melbourne this century.

The culture of soccer is imperialistic. If there is one common thread from all the soccer fans I’ve met and soccer coverage in the media, it’s that the fans are more interested in the tribal aspects than the actual sport itself, examine the dismissive nature of your own comments. Look at the comments of other soccer people, they’re all dripping with self importance. Nobody ever mentions anything redeeming about the game, which by any objective comparison is far slower and less eventful than our football.

Listen to the arrogance of the FFA, listen to what soccer fans say. It is clear that soccer cannot abide co-existence with other codes of football. The motivations of the FFA in bidding for the world cup have less to do with genuine interest in the event and more to do with displacing local codes.

Historically football in this country has been poorly run and as more information comes to light FFA looks like they have not been fully transparent with their disclosure and discussions with other codes that will be affected by Australia’s bid to host the world cup. All sporting codes recognise the significance of the FIFA world cup and would be supportive of Australia’s bid, pity FFA aren’t showing the same consideration.

20 to 1 is the ratio of support for Aussie Rules to soccer in Melbourne. 20 to 1. Forget the bogus polls, 400,000 AFL club members versus 20,000 soccer club members gives the true indication of support.

The impact needs to be minimalised, this means host the World Cup, AFL to give up the MCG and make other scheduling changes to accomodate but get steam rolled by the FFA – no way.

Redb

Your post was fine until the last paragraph.

“If Melbourne can’t sort out its routine suburban passtimes to accomodate the pinnacle events in these kinds of sports then it is making a mockery of its title as a world ’sporting capital’”

Insulting Melbournians love of their own code will not help the situation. I don’t think there is an equivalent situation any city could face with regard to a sport that is so much a part of the social fabric. 400,000 members/ticketholders of Aussie Rules clubs, crowds that can exceed 250,000 for a weekend of 5 AFL games in one city of 4 million.

In the Australian sporting context it is the biggest. Anything on a world scale will be bigger that is a no brainer.

So its not some small suburban comp, they usually dont get crowds of 50,000 on a regular basis.

The simple fact is the World Cup will be detrimental to several AFL AND NRL clubs who will be striving for sponsorship dollars in that year, discretinary spending stretched, media ,etc.

It is prudent to minimise the damage to the season.

The average punter will be drawn to the razzle dazzle of a World Cup in Australia that is natural, but if they look around in 2019 and find their club has gone under due to the revenue destruction of one year they might realise what was worth fighting for.

As for the world’s sporting capital moniker – that is a laugh to most of us. It seems to irk others more than we cherish the title. So it kind of misses the mark.

Redb

I also find some of the anti-FIFA bile on this and other threads wierd. FIFA own an event, the most coveted event on the planet. Countries bid for it and as part of that bid they are asked to comply with a set of conditions and requirements (and to be honest, whether or not these make total sense is FIFAs prerogative – it is their event after all). The reason for this current ‘storm in a teacup’ is that Australia is thinking about stepping up and bidding for this coveted event. So the AFL’s real beef should be with the Federal Government and the FFA. FIFA are not demanding anything of Australia and would be quite happy I’m sure to accept any one of three or four other bids if we could not make ours work. Which I might add would be a national tragedy and disgrace for us but no particular skin off FIFAs nose.

Finally I don’t think Timmypig should have retracted his comment. There are only a few really globally important sports around – football, tennis, golf, formula one – and then maybe a few more which are less-than-global but still have large commonwealth/colonial audiences such as rugby union and cricket. If Melbourne can’t sort out its routine suburban passtimes to accomodate the pinnacle events in these kinds of sports then it is making a mockery of its title as a world ‘sporting capital’. And again its not like some permanent change is being ddemanded. 3 months of one season which is 10 years in the future… for goodness sakes.

The timing of the next years tournament in June is when traditional inbound rugby tours by northern hemisphere countries are scheduled. I haven’t read or heard of any rescheduled or cancelled rugby tours to SA next year?

Didn’t FIFA also allow major league baseball to continue running during the 1994 world cup in the USA?

But basically the Bid will go ahead, Buckely knows this, Demetriou knows this, Gallop knows this & to his credit (who kept quiet) O’Neill knows this. This will be like a runaway train until next December until the decision is made.

The whole debate this week is a perfect example of Demetriou’s excellent management of the media. He has whipped up a huge amount of discussion about primarily the AFL, at a time that the FFA would naturally expect soccer to dominate coverage. The AFL has been plastered on newspaper covers and media websites, and many journalists from league and soccer are penning articles about AFL. Demetriou has stirred up soccer partisans, but it’s not the first, nor last, time that supporters of other codes will speak ill of him. After all, any news is good news. And lastly, he has forced the FFA to publicly comment on the stadium issue and forced discussion of compensation, upgrades of alternate AFL venues and such. In short, Demetriou has played the FFA at one of their most vulnerable moments, and the noises emanating suggest that whatever the resolution, the AFL will be in a better position because of it.

I find it amusing that so many commentators quickly throw up answers to the stadium issue that are reactionary and aren’t thoroughly considered. Like denying Melbourne games during the tournament or building additional stadiums in Sydney so that they have four venues, or rectangularising ANZ stadium as a payback to AFL. Melbourne is integral to the bid, not only because Australia’s premier stadium lies there, but because it is one of a handful of civic centres with the infrastructure to host the bigger matches of the tournament. Not to mention how silly it would look if Melbourne wasn’t to host games while Campbelltown gets a gig. Worldwide commentators would be aghast. If Australia gets the nod, Melbourne will play a vital role in the tournament, and the AFL will certainly have been well compensated for the disruption. And all the while, Demetriou will be sitting back with a big grin thinking about how well the result played out.

Most AFL matches in Melbourne are between local teams anyway – it’s the nature of having more than half of the teams based in Victoria.

As for which would be more popular, outside of a few nations (England, Australia, Italy, Croatia etc), I think that most Melburnians would take greater interest in attending a blockbuster footy match than seeing a World Cup match featuring the Ukraine and Ghana. Especially if the price difference is substantial, as it’s likely to be.

but, you can’t achieve that if BOTH the MCG and Docklands are out of action for the month leading in.

And that 4 week requirement is absolute bulltish,….FIFA and the FFA are being somewhat mischevious on that front. Not sure what 2nd rate organisations they’re used to dealing with – - but, 4 weeks for set up – - that just garbade and I think most people deep down understand that.

btw – Etihad is a business – - if the FFA finally decides to push the seats in and pay for it, Etihad won’t say ‘no’. Nothing sly about it. Don’t read anything into Etihad – - the great thing about Collo in there is that he is 100% loyal to his employers. You therefore know what you get. Zero graft/corruption/favouratism. If only more people could be like that!!!!