What A-League must learn from the MLS

Has soccer finally cracked the US? http://footballspeak.com/post/2011/07/27/Has-soccer-cracked-the-US.aspx

An open letter to the A-League from the MLS: http://www.backpagelead.com.au/soccer/4676-a-leagues-red-letter-day

The changing face of America is already having a major impact on the way sport is played at this US high school in Houston, Texas ... Homecoming at Houston’s Lee High School is a social highlight of the year -- much like everywhere else in football-crazed Texas. Except here, the sport is soccer, both boys’ and girls’ teams play, and it’s held in February instead of the fall. The school, which had few Hispanic students when it opened in 1962 as Robert E. Lee High School, halted (American) football in 2000 because of waning interest, said Steve Amstutz, Lee’s principal for 10 years before leaving last year. Lee restarted a team in 2010, though soccer -- futbol in Spanish -- is the dominant sport among a student body of 2,000 that’s now about 75 percent Hispanic, he said. Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-26/hispanic-youth-boom-puts-futbol-under-texas-friday-night-lights.html

ALso there are some amatuer sports teams in the UK and example of this is Luton Indians cricket team, Monty Panaser used to play for them . Should that team also be renamed like a London iRISH SHOULD AS WELL. These are very interesting questions, in the world of sports. And as far as know the celtic V rangers team are based on ethnic and religous lines to. are all these divsions bad thing or good things, that is a matter of opinion i suppose. but should all these teams be renamed. Also I just found out there is a London Scotish , and london Welsh pro rugby teams they play in the english 2nd divison only 1 divison below the top level promotion and relegation premier league rugby union comp. Should those type of teams also be banned if they were in AUSTRALIA AS WELL AS THE OTHER EXAMPLES i have given in my 2 BLOG comments.

Cultral indentificion of a sports team or club or franchise or whateva you want to call it is what makes sport good. Tribalism is at the core of succesful sports clubs and orginaztions. And hate or rivalries is what sells in sports to the fan. They can be friends and have mutual respect for each other, but there must eb a rivalry there a desire to beat your oppositon. And hate is a great markeitng tool for pro sport, it sells. examples of this are Barcelona V Real madrid . They hate each other and literally. the fans can't stand each other . 2 other examples of this is Everotn V liverppol, and man city V man united, and celit V Rangers, Hatred or a 2 frinds who like each other but will be fierce on the arena is what sells eg Larry bIRD v MAJIC johnson in NBA 80's. And when clubs lose that cultral indentification and become ot the same like the A'league i think has done by placing ethnic tie restricions on the teams it becomes boring and souless, and every fan base is the same. Should Barcelona soccer team be revamped becos it's cultral core is Catalyn. And should the english super rugby league team french Based Catalyn dragons be kicked out to. Or what about London Irish rugby union team in the english rugby comp should they be kicked out and re named. Sports teams need to identify with a specific majority group within there ideology, beyond geographic differences. Whether that is culral , ethnic, religous, or socio economic group, so teams develop rivalries based on there differences , it si what sells , otherwise pro sport becomes boring.

When did I ever refer to these anything ethnic as evil? I'm of ethnic background myself.The ethnic model doesn't work. That's a fact. It simply creates too many divisons as we are seeing here now. Please inform me of the truth that you and the 'real football' supporters speak of? I am keen to hear it.

LOL @ NY, You have no idea about these 'evil ethnic' clubs, you just keep believing whatever you want, real football supporters in this country know the truth

No! Really?! I would expect that football supporting unity to happen instantly and then the following day there would be peace in the Middle East. Every potential Western Sydney FC supporter says so all the time. I would much rather support a team that reflects the western suburbs of Sydney though than a migrant group that I'm not a member of. Once that day arrives if/when a team is established here, it would be a massive step forward to unite us westies and for the A-League to sink roots into football's heartland area.

