Whatever they think – really think – of Australian football’s bid to host the World Cup, the AFL and NRL have made one point bluntly clear this week. If football wants their support, or at least their compliance, then football will have to work damned hard for it.
Within a day of Football Federation Australia (FFA) heavyweights returning from a successful bid presentation in South Africa, the AFL had fired the first shot of a public campaign that has dominated this week’s sports headlines.
“Footbrawl,” was splashed across the front page of Monday’s Herald Sun.
Apparently, the MCG could be lost to the AFL for an entire season if it was a World Cup venue.
That would mean the loss of an entire AFL and clubs would fold as a result.
It only later emerged that the long-term unavailability of the MCG was an initial FFA idea, no longer being considered.
No matter. The tone of the week was set.
As the AFL’s well-planned campaign unfolded, the media was soon asking the NRL for their opinion and just as predictably, league’s response was the same.
“We are happy to try and work together but the price of that cooperation cannot be such that it puts the future of our clubs at risk,” league chief executive David Gallop said after a Friday meeting with the FFA.
“We have to be able to operate effectively for our own clubs’ sake.
” … There is only so much disruption our clubs can endure and still remain viable in the years that follow.”
The AFL had already made their feelings clear to the FFA in a letter sent to chief executive Ben Buckley on November 24.
In the correspondence, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou wrote of their “extreme disappointment with the lack of accurate and consistent information” regarding the Cup bid.
It is understood that were it not for the fact that Buckley is a good friend and former North Melbourne teammate of Demetriou’s and also an ex-AFL executive, this week’s media campaign would have been much more intense.
Not surprisingly, the AFL have suffered some public backlash this week for their hard-line stance.
But they have shown several times on major issues that they are quite prepared to wear some PR flak if they are convinced they are right.
They defied the then-Liberal Federal Government on their illicit drugs policy two years ago and they were willing to force the AC/DC concerts out of Etihad Stadium in their dispute this year with that venue.
Demetriou might sound like a hot-head in public, but he is no dummy.
He knows better than anyone that the FFA need the major Australian football codes, just as the AFL and NRL cannot afford to be publicly off-side with a World Cup in this country.
Another wily old operator, Etihad Stadium boss Ian Collins, wrily observed this week that “if there’s a will, there will always be a way so that people can work through things”.
There are also big potential benefits for all Australian football codes if a the World Cup goes ahead here in 2018 or 2022.
Major stadium work – such as the proposed $150 million retractable roof on ANZ Stadium in Sydney – will have to proceed for the tournament to work.
And there are obvious drawbacks, primarily the massive free kick football will get in the ongoing battle for the hearts and minds of Australia’s next generation of footy stars.
Nine or 13 years might seem a long time, but football’s world governing body FIFA will decide next year on who hosts the two tournaments.
In the view of the AFL and NRL, paramaters must be set now.
The international media have taken up this story and no doubt FIFA will be looking at this week’s events with interest.
But it is no decisive blow to Australia’s World Cup hopes.
Anyone who has bought a house, or any union official, will tell you it is simply all about negotiation.
You make your hard-nosed ambit claim, then try to find some sort of middle ground.
“I think every country has issues that it has to deal with, logistical, operational, scheduling issues, stadium issues,” Buckley said after Friday’s NRL meeting.
“This is just one of those operational issues that each country has to work through during the course of the bid so I don’t believe over time it will have a negative impact at all on our bid.
“I think there’s a genuine spirit of cooperation and goodwill.
“We at no time want to disadvantage any other competition and we’ve always said that that we’d be open and transparent and we reinforced that commitment today.”
Cooperation? Goodwill? Genuine?
Let’s reserve judgment for a few months.
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Michael C said | December 12th 2009 @ 10:53am | Report comment
Not a bad article, and exactly right,
for the bid, so long as A bid book can be put together by May, all well and good.
Pro-soccer media proclaiming Demetriou as ‘anti WC’ has inflamed this issue, but, many in NSW have no idea about the politics and business of stadia in Melbourne.
The strange thing is, that David Gallop still seems to get ignored no matter what he says!!!! Poor fellow.
