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Celtic's Paddy McCourt (centre) kicks ahead during the friendly match between Scottish club Celtic and the Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Sunday, July 12, 2009. Celtic defeated Brisbane 3-0. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
I can’t stand Euro-snobs. You know the type. They yammer on about how inferior the A-League is – oblivious to the fact that you’re rolling your eyes and glancing at your watch – before admitting that they’ve never actually bothered to attend a local game.
There were plenty of Euro-snobs milling around Caxton Street in the build-up to Brisbane Roar’s high-profile friendly with Celtic last Sunday.
“They’re only A-League opposition,” was the consensus of some fans kitted out in the famous green-and-white hoops, as though playing Brisbane Roar was somehow beneath Celtic.
Granted, the majority of the pro-Celtic support consisted of genuine fans, some of whom had travelled internationally to witness their heroes in action.
They were boistrous in and around the ground, and deserve praise for generating what Craig Moore later described in the press conference as a European-style atmosphere.
But you can bet that hidden amongst the bona fide Celtic supporters were plenty of Australians for whom the match represented a chance to watch “top class” football.
More power to them.
However, I’m always amazed at just how many fans are completely ignorant of the league contested in their own backyard.
After the game, some of those fans reacted incredulously to the fact that Brisbane dominated the opening twenty minutes.
If Robbie Kruse had managed to take either of two outstanding chances early on, the complexion of the match would have changed completely.
Goals win games, of course, and in Celtic shot-stopper Artur Boruc, the mercurial Kruse more than met his match.
But the free-flowing football played by Frank Farina’s side pinned Celtic on the back foot and gave Roar supporters the sniff of an upset.
I just wonder how many of the Euro-loving fans were actually paying attention to the action on the pitch, rather than the singing in the stands.
Of course, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with watching European football.
I’ve travelled the length and breadth of Germany to watch Borussia Dortmund play, and my weekend routine for the past three years mostly consisted of catching Shimizu S-Pulse in action, before coming home to settle in for some Bundesliga on TV.
However, the key point is that I turned out to watch local football in the first place.
Be it as a Borussia Dortmund, Sydney FC or Shimizu S-Pulse fan, I’ve always been a firm believer in supporting my local league.
Yet how many of the fans who turned out to watch Celtic – or games against Fulham or Wolves elsewhere around the country – will be back to watch more A-League games this season?
It’s all well and good attracting new supporters to high-profile friendlies, but it will count for little unless those fans stick around and start investing some time and money into their own domestic league.
That’s why it was disappointing to note that some Brisbane Roar fans actually stayed away from the Celtic clash.
You can hardly blame them.
Brisbane already have some of the highest season ticket prices in the league, and tickets for the Celtic game weren’t exactly cheap.
Many of those Roar fans simply chose to invest their cash in competitive football, rather than a well-meaning but relatively pointless friendly.
The “Roar Against Racism” initiative is laudable, but what many established fans are crying out for is more recognition from clubs and the FFA in general.
Pricing regular supporters out of friendly games is one way to get fans offside before the season has even kicked off – regardless of whether those friendlies are controlled by external event promoters.
That said, I still think the visit of British clubs to our shores this pre-season has been a success.
The matches have drawn attention to the A-League, and our teams have held their own against supposedly superior opposition.
But I hope that some of those fans who arrived with pre-conceived notions about the standard of the A-League, returned home with a new-found appreciation of just how strong it has the potential to be.
Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Mike_Tuckerman