There’s nothing wrong with supporting a team in a foreign league, but it’s not the same as regularly attending games in your own country.
I said as much on Twitter during the week when I tweeted: “The ‘love English football, hate the A-League brigade’ suffer from a strange kind of cultural cringe”.
I was motivated to say it on the back of Andrew Wu’s follow-up tweet about his dislike of the A-League, when the Sydney Morning Herald reporter told his critics he’s a Queens Park Rangers fan.
I see a lot of this in Australia, particularly in the media, where journos swear their undying allegiance to Liverpool/Arsenal/Tottenham and so on but couldn’t tell you when the next A-League game kicks off.
So when Wu professed his love for QPR, I wasn’t surprised.
After all, what easier way to prove your credentials than by supporting a club which is physically impossible to go and watch?
In fact, I’d venture to say a significant portion of those in Australia who call themselves football fans have never actually been to a game.
There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it certainly makes it harder for A-League clubs to market themselves to an audience which actually has little investment in the game.
Of course, many journos attend English football league fixtures as part of overseas trips covering Australian sporting teams, while others have spent considerable time in England over the years.
And with the rise of the Premier League coinciding with the expansion of English coverage on our TV screens across the ABC, SBS and Fox Sports, it’s no mystery why a lot of us profess allegiances to English clubs.
The problem, in my opinion, is that a growing number of Australians are using their so-called love of English football as an excuse not to attend fixtures in their own backyard.
And that’s especially true of a ‘youth’ demographic A-League clubs are no doubt desperate to entice through the turnstiles.
At any rate, a few followers pulled me up about my tweet, and their objections warrant some clarification.
One group was determined to remind me that, in actual fact, plenty of pub-going fans are hugely invested in the English game.
What did they have in common? They’re all English expats.
Others wanted to know – and I get this all the time – which former National Soccer League club I supported, as well as my current choice of National Premier League club.
But I never suggested fans should follow the A-League at the exclusion of other Australian competitions.
My point was always, and remains, that too many Aussies use their purported passion for English football as an excuse to avoid the A-League.
Of course, it’s not just English football we watch on our TV screens. Plenty of Aussies are diehard fans of clubs in places like Italy and Croatia and Greece – often because they have family ties there.
However, many such fans are often also involved in local clubs – just like, it must be said, a huge proportion of English-born fans who proudly call Australia home.
I was never trying to question why English-born fans might follow English teams; I simply used English football to illustrate a type of behaviour that does nothing to benefit the A-League.
But if Simon Hill can eruditely highlight “the Pom thing” as another example of the hostility Australians often harbour towards football, perhaps I can approach the issue as someone for whom the shoe is on the other foot.
I was born in Australia, as were my parents and their parents before them.
And I reckon my dad would fall off his chair to see anyone suggest that I don’t like English football, given that I was utterly obsessed with it as a kid.
But that was before the A-League kicked off.
And if the scene you’re involved in is only as good as you make it, then I still reckon too many Aussies use English football as an excuse to ignore the football played in their own backyard.
Mitcher
Guest
Ha! Cheers Leo. Well Played. But yeah, a lappy has to get to the lap ;) I tried
Pauly
Guest
Anon, you'd just love to see the A-League fold wouldn't you? Not happening buddy!
Concerned Supporter
Guest
Andrew Wu wrote an article on cricket in today's Sun Herald
Chris
Guest
The kid started it
Chris
Guest
Dumbest comment yet on this thread
Leonard
Guest
Um, are lapdogs heavily into 'following' anyone (or anything)?
Mitcher
Guest
Yet you follow a much less relevant and famous code warrior around the school yard like a lap dog.
DavSA
Guest
In South Africa there is an extremely well organized and massively supported local Premier league , the best by far in Africa , but parallel to that English football is also strongly followed and supported with almost everyone not just us of European origin but black Africans too having a favourite team and player. My point is that the two can exist side by side in a foreign country. So I cant see how Aussies supporting English football can harm your A-league. Just make sure that standards continue to improve and the support will be there. A football lover is a football lover.
northerner
Guest
Well, I don't know about those finer variations of Christian sects, but I do have experience of Sunni vs Shia, and within the Shias, mainstream vs Ismailis. We won't even discuss Ahmadis. That just seems to me to be what is going on here. Football sectarianism. Which group is the more pure, the more perfect? And the enemy becomes other sects of the same fundamental faith. So here, we have a whole article and well on 400 comments about EPL fans vs A-League fans, ignoring the point that they're all football (or possibly Football) fans. As I said before, I just don't get it. If this is the world game, why all these skirmishes, not against the other codes, but within the one code?
