So that’s why they call it the world game. Australia’s A-League launched its fifth season this week looking like the UN general assembly. The major sponsor, Hyundai, is Korean. The biggest star, Robbie Fowler, is a Pom. Eight of the 10 coaches hail from foreign lands.
Four are Scots – Ernie Merrick (Melbourne Victory), David Mitchell (Perth Glory), Lawrie McKinna (Central Coast Mariners) and Ian Ferguson (North Queensland Fury).
Vitezslav Lavicka (Sydney FC) is of Czech background, and for that matter so is Frank Lowy, the billionaire boss of the code in Australia.
Ricki Herbert (Wellington Phoenix) is a Kiwi, Miron Bleiberg (Gold Coast United) is an Israeli and Branko Culina (Newcastle Jets) is a Croatian-born Aussie.
Only Aurelio Vidmar (Adelaide United) and Frank Farina (Brisbane Roar) were born in Australia.
Sydney FC is part owned by Russian banker David Traktovenko, a St Petersburg football “fanatic” who aims to achieve in Australia what Roman Abramovich has done in England.
The league’s new intake of internationals, apart from Fowler, is headed by Newcastle’s Italian Fabio Vignaroli and Perth’s Serbian striker Branko Jelic.
Melbourne Victory has re-signed flashy Costa Rican import Carlos Hernandez.
Several dozen other imports have come from clubs in England, Ireland, Scotland, Brazil, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Ivory Coast, Holland, Italy, Denmark, Romania and Macedonia.
The league’s international credentials are also bolstered by bringing back some Australians – not just any Aussies but current Socceroos with ambitions in next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
Perth Glory has coaxed back a trio of Socceroos, bringing Mile Sterjovski and Chris Coyne home from England and Jacob Burns from Romania.
Gold Coast scored the biggest single coup by signing Jason Culina after a decade playing in Holland.
He will lock horns in Queensland derbies with veteran Socceroo defender Craig Moore of Brisbane, who also wants a key role in Dutchman Pim Verbeek’s World Cup plans.
The A-League’s increasingly international flavour has been seized upon in the new season’s advertising campaign.
“When it comes to being part of the football family, we hope the advertisement encourages fans to think global, act local,” said Football Federation Australia (FFA) chief commercial officer John O’Sullivan.
“We know that football fans are proud of the fact that football is the one truly global game, and we want to continue to build Hyundai A-League clubs with this natural connection.”
FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said: “Market research shows football fans in Australia take enormous pride in the global nature of the game.
“Interest in football is on the rise due to the Socceroos qualifying for next year’s World Cup, as well as Australia’s bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.”
Adelaide United’s bold showing in last year’s Asian Champions League also helped.
The Australian game, of course, has always been international in nature, given that its impetus came from immigrants, mainly from Britain and Europe.
But once upon a time it was riven by ethnic rivalries.
The big achievement of recent years has been to retain, indeed grow, the code’s international flavour, yet get rid of the ethnic bitternesses that had stunted its growth as a mainstream Australian sport.
The dark old days of “wogball” are gone.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
"Vitezslav Lavicka (Sydney FC) is of Czech background, and for that matter so is Frank Lowy" Lowy is Hungarian.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
I wish I could say congrats - but I can't - it was such an atrocious game all round!!!
Midfielder
Guest
Mariners wipped the Tards as I said....2 - 0.
Joe FC
Guest
Good story Doug very interesting read. I'm certainly in agreement with Luke W in that I hope in the future to see a lot more African & Asian players in the HAL.
The Bear
Guest
Michael C (and all) check out the new Solo ad backing Football. Very good, and apt for this discussion...
whiskeymac
Guest
You're right Da Silva... many of those coaches are foreign born, but would consider themselves aussies having lived here, have families here and contributed to the game here for a significant proportion of their lives. They take out citizenship but are still somehow not aussie still? minor quibble over a otherwise good article, and i ssume the fact it said 8 out of 10 arent Xth generation aussies was really just serving to highlight the international flavour of the game.
David V.
Guest
The NSL was not so bad on the field, it was off the field where it was an utter disgrace. Clubs need to professionalise and move on with the times- they didn't. Furthermore, the player drain and gap between viable and non-viable clubs was simply too much to sustain.