Ironically, in AFL circles, probably more people have been talking about Gary Ablett Jnr and the Gold Coast franchise,
whilst in NRL circles, they’ve got all their issues around the independant commission or not or Super League II we see today,
the pesky FFA and some pie in the sky unrealistic WC bid……pesky really. Is it going to be more than that?? More than a Geoffrey Robertson’s ‘hypothetical’……..gee I loved those shows.
pH said | December 13th 2009 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
check out this blog post – http://barklystend.blogspot.com/2009/12/australian-government-supports-foreign.html .
There are two issues at stake:
1. the FFA/Govt world cup bid.
2. the FFA using that bid to financially cripple its competitors.
the first is fair enough and would be wonderful if it succeeded.
the second aim of the FFA – which stated or unstated will be a result of their current bid – is shameful and in breach of trades practice and if govt supports it – well you seriously have to ask do we live in a democracy?
so all sports fans and australian citizens should consider the second as well as the first aspect.
in this sense Demetriou is quite right to be incensed, as is Gallop of the NRL although he’s saving his powder for hardball negotiations with the FFA.
the FFA bid is flawed – but they’re on a winner either way – if we get the World Cup they decimate the AFL, NRL and to some extent the ARU, if we lose then they got a fair bit of money from the govt and get to blame the AFL and NRL as un-Australian.
a great political ploy by the FFA.
What the Sports Minister should do is take the bid back to the drawing board and negotiate with the AFL, NRL and ARU as well as FFA in working out a compromise all can live with. That will cost even more money though.
SJ said | December 13th 2009 @ 6:37pm | Report comment
pH, that article is laughable.
He claims that FIFA pocket all ticket sales revenue and do not give a cent of WC revenue to the host nation for a start. Actually ALL ticket sales have gone to the host nation since France ’98. After the last world cup, the Germans had over AU$90 million of profit which was injected into their local national football association and the Bundesliga.
And that is ignoring all other related profit to retailers, tourism etc.
If you want to read the rantings of an unstable and ignorant AFL man who hasn’t even checked his basic facts, by all means check out what “Mr Football” aka Pippinu has to say.
Gweeds said | December 12th 2009 @ 11:26pm | Report comment
Make no mistake. The AFL and the NRL don’t want the World Cup. And why would they?
Why Andrew Demetriou has gone all guns blaring about this? He could have approached Buckley privately and make his views known. He could have approached the Government and make his views known. And it seems that Buckley has tried to keep the AFL up to date about the bid. There is a possibility that the FFA is also not yet sure about the details.
I think that the AFL has every right to protect its product and make sure that they are not disadvantaged in the eventuality (which has to be recognised it is still pretty remote) that Australia does have a World Cup. However this public outburst seems to me gives credit to the idea that AFL basically doesn’t want the World Cup, and this is a Howard style wolf whistle strategy to scuttle the bid.
While the AFL makes all the right noises about the ‘AFL not beating up on soccer or being unsupportive of the World Cup’ it unleashes a sentiment about ‘us and them’. Big boogey man FIFA trying to bully poor indigenous AFL.
FFA chief executive Ben Buckley moved quickly to refute Demetriou’s remarks, stating that stadiums like the MCG would be required for up to eight weeks. That’s significantly fewer than 16. This type of scaremongering is nothing new from the AFL, or its mates in the press. As Warwick Hadfield said in the sport segment of this morning’s Radio National Breakfast
“What we are really seeing here is just how cosy the relationship between the sport media and the AFL and the NRL is to get all these beat ups on the front pages and how far down the pecking order soccer writers really are in major newspapers. There are quite sensible comment pieces in the last few days and they can be found somewhere near the racing details”.
Buckley looked frustrated in that media conference. Welcome to our world Ben.
Redb said | December 12th 2009 @ 11:49pm | Report comment
Buckley has confirmed they were looking at rectangularising the MCG which would have out it out of action for 16 weeks.
Just as the AFL or NRL can say they are suporting the WC bid, the FFA can say they are being transparent and they care about these competitions.
Beast-A-Tron said | December 13th 2009 @ 9:43pm | Report comment
How was it an outburst from Demetriou?
