What the A-League can learn from other sports

#Truth Bomb - and on presented evidence - the only evidence is the previous publishing of his/their own baseless assertions without presented evidence.

In further news - the Melbourne Herald (Sun) reports that the esteemed #Bob Brown is talking up Women's Australian Football which is further proof that it is set to take over the world and become the most popular sport on the planet. (hold the front page - bold type!)

Bob Brown is Bryan Orange or whatever his name is...the "guys" who calls the socceroos the "footballroos" and write articles suggesting that Australian football was originally called Melbourne rules rugby and at some point there was an elaborate conspiracy to change all historic references of "rugby" to "football". An unrivaled "control h"ing of history "Brian Orange" had an article posted on the Roar setting out as such where he changed historic quotes in the opposite direction. The Roar thought it worthy of being published The guy is either nuts or shameless...or both most likely

#Bob Brown So when exactly did this name heist take place? And against whom was the theft perpetrated?

Sage words northerner, do you own a time machine perchance?

I think the bottom line is that soccer has always been known as soccer in North America, and it wouldn't think of trying to change that because of the dominance of the NFL in the US and to a lesser extent the CFL in Canada. Those codes have been around a long time, have always been known as football, and it would be a brave person that would accuse either of stealing the name or challenge their right to use it. I might add that Canadians being Canadians, I don't think Canadian soccer fans would be nearly as adamant about asserting their right to the name "football" as Australians are. We're much more a kind of "get along to go along" sort of people! So soccer it is, and likely to stay so - and oddly, I think that's a very good thing because everyone knows what the game is - call it "branding" but it has its own image, and not a bad one. I think MLS is smart enough not to get into territorial fights it doesn't need to while trying to build that brand.

@Leonard None of your "vague memories" are even remotely close to the truth. You've just made all that up. Not just a bit false, 100% of what you "vaguely remember" is totally untrue. What a weird thing to do.

For a snap shot of roar after that still record season.... http://www.theroar.com.au/2008/06/04/the-a-league-is-about-to-put-other-codes-to-shame/ Two things I note glossing over the comments....the grandios fantasies are still there but it was a lot less toxic and hostile to non "true believers" back then....

A few observations. Good to see a sports season across two calendar years (as is the A-League's, and our cricket season) written as 2016/17, and not 2016-17 which IMHO means, yes, something across two calendar years but which can mean any time-span from, say, the 23 months during Jan 2016-Dec 2017 to seven weeks during.Dec 2016-Jan 2017. My admittedly vague memories of the beginning of the A-League as an idea early this century and in the six months to Round 1 included the following fantasies: (i) that most Australians would stop being so silly as to keep calling 'AFL', 'NRL' and RU 'football'; (ii) that within ten hears, most Australians would stop being so silly as to keep going to games of 'AFL', 'NRL' and RU, and would have seen the light according to FIFA about what true 'football' is; (iii) that crowds at non- / pseudo-football eggball games of 'AFL', 'NRL' and RU would dwindle to statistical insignificance; and (iv) that if we the eggballers kept being ear-bashed with "It's the world game" / "Your puny little pastime is just so-o-o-o-o-o parochial" we'd all flock to Ole Sepp's FIFA-ball, and learn to love playing with globalised balls. And that CEO bloke who crossed over from AFL HQ boasting about the A-League's "world-leading" crowds after the 14,610 season average in 2007/08 - when the AFL's were 36,793 and 36,996 either side of that modest number. BTW, the Ultimate A-League website is one of the best sports sites going round: easy to read and navigate, clear fonts, plenty of white space (an essential for clean layouts), no trendoid rubbish like dark grey fonts on a deep purple background, no irritating whizz-bang graphics and gizmos on screen jumping all over the place 'just because we can'. A model for many others.

"They just can’t accept that the MeIbourne RuIes marketing department are copy cats and have stolen the name “football” solely for their selfish cheap marketing purposes." Bob, I know that you are a football fan and defend the game stoutly, but I've never cared what people call the game. Soccer, football, calcio, futbol.... whatever. I have no issue with other sports using the term football. Let's give that a rest.

That's how the MeIbourne RuIes anti-matter brigade works Stuart. They attack the man and try to discredit him/her rather than actually discuss the topic. They just can't accept that the MeIbourne RuIes marketing department are copy cats and have stolen the name "football" solely for their selfish cheap marketing purposes.

With so much money, that foreign MeIbourne sport is still going backwards. The people running it should be sacked. punter, have you bought your AFL Peanut Butter today or your AFL Chips?

