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It’s only a couple days after the end of the NRL and AFL seasons but, with all sorts of announcements and Grand Final celebrations flying around everywhere, it’s proving hard for football stories to make much of an impact in the media. So thank god for Julia Gillard.
The Prime Minister’s visit to FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich to meet head honcho Sepp Blatter has managed to eek it’s way into news bulletins across the country.
Yet Football Federation Australia haven’t exactly done their up most to get as much mileage from the meeting as possible: the PM met with Blatter on Sunday but it wasn’t until the late afternoon yesterday that a press release was issued by FFA.
The Australian football community need’s the governing body to work harder to get the game into the front and centre of the public conscience.
Yet if you ask anyone within the football media, this missed, or at least diluted, opportunity isn’t a solitary event and the problem extends right down to the A-League clubs.
Take national youth broadcaster Triple J’s recent 5-a-Side Challenge, for example.
Essentially Triple J were using a small sided version of the game as a key promotional tool with music festival Parklife and, if you tuned in to the station last week, you would have heard promos and on air announcements promoting the event regularly.
It was high profile stuff, and aside from some naïve comments on the drive program the day of the game, was great to see.
Yet the only official presence from the football community came in the form of Matilda, Elyse Perry.
While it’s wonderful one of our national teams were involved in the event, where was the A-League presence? Nowhere to be seen.
A fact made all the more galling by the inclusion of an AFL player in one of the sides, in Sydney Swans midfielder Tadgh Kennelly. For my mind it should have been a Sydney FC player instead.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame Triple J for this. It’s their promotion to do as they please and, while it’s possible that Sydney FC weren’t approached by Triple J, the Sky Blues should have been banging down the youth broadcaster’s door to be included.
Worryingly, this apathy towards significant media and promotions opportunities is a trend.
Another recent example also comes from Sydney FC who were offered a spot for Kofi Danning in the recent “Gatorade Bolt” with Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt at the Athletic Allstars meet in Sydney.
However, the A-League champions turned down the opportunity and in the end a little known player from the Mariners, Matthew Lewis, went.
Unfortunately Lewis didn’t have the same kind of drawing power as Wallabies flyer Lachlan Turner or Rugby League’s Greg Inglis and his presence mostly went unnoticed.
You’ve got to wonder what Sydney FC are doing allowing a rival club to promote themselves on their patch like that?
It’s simply unacceptable.
Yet when it comes to engaging with those in the media that could help boost the club’s profile, Sydney and many other clubs are failing right across the board.
Take Triple J announcer Vijay Khurana, for example.
I’ve never met Vijay but Craig Foster, who went on his show earlier this year, told me yesterday that the Sydney based announcer is a “massive” football fan.
So why aren’t Sydney FC trying to get Vijay on board to make use of his access to an active audience via both his radio show and his twitter page?
Another example is comedian Dominic Knight. He’s a Sky Blues fan who, like many, has begun to fall off the A-League wagon and admitted on The World Game radio show recently he hadn’t been to a game this season.
Yet Knight is also a key component of The Chaser team, who have produced some of the most popular Australian TV program’s over the last couple years. FFA should have reached out to him long ago and tried to get the game onto one of their programs.
Unfortunately the list of similar stories of FFA and A-League clubs missing or under utilising media and promotions opportunities goes on and on.
If it’s that hard for those who want to cover the game to get involved and tell the game’s stories, then there’s little hope of getting mainstream coverage from outlets with other sporting priorities.
It’s a little something to think about while ticket sales continue to go slowly for the Socceroos friendly against Paraguay on Saturday.
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