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Given the very tame reaction and almost lack of interest to the Four Corners program on Monday about the Australia’s failed 2022 FIFA World Cup bid, it seems most sports fans have moved on.
It could be said that Australian domestic football and the Football Federation of Australian once again find themselves at the crossroads. The 2011-2012 A-League season will prove to be a watershed in the development of the local game.
The real question is whether football fans themselves can move on and once again embrace the game and its flagship competition.
As freely admitted by Four Corners, football is the most played sport in the country and beats all the other major codes combined.
The highest rating sports programs on Pay TV and Free-To-Air TV are also football games. So there are literally millions of Australians who either play the sport or watch it.
Herein lays the major conundrum. Despite its enormous appeal and large number of football players, the biggest critics of Australian football and the A-League seem to be Australian football fans and Australian football journalists themselves.
As Ben Buckley rightly pointed out, when those issues were first raised about the FFA and its involvement in the failed World Cup bid, they were examined and investigated and our bid was ultimately given the all clear.
More importantly the FFA was this month finally exonerated by the federal government and its independent auditors.
Federal Minister for Sport Senator Mark Arbib concurred that “They [FFA] really didn’t put a foot wrong,” he said. “The bid book was rated, and the inspection was rated as one of the best of all the bidding nations.”
“Everyone knows here and overseas we would have put on an outstanding World Cup. But it’s not just the technical requirements which decide a World Cup – a lot of politics goes into it.”
“It was tough for us, it’s still rough for us. Something a lot of us were upset about at the time, and when you hear some of the allegations that have been going on in the [FIFA] ethics committee, it does leave a sour taste in the mouth.”
Sure the FFA has come under some criticism, but in concentrating on the result on the World Cup bid and football’s other woes, Four Corners and many others have chosen to overlook the many major achievements the game has made in recent years.
Buckley also pointed out that since its inception in 2004, the FFA has overseen a number of success stories.
· Established the FFA as a national and independent football management organisation
· Increased revenues and investment in all tiers of the game, from national teams to grassroots participation
· Joined the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the largest FIFA football confederation
· Been awarded the hosting rights for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup
· Greatly increased football sponsorship revenues and partnered with some of Australia’s most respected and iconic brands and corporations including Ferrero, Fox Sports, Hyundai, NAB, Nike, Optus, Qantas, Sanitarium, Schweppes, Sony, Tabsportsbet and Westfield
· Achieved Socceroos qualification for two consecutive FIFA World Cups
· Raised the Socceroos ranking from 86 to as high as 14 (currently 22) with notable victories against some of the world’s top-ten countries
· Socceroos finalists and runners-up in the 2011 Asian Cup
· Established and expanded the Hyundai A-League to over 300 careers for players, coaches and administrators
· Attracted more registered players to the game, particularly among women
· Football is the fastest growing team sport in the country
· Instituted the first ever national football development plan in 2007
· Developed a world-class football curriculum for juniors and developing players
· Qualified for two consecutive women’s World Cups, two consecutive men’s U/20 World Cups and U/17 World Cups
· Established a national youth league in 2008 which forms a critical part of the Elite Player Pathway program
· Launched MyFootballClub, a digital hub for engagement with the football community
· Established a televised national women’s league in 2008
· Matildas’ victory in the 2010 Asian Cup, qualified for the 2011 Women’s World Cup, and reached the quarter-finals of the 2007 and 2011 Women’s World Cup
· Adelaide United reach the final of the Asian Champions League in 2009
· The Socceroos have grown to become Australia’s favourite and most-watched sporting team
· Introduced a national football indigenous development plan in 2009 and
· Taken the FFA’s business from an effectively insolvent position to annual revenues of over $80 million.
The FFA has also made some welcome but largely un-noticed major changes in the A-League competition itself.
This season we will see the addition of exciting new players like Levchenko, Bosschaart, Adnan, Mehmet, Miller, Sanchez, Warner, Fabinho, Tiago, Andrezinho, Beekmans, Jungschlager, Nakajima-Faran, Usucar, Fred, Vidosic, Kewell, Emerton and many others.
The platform has been established to provide A-League fans this season with a level of domestic club competition and football enjoyment that may even surpass last season.
Sure, the FFA has made some bad choices in the past and can’t please everyone. But it also has not had the resources to be able to devote as much as it would like to growing the A-League and Australian football.
Imagine if the FFA had a $1.25 billion media rights deal and had $500 million at its disposal to spend on adding two new teams to the A-League. Or an advertising and marketing budget of $100 million.
This A-League season for me, promises to be an exciting one and with Holger Osieck at the helm, the Socceroos look like adding to their growing list of victories.
Its time to move on, learn from our mistakes and do better next time. Lets play a part in Australian football’s next chapter in history – whatever that may turn out to be.
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