March 2005 was a time of change for football in Australia. Australia had been accepted into the AFC that month.
The NSL had collapsed a few months earlier and no national competition was in place as plans were made in earnest for the A-League.
It was also the last time the Socceroos played in Perth.
Since that friendly against Indonesia, the Socceroos have largely confined themselves to the big three cities in the Eastern states.
Brisbane has hosted the national team six times, Melbourne nine times and Sydney a staggering 15 times. Adelaide was lucky enough to see the Socceroos once in 2011 for a friendly against New Zealand, while Canberra hosted two games.
That’s 33 home games and 8.5 years that have passed by, and still there are no plans for the Socceroos to venture further West than the nation’s capital.
The FFA has a responsibility to protect the brand of the national team, and at the moment it is being neglected.
Large population centres such as Perth and Adelaide are routinely ignored, yet are expected to maintain their enthusiasm for the national team on a parochial basis alone. Given the importance of these areas to the game of football in Australia, this neglect constitutes a failure of duty of care on behalf of the FFA.
Cricket has shown how to ensure that your national team is viewed as such. I played tennis as a kid and only occasionally donned the whites, but I identified with the national cricket team simply because they turned up.
I could see them in the flesh, even if it was only once a year, and they conveyed the sense that they represented all of us.
It didn’t matter if you were living in Sydney, Adelaide or Hobart, you knew the team was making an effort to come to you and hence you felt an affinity. Even Cairns and Darwin hosted the side for games against Bangladesh.
Contrast this with the Wallabies. Despite the fact that a reasonable amount of rugby union was played where I was from, the Wallabies never showed up while I was living in Australia.
We would have all turned up in droves to watch them if they had bothered, yet they never did. As a result I have little affinity for the Wallabies for all the green and gold they wear.
The issue isn’t stadiums. Perth, Adelaide, Townsville, Launceston and Newcastle all have stadiums that can house more than the 20,000 Melbourne and Sydney residents that attend friendlies or games for points against less popular opposition.
The issue isn’t support – the A-League alone shows that Australians in these areas will turn up in decent numbers.
The issue is one of simple neglect.
The risk to the FFA is that general sporting fans in South Australia and Western Australia in particular will not embrace the Socceroos to the extent that they are able.
The Socceroos need to be bigger than just the niche market of football fans, they need to represent the country. The FFA needs to foster this and should not take it for granted.
To do this the FFA needs to understand that once you leave the cafes of Darlington and start to feel the red earth between your toes, you are not leaving Australia. You are embracing it.
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Roar Guru
Scheudling is ridiculous I Think we should play a friendly match against New Zealand once a year just as a game here and there because we should embrace each others football cultures and national teams
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Facilities have been upgraded and are sufficient, particularly for a friendly.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Once joked with a mate that if we wanted to see the Socceroos we'd have to dust off that secession referendum, do it again and create the Commonwealth of Western Australia with our own national football team in the AFC. FFA would still try and get the games moved to Sydney, of course.
Rob McLean
Guest
Ummm...this is your quote:Perth and Adelaide do not have appropriate stadiums for fixtures involving the Socceroos. Build the grounds and the FFA will come. Adelaide is close with the new Oval, but I am not sure how good soccer would work on it. Doesn't say anything about it not being appropriate due to it being under construction. I read it that you are saying it won't be appropriate upon completion and wasn't before. The stadium was appropriate previously for Socceroos games and will be when it's finished. Your comment "appreciate where Adelaide is in the food chain" is typical of the east coast decision making which prompted this article in the first place. And... don't get the Tony Abbott reference, or what it has to do with my quote.
Brick Tamland of the Pants Party
Guest
Its party with pants Androo sheesh,im surprised your the first person to ask that question lol,abit of an Anchorman reference(perhaps me spelling the characters name wrong till now has confused people somewhat).Again I found the article sarcastic,the guy was forced to go to a football match at Anfield and all he had to really say on the experience was that the crowd yelled obscenities,i mean really why waste his or the readers time.
