April 25th, 2018. The Imperial Hotel, Melbourne. 4:45am. I have never been one to spring out of bed early to get to the gym or go for a morning run. Yet this morning, the event makes the exception.
To my surprise, I was surrounded by like-minded people dressed in red, singing with unbridled passion.
The occasion is Liverpool FC against AS Roma in the Champions League semi-final. An English club against an Italian club. A match taking place over 17,000 kilometres away at the famous Anfield. And it’s freaking 4:45am!
It’s as if we all had been transported to chilly Liverpool, and had passed beneath the Bill Shankly gates, made our way through to the middle of the Kop, and were singing all round the fields of Anfield Road.
But no. This was in Melbourne, with garbage trucks and those finishing their nights out the only others disturbing the peace.
The logical question to ask, which my girlfriend does on a weekly basis, is why? Why do you support a team on the other side of the world? Why do you pour money into the club’s merchandise, and make the pilgrimages to Anfield Road, just for a game of football?
To be fair, it’s a decent question. All the money, lost sleep, triumph and heartbreak. And all for a club that you can generally only support from a distance.
And why do all this when there are two professional clubs down the road? It felt as though there were more people in this pub than at Melbourne City’s elimination final.
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What it comes down to is that you can’t just invent culture. History doesn’t appear overnight. City play at the same stadium as Melbourne Victory. Despite all of City Group’s resources, the brand of the club has failed to successfully capture the imagination of Melbourne’s football public.
On the other hand, Victory plays on its standing as being a foundation club in the A-League. It attracts supporters by marketing itself as the league’s ‘big club’ as a result of its sustained success over 13 years of history. Sydney FC have a similar strategy.
For city-based clubs, success breeds support.
Any new expansion club must learn from City’s experience. The club must have strong connections to its local community and present a brand that represents its supporters.
The $170 million proposal for a club in Dandenong to have its own 15,000 seat stadium is a great start.
So too is the bid to bring back the Wollongong Wolves. As stated by their CEO Chris Papakosmas, “We’re about filling in a geographical footprint that hasn’t had representation for a long time.”
The Wolves already have the history and the existing local fan-base, while being community-funded gives the fans a sense of its ownership. “Sport is built around tribalism, loyalty and pride in your area,” Papakosmas says.
But why stop there? Geelong is an underutilised market, a city with a proud sports history and the ability to draw fans in from the country.
Create a second South Australian team in Sturt or Glenelg potentially, building another boutique stadium to create a rowdy atmosphere for any away team.
The FFA has the opportunity to beat the AFL by establishing a team in the sports-starved state of Tasmania, allowing FFA to take the lead over the AFL for once.
There are plenty of opportunities out there. Football has the highest participation rates in the country, all these people involved in the game just need a club that they can truly relate to, one that represents them.
The product is already there. Two exciting and drama-packed semi-finals and a grand final that promises all that and more between two clubs with strong local support.
An A-League expansion and creation of a second-division has this potential.
The Imperial will be packed again on Thursday morning. As it hopefully will be again for Saturday night’s grand final in Newcastle, a 30,000 packed house.
Let’s see it more often.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
The A-League is already well ahead of the AFL, having beaten it to Gosford and Newcastle.
Buddy
Guest
Chris, team or country? I’d say the field is fairly narrow for teams yet I know people who support various countries for quite bizarre reasons....yes flag, colours for sure - even the sound of the name!
Buddy
Guest
Be careful touching on Heysel. Whilst many know what was reported, how many were killed etc there was little to no investigation into the perpetrators and whilst it pains me to say it, many present in Belgium were neither Liverpool fans or there to enjoy a game of football. It was a hooligan war being waged under the guise of football. It was very easy to get tickets, easy to jump on a ferry and little to no policing. The local police did not even ask for help from the UK force and segregation of supporters took a back seat in favour of ticket sales. The outcome is well documented....... dark times.
Janakan
Guest
Very interesting piece! Culture in sport is why we all love it! Good work
chris
Guest
...and then there is the story of Andre Kruger who as a schoolboy in 1974 was given a flag of Australia as a school initiative for the competing nations. He went on to become a fanatical supporter of Australia which continues today. Supporting a team and the reasons for it can be as varied as the number of teams that are out there.
