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.
Peter
Guest
Football is the most popular team sport in South Korea and arguably in Japan as well. In south Asia people love football. the only problem is that we have poor quality national teams. Everyone here watches the premier league, Champions league etc. There are more people watching EPL in India than Great Britain itself.
Al
Guest
Whilst it really irks me, unfortunately football will never be our number 1 code all the time that the Aussie psyche is geared to the wham, bang, bash, 'maucho' codes of handball that they call football for some reason. 207 countries play football,1 plays Aussie rules as a major sport, 2 play rugby union as their major sport and no-one plays league as a major sport. We probably have a good chance of calling ourselves world champions in those codes.
TTG is RL
Roar Rookie
And both the AFL and Soccer codes can't compare to the brutality and fitness of RL players. http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/05/08/215685_gold-coast-news.html A few quotes from the link. ......................................... Nathan Friend a human missile: Quote: Friend wore a GPS device under his jersey against the Penrith Panthers last week at Skilled Park and the results were astonishing. During 80 minutes, Friend ran 10.65km with a top speed of 8.5m a second, while his heart rate peaked at 190bpm. Quote: Friend experienced 74 impacts above a G-force of 8, which is higher than that felt by a Formula One driver (5G) or an astronaut (7G). Quote: "We took part in a study last year to measure our bone density at Griffith University. "It showed our bones are probably twice as strong as a normal person". ............................................ Check out this hit in this years roosters/tigers semi final. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ILh-w5LPYo Now for some lite entertainment, look at this and see the G forces at the bottom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpec32008OY LOL.
juro
Guest
Soccer has huge numbers of children playing in Australia. Why? 1. It is relatively safe - many mothers don't like their kids playing full contact sports. Compare this to the rugbys or Aust rules... 2. It is simple to play - anyone can kick a ball. Cricket requires a lot more coordination, considering batting and bowling, let alone the catching. Rugby league and union prize possession of the ball, so if you drop it the wrong way your team will be struggling. 3. It is cheap - all you need for equipment is a pair of boots. For kids to play in the park, all they need is a ball. 4. Small ground sizes - it is a hell of a lot easier for find space for a soccer field than a decent sized cricket or Aust rules oval. This is more applicable to highlighting the difficulty of spreading either of these sports to other countries. Like many Australians, I played soccer as a child. I even have played a bit of indoor soccer as an adult. That is the limit of my involvement with the sport. It is a fun enough game to play but terrible to watch. The highlights from a 90 minute game could be shown comfortably within 1 minute. For the rest of the game, it is played too defensively with players trying to not lose instead of trying to win. People talk about soccer becoming mainstream, developing larger following, but I can't see it. Kids still play the game in large numbers, just like when I was a kid, but I don't know of any adults who actually go to watch games. Why would I want to get excited about the English Premier League? I've never been to England. I have no connection to any teams. Why would I want to get excited about the A-League? The quality is never going to be worth it. Any players who come up through the grades and is good enough would just go to Europe anyway. I do watch a bit of the international games but that is definitely enough for me. Again, it comes back to the limited appeal of the sport. Just because the rest of the world may love it, should I be a sheep and follow blindly??
qld underdog
Roar Rookie
Sheep? Huh, I have played Rugby Union and League, Aussie Rules and Football at a club level and joined each one for one reason only and that was to experience the game. Football will never get my full respect and its not for the obvious reasons. Football is a game with massive amounts of wasted opportunities, negative passing and lesser skilled athletes. I think its embarassing when an A League player blasts a shot well off target and then has that shocked look on his face, like he can't understand how he missed. Give me a break! How many of these shots at goal find the net? Or, even look like going in? Not many and its purely a lack of skill. EPL players are far more accurate. Last night I heard commentators mention during the Fury and Sydney game they didn't understand the groans from the crowd whenever the Fury would pass a ball backwards. Townsville is a Rugby League community and the League lovers find it hard to see multiple turnovers, interceptions, time wasting and more importantly wasting an opportunity at the business end of the field. These two codes are just too different. Diving, verbal and physical attacks on refs,clapping yourself off the field, praying, making a sub in the 91st minute, taking off shirts other than in the change room and checking the hair on the big srceen will never sit well with Aussies, however this only hides the fact that the game of football just isn't exciting enough for fans of other footy codes. I watch sport to view a well calculated sporting battle, not to watch blokes try and find another player to pass the ball to for 80 minutes just in hope of maybe sussing out a chance of possibly creating a chance at sometimes scoring...... maybe...
