The new advertisement for season 10 of the A-League kicks off like this: “Answer me this. What is beautiful?”
I get it. The beautiful game, football, jogo bonito as the great Pele referred to it in his native Portuguese.
There’s the connection. But is Australia and New Zealand’s version of the beautiful game beautiful?
Does it have a real and lasting connection with Pele’s world of the beautiful game, the world game that claims to be the universal beautiful game.
Are we a part of all that? Does it matter?
Sabina Altynbekova, the Kazakhstan volleyball player, has been labelled as too beautiful for sport. The 17-year-old has attracted enormous media attention in Asia because of her good looks and Kazakhstan coach Nurlan Sadikov is furious, saying it’s a distraction to the team.
“It is impossible to work like this,” Sadikov said.
“The crowd behaves like there is only one player at the championship. The woman is too beautiful for volleyball.”
American author Scott Berkun tells us ugly teams can be winners too. The Bad News Bears, The Ramones, Rocky Bilboa, the Dirty Dozen – real heroes are ugly. When things get tough, it’s the ugly teams that win.
Being beautiful and the new A-League advertisement isn’t to everyone’s liking. Insulting? Maybe.
Isn’t it just realistic? Is it not pointing out that yes we play the beautiful game, but it’s our beautiful game, the Aussie version? Don’t be embarrassed or put off, embrace it like it’s your own. Only a doting mother can love an ugly child.
Season 10 of the A-League kicks off this week and things are looking up. It has survived 10 years already and it will double or triple in popularity within the next 10 years according to Frank Lowy. Someone please go mention that to Clive Palmer and Rebecca Wilson.
I’m looking forward to this season, as I have the last nine. This season I’m going to be happy, this season I’m going to be sad. This season I’m going to be angry and this season I’m going to be mad.
“A football team is like a beautiful woman,” Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger said.
“When you do not tell her, she forgets she is beautiful.”
He’s right. I don’t think I’ve ever told Graham Arnold or any of the Sydney FC boys just how beautiful they are, even after a few pre-match beers at the Captain Cook.
This Saturday I’m going to Allianz Stadium to see Sydney FC and Melbourne City playing with heart. I’ll see World Cup winner and Spain’s top scorer David Villa in the house and not just because he was in the ad, either.
I’ll see Alex Brosque return to captain Sydney FC and I’ll see missed tackles, bad tackles, missed chances, goals scored and witness unbelievably ridiculous refereeing decisions.
This is our beautiful game, and no one is ever going to take it away from us.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have blasted a hole in Liverpool's Premier League title challenge as Everton powered their way to a priceless derby…
The real concern comes down to football's growing trend of big corporations taking up slices of the world game at the expense of smaller teams.
Round 25 was a weekend of football that had plenty of action. There were five games due to the Central Coast Mariners vs Adelaide…
Arsenal fans were outraged that Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson got off scot-free for this challenge in the Gunners' 5-0 win.
Kai Havertz has scored twice against his former team and Ben White also got a brace as Arsenal brushed aside a dismal Chelsea side…
Goalkeeper Jamie Young: 2-1 win for Melbourne City against Western Sydney Wanderers. Full game played, seven saves, 29/47 passing. Young had a very strong…
