What it means if the Socceroos don't qualify for Russia

True to a degree but apart from Mooy ours are not playing in the top leagues. In fact some are just holding their jobs in what is the English second/third division. If FFA and the football event goers got behind and directed every cent to HAL it could expand and improve. The WC qualification will result in 3 days media coverage for the three games we play every four years, how can that possibly be good for the game in Aus. Just look at Channel Nine they drop in for a few late qualifiers and turn over a few bucks. Then it's back to the cricket and football and football coverage disappears until the 3 days in Russia. It's not the recipe for a good solid future for football that needs to be played in cooler months in better stadiums etc. In other words once the WC circus leaves town nothing is really happening. A bit like when the Liverpool circus came to Brisbane 52k crowd and the week later Roar had the same old 11k. The event goers disappeared and the same happens with the WC.

WE qualified for the last WC yet the A-League did not take off. When the EPL started England did not qualify for a few WC's yet it took off. Difference is their football supporters get behind their clubs. In Aus ours hope we get to play 3 games every 4 years and then disappear for a couple of years. Your theory about every thing hinging on making the WC is flawed. All money and effort needs to go to HAL and FFA needs to stop wasting money on the junkets overseas. Then we can expand because we are not wasting money sending an under something teams along with hangerson to Sth America for a training camp etc. I hope we make Russia but a couple of days media coverage for our 3 games every 4 years will have no impact on HAL or the attendences, class etc.

The HAL is a second-rate league. That's the nature of soccer. The best players gravitate to Europe. In domestic Australian soccer you're watching guys that could never or can no longer cut it in the big leagues.

Great comment.

If the Socceroos fail there needs to be a complete overhaul of the sport in this country from junior to state leagues national league to the national team clearly the FFA and state federations have failed the game at all levels .its important to have a successful national team .our sports greatest advantage of all other football codes is we have a true international competition,elite competitions to compete at international level. You have the World Cup Asian championships and so in these are tournaments that no other football code in this country can boast to have . The most exciting international sporting moments that capture the imagination of the nation is our sport,socceroos games .dont underestimate the succces a national team brings to the nation the sport and the national league.you want your son to aspire to play for the national team for the Socceroos . for kids to even consider taking soccer up at junior level ournnational team needs to be successful .nothing breeds success at all levels of the game than a successful national team. FFA stuffed up big time this they should all resign.The A league at the moment is too small a comp to be considered of importance for all Australians .ten teams is a joke it's not inclusive of all Australians.until it grows to a sixteen team comp and includes teams from regional cities to be a true national comp.every soccer fan follows the Socceroos but not every soccer fan follows a team in the A league only those that their city is represented by follow the A league .

People need to get over the WC. If we make it we play 3 games and that's it for 4 years. Meanwhile HAL is stagnating. Quite simply if we qualify the HAL crowds will remain the same and that is the acid test. So basically apart from a few games every four years the bread and butter league HAL is starved of money wasted on WC"s for all ages men and womens. The EPL exploded and England was not even making WC's. Football people should be consumed with the need to market HAL, get better fields and more teams.

Nothing wrong with playing direct football and a lot of the big clubs play in occasionally. In our Syria game with about a minute to go in normal time Ryan had the ball Cahill was up field and what unfolded. WEll Ryan rolled it to someone near him, who passed it slowly to someone near him etc etc etc and before we even got to half way time was up. Ryan had Cahill and other up field and should have belted it up there for a 50/50 chance to get a shot on goal. Agne was proud, all was going to plan.

I agree that 15 years of the 'Dutch' experiment has failed miserably & understand where you are coming from. However, my biggest dispute is we never had it, that quick slick 1st touch, transition from defence to attack, the 1 on 1 ball skills of a Jimmy Johnstone (hope my spelling is correct). People lament the golden generation, well outside of Viduka & Kewell, I don't see where we had much better players then than we do now, as a matter of fact, I believe we play a better brand of football now. If you don' believe me look at games of the Socceroos in 2006 WC & if you dare the ill fated day in 1997 against Iran. Rarely were 3-4 passes strung together. The other point is that many better footballing countries then Australia also missed the boat, England, despite the PL being more popular then ever, which is a competition that relies many on more foreigners then the A-League has also struggled with the transition & are only now producing some players of the quality of the Brazilians, Spanish & the Belgiums. But they have little depth as the 'get stuck in' & 'pump it up' 'get it in there son' mentality still so strong, like it is in the other English speaking countries.

Brendon - In what are regarded the top sporting competitions in the world of sport, the Olympic Games and The Football World Cup ,the USA holds pride of place for setting financial and numerical records that have not been surpassed in more recent times. In 1984, financial and crowd numbers were set that were not surpassed for another 16 years, when the figures were finally surpassed in -------Sydneu, Australia That was in the Olympics and the USA games declared a huge profit . In the 1994 World Cup it was decided to find out if football was popular in the USA and the country was granted a World Cup finals competition. The average attendance at all games played was 69,000 per game ,a figure that still stands as a record today, with well over 3 millions attended all matches in those few weeks. Never again has the wisdom of playing a WC finals series in the USA been questioned.. Cheers jb.

