This is my first article on The Roar, so please, indulge me enough to listen to a brief background of what I’m about.
First and foremost I’m a football (read that as round-ball) tragic.
Born and raised in a staunchly egg-ball-of-the-southern-variety family, my experience with the world game really only began when I moved north into country NSW.
Fast forward a few years and i’ve been lucky enough to travel to a lot of places around the world and watch football.
From Ligue Un (France) to Ligue Un (Tunisia), from Belgian second division to Japanese second division, from Euro Qualifiers to the Premier League.
One thing eludes my comprehension, however, and that is the lack of foreign football coverage in Australia that isn’t the EPL and major La Liga games.
We were a little spoilt for choice a year or two ago when we had select Bundesliga and Serie A coverage on free-to-air, La Liga, A-League and EPL on subscription TV and Setanta covering SPL, Eredivisie, J-League and few others.
Looking at it today, Setanta has some of those rights left, One HD has transitioned from sports 24/7 to sports 12/5, and thus the most accessible leagues are our own domestic competition and the English game screened on Fox.
I’m well aware of the commercial realities of business and picking up footballing rights, but what strikes me is that for those who follow the game aside from our local leagues, there really isn’t much to follow on television in the winter months.
The solution is right on our doorstep: Asia.
Speaking more specifically, East Asia.
With the advent of quasi-legal, spam-laden, low-resolution screens the size of a teaspoon on our computers (thanks internet!) we are able to follow the game better than if we were left with nothing.
But alas, for a country that seems to have a healthy appetite for football we’re without any East Asian coverage, excluding the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Asian Champions League (ACL) on television proper.
Why do we not have coverage for the K-League, J-League and Chinese Super League?
The time zones are right. The standard of competition is up there.
One of the only issues facing the proposal is airtime, but a brief glance of the TV guide reveals during those midday Saturday matches, generally there is no live sport playing.
For the A-League and other Australian codes, matches generally commence from 2-3pm. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for Fox Sports 3 to become the full-time Asian football channel.
But a few games per round on delay and possibly one live wouldn’t hurt their viewing figures?
Let’s focus on the J-League. Asia’s pre-eminent domestic club competition.
Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Ono and Captain Tsubasa are all examples of the quality in that competition.
Add into the mix a strict corporate backing policy (gone are the days of company football teams, at least overtly, hello Urawa Mitsubi… I mean ‘Red Diamonds’), a league with promotion/relegation and rabid, committed fans (the kind that are happy to buy a $350AUD jersey) that pack venues week-in, week-out making a noise that would make even the most ardent Bundesliga supporter shift nervously at the decibel metre.
So I’ve done some research: World Sports Group (WSG) owns the rights in Australia for the J-League.
I’m not 100% sure of what exactly what rights they hold; they have the television rights but I’m not sure if that extends to internet streaming rights.
It appears to me that after paying a sum of money, they got a bit of mileage from Setanta and now…nothing?
If you have the rights, use them!
To me it makes no sense for WSG to be sitting on these and not making a dime from them, even if they were to be sold at a loss there would be some recuperation on the investment made.
It would also allow them some room in the future to make some profit if they see their investment take off.
We see the buzzword ‘Asian Century’ bandied about in economic debates and we’re starting to see the emergence of it in football.
Asia is the future, and luckily Australia is part of that future.
If only we could get our broadcasters to realise this and action it!
I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like to see J-League (and other Asian football) screened on ‘proper television’, and I don’t think the J-League would mind either!
The J-League is a great example of where the A-League could be heading, and if we end up that way, excellent!
Packed grounds, raucous noise, boutique stadiums anyone? Yes please!
But let’s take one small step first and get these games on the telly!
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