Women's AustraIian RuIes has taken over the world and is now the most popular sport on the planet. . . as reported by the MeIbourne HeraId. Just wait till they actually start playing a game. WOW!

@Northerner Thanks for the response. Ultimately, I guess, I was trying to get you to reflect on how the use of the term "Australian football" to refer to soccer in australia may irritate those who were raised on the actual game, "Australian football" by considering it from a Canadian football perspective. I certainly wasn't "having a go", i appreciate you are using "football" rather than "soccer" out of politeness and your use of "australian football" was actually in a negative context... If "soccer" did change its name to "football" in Canada like it did in australia a decade a go how would that go down? I suspect it would be rather similar on its face. Most soccer people would start calling it football, most others would continue calling it soccer and there'll be some on the extremes that will either deny soccer has the right to change its name or to insist the local code that has called itself football for over a century no longer has the right to. But then, what if soccer, now football, started referring to "Canadian soccer" as "Canadian football"? Would people with a stronger affinity with the actual game of "Canadian football" be being overly sensitive at this development? Perhaps, but what about if some of the soccer types started insisting that "Canadian football" should no longer call itself "Canadian football"? Or indeed it never has really and it only started doing so to steal the name "football"... Anyway, I trust at this stage you get where I am coming from. Again, not a criticism, rather for some reason in my time wasting around these parts I have come to value your reasoned judgement! BTW, there is some validity in your previous post relating to the "regionalisation" of the codes. Despite australian football's significant growth in NSW and QLD it has historically not been known as "football" in those parts. Finally, I'm not sure if more than one person holds the attitude about ignorant “casual sports fans”. I could be wrong but I would assume most people would agree that, like in language, an appreciation of other sports actually increases your understanding of those sports you know best

2017 gold from simon hill Yes, we’re all irritated by the simulation that has crept into the A-League, and it needs to be eradicated. But I’m equally tired of the moral outrage about “Australian values” on the sporting field. You mean liked sledging opponents about their weight, or their wife? (Cricket), You mean like belting seven bells out of each other, the public, or their girlfriends? (League) You mean like throwing bananas from the stands at black players, or regular run-ins with the law over illicit drugs? (AFL). Well, if those are the values we are aspiring to, then I’ll take the odd bit of simulation thanks. It might be embarrassing and against the rules, but at least it’s not an actual crime.

@Truth Bomb - all the various "footballs." It does get confusing, especially if you grew up in one culture, as I did, and have migrated to another! In Canada, football is CFL or NFL or American college football - gridiron to Aussies. And "football" is and always has been soccer there. I don't think there's any move in North America to change that. CFL gets good attendance, but Canadians in general are probably less fanatical about their sports than Aussies can be, and most of us are fans of several sports, simply because of their seasonality. Hockey is for winter, baseball is for summer, football is for the autumn. So you can be a fan of all three with not much conflict. All this nonsense about ignorant "casual sports fans" comes from people who don't understand that not all sports cultures are the same as the ones in Australia or the English midlands.

there are 20 in my association and 19 of them call themselves football, 1 call themselves soccer. My association is known as a Football association, which is part of Football NSW, which is governed by Football federation of Australia, which is part of the Asian Football Confederation which is a member of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. I don't see the name soccer in any of my governing bodies

AR, after a massive GIFT from the then Victorian Government, it is easy to Own things when you are given them for nothing.

#Sydneysider I think #Clipper and #TruthBomb covered a good part of what I might have responded with. On this "I have no idea what it was like growing up in regional Victoria", it all depends. Clearly there are large swathes of regional Victoria bordering NSW. However - it always seemed the Vic influence North of the Murray out weighed the NSW influence flowing the other way (for a variety of reasons but mainly pokies!!). I grew up near Sale - and here we still have the East Sale RAAF base. Back when I grew up it was rather more vibrant than it has been in recent years (although it's about to get a new boost). Back then - we had a lot of RAAF families from all around the country. There was always a Rugby side out of Sale due to this, and there was soccer. The main game football wise of course was Aust Footy. For me - once you've played Aust Footy - with the array of skills and the freedom to roam - the other codes are just too limiting (but, that suits some people, i.e. the greater structure, formation plays and specialist positions). Main thing for me - basketball just didn't excite me but I had to play a couple of seasons of that before being allowed to play footy!! Anyway - I still find it amazing that soccer folk keep turning discussion to comparison to other codes. I sometimes over facilitate with an honest response!!