Gweeds
Guest
I agree with the article. However let's not forget that the old NSL teams held up the sport for better or worse during the dark times. True they were part of the problem. But I think we wouldn't have the success we have now if it wasn't for them.
albatross
Roar Pro
With the salary cap, squad size restrictions and the ambitions of players (and their agents) to get the best possible deal for themselves, such churn is inevitable. It's a similar situation in the lower tiers of the EU leagues. I can't see that it has been a major issue.
albatross
Roar Pro
I think shouldn't forget a hat tip to John O'Neill and thank the ARU for kindly letting us borrow him for a bit
Towser
Guest
As one who lived & more to the point as a migrant experienced "Wogball" from its heyday in the sixties, it is a difficult but necessary balancing act to emphasise the Internationalness of football in Australia to distinguish it from other sports. as stated by Dan. My experience, having been brought up on English Football ,is that that football here introduced me to 'The World Game". It gave me an insight into & appreciation of players outside the English professional divisions. Simply because it was supported & followed by incoming migrants from various countries. So to me Football here has always had an International flavour. When SBS started broadcasting its coverage of football it gave that "International /Aussie flavour" a major boost. Even In England nowadays the EPL is hardly English anymore. So the tradition of Association football in Australia since World War 2 is one of a sport with an International slant. What happened in the past with Ethnic clubs who created the platform for the current success of an all Australian born national team today is part of footballs history here & part of creating that International feel to the game. Using that strength is common sense & I for one am glad to see the FFA recognising this in its Ad.
Midfielder
Guest
Doug Great read enjoyed it a lot... Who would have tho back in 2002 / 2003 .... Obie Wan .. what a job he has done.
onside
Guest
Dont worry about the doubters megatron,'there are none so blind as those that wont see''.
Con Stamocostas
Roar Pro
Hey Doug, I really liked this article. Cheers Stama
Michael C
Guest
This is interesting - it's one thing to be the old 'wogball' - - i.e. soccer was seen as the sporting home for 'new Australians' - - but, in the main - it WAS locals playing and a local passtime and career path. This seems a step away from a local career path - i.e. more and more imports means less local 'positions' on playing rosters. It just seems a bit of a step off that marketing line - if you're going to make a big deal about the HAL being a veritable league of nations. As Luke W points out - and I have elsewhere - someone had suggested the HAL was showing Australia more as a suburb of Asia - - -so, where are the Asian players??? It's still a case of proving quality vs quantity, and providing some squad stability. Some squads have churned about half their roster. MVFC failed in defending their V2 crown in part because they had such a large squad churn. This time around, they are more stable. It'll be interesting to see how they go - - certainly for promotion, (and esp in the Australian crowded sports/footballing marketplace) it's gotta be good to have some stability of marketable names.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
I must admit though I also like the local boy comes good stories too. I love it in the rugby league SOO when they show what junior clubs the players came from. The Roar tapped into this in their autograph book they gave out this season and finding outt Craig Moore played for Rooty Hill was cool. The A league has a fairly good mix of local and foreign points of interest.
Realfootball
Guest
Great article. If someone had told me in 2000 that we would have something like this season's A League, I would not have believed them in a million years. It's incredile. I hope they put a bronze statue of Frank Lowy outside FFA headquarters. The man saved the game in this country. Buckely is doing a great job and Fraser is a first rate addition to the team at FFA. I see that Melbourne Heart have plundered AFL for their new CEO. If you are an ambitious sports administrator, the World Game is the only place to be, and that is working powerfully for the code. AFL's best and brightest know where the future is.
dasilva
Guest
I'll just say that majority of these foreign born coaches would consider themselves Australian first and formost. Some of them spend majority of their lives in Australia then the country they were born.
MVDave
Guest
The international flavour to our game is certainly unique amongst the codes with players plying their trade from all corners of the globe. Certainly one more reason to love the world game. BTW Look forward to seeing one of the foreign internationals ond Carlos 'The Jackal' Hernandez work his majic tonight at the ES, by providing a couple of Aussies Arch T and Danny A with plenty of goal scoring chances.
Luke W
Guest
While the international flavour is brilliant, I would absolutely love to see more Africans and Asians in our league. Generally speaking they are great technically, and we only have to look at the Newcastle Jets Song Jin-Hyung to see the impact they can have on our league (although he was hampered by injury last season).