Gallop: 'Football will become biggest and most popular'

Football is allready number 2 code and has been for some time. As if we didnt need any reminding of this - here is the latest insight into the situation at ARU headquarters. http://m.theage.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/pay-cut-test-for-wallabies-20131016-2vmy8.html Football may well be the number 3 code in commeriacl terms - but it is number two NATIONAL in every other sense. Rugby League should be most worried over the next decade - but AFL has nothing to fear for a long time yet.

Yep!

I agree. When David Gallop talks about football being number one he's talking about the A-League being number one not the general sport which would probably be number two already if not number one. Viewership, tv deals etc are already very strong for English Premier League, Champions League and World Cup (despite being in the middle of the night or early morning). A large percentage of football fans in Australia do not attend or watch A-League games because the better products are overseas. This is not the case for NRL and AFL. Once the product starts getting better though more will start attending as we have started to see in the last two years. I also don't undertsand the whole "code war". As if you have to be a fan of only one sport to be a genuine fan. I attend league, union and AFL matches as well as being a Brisbane Roar member and I love to see all Brisbane teams doing well. I don't see why we should alienate fans of other codes who might want to come to an A-League game with an "us vs them" mentality. On the flip-side what have fans of AFL or NRL got to lose by attending A-League games? It's during your off season and surely you want to see Australian sport do well on the world stage? If you attend and it's not your cup of tea then fair enough but don't sit there and judge without having experienced it.

Agreed its a very poor comment even worse than SVB comment about following sports where people can punch brick walls

it will always be behind the other three codes as people dont appreciate players who chip a finger nail being carried off on a stretcher feigning such injuries- its a joke of a game footaball as laszlo urge calls it- may he and craig "i know all" foster can be the new socceroos coaches as they reckon they know it all. get rid of frank lowy and dave gallop is the best bet for you sport as lowy weilds too much power and gallop is a tosser

80K to what game is that - the Socceroos well they are hopeless Amateur hour a disgrace who would pay money to watch such rubbish so many tickets given away for free is how the supposed 80 k turned up i know i work for one of the main sponsors they gave me 12 tickets to the game against Iraq plus paid for all out flights hint hint who i work for - this is your captain speaking get it :-)

Wait till you start losing is all i say as Parra are crap and have been since Jack Gibson and his assistant John Monie left- totally useless on and off the field is why they should merge with Penrith in the NRL - WSW will be the same once the novelty wears off and Yoko Ono and John lennon's love child retires as you'll be watching the wheels go round and round and playing those mind games too.

man the eels will win three spoons in a row totally hopeless club and board- i pity jason taylor if he accepts the coaching role as if he is smart enough he should stay on at the Roosters to go back to back in 2014- ha ha even your golden oldies want to coach in price and kenny who haven't played since last century this is how desperate they have become the eels. merge parramatta with penrith nrl.

@ross A typically ignorant comment, from a football illiterate. Football has got under your skin, if you're taking so much time to visit a Football discussion board & post comments. SMELL THE FEAR.

Gallop is a tosser Football will never overtake the other three codes especially if he remains CEO and Frank Lowy has total contol as Lowy is totally clueless on anything football wise why have this old tosser weilding so much power why???- Australia will never win a world cup so why bother with the world cup just pick players to win Asian championships at least Australia can brag about that- the A-league standard is UK third division at the most any player with any skills should play overseas not A (Amateur) League at least Australia will be somewhat competitive for some part of a match against better opposition as now they are not. Football is the 4th code and will remain this oh sorry i chipped my finger nail call for a stretcher to take me of the pitch - it's a sissy game Football (Soccer) a game played by softies with little skill or ability not like real mens football like Rugby league/Rugby Union/Australian Rules- hell even Womens Netball is harder than sissy Football(Soccer).

Catching NRL attendances? Mate your dreaming. Come back when you have a TV rights deal that isn't printed on toilet paper.

Geez, you soccer fans are an insecure bunch. Enjoy your 90 minute scoreless "spectacles".

