With the FIFA World Cup just around the corner, excitement is building among Australian football fans looking forward with anticipation to football’s showpiece event.
For many long time fans of football who are keenly interested in the growth of the game here in Australia, the World Cup is also one of the key factors in growing the game here.
This is especially the case with Australia featuring for the second consecutive time in the competition, while simultaneously we are promoting our bid to host it.
There is no doubt that having the privilege of holding the world’s biggest and possibly most passionate sporting event on home soil would be a dream come true for many Australians.
The future of Australian football, then, should look brighter than at any time in our history.
However, rather than embracing the joy and passion of this exquisite sporting spectacle, and using the opportunity to encourage interest and welcome others as fans of the game, several fans and media personalities are becoming overly negative and are turning this into an opportunity to lash out at fans of other codes, or the rival code itself.
I am not talking merely about harmless banter – the lifeblood of sport and one of the most enjoyable parts of being a fan – but genuinely felt hatred and vindictiveness that is creeping into the discussion of football.
These so-called ‘code wars’ strike me as bizarre.
After all, you wouldn’t see basketball fans death riding netball, or claiming they will soon leap above them in some imaginary popularity ranking. Nor would you see fans of tennis claiming with glee that their popularity will soon make golf all but extinct.
It is particularly disappointing when administrative heads such as Aussie Rules’ Andrew Demetriou let themselves down by provoking paranoia and fear of association football, or senior football analysts such as Craig Foster making sweeping statements to incite anger among Aussie rules and rugby fans.
Craig Foster does not merely polarise fans of all football codes (including his own) but actually insults and drives away casual football fans rather than attracting them to the game.
As an example, Craig Foster was interviewed yesterday morning on Triple J Radio.
In his interview, Foster dogmatically stated something he has mentioned before – that there are not, in fact, four codes of football in Australia.
In fact, he reasoned, “there is only one code of football” because the other three codes primarily use their hands. As such he referred to them as “handball codes!”
This claim is not only breathtakingly arrogant and intentionally provocative, but is not even historically factual.
A senior football analyst and a student of football of the calibre of Craig Foster should surely know that the word ‘football’ is not historically referring to the contact with the ball.
For him to state that it indicates that he is either being disingenuous, or that his level of ignorance of the history of football is such that all facts mentioned in his book bear re-examination for factual errors.
The name ‘football’ actually made its first appearance in a document in 1486 and was not referring to the foot making contact with the ball. In fact, it was referring to the game being played ‘on foot’, as opposed to on horseback as in royally-approved jousting.
Even if we discount any historical context, all four codes use contact by the hand within their rules to a greater or lesser extent, including association football.
Now, it is worth mentioning that Foster is spruiking his new book, cleverly leveraging off of the World Cup, and must be assuming all publicity is good publicity.
That said, deliberately provoking fans of the other three codes on national radio, in print in his columns as well as on SBS is self-defeating for football.
Craig Foster also claimed that football is unique in that it is outward looking, and inclusive of everyone.
Noble words.
However, Foster, by his words and abrasive, humourless manner, seeks to exclude, insult and belittle, and by doing so drive away those Australians who follow the other codes – and there are millions of them.
His inflammatory approach to promoting football at the expense of other codes is counterproductive.
His all or nothing approach is sadly not unique.
However, I urge football fans not to follow his lead.
We can use our participation at the FIFA World Cup and our bid to host it here in Australia as positives to promote the game and attract others, without insulting, patronising or going out of our way to disadvantage fans of the other sports or footballing codes.
Aussie Rules, League and Union make up the wonderful tapestry of sporting experience here in Australia. Whether we prefer one above the other is a personal choice that we should not force upon others.
In fact, there is no need to.
After all, the strength and appeal of association football easily stands on its own merits. Celebrating those merits alone are all that is required grow the game further in Australia.
Whether this football becomes the dominant code in Australia or not is irrelevant.
punter
Guest
Funny how most people outside of the AFL states would probably see Eddie as the spokesperson on AFL. This is what some of the followers of other sports don't realise, what Foz says about their sports is nothing compared to the crap we have to put with from their commentators, officials etc. For every eggball, handball, thugby, airial ping pong comment, their are thousands of wog, poofter, prima donna, soft, foreign comments.
Dom ROmeo
Guest
just go back and review the past month of tapes from eddies radio show. He states the football is a rubbish sport should be out of melbourne and why are the government build rectangular stadiums blah blah bah.
Anthony
Guest
The football commentators in Melbourne are much more open-minded about the other codes than their counterparts in other sports, & esp Sydney. See Greg Baum's article about the opening of AAMI Park last night.
David V.
