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For years, football fans in Australia have been forced to “defend” their sport.
They’ve been forced to defend it from the fans that simply want to point to rugby league, rugby union and AFL as the major sporting codes of this nation and so often, their biggest defence of the sport is that it’s “growing”.
Because, after all, it’s hard to knock something for being dead and lacking support if it’s still growing. The two simply don’t fly together.
However now it seems that those same defensive fans have a point.
According to numbers released from the FFA this morning, a total of close to one million people are involved in organised soccer competitions. If that number includes unofficial school soccer, futsal tournaments and other such informal set-ups (that aren’t technically classed as organised FFA competitions), that number rises to 1.96 million Australians. (Include coaches, referees and fans, and that number shoots above three million people all up.)
Football, as CEO David Gallop said, “is a game on the move”.
“It’s the popular game for boys, girls, old and young, who are playing outdoor, indoor, in parks and fields and in clubs and schools. Football is flourishing across the Australian community and we’re delighted.
“Today, the powerful idea that football could become Australia’s biggest and most popular sport is no longer just a dream.”
According to the statistics from gemba Active Sports Participation study (gASP), those numbers represent a 13% increase on a previous survey conducted in 2010. As far as defining a “growing” sport is concerned, it’s hard to argue with such an increase over what is, relatively, quite a short time frame.
The numbers point to growth — which the people no doubt confirm as well.
Thanks to the anticipation and excitement growing towards the 2014 World Cup and the explosion of support for the Western Sydney Wanderers (and the Hyundai A-League as well), football fans are being made daily. Some are adopting it as their primary passion; others simply tacking it on to their concoction of league, union and AFL, but both are definite byproducts of the growth that’s taking place.
I’ll admit my bias here as a football fan and a sportswriter. I’ve played the game, refereed the game, coached the game and now write about the game for a living—if anyone is going to have a reason to try and “promote” or “defend” the growth of the game then I’m certainly up there with the best of them.
But my friends who suddenly enjoy the A-League or the Premier League don’t. Those that can’t even watch the NRL Grand Final but are willing to go to a Wanderers’ game (albeit for the hype and the atmosphere) don’t either, and their existence is the testament that so many football fans (like myself) have that the sport is quickly on it’s way to becoming even more popular than it already is.
Whether it becomes the No. 1 sport in Australia is an irrelevant debate. Whether it should be called football or soccer isn’t far behind it.
What matters it that growth — both on a collective and individual level — is happening in Australia. And this time, it’s more than simply tired football fans from the glory days of the NSL trying to stick up for and hold on to a long-lost love.
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