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Time for FFA to harness football's unspoken history

25th March, 2014
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A special fund for special players, can FFA make it happen? And should they? (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
Expert
25th March, 2014
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The appointment of Alessandro Del Piero as an ambassador for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup being held in Australia has poured petrol on a smouldering argument in Australian football – why don’t we respect our history?

It’s an argument that, given the advent of the FFA Cup and the National Premier Leagues, the game has to have – and resolve. The sooner, the better.

The announcement that the Italian legend has been named a global ambassador for the event, and tasked with “raising its profile beyond the borders of the world’s biggest region”, went down without incident for most of yesterday.

But there was unrest sweeping through football’s Twitterati from the very moment The Australian pushed the publish button on Ray Gatt’s critique of the decision.

Gatt argued that rather than foreigner Del Piero, an Aussie football legend – like Mark Viduka, Ray Baartz, Rale Rasic or Alan Davidson – should be the face of the Asian Cup.

“(Del Piero) is the one who will be the focus of the media, locally and internationally,” Gatt wrote.

“But what does it say about Australian soccer and the many, many great people who have contributed to the sport in this country that FFA could not find, or chose to ignore, someone who would have better epitomised and showcased what is good about Australia and our game?”

That line struck a chord. For too long, the feeling has been that under the Frank Lowy regime, Australian football has swept its warts-and-all history under the rug.

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The A-League had to happen the way it did for football to capture mainstream attention the way it has. But ‘old soccer’ did not deserve to be forgotten, which is sometimes the way it feels.

The other codes in Australia lean so heavily on their history, their icons, their folklore.

Meanwhile, you’d be forgiven for thinking the round-ball game was introduced by visiting Uruguayans in late 2005, and that it’s been a very complicated love affair ever since.

Indeed, there is no better springboard for spreading the gospel of football’s unspoken local history and finally weaving it into the game’s identity than the biggest competition ever to be held in the country.

The thinking that Del Piero is an inappropriate ambassador, however, is a little askew.

The role he has undertaken involves promoting the Asian Cup to the entire world, not just Asia. Few are capable of that, and it’s common sense to leverage his profile.

Importantly, the appointment was not handled by the FFA – rather, the organising committee, and by extension the AFC. That doesn’t make the criticism of the FFA’s perceived reluctance to look within any less valid.

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But here lies the rub, and here’s where football pays for the clean slate approach. With all due respect to Australia’s greats, how are we meant to rely on them to sell a competition like this abroad when we don’t pay them enough respect at home?

The four names mentioned in The Australian should all be household names but only Viduka is. The rest aren’t part of the new narrative.

Slowly, the FFA is playing catch-up. The new Socceroos kit is a welcome throwback to the 1974 World Cup campaign. The new national cup goes some way towards bridging the chasm between the NSL and the A-League. Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane will all host matches in Asia’s biggest footballing event.

There is progress in football’s history wars, even if it feels a little opportunistic. But rarely, if ever, is nostalgia at the forefront of football’s mainstream discourse. It should be, because the game will never realise its true potential until it is completely united – new and old, urban and regional, ethnic and whitebread.

The use of Del Piero, in the way a star of his calibre should be used, should not – and does not – preclude Australia from paying tribute to the heroes of yesteryear.

The same press release that announced the ADP news also trumpeted “more than 200 community ambassadors around Australia who will help make this tournament a multicultural festival celebrating Asia’s rich football heritage.”

That’s perhaps the perfect way for the local legends of the game to get involved.

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Let Del Piero raise awareness and attract worldwide attention, and once they’re all watching, show everyone that Australian football didn’t start in 2005.

Tell them about Australia’s links with Asia from before then – how the Socceroos spirit was born to the tune of clattering gunfire and explosions in Saigon in 1967, or even how the Perth Kangaroos actually won the Singapore domestic league in 1994.

It’s time we started being boastful about Australian football’s history, because it is far richer than the FFA sometimes lets on. First, though, we have to come to terms with it ourselves.

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