We lost, now it's time for football to move on

I'm just going be bold and ask how old you are, and how your education systems failed you for you to not be aware that as a colony of England (not even an independent nation of the Commonwealth) when the sport of Australian Rules was codified, the language used would have to have been English? And of course I am aware that Australian Football - in both origin of name and rules - is partly an adaption of Association Football. That only strengthens my case. Why would an Australian adaption of Association football or 'football' not be allowed to use the terms that best describe it? It is undeniably Australian and undeniably a form of football. I am uninterested in whether you accept the fact your sport is called Association Football or not. On such an issue I expect the president of FIFA would have more authority on the subject than someone who questions why English colonists would use the English language. In your apparent history lesson, I will acknowledge that the game of kicking a round ball around was referred to as 'football'. However when the game was officially codified and rules decided upon, they chose to use the term Association Football to distinguish the sport from other codes of football being played at the time. And the fact the FFA uses the term 'federation' is irrelevant to the name of the sport. The sport IS Association Football, so technically one could insist FFA should be referred to as the Association Football Federation Australia. As for distinctive styles, I am prepared to accept this, I have seen different styles played by the national teams of Brazil, Ireland and Germany. And perhaps only a purist can see the distinction between the style of play of every single nation. I would be honoured if you and your football purists would go back to discussing the minuate distinctions between the style of play of the Zimbabwe and Cameroon teams, instead of blaming the AFL CEO (and Australian Football in general) for the failed World Cup bid. And no, I don't think of you as arrogant. you obviously love your code and I am disappointed for you (and people like you) that Australia will not host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Though I do however consider you disrespectful, and someone who continually provokes unnecessary code wars.

Well the bid needs looking into now! Its very serious and lots will come out on the FFA approach and management. We were never ready. Too late now! We never had the right people involved from the beginning! This bid is very different to an Olympic city bid as its one sport and the culture is a football bid alone . We have issues at the FFA and in the state Federations with the people involved not understanding how it works and what will be needed in the future. The game has been poorly lead in strategy and implementation. Read the NZ strategy and be impressed! For example the game has suffered with the very poor support of grass routes and with the lack of support for small sided football. The game has lost tens of thousands of of junior players from this very much needed initiative. The game gets 25 million in sponsorship and the sponsors get very little unless they get access to the Socceroos. The 46 million dollars that the public are talking about on this bid is an issue but the additional 48 million the FFA get yearly from the federal government will come under pressure now! Sometimes you need to leave the family if its not working. If the FIFA don`t clean up their act, countries will not affiliate. We should do the same if the support from these bodies is not forthcoming at all levels of the game in Australia. The levy on the players brings in 7 million dollars to the FFA and was a temporary charge back in 2006. This is no longer reasonable for the players anymore when the game is being treated so poorly by the FFA. Its clear the game in Australia has been put on hold over the last three years. Everyone has suffered more than than we will ever know. The game has been asking for help from the FFA and it has not happened due to the bid focus and the lack of football knowledge in the game at the top. A full investigation should be held by the players. The game is about the grass routes and the huge economy at the club level. Its time to take our game back before it too late!

Sorry didn't Plugger soccer-it-in? Yes I do vaguely remember the picture in the Telegraph.. Today's paper tomorrows fish'n'chip wrapping. Johnny Aloisi's penalty goal at the Sydney Olympic Stadium vibrated around the world's news in 2005 as the finest Australian Football moment on Australian Soil..

Funny you don't accept that the name "Football" has its origins in England not Aussie Rules. It's from English Football, which you conveniently will not acknowledge.. Never have I accepted that Association Football is correct term, even if I'm alone in that belief, so be it.. It's just Football because Football existed many years before association was even thought of. The game with a Football that is dribbled and controlled mainly on the ground with both feet. The word association came much later and can mean many things for many other differing organisations; such as the Fishing association. Besides here in Australia we use Federation not Association (FFA). To add if you think we don't have a distinctive style as opposed to Brazil, Germany, Italy, England, etc of the other diverse 208 nations in the world you are mistaken. It's there and only a real Australian Football person can see it. I don't expect you to see it, as it would all look the same to you. But to a true Australian Football Purist he can identify it. No matter how subtle it is. It's born out of a country's culture and expressed on the field. In the recent World Cup it was referred to as the true Aussie fighting spirit that Guss Hiddink recognised spoke of and fostered that Pim Verbeek could not change or understand and tried to suppress it without any real success.. Which broke out in our last two matches in the recent SA World Cup. You should not fall into the trap of calling systems as style, or being the Australian Style it's not.. The style is in the individual players that come together as a team to form the Australian Football Style. Please think of me as being totally arrogant if you wish, I really don't care or mind.. All Football Purists and I could read each others work here on the roar and debate tactics and styles of different nations and enjoy the Football discussion without mentioning Aussie Rules once.

