What is the Australian media's problem with football?

Great comment, Steve (and enjoyed your line about dialectical materialism).

Nope. It's the British military on Cyprus mind-controlling Ireland with their high-frequency radio transmitters. Ask David Icke.

True, Kasey, you've got me there: I did pick England for the sake of effect, and there are cultured men in Soccer. Still, I think calling soccer the 'game of the intelligensia' is a bit of a stretch- you don't have to look hard to find neanderthals in European football or further afield. I think the Italian 'Ultras', the Eindhoven fans who throw Nazi salutes, the Spain fans who chant monkey noises at black footballers would embarrass even the dumbest English fan, or for that matter, AFL fan.

Steve, you make a common Australian mistake of thinking the Football world is exactly like England. There is a reason why England haven't won a major trophy since 1966. Its because they are no longer World's Best Practice. If you go over the channel to mainland Europe you find that the countries that are currently considered the best and most entertaining at the game(Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal etc) In those countries football players do not shun education. In England Graham LeSaux got ribbed mercilessly by his teammates for reading the newspaper on coach trips to away games. In continental Europe and often in South America, it is the less intelligent (those unable to think cerebrally about the game) that get made fun of. In Sth America where education is considered a privilege, the clubs offer it to their academy players as a carrot to continue to work hard. ie, you'll learn or you wont continue to get picked - the kids want to succeed on the pitch and are happy to comply. If you listen to an ex- player like Marco van Basten or a current one like Robin van Persie, they is a very cultured men and their thought processes are decidedly evolved beyond the grunts and just one week at a time cliches of your modern English footballer. Unfortunately England's historical tying of the game to the working class means anybody considered smart is often hounded out of the game via peer pressure. I don't see England changing its ways within a generation, but the advent of the Premier League has already had an effect(only took 20 years) in that it opened the eyes of many to the 'foreign' ways of Europe not being so bad after all, Look at the effect Arsene Wenger has had at changing the boozy culture that once existed in the top triers of football by changing it at one club: Arsenal.

Not bitter and twisted, Knackers...........intelligensia In a country like England, where Soccer dominates, the terraces groan under the sheer weight of fans intellectually grappling with a game of infinite complexity: Soccer has produced heavyweight thinkers such as Wayne Rooney, and before him, Paul Gascoigne. Stuart Pearce's famous missed penalty in 1990 was due to concerns he had regarding dialectical materialism and Foucault's writing on 'the other' during his run up.

Maybe it;s because so many soccer types are often so bitter and twisted that the rest of us prefer to tip toe around them But I realise that around half the population is like this and sees life as a continuing struggle between the powerful and nasty oligarchs and their innocent and decent victims , Of course Australian immigration policy is about continually topping up this latter group so we;ll be seeing pieces like this for ever I might add that I am bemused by the claims of soccer having some intellectual superiority to other games ( I would understand it with rugby union -a game I don't follow but that has a lot to do with class associations ) Educated people are as far as I can see invisible at the higher levels of players -to my eye much more so than for any other sport ( well perhaps not boxing )

Cattery.- Lesson 1 in the arithmetic class , From figures kept every week for last season and this season. Attendances in season 2010/11 for 165 normal league matches = 1,380,474. Attendances to 7 matches played in final series. = 121,375 Total = 1,501,849. Attendances in season 2011/12 for 135 normal league matches = 1,414,180 Attendances to 5 matches played so far in finals series = 61241 Total = 1,475,421 Total attendance to 312 games = 2,977,270 Now if we get another sell out for Final and 10,000 to prelim. = 60,000 Total attendance to 314 games = 3,037,270 This gives a 2 year average attendance to 314 games of = 9673. That's where the 3 millions come from ok? jb

If there's one bloke in AUS football, who is willing to look the media in the eye and expose them for being obsequious scaremongers it's our man Johnny Kosmina. Today, Kossie had this to say about the current Tinkler issue: "Nathan Tinkler might find out that you don't dirty your own nest - which is what he has done. And he has certainly really done the wrong thing by the local football community. "A lot of the negativity (about HAL & football in AUS) comes from the rival codes. And I'd say certainly in this case, the AFL never miss a chance to have a dig - the NRL are probably a bit more subtle about it. "... And I'll be blunt - you guys in the media probably jump on the bandwagon of the other sports because they have got a bit more clout than we have." Source: http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/adelaide-united-coach-john-kosmina-says-rival-football-codes-feel-threatened-by-soccer/story-e6frf4gl-1226326031730?from=public_rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed PS: If I'd read that article earlier, I'd have included Kossie in my Greatest Ever AUS football team!

