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The numbers don't lie: Football rules Australia

9th December, 2016
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Australia's Asian Cup win: one of the greatest footballing moments this country has seen. (Photo: AFC Asian Cup)
Roar Guru
9th December, 2016
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1609 Reads

The World Game. The Beautiful Game. And now, Australia’s Game.

Independent data has been released by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) showing that football is Australia’s largest club-based participation sport.

The report illustrates that more than a million men and women of all ages play football at club level, substantially more than that of the next highest-ranked sport.

The exact figures show that football has 1,086,986 participants while golf, which surprisingly finished second, mustered 685,732 players.

That means that there’s more than 400,000 people playing football in comparison to golf. Four hundred thousand people.

Aussie Rules unsurprisingly rounded out the top three with 635,627 participants.

So why is football dominating the sporting landscape in Australia?

Chief executive of Football Federation Australia (FFA), David Gallop, had a few answers.

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“Football is Australia’s most popular club-based participation sport for adults and children because it is the most inclusive and accessible. Everyone is welcome in football regardless of gender, age, ability or background.

“Football is also the biggest global sport with the world’s highest profile players and competitions and the planet’s biggest event, the FIFA World Cup.

“The combination of local accessibility and global interest is attracting more and more Australians.”

It’s hard to argue with what Mr Gallop is saying. Football is an emerging sport that doesn’t involve players trying to physically destroy each other in order to win the game.

It’s not surprising to me that rugby league ranked second last, with only 247,883 adults and children playing at club level. This lowly figure makes up a meagre 4.3% of all people who participate.

And it certainly seems like football and rugby league are heading in opposite directions, at least from the perspective of parents and those who follow both sports.

On one hand, the A-League just signed arguably Australia’s greatest player in Tim Cahill.

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The 37-year-old scored 68 goals for Everton during his eight years at the club, scoring 12 in just his first season on Merseyside.

While the means of signing him to Melbourne City weren’t exactly ethical, he’s here scoring goals and has already taken home an FFA Cup medal.

Meanwhile rugby league has a litany of problems off the field, not to mention the fact it’s taken so many years to outlaw the shoulder charge.

Mitchell Pearce’s absurd incident with a dog in the pre-season earned him an eight game suspension and the Sydney Roosters never recovered from the early loss.

Based in Australia’s most populated city, having the face of the team get caught on camera performing a lewd act on a dog doesn’t exactly send the right message to the team’s membership base.

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Furthermore, Andrew Fifita’s public support of one-punch killer Kieran Loveridge has divided a number of fans, which is the last thing rugby league needs when attempting to attract players to the game.

And that’s just the issues off the field.

NRL players suffered at least 60 injuries this season, with the majority of them being season ending according to NRL.com.

I can only imagine what goes through a parents mind when they sit down to watch the news and see yet another player being stretchered off the field because of a careless high-tackle or awkward collision.

While I’m not saying football is perfectly safe, no sport is.

But the fact remains that football is in the spotlight far less often when it comes to serious injuries.

And don’t underestimate just how significant the impact of Australia qualifying for the World Cup on multiple occasions and winning the 2015 Asian Cup has been on young fans.

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Seeing the Socceroos succeed on an international level is captivating and at the very least, encouraging for those who want to participate in a sport that’s popular around the world.

Football is dominating at the grassroots level too, with club-level teams maintaining almost a quarter of a million more players in comparison to the second ranked sport.

There’s only one way for football to go, and that’s up.

It’s known as The World Game, and it’s only a matter of time until it’s Australia’s Game too.

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