"Umm, first saying people were shunned because they didn’t speak Croatian to then saying the opposite is very much a backpedal. like I said you got caught out." Err, umm, well, umm, "If you ever turned up to a game of Melbourne Croatia in the old NSL days you were shunned if you didn’t speak Croatian" is exactly what I said and I'm definitely not backpedalling from it. "...here we have the inherently racist viewpoint that makes up a section of the A-League supporter-base. Why on earth would I get involved with the A-League when there are people like you that have no respect for others (just because of their ethnicity) that have worked their arses off for decades in the football community. Oh cry me a river! Couldn't care less what background anybody is and so do most A-League supporters. I think reading this thread it's clear you're the one with no respect because we now have a league that doesn't pander to reactionary nationalism. Having the elite professional league in Australia with clubs that are a vehicle for nationalist and sectarian sentiment was holding football in this country back. The A-League is a positive step in the right direction. You can have your SC Croatia, Melbourne CSC, Melbourne Knights or whatever, but they have no place in the top league of this country. "So you are denying there were non croats that supported the Knights in the NSL? wow, thats pretty pathetic." Didn't say that at all so stop distorting what I say to suit your prejudices. I don't believe there were "plenty" of them as you suggested - that was definitely pretty pathetic and even an outright lie. The crowd figures of the Melbourne clubs have made an absolute mockery of the NSL bitter-enders' claims about the widespread appeal of their clubs now that the identities of the Victory/Heart are broad and encompassing. I might add that in Melbourne and Sydney there weren't really alternatives to the 'ethnic' clubs, so only absolute die-hard football fans would have latched on to a team. Just discussing the old NSL is really nauseating. So glad it's dead and buried.

Those poor old innocent Melbourne Knights, how hard done by! It's not like their supporters ever attacked a team bus, right! Oh, but they were provoked!

The idea that a western sydney franchise will all of the sudden unite every football supporter in western sydney is a joke and a myth

"I wasn’t backpedalling, but clarifying. I stand 100% by what I said. If you didn’t speak Croatian you ‘weren’t one of us’. We can argue all we want about the histories of the NSL clubs and how they were used as vehicles for ethnic chauvinism and nationalism to varying degrees, but at the end of the day the NSL as Australia’s top football tier is history. Good riddance!" Umm, first saying people were shunned because they didn't speak Croatian to then saying the opposite is very much a backpedal. like I said you got caught out. And again here we have the inherently racist viewpoint that makes up a section of the A-League supporter-base. Why on earth would I get involved with the A-League when there are people like you that have no respect for others (just because of their ethnicity) that have worked their arses off for decades in the football community. "Plenty is a pretty rubbery statistic and rather than argue I’d point out that it’s well and truly outstripped by the support for Melbourne Victory/Heart. Makes a difference now that you can support a team with an identity reflecting the whole city and state." So you are denying there were non croats that supported the Knights in the NSL? wow, thats pretty pathetic. And I never made any attempte to compare it to the support of Victory or Heart.

@ NY "What about Macedonian, Jewish and Serbian clubs Melb Cro? I can name numerous incidents when Bonnyrigg White Eagles played Sydney Utd in the state league in the last 10 years, or when Preston played Sth Melbourne in the old NSL? Do you remember when Sydney Olympic supporters attacked Sydney City players on the field in one game because they played for a Jewish club" 1) Bonnyrigg never played in the NSL, and its the NSL that is being discussed here. And what are these numerous incidents? I can name two in 2005. the rest of the time they have been in seperate divisions since the collapse of the NSL or the games been played behind closed doors. Oh by the way, can you explain why nothing has ever happened when Melbourne Knights have played Springvale White Eagles. Conveniently ignored? 2) South Melbourne and Preston never had any major incidents in the NSL, their time together in the 1980s was before the Macedonian name issue became politicaly explosive. The only incidents that have ocurred happened post NSL. And that was just in 2005, after that their matches went off without incident. 3) The Olympic V Hakoah incident had nothing to do with ethnicity, to even suggest it was is an outrageous and blatant lie. You should be ashamed of yourself. "Towards the end the Italians lost interest in the NSL as they integrated into the country much better than the Greek and Croats (who hold all the bitterness). The reason for this is because both these ethnic communities had the biggest clubs in the country in the two biggest cities in Australia. Now they have been relegated to the fledgling state league and it still grates them. Serbs and Macedonians never played a big part in the NSL so they don’t hold any grudges like the Croats and Greeks. So don’t put all ethnics into the category of disliking the the a-league like the ex NSL bitters." Italians is Sydney and Melbourne may have lost interest but is Adelaide the crowds of Adelaide City were comparable to that of the Croatian and Greek clubs. Also another point which is quite interesting is that the club thats complained most and most loudly in NSW about the FFA is Marconi. funny that And I'm pretty sure Melbourne Knights never wanted to be part of the A-League, we made a public announcement midway through the final NSL season sating we had not intention of applying and we would voluntarily drop into the state league. but nice attempt at re-writing history. "I mean you can keep hating but I don’t know what for? You just come across as a patriot for the Croatian cause and probably give others in your community the reputation of being a fundamentalist like you. Many others are reading this at the moment and are probably put off by you. Does no favours in this country for the community you claim to represent." Pretty sure my posts in here started from unprovoked and deliberately offensive comment from 'Realfootball', maybe if you actually bothered to read all th posts you might actually have a clue.

