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The Socceroos agaist Qatar in their World Cup qualifier against Qatar in Doha in June. AAP Images
As a contributor to SBS website The World Game, I often find myself perusing the site’s long-standing and mildly infamous forum. A hodge-podge of nationalist flag-waving and juvenile humour, it can be a diverting way to spend a couple of hours.
They’re an unforgiving lot on the forum, quick to highlight mistakes, ready to pounce on any divergence of opinion.
Over the years I’ve been nicknamed “the dumbo,” accused of hating the A-League, labelled a racist towards Asians and, most frequently, have been said to be suffering from “a cultural cringe.”
I suppose things could be worse. At least I haven’t been called a Schalke fan!
But all giggles aside, there’s one debate – or better said, schism – that leaves me pondering the fate of domestic football in this country.
It’s the split between so-called ‘new dawners’ and ‘bitters’ – derogatory terms given to supporters from opposite sides of the football fence.
‘New dawners’ are labelled as such because they supposedly jumped on the bandwagon circa 2005, ie. when the A-League kicked off and the Socceroos qualified for the World Cup.
The term ‘bitters’ is used – at least to my understanding – to denigrate those who preferred the good old days before the A-League, when the National Soccer League was still king and the Socceroos couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag.
Many of those labelled as such are long-term supporters of European national teams.
And on a forum that would make racial sensitivity training about as useful as filling a petrol tank with sand, both terms come with ethnic connotations.
Like any childish name-calling, both are used carte blanche to vilify anyone whose opinion one disagrees with.
Problem is – as insulting as both terms are intended to be – there’s an element of truth to them.
We’ve seen it in the struggles many A-League clubs have had trying to increase crowd figures once the novelty of the new league wore off.
And while Branko Culina’s 1996-97 Sydney United side was perhaps the most skillful Australian club team I’ve laid eyes upon, I’m hardly the first to suggest that the NSL was no longer sustainable.
All of this would be utterly trivial were it not for the fact that two new A-League clubs will soon attempt to make inroads into a couple of football heartlands.
The acceptance of Sydney Rovers FC into the A-League may have been as murky as the Georges River, but the club now has an official name, club colours and a badge to call their own.
That’s great, but will they have any fans?
High player participation rates in the western suburbs of Sydney didn’t exactly make Parramatta Power a box-office hit, and many of the families who play and run the game in the region already have allegiances to decades-old clubs.
Meanwhile in the nation’s south, the question is whether Melbourne Heart can draw upon supporters who feel disenfranchised by Melbourne Victory, or whether the new team will simply fracture the Victory’s established support base.
Either way, both clubs could do with extending an olive branch to the proponents of ‘old soccer’ – who have coached and educated those players now making a name for themselves in the A-League and for the Socceroos.
Time will tell whether the A-League ever countenances admitting so-called ‘ethnic clubs’ into the fold, perhaps into a national Second Division, or whether more hard-nosed supporters of the old NSL will ever venture through an A-League turnstile.
But one thing we could perhaps all do with is some more tolerance of each others’ points of view.
Otherwise the joke is on us, and we’ll be sitting around squabbling about who is a ‘new dawner’ and who are the ‘bitters’ while professional football in this country is played out in front of increasingly disinterested and ever-stagnant home crowds.