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In the World Cup bid, I noticed we didn’t claim Australia to be football mad, just sports mad. So why isn’t football popular here and will it ever be?
A recent article on The Roar hinted that cheating, the diving, faking injury, referee remonstrating etc turns Aussies off.
Such arguments sit well with many Aussies, as we see ourselves intolerant of ‘bull’. I claim it as a major facet of Australian culture. I’m definitely like that, I’d say you are too. The attitude oozes from ol’ Gibbo’s timeless comb-over on Fox’s The Back Page.
Johnny Warren titled the attitude to football as, ‘Sheilas, wogs and poofters’. Yes Aussies seem to generally think football is a pansy sport. I certainly grew up hearing that.
We also think football is boring. So do Americans. That episode of The Simpsons where they just pass the ball about (as Kent Brockman labours to continue commentating while the Mexican pundit is on the edge of his seat) pretty much sums that up.
Be they true or not, are these the real reasons we don’t take to football? No, I don’t reckon.
The big reason is because people evolved from sheep, not apes like we are told, sheep, the Grand Marino gave birth to us all, and sheep do whatever others do.
Most Australians watch the handball footy codes, so others join the flock, simple really.
You think you’re a free thinking rational objective individual, most do, but you’re not.
Have you ever tried to watch a movie that you really like with people in the room who are just not into it? It’s not good. You put something on that pleases everyone even if it’s trite. Same with sport.
It’s known football has the highest participation rate. Most kids play soccer, but at 14 they quit. This is not because soccer politics or habits start to annoy them. You may notice piano lessons generally stop then as well.
Around 14 years, hair is growing in funny places and the urge to join the flock becomes overwhelming, and so they emigrate to what the grown up flock is up to, like rugby and AFL.
The other codes got the jump on football years ago, and society exposes the kids to it. Exposure influences heavily.
I suggested to a young Aussie friend who was off to live in London that he should go see Liverpool play at Anfield – what an atmosphere. He didn’t bother to even reply to the sentence, how ridiculous and futile was I?
After a few years of EPL exposure, he was into it like a blowie around a sheep’s bum. I had to laugh. Returning here, the exposure stopped, he casually watches NRL again. We are sheep.
And our exposure will come not through the A-League. The A-League is just not world class. It is crucial no doubt, but a sport to convert the new comer must be at the top level.
Communication technology and globalisation will homogenise us all eventually. Maybe in 100 years time, more, maybe sooner, I don’t know.
Television and newspapers as we know them, are major hurdles for football growth here. As technology grows – we ain’t seen nothing yet – they will change radically in form or disappear altogether (if governments ever have the guts to allow their deregulation).
We’ll watch video, all television, from the internet and things not invented yet. The world will become smaller and smaller, continuing the trend of the last 200 years, and so to watch the top level competitions like the EPL will be just as easy as AFL and League, maybe easier.
Thus we will see more and more kiddies exposed to quality football, and then they won’t be able to avoid the lure of it. More 14 year old kids will want to stick with football and the worm will turn.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.