Androo
Guest
Midfielder & Brick Tamlin (wtf is the Pants Party?): concerns and criticisms of this piece are understandable (and he has copped a bit of mud on the Examiner's website) but it is so refreshing to see somebody from 'old guard' journalism actually give 'sokkah' a go, be it positive negative or negative positive, and even if the new-found interest is yet to sink deep roots. That's MS and Rebecca Wilson all in one year. Geez, never thought I'd see the day. Their revisionist approach to 'sokkah' is miles ahead of Mike Sheehan's "soccer is boring" piece (written just before he went to the Old Dart to interview Alex Fergusson. Then there is poor Drew Morphett who got caught out about 6 years ago by an English commentator during a cricket broadcast. The intrepid commentator made the observation that Australian football was really going ahead. Poor Drew, being of the 'old guard' and the 'soccer is just not cricket nor football either' generation, was a little flummoxed and very quickly moved the conversation right on, having nothing whatsoever to add to the Englishman's remarks! It was the most interesting part of the broadcast!
brian watson
Guest
Typical of the Sydney centric nature of soccer in OZ and this is to the detriment of the game overall. How come Melbourne which has a very large soccer following get only 9 matches compared to Sydney 15 and the other states fare even worse? I think soccer bosses like Lowy and Gallop both from Sydney get their heads out of their arses and see the big picture that dosent just revolve around Sydney. Maybe the game should have its headquarters in our nations capital Canberra.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Because the FFA ignores the game and does nothing for promotion in Perth?
ctar
Guest
why are Perth Glory crowds so poor then? Brisbane A-league crowds are much better.
Ben
Guest
Population has nothing to do with Perth is not small, it's not much smaller than Brisbane. And it's the fastest growing in OZ. Stadiums have nothing to do with it, Nib would of been far more suitable for Australia vs Costa Rica than the SFS THe FFA already PULLED the Costa Rica game from Perth so the pollititions have nothing to do with it.... The game was posted on ticketmaster as Australia V Costa Rica @ Nib, then pulled a day latter. This was no mistake. Ticketek is the ticketing agency for the SFS, ticketmaster for Nib. Both comapnies are rivals, they have nothing to do with each other. Therefore a error is extremly unlikely. Given that if the game was never scheduled for Perth then ticketmaster would have no contacts what so ever attached to the game. Distance has nothing to do with it, Most of Asia is closer to Perth, Europe is closer to Perth, Africa is closer to Perth... Half of Costa ricas team is European based. Long story short FFA are east coast centric and even worse Single city centric.. Sydney.... It's a shame that young kids in Perth may never be inspired to be the next great Socceroo because they are never exposed to it, nothings more inspiring than seeing your heros live.... unfortunately they may be inspired by cricket... Or even the Wallabies they even come here once a year.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Indeed, JB. The East Asia Cup qualifiers showed us the value of doing this. I see no reason why a number of our younger players from the Olyroos along with some of our senior Socceroos who ply their trades in the A-League and Asian Leagues can't have hit-outs like you mentioned. An annual game against Solomon Islands in Cairns or Indonesia in Darwin would benefit both our football and our relations with our neighbours.
j binnie
Guest
I have said it before so I'll try once again.Australia has a unique problem inasmuch distance is a killer when talking about getting the Socceroo team together on a regular time schedule. Australia also has an ever improving professional league which various foreign coaches have deemed through word or action to not be of a high enough standard. We have to start & think " outside the box" if this problem is to be solved & perhaps it is time to pick a Socceroo team out of our professional league & let them have games against localised Asian countries. This would have a double barrelled effect in that our improving young players would be given a "new" target, the cost of putting on these games would be reduced dramatically so that the games could be taken to sites that are better suited eg Singapore v HAL Socceroos in Perth, Thailand v HAL Socceroos in Brisbane,Japan v HAL Socceroos in Newcastle or Central Coast the list goes on and on & it is not hard to imagine our government ever so slowly recognising the political benefits to be had,from such games & with crowds now almost guaranteed at 10,000 minimum we would surely see huge benefits at all levels of our game & who knows,with the improvement of the HAL Socceroos maybe little Johnny Smith may just think a bit longer before jetting off to warm a bench on some cold winter's day. Arok proved it could work back in the late 80's using NSL players so who is going to say it will fail using our better prepared HAL players. Thinkers & doers,that's what we need. jb
Brick Tamlin of the Pants Party
Guest
Sorry this is a snide sarcastic garbage article about football,he made no points about why he apparently now likes the game just reeled off stereotypes and the usual crap about soccer violence,how offside is stupid and there should be no keeper,rubbish.btw I wonder if he was mouthing off about "pommie oafs" when Anfield had the pleasure of hosting this cretin or when down the pub watching the England v Poland game.