"Mind you, that doesn’t mean every Croat is a Ustaše supporting ‘fundamentalist". Agree Greco. Just like the Cronulla riots incident doesn't make every Anglo Australian a racist redneck. But sometimes if you get a minority to make enough noise then the mud tends to stick and the rest of the community suffers for it.

They do its called Fox sports FC. it covers A-league, EPL, and Soccerroos issues.

I'm a disenfranchised football supporter also. There's no A-League team in Western Sydney!

@NY: You make a lot of strong points. Bear in mind that not everybody in the migrant groups you mentioned have an axe to grind or some sort of 'bitterness' with the A-League in the same way you rightly point out that not all 'ethnics' in general dislike the A-League. There is differentiation even within these groups. I know this is a sport website, so it would be going overboard to track the demographics of every migrant group, but I think that Australia is a culturally fairly conservative country and that is reflected in migration policy. A lot of migrant groups do tend to be sourced from conservative regions/backgrounds. For historical reasons, the Croats in particular held to quite strong right-wing views. Mind you, that doesn't mean every Croat is a Ustaše supporting 'fundamentalist', but there tended to be less ideological differentiation within the community. The critical question though is there any place for ethnic or religious clubs within the A-League? I certainly don't think so. It would be a retrograde step to ever allow it to occur.

There are no thousands of disenfranchised football supporters in Australia. That is one of the great myths that a few thousand (at most) die hard NSL supporters still claim. Most of these NSL supporters are 40+ years old. The young kids today (football supporters) want to go with their mates and watch Melbourne Victory, Adelaide Utd or Sydney FC with their mates in front of 10,000+ people. They want to stand with the active group and show their support. Watching European Football doesn't give you that buzz of being at a live game, and a true football supporter will always prefer a live football match to an AFL/NRL game. Soon enough the NSL clubs will disappear as they hold onto their exclusivity for dear life. I guess in the end we prefer to follow and respect real Greek and Croatian clubs like AEK, Panathinikos, Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split. Not some imitation version created in Australia.

Some people don't get it, never never never. The thousands of disenfranchised football supporters, will continue to support NRL/AFL, European football and World Cup and Euros, time is running out for the FFA to reach out to these people

I wasn’t backpedalling, but clarifying. I stand 100% by what I said. If you didn’t speak Croatian you ‘weren’t one of us’. We can argue all we want about the histories of the NSL clubs and how they were used as vehicles for ethnic chauvinism and nationalism to varying degrees, but at the end of the day the NSL as Australia's top football tier is history. Good riddance! “Plenty of non Croats used to come to Knights matches in the NSL, some who even became active fans. Interesting how these people had no issues.” “Plenty” is a pretty rubbery statistic and rather than argue I'd point out that it's well and truly outstripped by the support for Melbourne Victory/Heart. Makes a difference now that you can support a team with an identity reflecting the whole city and state.