Jonny
Guest
Rugby is more popular than football in France? You must be joking. I was in France a few months ago and they live and breathe football, I went to Marseille where those guys aren't fans of their club, they're soldiers. To say Rugby has overtaken football is laughable. Zidane is God over there and France produce more quality youngsters than any nation on the planet because more kids are playing it since ther 98 World Cup win. Watch the news from France, sport is mainly football.
Forgetmenot
Guest
momentum
methysticum
Guest
Isn't it great that we can just call that game soccer' again now that Australia came last in that embarrassing quest 2 weeks ago? Even Sepp Blatter called it 'Association Football' when he started to read out those corrupt results in Zurich - hasn't Fozzie got an ear for language? - it's 'Association Football' aka 'soccer' according to Blatter - it's not football. His statement implies there are other codes of football - Rugby Football., Gaelic Football, Australian Rules Football, American Football and ad infinnitum. If Fozzie continues his rants that only one code has the right to be called football he, and soccer in Australia, will continue to lose all those disinterested observers they require to sustain their code.
ofenomeno
Guest
you don't know who Javier Zanetti is? jesus christ. and you think Zanetti is not known?
Muz
Guest
..I keep posting in the wrong spot....
Forgetmenot
Guest
Heres an mcg full of ppl gripped by the mighty cats win!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMswYa2ivMc here is passionate hawks fans at multiple venues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcWOuZywwEI
ofenomeno
Guest
are you kidding me? football is the most complex physical sport there is, because not only is it tactical, it's creative. Seriously this site itself shows how complex football can be www.zonalmarking.net football is a sport that evolves every 5 years. in 2000 it was always playing with a playmaker and destroyer, the passer was dead. then Milan brought in the deep lying playmaker as the key and it changed again, Barca in 2005/2006 brought in the inverted wingers who were also playmakers but strikers too. by that time it was now no longer playmaker destroyer, but a new playmaker and two destroyers/holders. the 4-2-3-1 started becoming the norm. 5 years later, the passer is back in a new form with Barca, Xavi and Iniesta revolutionized the old passer central midfielder role, and now Barca play with 3 of them. not to mention other revolutionary systems such as Roma's 4-6-0 which Man Utd then copied and now Barca have perfected. Gridiron has set plays and is tactical, but it's not creative, it's all set. stop talking nonsense because football has the added complexity of creation and technical skill which changes all the systems dependant on the players you have. Roma's 4-6-0 being a good example, effective and revolutionary with Roma but with Barca's technical players, downright unstoppable. not to mention the best coaches all have to earn degrees to coach.
Koops
Guest
If you are a engineer, i am a doctor and IMO and you are wrong, 18 players, constantly rotated, pace is far faster and more frenetic, and the tackling far more physical, but whatever champ, keep flaming away yourself.
Muz
Guest
I'm an engineer, not a physicist but that's OK I'll type this slowly so you can read it. The point is your assertion that "the physical contact is undoubtedly a lot bigger in Australian football" fails a simple analysis of the facts. Anyway whatever champ, keep flaming away.
Muz
Guest
...
Koops
Guest
Wrong, all AFL players could run for 30 minutes, your post was comedy, most soccer players culd not benchpress 20 kilos, because their upper bodies are puny, ......... there you go !, ........ that is the equivalent post to yours. Grow up mate.
Koops
Guest
Right, i agree, lets compare football codes to ultimate fighting, what fantastic logic fussy. Seeing you have raised it, soccer must be a great game for kids where they can get the crap kicked out of them, is that the beautiful game ?.
Koops
Guest
So whats your point ?, that you like soccer and rugby league, and dont like Australian rules football, because every time a rugby league player gets tackled from behind or blindsided or a soccer player unfairly tripped it's not a dog act !. And now your a physicist as well.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Koops The majority of AFL players cannot even run for 30 consecutive minutes ... they have to come off the ground for a rest and massage every 4-6 minutes! And, they need a drink of water every 2 minutes and, since they cannot remember their coach's instructions, a clown in a fluorescent jacket has to run on the ground every few minutes to tell them which direction they have to kick & who is their opponent! Quite frankly, it's more comedy than serious sport.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Muz You make some very valid points, but I reckon you will find that logic, facts and reason are not attributes that are part of the make-up of the average AFL fan on this website and your Physics 101 lesson will be beyond their very simple minds. So, to break it down to even simpler terms for the football-illiterate, AFL fans out there - here is a simple test to understand which form of "body contact" is more damaging ... . Enter an Ultimate Fighting Championship and try your AFL "shirt-front", "hip and shoulder" &/or "sly punch from behind" routine on your opponent ... ... and let your opponent only use his legs, feet & knees to kick the crap out of you. And, then, let's see who does more damage?