He was merely speculating on what would result from ‘rectangularising’ the MCG, which the FFA had considered, but hadn’t bothered to let anyone know. Given the lack of information from the FFA, one cannot fault him for exploring the outcome to an AFL season if the ‘rectangular solution’ were undertaken.
How did Howard use “wolf whistle” strategy (that’s not even the correct term for it) and how on earth is that relevant to Demetriou’s comments?
“While the AFL makes all the right noises about the ‘AFL not beating up on soccer or being unsupportive of the World Cup’ it unleashes a sentiment about ‘us and them’”
Care to back that up with a quote, or is it just your bias blinkering your views?
With regards to your tinfoil hat-esque theory on media collaboration: public interest comes first, then media interest follows. It doesn’t start the other way round. Kind of funny you see on The World Game and other similar sites, entrenched hatred for traditional mainstream media, purely due to this perceived bias.
football said | December 13th 2009 @ 6:44am | Report comment
AD was surprised by the public backlash this week, as was the DT & by Wednesday the DT fell behind the bid & tried to paint AD as the bad guy.
Scaremongering was the strategy however the publuc reaction displayed through comments & polls took all by surprise including the sport media.
Redb said | December 13th 2009 @ 7:01am | Report comment
The polls were not reflective of what Demetriou was talking about his concern for the viability of several AFL clubs.
The Age poll was conducted in the soccer section.
If the question was : Would you support the WC shutting down a whole AFL season even if 1-2 clubs were lost? would have got a different result? or would it?
Just becuase there are more militant soccer fans doesnt mean the silent majority would be happy to see a whole AFL season lost.
Those who voted yes fall into two categories:
1. Soccer fans keen to kill other codes.
2. AFL fans with a shallow understanding of the issues. (caught up in the warm and fuzzy)
A league crowds are a good barometer of true support for soccer as a spectator sport in this country. If it was such a good game, so superior over other codes the fans would be flocking in their droves.
No amount of spin can get around the A League.
Redb
KB said | December 13th 2009 @ 10:07am | Report comment
What about the pro Marn Grooky, Melb Sun Herald’s poll—last I read it was almost 50% split… Demetriou sure sounds more and more like Roy Masters these days…
~~~~~~~
KB
KB said | December 13th 2009 @ 10:14am | Report comment
More Australians participate in grass roots Football than any other code—making it the national sport of Australia… Surly that is the silent majority who want to see the FIFA 2018 world cup played on Australian soil..
JF said | December 13th 2009 @ 10:43am | Report comment
“National sport of Australia” ??? Are you having a laugh?
What a rediculous claim, the fact is, any football code attempting to make this claim would be equally rediculous. Australia does not have a national sport – our great diversity does not allow it. Canada, New Zealand, Brazil and India have national sports we do not.
Tifosi said | December 13th 2009 @ 11:05am | Report comment
I think we have Cricket as our national sport
KB said | December 13th 2009 @ 11:49am | Report comment
” Football fans perhaps would mind less if the global game was a minnow domestically. But with football now leading the country in participant numbers – now officially the national sport – and the passion shown by Australians in 2006 – which is bound to be magnified next year – it seems the ground has shifted around the handball codes, yet they are the last to grasp the new reality. “
JF,
why would I kid you about something like that… Craig Foster in the above statement points out technically it is as we have now 1million grass roots football participants in Australia … more then any other code… I would like to hear from you is their another code that has more and can you provide a link to back it up…?
Springs said | December 13th 2009 @ 11:56am | Report comment
That doesn’t mean anything. Soccer is played because most of the participants are not fit to play AFL or League. Hell, I’ve played soccer before, not in formal competition but in other scenarios that are probably counted by the administration or whatever as participation in grassroots soccer. Most people I know who play soccer are more interested in the AFL and NRL competitions, there are far more soccer clubs than League clubs out here in the Riverina but League continues to get more exposure in the media and is far more popular.
And cricket is the national sport, as it is played with equal popularity all over the nation.
KB said | December 13th 2009 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
Well as a youth growing up in Sydney, NSW I played Football, Rugby League and AFL socially as well, and the odd game of social Cricket… so what..
Springs said | December 13th 2009 @ 12:26pm | Report comment
So soccer is not the national sport because lots of 5 year olds play it in the schoolyard.
