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There have been reports that the AFL is seeking to prevent the MCG from being used for three matches of the International Champions Cup in winter next year.
If this is true, the AFL needs a serious dose of reality.
The MCG has every right to preclude AFL games being played on three occasions in July 2015, only two of which will affect the scheduling of the AFL home-and-away season.
These dates – Saturday July 25 and Friday July 31 – will not affect finals. The only thing that they will affect is the AFL scheduling across three consecutive days in late July.
But is the AFL really losing out here? Only five rounds this year have seen games played on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the MCG. One more, Round 5, saw the MCG host three consecutive days of play from Saturday to Monday.
Yet, by the time the 2014 home-and-away season is finished, there will have been five rounds in which only one game was played at the MCG.
So what is the great problem? Why can’t the AFL schedule one or two games at the MCG on the two weekends in question? Is the AFL that inflexible? And that territorial over their hallowed turf?
I hazard a guess that the AFL is being territorial. Perhaps not of the MCG per se, but of the game of AFL itself.
On Saturday July 25 and Friday July 31 next year, we won’t be seeing the likes of Gary Ablett, Scott Pendlebury or Joel Selwood at the MCG. No, these names will be playing understudy to another breed of footballer.
Neymar, Luis Suarez, James Rodriguez and co. are set to light up the MCG when they come to Melbourne for the International Champions Cup. These players represent global clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona. Their jerseys are omnipresent worldwide; their symbols have no boundaries, and find themselves on the backs of supporters across every continent.
I imagine that this is a scary proposition for the AFL. Their code of football does not have the same global reach or appeal. Yes, the game is huge in Australia. But Australia is a diminutive country, with a population of less than 23 million people.
To put this into perspective, Manchester United claim to have 659 million supporters worldwide.
This estimate may be inflated. But even if it is halved or quartered, it is still far greater than Australia’s entire population. Why? Because football is the world game.
Even in Australia, where AFL reigns supreme, football has a very loyal and loud voice, which is increasing. Last year’s Liverpool versus Melbourne Victory exhibition game, for instance, attracted a crowd of 95,446 to the MCG.
This year, the biggest crowd attendance for an AFL game at the MCG was 91,731 at the Anzac day clash between Collingwood and Essendon. However, the average crowd for an AFL game at the MCG has been a 47,180, almost half that and an amount that can easily fit into Etihad.
If the MCG wants bigger crowds, then they are wise in their decision to host three games of the International Champions Cup in July next year.
Football is growing in popularity in Australia, but we are still yet to catch up to speed with the world. AFL may not always be the most dominant sporting code in Australia, something which the AFL themselves must be all too aware of.
Scheduling three games of football in the middle of the AFL home-and-away season between Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester City will once again shine the spotlight on the world game.
The AFL is being territorial. And I think we know why.
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