So you use that to refer to the style of play the Australian Association football team uses. Good for you. Just on that - what makes our style of play so unique? Surely not every national Association football team plays in a completely unrecognisable way to another.. Especially considering none of the head coaches of the Socceroos (who determine tactics and styles of play) since 2005 have actually been Australian. The relative size and popularity of one code compared to another has absolutely nothing to do with the 'right' either has to be known by a certain term. There is only one Australian Football code in Australia. Only one that was devised here and not bought over wholesale from another country, or is not a slightly modified version of another code that was bought over. Perhaps it doesn't give us exclusive rights to the title, but you must respect those facts, regardless of how little you care for the sport itself. Just like I respect your game. I acknowledge it's history, it's vast global supporter base and I respect it for what it has achieved. But it is not the only game to call itself 'football' and is not the oldest codified sport to call itself 'football'. So in recognition of your sport and all it has achieved, I do not give it a demeaning nickname, yet neither do I (or anyone else) have any reason to refer to it as the one and only 'real' football. If you insist on saying the proper name for 'my' sport is Aussie Rules that is fine, as long as you completely accept and understand that the proper name for your game is Association Football.

My comment shall stand. Bribery and corruption throughout the governing bodies is completely different to one or two players having various behavioural or disciplinary issues. And while these 'bad eggs' do exist, the AFL (I can't speak for the NRL) are overall very good at promoting positive treatment of women, racial / cultural tolerance, responsible living. But you are absolutely correct, if it wasn't for the NFL with it's constant violence/rape/drug/murder charges against players, the world leader in off-field criminal/unsavoury acts would have to be Association Football. But I don't know why you wanted to remind us of that.

You said: "We know we are Australian Football and we have long memories of those defining moments in our glorious Australian Football history." I agree, like when the crowd ran out onto the SCG to celebrate Tony Lockets amazing goal kicking record, or that incredible screamer taken by Jezza, or Gary Ablett Snr & Jnr with their sublime brilliance. I too cherish the defining moments in our glorious Australian Football history.

Public behaviour? Ha! Next you'll be telling us that soccer hooligans belting the bejesus out of one another is acceptable behaviour and that Australia's other sporting passtimes aren't worldly enough because they don't exhibit such enlightened behaviour....

You haven't come up with any good reason why Aussie Rules should have exclusive ownership of the name Australian Football as you hijacked the name "Football (origin England)" in the first place. Apart from that and in the main the way I see it---I speek of Australian Football as in style---comparing the different styles of Football from each other of the 208 real football styles of one code of real Football of the World Game. You speak of Aussie Rules, which has only one professioal league, which has set itself apart because of its "rules" and one of four different "Australian Football codes" in Australia. The proper name is Aussie Rules Football for your code in my view.. btw which I have only known it as that all my life that originated from Melbourne..

very well put Davidde, though I see on Adrian and Mike's pieces today the fallout, fingerpointing, and blamestorming is well under way. Obviously, it's been a bugger to have not got the chocolates for 2022, but as you say, football in Austraila is once again well and truly on the map. The FFA would be well served reacquainting itself with it's local offspring, too, for it has sorely needed some attention in recent times. The A-League is a great product, even an occsional like me can see that. The FFA have a massive opportunity to turn this negative into a positive, and should immediately begin promotions to remind Australia that we don't need the world, the game is already here under our noses...

Be careful where you go with that mate. Perhaps you would like to reflect on what other codes teach us in various domains. For examplesubstance abuse. Treatment of women. Public behaviour. Its not a pretty place to go, but yourcomment needs to be corrected. Football certainy has a set of problems, no doubt, but it is hard to name a sport that does not have some "dirty and foul" element, and even our little domestic codes give infamy and disgrace a good, regular go.