Woah, does this guy have a chip on his shoulder the size of China or what? It seems like you Mr Cassidy have an inherent hatred of anything that isn't soccer.

Just because Union is stuffed doesn't mean League is. League is like the cockroach, dirty and gets trampled by everyone, yet perseveres and survives nuclear war I tell ya. The wallabies should resign from the Bledisloe now and congratulate New Zealand on the win. With any luck some of their players may make NRL sides. Hehe.

Mate that's because no one knows who Buddy Franklin is, but everybody already knows who Sonny Bill Williams is. Do you know how google works at all? You use it to find out more about things you hardly know anything about, or porn. Hehe.

Haha, is Buddy meant to be Aussie Rule's version of Greg Inglis or something?

Most of these marquee players are tremendously popular with fans in their home countries where they probably did "live in their suburb"! Harry Kewell certainly lived in an Australian suburb! I have never been motivated to go to a game because ADP or Harry is playing,.just as I wouldn't watch a Sydney Swans game just because ":Buddy" is playing:. I go to games to watch my team play another team. If by happenstance the other team has a "Superstar" member,that's nice,but it leaves me cold,as far as putting my "bum on a seat"!

Gumpy says:-"Moreover, why in hell would we play in the Australian winter only to have our season out-of-whack with the rest of the world? " Back when it took three weeks to get to Europe by ship,it didn't matter a toss whether our season was aligned with "the rest of the world" (there are quite a few countries in our half of the world,too),so the obvious thing was to play it in the Southern Hemisphere winter. (Cricket made a good thing of the reversed seasons,as they could play Tests in Australia,NZ, South Africa,& England,with it being Summer all around.) With football,it's only since the availability of cheap airflights that it has really made sense for Australian & overseas players to align the seasons. When people bag our players ,saying how much better the Europeans are,I often feel like asking :- "But can they do it in 35C heat?" Re soccer ("soccer??") being around since the 1870s,the question arises--what happened? Before WW1 & in the between war period,the vast bulk of migrants to Australia were from the UK. This was in the period when "Football"was growing extremely fast both in the UK,& Europe. Why didn't the Poms bring their enthusiasm for the game with them,& form a basis for a healthy growth in the code? Remember,this was in a period when the media,such as it was, was not all that aligned with sport,except for Cricket. Most sports were only semi-professional---as late as the early 1960s WANFL players (not sure about the VFL & RL) all had day jobs,as the "appearance money" was a pittance,so it would have been pretty much a level playing field.

@bryan Broadcasting rights are sold on a geographical basis. Currently the revenue from "broadcast rights outside AUS" would not be significant. Sales of EPL rights outside England were not signficant 30yrs ago. The ALeague product has the potential to be extremely appealing to Asian viewers: 1. it is in the perfect time-zone 2. ALeague competition has periods where there are no competitive games being played in the East Asian countries 3. Betting on football through Asia is massive & the Asian football betting market is predominantly focused on betting during matches - not the simplistic pre-game bet. There are 4,000 million people living in Asia. If only 0.05% of Asia tunes in to watch an ALeague match, the viewing numbers are bigger than the AFL Grand Final or NRL Grand Final. ALeague has the potential to appeal to the world. Even with blanked mainstream media coverage & LIVE games for Free every week-end ... AFL & NRL do not appeal to non-traditional markets in Australia. Aussies in WA, Vic & SA can't be bothered watching NRL; Aussies in NSW & QLD have limited interest in AFL.

I think the point is that once the broadcasting rights have been sold,it doesn't matter if 3 people or 3 billion watch it,the return to the A league won't be much different. As "Football" is really the World game,why are people in China going to get excited about a game in another country thousands of km away in any case? They already know about football,& have their own,& a number of other competitions to watch in their own timezone. Some people may watch out of curiosity,but that's about it---you can't somehow assume because a lot of people watch their home compretition,that will somehow translate into support for ours.