John
Guest
Wow. That's an amazingly ignorant statement. Mining companies must pay royalties on revenue & profit. That amounts to many many billions of $ for WA alone. Blame the pollies for not distributing it right if you like.
Australian Rules
Guest
...not when it's a speculative piece from 15 September.
Cameron Kellett
Guest
That's not breaking news Mid.
Midfielder
Guest
Ben I agree to a point ... FFA get I think 5 million per match and top matches even more I think the Japan match was over 9 million... Union agreements re player fees etc are draw up with this income assumed... If WA and or the city of Perth says we want to charge the Socceroos to play here and Brisbane says play here for free and then throw in 5 million ...... HHHHMMMmmmmm what would you do... Unlike AFL & RL where the main income is via the national domestic competition in Football the Socceroos get I think 1 million for every WCQ or ACQ paid by AFC and playing fees and gates .... Very simply ... Socceroos say on average 6 WCQ or ACQ per years ... 6 million Play at home 5 times per years ..... 25 million appearance fee .. Gate for home matches assume 40, 000 average at $ 40.00 per ticket for five matches ... 8 million Meaning the Socceroos bring in even before sponsors and shirt sales ... 39 million ... when the media deal was 17 million ... today it is 40 million ... The question I must say and I am sorry to ... it's about revenue ...
Midfielder
Guest
Ben Sorry off topic .... some breaking news on the 2022 WC from Fox.. Qatar are in danger of having 2022 FIFA World Cup snatched from them with major pressure on FIFA http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/qatar-are-in-danger-of-having-2022-fifa-world-cup-snatched-from-them-with-major-pressure-on-fifa/story-e6frf423-1226719399893#ixzz2lFMNUJB4
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
The question here, Mid, is for the games that don't draw 50k and are never likely to. At some stage the FFA needs to invest in the sport and not punish fans and the general sporting public on the basis of the whims of their respective state governments. If this were the case the FFA is effectively saying that it is not interested in poorer states or regional areas with less money, and that is a horrid message to send. The Socceroos can't be seen as a side that will only represent the wealthy.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Thanks for the informative replies. One concern that I have is that with the Asian Cup looming, Socceroos preparation matches will be played in those stadiums which we will be featuring. This is sensible. The result of this though is that it will be over a decade since the Socceroos played in Perth. We will entire sections of active supporters in the terraces of NIB who have never been offered the chance to see the Socceroos live, and even if they did get to the Indonesia game on their father's knee wouldn't remember it. Thousands of general sports fans who could have had the Socceroos seared into their consciousness during their formative years as a team that they identify with missed. As this situation is dragged out, the worse the damage to branding becomes. The fact that the FFA does not seek to assuage fans' concerns that this is a problem that will be addressed is terribly worrying. It suggests that the FFA do not understand this duty of care and therefore fail to recognise the neglect and its impact. I appreciate that the big games need to be in the big stadiums and earn the big dollars. But for smaller games the FFA needs to make an investment in the country and share the Socceroos. The primary function of the Socceroos isn't to make the FFA money, it is to represent the country. The risk is that for many Australians they won't see it this way; and that constitutes a failure in duty of care on behalf of the FFA.