We have debated this in another thread, and you still haven't come up with any reason whatsoever that Association Football should be referred to as Australian Football. I can only conclude that you have named yourself in support of Association Football's leagues, organisations, teams and supporters within Australia, and therefore your moniker 'Australian Football' is actually meant to be 'Australian Association Football'. Even the FIFA president acknowledges the game is called Association Football. Unless I am actually mistaken and Association Football originated in Australia.

I think the average Aussie is quite ignorant when it comes to football. The fact the ABC got the facts wrong on Oceania proves that. If journalists who are supposed to research the topics they are reporting on cannot get them right, how do you expect the average Joe who relies on the mainstream media for information to be properly informed? And, it's not just the average Australia; how can the FFA overlook the football legacy as part of its final presentation? The FFA needs more football people working for them. Anyone who is a football person would know that the easier market for the A-League to tap into is people of play football. The FFA charges huge levies to participants to sign-on and gives them next to nothing in return. Every registered football player should get a discount to A-League games and the FFA should subsidies the A-League clubs for that. Hardly rocket science. Junior players 12 and under should get a free season pass. Again, funded by the FFA. Show the people it's not all take-take. The game in this country is growing and the management at the top is better than it was in the past. However, there are still some serious question marks over the people at the top. Winning the bid would have papered over some of these cracks. I think it is a bit of a blessing in disguise. Hopefully we'll take a long hard look at ourselves instead of just saying FIFA are corrupt. To win the bid you need to give a compelling message on not just why you deserve it, but why you need it. Football people know this. I'm not sure our bid committee did, and if they did they did, they didn't convey that properly to FIFA. They didn't even convey that properly to the Australian public.

TCUnbeliever We will not bid again in my lifetime and, to be honest, I no longer care. I wanted the WC2022 in Australia purely as a "thank you" to the generation, who taught me football, but by 2030 the youngest of that generation will be close to 100 years old. I reckon I've got 8 more FIFA WCs in me (if I'm lucky) and, henceforth, I'm more than happy travelling to exotic locations to watch the game I love surrounded by people, who also understand, love and embrace the Beautiful Game. So, as far as I'm concerned, Australians can have their AFL, NRL & Cricket and I certainly don't want the FFA to bid for any FIFA WCs until, maybe, the 2nd half of this century and I'll be long gone by then. PS: You talk about the "quality" of the Qatari presentation. The presentation is purely "spin". The reality was the Evaluation Report produced by FIFA's Technical Assessment team and that suggested Qatar is a very risky location for hosting WC2022.

What are you talking about---we have seen the Qatari proposal with their demountable rectangular stadia proposal.. We could have designed a similar stadia proposal a less expensive proposal for NSW and Qld for our Rugby, NRL and football use only and forget the AFL Victorians completely..

TC----It's Australian Football can't you read..?

No worries Fussball----keep up your tremendous work. I am under moderation because of my profile name and can't go to places where I like to on the Roar at time. But I will be damn if I'll surrender my profile name because it upsets those AFL devotees. We know we are Australian Football and we have long memories of those defining moments in our glorious Australian Football history..

Davidde, If you are going to pull up Roarers for accuracy, you should check your facts. Sydney won the right to host an Olympic Summer Games in the city's first bid. Brisbane lost for 1992 and Melbourne for 1996.

Ricardo Jones You are spot on - with all your analysis and observations. And, again, you are right - the same confederation cannot bid for consecutive FIFA WCs, so no Asian team will host FIFA 2026. In my opinion, henceforth, UEFA will make sure Europe gets every 2nd WC, so, perhaps, England will try again in 2026 - by then it will be 60 years since they last hosted and that's how long Italy & France had to wait for their 2nd WC.

Thanks, AF ... as you rightly pointed out - I never identified the match to which I was referring and we all know Johnny loved to take off his shirt! :-) Isn't it nice to know Anti-Football League fans are so well acquainted with our football that they now recognise our lads when I only use a player's first name ... that's real "brand recognition" and shows how the football landscape has changed from the 70s, 80s & 90s!