Thanks late in the article I did say something about local football and by that meant clubs. The junkets have to end and the money to all clubs including HAL. I shudder every time I hear about 30 players and officials are heading to Sth America for a training camp and then on to China or wherever for a 4 team kick around and then back to OZ. What a complete and utter waste of money? Junior WC's prior to the internet age were for clubs to spot a great young player from outside of Europe on the cheap, those days are gone. Any under 20 footballer In Australia with significant talent should be in a HAL squad or maybe trialing overseas not travelling the World at our expense. Quite simply the main objective of all the junior WC reps is to get an overseas contract and playing in one of the junior WC squads is a means to and end. Good luck to them but why should we pay for their overseas job experience trials. So when Roar and other clubs are searching for money to promote a game or get some talent signed people should remember the $$$ wasted on foriegn junkets by FFA officials, coaches, support staff and players. HAL and all clubs for that matter should not be starved of money because we waste millions sending junior teams around the world to WC:s that no one really cares about, especially our biased media.

@Nemesis, Caltex This discusion is exactly what happened to the USA a few years ago and has led to the fall of the US National Team. The USA's best players returned to help build MLS in 2013-15 and make it a "world class league". The league improved a bit but the national team failed. Americans are now returning to the focus of making MLS and the lower leagues into better leagues to develop young talent. Meanwhile relying on our best players in Europe to lead our national team. Don't make the same mistakes we did! Good luck today in Honduras!

Your best post ever Eddie! As a matter of fact, one of the very best posts I have read here. I have only one comment - the savings you envisage should not go solely to the HAL, but 50/50 with grass roots football. Much transparency will be required.

If only they got the job done against lowly Thailand almost 12 months ago to the day. A team that struggles to score against weak opposition, struggles to defend, whose most dangerous player is 37 injured, whose coach is almost certainly walking out on the team in one week's time, is going to travel across the world to the most hostile of venues (even more so after Waeed Aly egged the home fans on), is some how going to pull off a draw? I don't think people have really digested the fact that the odds are now stacked against the Socceroos. It will be at least 5 years before they appear in another World Cup. And with Asia getting stronger by the year, there's no guarantees for 2022. Soccer in Australia will judge Ange harshly and deservedly so. His legacy will be trashed. He'll be viewed as a selfish man who couldn't even pretend to put the team ahead of himself going into two of the biggest matches in the country's history.

IF we qualify we will play 3 games in Russia and get 3 days coverage , if we are lucky in the main stream media, after that we will leave and the media will go back to AFL and NRL. I hope we can make it to the second round but we really do lack the quality for any upset victory. Once Russia is done we are back to reality and the 4 year dream is over and for that we get 3 days of the media pretending it's interested. So back to the bread and butter the A-League and that's where the money needs to go. If we do not get to Russia well that's a bit sad but if HAL fails or just plods along that is a real danger to the game. This we have to qualify fails to acknowledge that 3 WC games every year will in no way help the game domestically. Interestingly the UK countries including England either did not qualify for the WC or left early when the EPL was set up and it exploded in popularity. So whether we make Russia or not and the end of the day will not impact on HAL if it is managed correctly. We waste a ridiculos amount of money flying under something teams around the world for camps and even meaningless tournaments when that money should be going to local football. The under something can play in the meaningless under something qualifiers and then come home. No one cares who wins the u17, u18, u19, u19 and a half etc etc WC's so lets just spend the minimum amount on these teams. Apart from anything else a lot of parents with really talented kids cannot afford all the jaunts and that goes some way to explaining the very ordinary players coming through. So quite simply 3 WC games every 4 years is actually almost meaningless if our week to week comp the A-League is on constant life support. I hope we make Russia but you would have to be naive to think this will have any long term effect on football or the medias coverage. FFA should save every $ and plough it into HAL. I do worry that the heads at FFA like those WC junkets and all the 6 star treatment. When they get back they might even roll up to a HAL game but probably only the SFC v MVFC, as guests of their boss FOXTEL.

Very good piece thanks Mike, the show will go on regardless of qualification. The Socceroos have been bang average during this qualification process, now they have to do the hard yards to get to Russia. Good luck men, time to muscle up and give it everything !

your social circle amusing i hope this trend continues

It's certainly true that the dirt poor nations of the world love football, but why is that an issue?

Baseball is number 1 in Taiwan as it is in Japan and South Korea. Guess what the number 1 sport is in North Korea? Soccer. Funny how in the rich part of Korea soccer is not the number 1 sport and in the dirt poor part it is ...

Brain or not I am right. Outside of Europe I can name only one developed country where soccer is the most popular sport and that being Singapore which is more or less just a city-state. Name me another. There's also Ireland and Finland in Europe where soccer is not the most popular. Then there's China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, all of the Caribbean except Haiti, Venezuela, Philippines from the developing world where soccer is not the most populous. Add in the countries I mentioned before and that's over 2/3 of the world's population. Including the 3 most popular countries in the world. Plus over 75% of the world GDP. The 3 largest economies in the world with a total of $35 trillion (nominal). 3 largest soccer countries come to less than $10. World sport my arse. Biggest sport yes but far from a "world sport".

The contradiction for many is that those young players are popping up in that 'third rate league' as Bozza calls, the SPL What a travesty.