KB said | December 13th 2009 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
Springs,
did I mention to you I played back yard cricket with my brothers as well..? You can settle the argument by publishing a link of AFL or Cricket participants on this thread…
NCB619 said | December 13th 2009 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
What’s playing backyard cricket got to do with anything.
And, no, I don’t think the soccer that you’ve played counts as grassroots, so Springs, I think you can officially say you are not a soccer player.
And yes, Springs is right about soccer in his region. In terms of local coverage, I’d say soccer and league get equal coverage, despite their being more soccer clubs / players.
5% of Australia plays soccer then? Still doesn’t make it a national sport. If anything was to be a national sport in Australia, I would give the nod to Aussie Rules, as it is a sport solely developed within Australia. But I still think that we, as a nation, does not have a national sport, due to sports being dominated by regional popularity, and almost equal popularity and representation (except soccer).
JF said | December 13th 2009 @ 7:56pm | Report comment
We have known for a long time that soccer dominates junior participation. This by no means makes it the national sport, ‘national sport’ implies a strong cultural connection to all, we simply do not have a single sport that connects with the majority of the population. The closest sport we have is cricket, it has strong participation, it does not have any social or geographical barriers and the national team has a strong connection to the populous.
It is plain arrogance for any football code to claim they are the ‘the national sport’.
katzilla said | December 13th 2009 @ 8:09pm | Report comment
Mate 1. Because some Soccerhead trying to say its so doesn’t make it the national sport.
2. Nearly 20 Million people in this country can walk, is that then the national sport? Because that clearly has the highest participation rate. Or I guarantee you more then 1 Million people in this country swim, is that then the national sport?
Participation at grassroots level doesn’t make it the ‘Official’ National sport.
Otherwise its ‘Walking’ all the way to the bank.
That is until breathing becomes a sport.
Dave1 said | December 13th 2009 @ 3:05pm | Report comment
only in NSW and Queensland and youd expect that to end with the growing popularity of AFL
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4156.0.55.001Feature+Article1May%202009
‘…….Australian Rules football recorded the highest participation rate in five out of the eight states and territories as well as the highest number of participants in those states and territories. These were Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Australian Rules football was less popular in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory.
Participation in soccer (outdoor) had the highest participation rate and the highest number of participants in New South Wales with 4.1% or 219,800 of the population aged 15 years and over. This was more than half of the total participants in Australia (419,600) for soccer (outdoor). The lowest participation rate for soccer (outdoor) was reported in South Australia with 1.4% or 17,200 persons……..”
AndyRoo said | December 13th 2009 @ 8:29pm | Report comment
Your only using registered players with those stats….. so it’s not apples s apples Dave1
AFL’s registered players include auskick and school players. Football doesn’t count school players (est 260k), futsal players and in queensland I know they don’t count QCSA players which at around 50 clubs must be at least 10k players maybe 20k
Dave1 said | December 13th 2009 @ 2:55pm | Report comment
AD was suprised by the reaction? how do you know that?
and what backlash are you talking about?
football said | December 13th 2009 @ 7:16am | Report comment
Rubbish,
The poll was conducted in the sports section titled soccer not in the soccer section, further the number of responses makes it unlikely that it is limited to militants.
Further the polls in the DT are in RL heartland provideing further evidence that this is not a militant response.
Crowds are a poor measure for popularity as they are impacted by numerous factors & it is naive to point to them as a barometer for popularity.
How do you reconcile the record TV numbers set for the Socceroos as a measure of popularity, I find it amuseing that the AFL/NRL nazi’s never point to these.
Tifosi said | December 13th 2009 @ 8:02am | Report comment
Red,
The A-league doesnt reflect that at all. I can assure you i know a lot of soccer fans who dont bother watching the A-league.
To be honest they are right, the quality is average, nobody wants to watch guys who cant pass a ball 5 metres without it missing the target. Its going to take 15 years before a new generation of players come thru which can show some technical ability.
Now if I find it hard to watch it, why would the average australian watch it?
Remember as a soccer fan i have far better alternatives from Europe, which I can watch with Pay TV and a 50 inch plasma.
