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Opinion
Millions of people who deride Australia’s domestic football leagues will emerge from the woodwork over the next month, with the FIFA World Cup now just days away.
Five billion sets of eyeballs are expected to tune in for an undoubtedly controversial staging of the tournament, yet one that will also produce football moments to savour for a lifetime.
Across the month of play, Australians will once again be captured by the matches, both the Socceroos’ plight as our boys attempt to navigate the group stage and also by a host of countries to which our mostly migrant population remain inextricably connected.
Sadly, the just over a million Australians who declared Italian heritage at the last census will have little to cheer about in that regard, while those with Egyptian, Peruvian and Chilean blood in their veins will be in much the same boat, with their nations also failing to qualify for the tournament.
(Photo by Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images)
Yet never fear, those of English stock will pop out from under their rocks right on cue and start rambling about 1966, mumbling about something “coming home”, when the chances of it actually occurring are closer to zero than probable.
Many Aussies with the surnames Jones or Thomas will be eagerly anticipating Wales’ group clash with England, certain to be filled with pride as one of the UK’s little brothers takes on the might of the Three Lions.
Australians of Spanish heritage will have high hopes for their talented team, as will a Croatian community that can dare to dream of a similar performance to the one that saw them advance all the way to the final against France in Russia four years ago.
Similarly, the near 400,000 Australians that possess Dutch heritage will be hoping their team can top Group A on their return to World Cup play after missing out on qualification in 2018. Our Polish friends will be riding on the back of goal-scoring superstar Robert Lewandowski, Hahndorf will come to life when the Germans tackle Spain in what looks a challenging Group E, and Australia’s Portuguese and Serbian communities will be traditionally passionate in supporting their homelands.
Football will be the talk of most towns until the mood passes, the trophy is handed to the victors and the game in Australia returns to the role of the ugly domestic-sport sibling. That moment will bring a close to the Eurosnob season, that period of time where – just for a moment or two – football’s popularity in Australia is truly apparent and the appalling engagement level of the A-Leagues is magnified.
Many Australians will keep a keen eye on the Socceroos, hoping for a miracle, before shifting their focus back to either a nation from whence they originate or another for whom they feel a strong affinity.
Live sites will be well populated, coffee-shop talk will be based around the stars of the Premier League and La Liga, while millions of Australians who simply choose not to support or become engaged with the A-League competitions will step into focus and inform us all of their superior knowledge of the game and its players.
Thus is the unending struggle of men’s football down under; a boutique/developmental league that is actually of a decent standard, brilliant to watch and capable of producing high-quality young players deserving of opportunities abroad, yet one mocked and cared for little by the vast majority.
Pre-COVID, somewhere near 100,000 people took out A-League memberships in 2019-20, just 50,000 people a week attended matches and often, even fewer were keenly watching on at home.
Yet when Qatar 2022 kicks off on 21 November, millions of Australians will be gripped by football at some of the most inconvenient times of the day.
Sure, many will be cheering on the Socceroos first and foremost, yet it is also fact that until the next Euros roll around, a large percentage of Australians interested in the round-ball game will have little or no involvement in domestic football.
That is sad when considered alongside the dissatisfaction expressed by those who remain unconvinced and unattracted by the A-League.
Complaining that the playing talent is exceptionally weak compared to elite competitions abroad, citing a lack of history and condemning Australia as a backwater football nation does little.
Taking up membership, attending matches and using Paramount to watch other games would do plenty, raising revenue for the clubs that would see the standard of player being brought to Australia as imports enhanced and the standard subsequently raised.
Instead, our Eurosnob friends will enjoy their month of action in Qatar, before returning to their consoles to play FIFA and redirecting their focus back to Erling Haaland and Manchester City’s disturbing dominance of the Premier League.
I’ll keep doing what I do, believing in the domestic game and the positive signs we are seeing on the back of some promising investment in the competition.
Sunday afternoon at Allianz Stadium, cheering for the Reds against the Sky Blues in front of a terrific crowd in Sydney, reminded me of just how far we have come and the scope for continued growth in the future.
If we are lucky, we might even be able to drag a few Eurosnobs on board along the journey.