On Friday, the eyes of the football world will turn to Australia, as the best nations in Asia begin to battle it out for the Asian Cup.
Australians, too, will be on edge, but there’ll be one group of spectators who’ll simply barrack, not yet sold as a fan.
I like soccer, okay, we’ll call it football. I’ve seen Liverpool play at Anfield, cheered Boca Juniors at La Bombonera and heard the roar of the Maracana. But there’s something that stops me from loving it, for now.
For those who’ve grown up seeing the one-on-one battles of Australian rules football, the brutal hit-ups of rugby league or the ferocious clean-outs in rugby union, you’ve seen players continually push the pain barrier to stay on the field.
Now, by no means am I suggesting that footballers don’t do this, but the image of players milking free kicks and being stretchered off, only to walk back onto the field after they cross the sideline, is a trait unacceptable to the hardened footy fan.
Fortunately, most Australian professionals are brought up knowing that’s as good as cheating. What’s unfortunate is that some of the best in the world haven’t.
It’s not a new issue, and one which FIFA president Sepp Blatter has spoken big on for years. But it still happens, and while that’s the case, there’s a sector of the Aussie sports community who can’t join the party.
Send-offs and suspensions must be the solution. Yellow cards are by no means a fair punishment when the offender can actually manipulate the outcome of a game. The time for talking is over, and the era of action is here.
I’ll be watching the Socceroos on Friday, as I did during the World Cup, and I’ll be barracking hard. But for now it’s over to you FIFA, which is an entirely different conversation in itself.
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