Mad Dog
Guest
Pretty much northerner. Just imagine if we were talking about food instead of football. Would we hear any "if you live in australia and you prefer pizza over meat pies then you're just a eurosnob who thinks hes better than everyone else because you cant appreciate a meat pie" ?
Leonard
Guest
Interesting point, Northerner (7 January 2017 @ 12:54pm), "It’s a code war within a code war". Old Siggy Freud, the grey-bearded Austrian dude who 'discovered' sex 100 years ago, called such tiffs "the narcissism of small differences". In inter-war Melbourne, there was the VFL v the VFA; in rugby, RU v RL. On more serious matters there's Islam's 1400 years old Sunni v Shia, and just before that started, there was Christian v Christian over the "filioque" clause in their statement of beliefs. (And, no, I couldn't work it out either!) And the more fanatical the squabblers, the more murderous their differences became.
Swanny
Guest
I've seen the standard of English championship first hand . It's generally poor. Our best a league teams like Sydney fc and victory would be mid table at least .
Nemesis
Guest
"I am more interested in the strategic than either the voyeuristic or wish lists" Rubbish Why haven't you commented on these strategic topics for sports you actually watch? AFL > Congestion: Let’s look back to move forward > elite-to-participation ratio in women’s sport is low. Is it sustainable? > Unnecessary congestion is holding the AFL back Rugby: > Ticket sales don't lie: Does NZ care about Rugby 7 > Lions tour to improve Eng depth > New rugby laws are there for protection but could encourage diving RL > Tasmania expansion x2 stories > Iconic RL city must not stay dead > 15 ideas to help out RL HQ
Truth Bomb
Guest
I am more interested in the strategic than either the voyeuristic or wish lists
Truth Bomb
Guest
alf? A dozen more?
northerner
Guest
Punter - what I saw was an article suggesting that the EPL types ought to give the A League a try. So I think we're on absolutely the same wave length there. And a lot of the posters have pointed out the trade off between a somewhat lower standard in the A League, vs the excitement and immediacy of actually being at the game. I think we agree on that too. But this specific thread contains comments by SVB to the effect that, if you choose the EPL over the A League, you're a "bandwagoner" or a "sheep." And that's what I objected to: the notion that that there's only one way to be a football fan and if you don't do it our way, you aren't a real fan. Why attack someone who is a football fan, just not an A League fan? Don't attack him, persuade him to give the A League a try. But recognize that people do have preferences and the right to make choices. Football is a big game with a big community of fans and there ought to be room for everyone in it.
punter
Guest
See Northerner, we do definitely read things differently. I see the article & most posters say if you follow the the O/S leagues, have a look at the A-League, however, understand why, because I too didn't follow NSL, but why bag a league if you don't like it. But you saw it as a code code that meant everyone has to follow an A-league side, like I said you do see things very much like those AFL fanboys.
punter
Guest
Thanks TB for asking for me.
Nemesis
Guest
@Mad Dog If you weren't born in Australia, I totally understand if you don't feel a connection with local culture. Maybe this comes with time. Maybe it will not. I didn't connect with NSL when I migrated to Australia. But I connected with local grassroots football clubs and was involved with grassroots football for nearly 1/4 century. But I always connected with the National Team and I knew the value of the NSL for giving every National Team player a start on their football journey. There are many aspects of Australian mainstream sporting culture that are still alien to me after decades living in this country - AFL, Cricket, RL, surfing, etc. I've got zero interest in them. Each person can enjoy what they want.
Nemesis
Guest
"Another article on the AFL website deals with a 2017 WishList. Not a single post from people like: northerner, AR, Truth Bomb, anon who actually watch AFL and don’t watch ALeague. Yet, they ignore AFL discussions but come to every ALeague discussions." Weird you have nothing to add to a 2017 Wishlist for AFL - a sport you say you actually watch. You're always keen to provide input when ALeague fans speculate about 2017 and beyond but for AFL you go all shy.