Guest
He was part of a talented and quite exciting Middlesbrough side with players like Dave Armstrong (great left foot and remarkably durable- missed very fee if any games), Mark Proctor (who never quite lived up to it), Mickey Burns (a very underrated player) and Terry Cochrane (a very skilful winger). John Neal moulded them into a side that could hold their own in the big time. Unfortunately, the sales of Johnston, Proctor and Armstrong led Neal to quit- he then managed Chelsea and if it weren't for his efforts there may not have been a Chelsea as we know them today- chairman Charlie Amer became a hate figure for his asset stripping, and by 1986 Boro were facing oblivion. Quite a miracle that they recovered from that hell.
David V.
Guest
Not particularly well thought of by Palace fans. Appears among many fans' All-Time Worst XI. And he was playing in a league where at the time he was playing alongside or against some quite technically accomplished players.
True Tah
Guest
David did Craig Foster ever play in Spain or any of the big European leagues? How is he viewed by Crystal Palace fans?
Cpaaa
Roar Pro
Thanks Roving for posting the link, i thought i had missed it.
Axel V
Guest
an article about "code wars" 200 posts another article about "code wars" 200 posts another article about "code wars" 200 posts Judgeing by the heading, I agree, Fos criticizing other codes does more harm than good. I like alot of his opinions on football, but when talking about other codes sometimes he needs to stfu.
JamesP
Guest
Not to mention the big 2 emerging powers China and India...neither of which care much for soccer...
Dogz R Barkn
Roar Guru
It's interesting that we should mention Craig Johnston. Despite never having played for his country, he probably achieved as much as any Australian player before and after him: scored in a winning FA Cup team, and would have been part of at least one Championship winning side. Interestingly, despite having achieved so much, he is at the exact opposite end of Foster in terms of how he views the game. He was actually quite a humble bloke, and readily admitted that he did not possess the skill of blokes raised on the game in countries where the game is a religion, and he was happy to put his key strength down as determination. Something that Fos would discard entirely as a necessary attribute to succeed at the professional level. Now are people starting to understand our dismal failure and implosion in 1997?
JamesP
Guest
I usually come back with "Aussie Rules is the only code where you MUST use your feet to score a goal"
The Other Reds Fan.
Guest
If it's 'football' shouldn't they be called the 'footyroos'?
JamesP
Guest
Matt83 - what answer would I expect from him:? Hmmm...how about something like "Well Aussie Rules is not my cup of tea...soccer is my sport of choice for this and that reasons...each to their own" You can have shades of grey you know....
Baz35
Guest
FFS! Again, quote please An incredible collective persecution complex
Dogz R Barkn
Roar Guru
ah yes - that makes more sense - i did the post below just as you were putting this up. Yes - I believe mediocrity is not too harsh a word.
Dogz R Barkn
Roar Guru
Craig Foster played for a great Liverpool team?
Baz35
Guest
I guess he was just trying to balance his criticism of Foster. I guess its based on the same old "season cancelled" comment that is taken out of the context it was said in (no MCG for season and etihad for 8 weeks)
David V.
Guest
You got Craig Foster mixed up with Craig Johnston! Craig Johnston played with a fair degree of accomplishment for Middlesbrough and Liverpool, before returning to Australia due for family reasons. Craig Foster played a career of mediocrity and worse with Portsmouth and Crystal Palace.
Baz35
Guest
Referring to the NRL? The AFL is run by an independent commission and none of its clubs are privately owned. It sells its rights by competitive tender and all major commercial networks have had the rights over the last decade.
Baz35
Guest
Rob Gremio, all you are doing re "lack of tactical sophistication" is demonstrating your ignorance If all you see is a bomb into 50 then that is your loss. But if you think a game that sees highly organised structures of 18 shifting around an oval 160 metres long and 120 metres wide lacks sophistication then you are plain wrong. Soccer organised earlier in part due to the game being far bigger and being ahead on the professional curve but in the main because the game's dimensions make it far more easier to occur. People complaining about organised and possession Australian Football might demonstrate their "lack of technical sophistication" but it does not mean the game does. Dynamism and technical sophistication are not opposites. And their quantities doesn't sum to some fixed amount. This is bazaar logic. The contested nature of the game is very distinctive but it does not reduce the amount of organisation, strategy, planning and tactics which go into each game, which is almost surely greater than soccer (not that that has any bearing on which is a better game) Foster says that most soccer supporters watch the game at a superficial level (because they don't appreciate the tactics or see the beautiful triangles he does) to the extent this is true it is even more true of Australian football Less people are screaming "kick it" than 10 years ago but it will take a while for many australian football followers to catch up with the technical transformation of the game. In the mean while they can go on enjoying one of the most athletic, courageous and skilful games on the planet!