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Opinion
The bandwagoners are out in force, politicians are queueing up, the nation is going bananas and the casual sports fan is salivating as the Socceroos advance to the final 16 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
It is a brilliant vibe and one Australian football fans welcome all and sundry to join in on, yet it is also a moment to reflect on just why the most beautiful game of all is exactly that, with an ability to transcend culture, wealth, status, sexuality and religious affiliation in the right circumstances.
As a sports writer who covers just about every human endeavour, there is no disrespect intended to any of the games that Australians enjoy. I too am an Australian and also an AFL and NRL club member, a former professional golfer, a representative tennis player, a rugby union watcher, a netball dad and a sucker for just about anything that involves physical activity and competition.
However, the Socceroos’ qualification for the final 16 of the 2022 World Cup far exceeds anything achieved in colonial endeavours, where a limited pool of competitors even throw their hats in the ring.
Sadly, such institutions of the British empire continue to draw more attention, money and support thanks to an inherent bias that is amplified by rather questionable media sources that mysteriously claim to be inclusive and all-encompassing.
(Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
In reality, Australia is still something of a backward nation when it comes to accepting football as its most powerful and apt metaphor and the game most reflective of its people.
The AFL still struggles with fans incapable of seeing past the colour of a player’s skin, with social media and the banana-throwing antics of a small majority reminding us all of just how backward Australians can be and remain.
For all the small talk, little has changed in AFL circles across 50 years, and when Indigenous legends like Eddie Betts appear on quality programs such as AFL 360 in tears after yet another incident where racism is the fundamental driver, it isn’t hard to see why people like Adam Goodes appear to have been lost to the game forever.
Thankfully, the fans at the Al Janoub Stadium cheering on the Socceroos had nothing like that to consider, as they supported their inclusive team.
Rugby league still struggles for credibility, with off-field incidents that demean women common and players openly taking stances against the LGBTIQ+ community so transparent that one wonders when a serious stance will actually be taken against such attitudes.
(Photo by Shaun Botterill – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
As someone who writes and works in the NRL sphere, it is often hard to justify such a role. The many decent, moral and progressive voices are drowned out by the neanderthal views held by a core group destined to threaten the long-term survival of the game and its inability to acknowledge the importance of progress and change.
That is emotionally challenging, as is the 2022 Rugby League World Cup where the Kangaroos secured their ninth title in ten editions. It is difficult to take such a tournament with the seriousness and passion equal to a football World Cup, an event where the winner is far from known beforehand and the potential trophy holders too numerous to pin down with any certainty.
The British empire sent cricket around the globe, with invaded nations all succumbing to what is a charming and superb contest between bat, ball and brain. Yet the recent prostitution of cricket via the T20 format has seen it profit more in small areas and wane desperately in others as the limited field of participants bicker about how to fixture and organise a game that once had some dignity.
The world watched in disbelief as the 2022 T20 World Cup on home soil saw the Australians play before disappointing crowds throughout, and the opening day of the first Test against the West Indies on Wednesday reportedly drew just 10,000 people through the gates despite the eye suggesting the actual number was far less than that figure.
For context, in excess of 8000 Australian fans are in Qatar and supporting the Socceroos in their courageous efforts to become the best performed Australian men’s football team in history.
SBS viewing numbers were in excess of 1.7 million for the Socceroos’ clash with Tunisia, with live sites and residential parties sure to have inflated those numbers further in reality. The win over Denmark will have no doubt exceeded those, and Sunday morning’s match-up with Lionel Messi’s Argentina could well be the most-watched program on Australian television in 2022.
All the while, rugby fans, of which I am one, will talk of the glory of touring the British Isles and launching yet another failed attempt to unseat the All Blacks in a rather futile across-the-ditch rivalry that means nothing compared to the truly international challenge of a FIFA World Cup.
Despite my deep-seated passion for the Canterbury Bulldogs and a 40-year love of Australian Rules football, the Australian cricket team and the Wallabies, my feverish support of the national men’s football team in Qatar surpasses them all. It’s a truly global and more inclusive endeavour than the sports that still struggle to move beyond their colonial roots.
That is why what we are seeing in Qatar is so special, so broad and so universally appreciated. That reality is not disrespectful to other games, merely reflective of the fact that as Australia slowly and more widely embraces the beautiful game, it will eventually succeed in articulating itself as the nation’s most powerful metaphor for the people who occupy its lands.