Kangajets
Guest
All you say is correct The connection comes in many ways , my family emigrated from Britain and time spent in my young days with my father getting up early to watch Bryan Robson at Manchester United was passed on to me along with a passion for Australia sports like rugby league cricket etc and then living in England in the West Midlands, I had a choice between Aston Villa Coventry wolves West Brom , but eventually settled on Birmingham city as I could walk to the ground . I read all about Birmingham online and watch the scores every year, waiting to see them in league one But I really feel an incredible disconnect with modern European football now as the local scene is far more relevant to my enjoyment of football. The connection with Newcastle teams goes right back to when my junior soccer club would take us in a bus to watch the original Newcastle kB United in the nsl ..... see the way to get people involved in your A league club is to get the kids invested early I guess the irony of following football for me , is I was a terrible player and much better at other sports, but loved watching football... I can’t explain that ?
Kangajets
Guest
I was expecting a dawn service article also
Kangajets
Guest
There is an irony in the myth of Liverpool culture . I don’t know how old the author is , so events of a European cup with juventus final are possibly unknown to the author.
Buddy
Guest
You touch on one of my favourite subjects: the whys and wherefores of who we support and why and to that end I’ll happily concede that times are changing and the traditional reasons, whilst still relevant are a little bit less so in a globalised market. One noteworthy factor though is that football is very tribal and you can throw community in there somewhere. When you grow up feeling passionate about a team 18000 kms away it is usually for one of three reasons. Either a parent, grandparent or other relative passed on the gene and heavily influenced; the team you support went through a very successful period at the time you becoame interested or there was a player that you thought was brilliant, idolised or wanted to copy - something along those lines. So I get why there aren’t thousands of Oldham fans in Melbourne or any other city for that matter. The irony is that if you grew up in a town or city supporting a side through thick and thin and then you emigrate, you gradually begin to put things into,perspective. In my case it took around 30 years of late nights, early mornings, excuses for being late to work etc etcbut gradually you lose that close affinity as it becomes somewhat artificial as it contains very little to nothing of what drew you in the first place. It doesn’t mean you stop supporting a team, looking out for results, reading the news, listening to podcasts etc, it is more about loving the game that is being played and finding a stronger outlet than the tv at 2-00 am on a Sunday morning. A brief comment ot two about an overnight game that someone may have read about and not actually watched is no substitute for a rant about what happened to the team you are relly engaged with, be it at a local league, npl or A League. Standing at the MCG feeling teary eyed whilst singing YNWA is a bit plastic really as they will walk alone - or rather there will be a very different audience when they kick off a new season but they will be happy to have taken your money to add to the coffers of ultra wealthy clubs in the UK and other european countries. But engagement is needed as stated and it is hard tomget involved if the engagement doesn’t seem real, but there is great fun and joy to be had by finding the right team, along with its trials and tribulations. This weekend’s GF is a case in point. Perennial strugglers come good vs Successful club that has an average season that is now salvageable. Something to really get your teeth into.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Would've thought there would've been another reason lots of people would be up and moving at 5am on April 25 ;) Other than that, intriguing article. Dunno how well a second SA team would work right now. I mean, I'd love to see it, but good luck finding a place to build a second boutique stadium somewhere in this city - or finding said money to do so.
Waz
Roar Rookie
The irony is your promoting smaller, regional clubs for Australia meanwhile you’ve latched yourself on to a foreign football club in one of England’s biggest city’s. Why don’t you support Oldham, or Bournemouth, or Brighton, or Stoke? And you say “The club must have strong connections to its local community” ... and yet you start your article talking about supporting LFC in an Australian City in the early hours of the morning, that’s not “local community” for Liverpool? Or for you? If “local community” is so relevant why aren’t you supporting City, Victory, Souths or one of the many other fine Victorian NPL clubs? Reading this article is a bit like reading a Vet writing about human health, they’re kinda related but not quite the same thing.
Kangajets
Guest
I was really hoping that you got up early that morning to go a dawn service for Anzac Day Do you think Liverpool invented culture? Liverpool had to start out like any club did , from zero , eventually success leads to having more fans and what you call culture. I agree that Melbourne city doesn’t seem to have a geographical presence but they are an alternative for Victorians to MV , I agree there is a lot of merit bringing Wollongong back to the top division. Wollongong should have been an original A league club I would like to hear what people outside of nsw think about a regional team from their state?? Ipswich Sunshine Coast Geelong ???