"In Boston, A Celtics fan would likely be outraged if the owners of the Bruins pulled a Tinkler mid season" I'm sure all of the Newcastle community ARE outraged. Where in the article did it say that all 500 were Novacastrians? You're getting your knickers in a knot over a few dull bogans.

some would argue that Rugby Union is the sport of the intelligentsia..

Cottage Pavillion How about our NBA comrades .. I guess you would say Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Shaq were all top USA footballers? And, our ladies - the Vixens & the Ferns and the Diamonds ... they're all playing football, too? And, at London 2012 The Kookaburras & Hockeyroos are actually representing Australia in football?

Apologies, I now realise that jb was adding up two seasons - no wonder I was seeing double!!

Actually my maths is incorrect, the total for the three most recent seasons is: 4,122,446. 2 most recent seasons is 2,799,971 which means my fellow football fan jbinnie is pretty damned close to his 3 million mark.

The word 'football' is from the English language. Originally the syllables were separated into the two words 'foot ball' and historically refers to 'a ball game played on foot'. The words were used in combination long before the early form of Rugby football (1823) and other 19th Centaury modern football games evolved from medieval mob football often played at Shrovetide. When the term 'foot ball' was created it described a game in which more running with the ball was required than kicking the ball although there were no rules preventing a player using any part of the body to manipulating the ball to goal or "gaoled" (meaning a place of confinement).

Craig Johnson (Sp?) played for Liverpool (et al) including in the FA Cup Final.

You beat me on this one, Fussball. (I've been "off-air" for 24 hrs). Indeed a fascinating definition of football. I suppose that of them all, at least "Aussie Rules" does use the foot to boot the "ball" more often than the others -- other than our FOOT-BALL of course. And isn't the definition of what is a BALL interesting too!

Oh, TC, he means Gaelic, but you probably know that! My own son makes the same error!

total regular season attendance 2009/10-2011/2012 = 1,322,475+1,384,857 + 1,415,782 = 2,877,114. This covers 3 seasons(s5-7) and obviously doesn’t cover finals but crucially these three seasons were the seasons that had lots in the media calling doom and gloom on the HAL because the average attendance dipped from a high of 14,610 in season 07-08 to 9,796(09-10)to 8,393(10-11) before steadying at 10,487(11-12). No matter which way you slice it. Over 9 million fans(since inception(FFA figures from Andrew How statto extraordinaire) for the league is significant and a large broadening of the domestic football base over the NSL - although the NSL didn’t have Fox(chicken or egg argument there does fox broadcast because the HAL is professional or did the HAL getting Fox allow the league to be professional instead of semi-pro?)

jb not sure where you're getting the 3 mill figure from, I think you'll find it's around half that, my guess is that somewhere along the way in your maths you've multiplied by the number of teams rather than the number of games per round, or something similar.

It's really simple. A sport in which Australia is ranked lower than nations like Ivory Coast, Chile, Switzerland and Croatia, is too sobering for the average Australian brought up on the idea of Australia as the sporting master race. A sport where people smaller, darker, poorer can humiliate Australia on the global stage, is never going to have the media support it deserves. It's just not the version of the world Australians want to associate with. We're awesome don't you know? If Australia was awesome at football and world beaters, the media would be all over it like genital warts. Australia isn't, in fact Australian football is seen by Europeans the same way we see American cricket. Plastic, boring, try hard, third rate. Football just doesn't provide the insular, nationalistic self involved breast beating storyline that defines too much of our sporting culture. So in true Australian fashion, bag it out, chop it down, deride it, call it gay. The sport of the intelligentsia was never going to win in Australia. If it's smart, we tend to either hate it or be intimidated by it. Either way, it's amusing, childlike and a great topic of conversation when you say OS that you are both Australian and a lover of Football.