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Media sources continue to bash football

Roar Rookie
8th March, 2012
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Roar Rookie
8th March, 2012
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1079 Reads

Major media outlets across Australia continue to bash football and the A-League. A recent Herald Sun article with the headline “Soccer in crisis” continued this trend.

Marco Monteverde and Val Magliaccio should be ashamed for writing such sensationalistic and opportunistic load of rubbish. The article focused on the rift between the billionaires in the A-League with no mention of the positives happening in football all over the country.

The piece was tabloid-style, with the headline emblazoned across the back page in bold large type. The article was ripe for the perennial soccer bashers to latch onto and wave in the face of us football fans. This move has seen the Herald Sun lose whatever credibility they had among football supporters.

Soccer in crisis? Really? Football, is a multifaceted sport played on many levels in this country: grassroots, mens, womens, veterans, national, international and juniors. In most of these segments football is right up there in terms of growth and participation.

Sure, the A-League is dominating the news at the moment but to hold the A-League up as the flag-bearer for the state of the game in this country is a flagrant abuse of journalistic privilege and a pandering to those who love nothing more than to knock the game.

Recently I wrote an article calling for the FFA to invest funds into developing media content and talent. This includes bloggers, journalists, TV and radio shows and so on. The article is an example of why it is so important to do so. I am sick of the culture of soccer bashing in the papers, but nothing will change unless we are prepared to defend our sport rather than look the other way and resign ourselves to thinking, “well that’s just how it is in Australia”.

It is time that we football supporters let those who run the media outlets of this country know that we are passionate about seeing our game grow. While we do not want to shy away from our challenges, we ask that at the very least that they be reported in a even-handed manner, far removed from any political, editorial or personal bias.

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