The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

The A-League must earn its support

Roar Guru
8th April, 2011
Advertisement
Roar Guru
8th April, 2011
101
1993 Reads

Dugald Massey recently wrote an article entitled, ‘The game is all but over for the A-League’, which attracted a lot of consternation. I’m writing this to back him up on his point.

I’ve long had a feeling that the marketing behind football in this country is based on the mantra, “You should like it. Why don’t you like it? The rest of the world does!”

As an Aussie Rules fan, I was likened to a member of the flat earth society by some of my friends and the soccer loving immigrants I was close to at school for not supporting the A-League and the World Cup bid.

But honestly, why should I? Let’s face it, the World Cup would not have supported my sport, and I don’t watch the A-League (well, I had something of a soft spot for the North Queensland Fury, with Robbie God Fowler on board).

And before I get comments on how more stadia would have been built and the impact on the economy, etc, I just want to talk sports here, not economics, politics or urban planning.

Comparing the Sydney Olympics to the World Cup is like comparing apples and oranges, but I get his meaning. It didn’t promote sports held in the Olympics. How many new European handball leagues have started since?

Inferring that a major sporting event will grow the sport in the host country is not necessarily true! We all have our preferences and while we all would have jumped on the Socceroos bandwagon as good patriots, we would have gone straight back to our own codes as soon as the event was over.

But the important point to realise is: soccer has its place, league has its place, Aussie Rules has its. The AFL has been aggressive in attracting new markets, yes, but at least it’s trying to grow grassroots football in those markets.

Advertisement

I have family in Townsville. I spend a lot of time a year there. No one seemed to like the Fury. In my experience amongst the locals, soccer is for kids and the Fury were a joke.

Had the A-League have gone through the hard yards of winning hearts and minds first, maybe they could have worked. Who knows.

But just because the rest of the world likes a sport, does not mean we have to by default.

Grow the game, don’t assume its popularity as a given.

close