As the pre-season comes to a close, there has been much discussion on the success of the visits to our shores of bigger international clubs.
The Sydney Football Festival has been a success, and since the FFA decided to ditch the pre-season cup, these visits have been of much greater value in generating hype around the A-League and football as a whole.
Although not all has been rosy in the far east this “summer”, Barcelona – a club that prides itself on its community focus – has just completed a farcical tour of Korea.
During their short time in Korea, they spent their time offending the locals, had exorbitant ticket prices (up to five times greater than regular K-League tickets) and leaving most of their squad, who admittedly made it to the World Cup final, at home.
It’s interesting to contrast Liverpool to Barça. These two clubs provided more players to the World Cup than any other.
Liverpool have gone nowhere this summer (when it could be argued that they desperately need the cash that such a tour would generate), whereas Barça have done a poor job, which won’t achieve the goals of such a tour.
If you can’t do it properly, don’t do it.
It is disgustingly disrespectful for big European teams to think that they can simply show up and we will love them, the game is growing and the public demands more than a slap in the face while we hand over the cheque.
Gone are the days where the far east will turn up on mass just to catch a glimpse of European superstars. As the game has developed, so has the expectations of the fans.
We know that these tours are a part of their pre-season preparations. We know that the big guns probably won’t get a full 90 minutes at 100 per cent intensity, but for the first time, we are okay with this. We are starting to want more than just a glimpse; we want to see them treat the tour, and therefore us, with respect.
The visit of Everton, Boca Juniors, Glasgow Rangers, AEK Athens and Blackburn Rovers saw them all bring reasonably decent squads, say nice things about the country and the A-League sides they’ve played against.
And the public have responded.
They will all be welcomed back to these shores in the future. It is doubtful that Barça will get the same reception should they ever return to Korea.
If you’re a club thinking of “coming out east”, don’t belittle us with exorbitant ticket prices to watch rubbish sides that then turn around and make disgraceful comments and obviously don’t want to be here.
Give us a 70 per cent Everton side over a 25 per cent Barcelona side any day.
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