But you think Australians wouldnt watch soccer week in week out if the teams playing were of the quality of Barcelona or Real Madrid or Manchester Utd?
I think you would find Australians would flock to it.
Over in the USA Major League soccer averages about 17,000 fans but bring big name clubs over and they turn up in droves.
Why? Because they want to see the best. Australians are the same.
Aka said | December 13th 2009 @ 8:38am | Report comment
Demetriou has certainly ended up looking a bit isolated.
I suspect he didn’t think going public to throw a spanner in the works would cause such a backlash. Only an online poll but who would have thought there would be more than 50% choosing a World Cup even if it means abandoning the AFL season. Gallop has shown himself to be much more conciliatory and co-operative,and in contrast to Demetriou, reassuring that they won’t obstruct the bid .
And just because his statements are more level headed and reasonable doesn’t mean no one listens to him, just in the media today, the tantrum throwers seem to get more attention.
To top it off, after Demetriou says no you can’t use Docklands, sounding as if he already owned the place, the Stadium management let him know they’re not with him either.
In the meantime the AFL will continue to pour millions of dollars to get the football fans in Western Sydney and on the Gold Coast to support their new AFL sides.
JF said | December 13th 2009 @ 11:18am | Report comment
Tifosi, yes cricket is the closest thing we have.
football said | December 13th 2009 @ 2:52pm | Report comment
Tifosi
The quality of the A league has improved dramatically this year, but most Football fans especially the Euro snobs dont understand quality having grown up on a diet of EPL.
Both the NRL & AFL would have been surprised by the public response this week.
Redb said | December 13th 2009 @ 6:55pm | Report comment
The poll results would indicate that the AFL is the main target of the soccer fanatics. That is why it was listed in the Soccer Polls section of the AGE website.
The Herald Sun poll for the first day ran 60% against cancelling an AFL season. i think it shows the tall poppy sydrome is alive and well in this country. It also shows the giant chip soccer fans have about the AFL.
The majority of AFL fans would not have voted becuase they would have a warm and fuzzy approach to the WC.
If you asked them if it meant their club may no longer exist as a result then you might have stimulated a bigger response.
At the end of the day clearly the FFA had not ruled out the $130M rectangularisation of the MCG proposal which would have the potential to cancel a whole AFL season, Buckley held a press conference by 11am that morning. He had to act quickly.
3 cheers Andrew Demetriou – many hate you but you are standing up for our game and our clubs.
Redb
Midfielder said | December 13th 2009 @ 7:37pm | Report comment
Lots of talk and lots of anger … for me it is simple..the AFL & NRL have every right to protect their relative positions and demand reasonable compo for costs or lost of revenue… further that the Dome has always been off the table…
It is fairly simple if Melbourne can only provide one stadium for between 6 & 8 weeks, i.e. the MCG then we say thank you Melbourne for providing a stadium… I have no idea why the debate is outside these lines…
The arguements will be about the amont and type of como… i.e. is building new stadiums part of it or outside it..
Kurt said | December 14th 2009 @ 12:33am | Report comment
Pretty fair summary. One thing I don’t quite understand is why you’d actually need two stadiums in the same city in the first place. Is it purely a case of wear and tear on the surface? I would have thought the MCG could easily handle 8 games over a 4 week period if they had sufficient time to lay a new surface, thoroughly prepare it etc. Any more than that in the one city would just seem greedy.
Redb said | December 14th 2009 @ 7:12am | Report comment
No wonder then Kurt why the AFL was angry that the FFA proposal included the previously agreed MCG AND Etihad stadium.
I dont know how many times it needs to be stated that the AFL had already agreed to the use of its biggest stadium for an extended period of time, but it needed Etihad’s capacity to maintain some form of season.
The FFA ignored its own purpose built stadium in Melbourne and went for the option that would cause maximum impact on the AFL.
Redb
Redb said | December 14th 2009 @ 7:24am | Report comment
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/demetriou-not-afraid-to-get-others-offside/story-e6frf9io-1225809978084
Article on Demetriou’s stance. 3 cheers keep it up.
Tell those corrupt FIFA and FFA people to come and play but be fair.
Redb