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football in australia:
for hundreds of centuries (all right; a long time, though) football - or soccer, to use the australian vernacular - suffered, as you point out haus, from the curse of ethnic minorities' passion dissuading the broader community from attending, and hence supporting, the local game. as a result, the talent was never properly developed and from the eighties started to drift off to asia, then europe, to play serious football.
a few years ago there was a major push to get the national league into contention with the other codes, but try as they might, the powers that be succumbed to the ethnic interests. the clubs were owned by these ethnic communities, as a rule, and we had the slavic states' ethnic hatred transferred to the country, even though many of the 'fans' had never been to europe. cultural memes of enmity.
finally, two years ago, the goverment stepped in and appointed frank lowy, who owns westfields holdings, and so is one of australia's wealthiest men - and a jew, so no real problems with ethnicity (the german contingent isn't so vocal here!  ) - as head of 'soccer australia'. he pushed through radical reforms to the voting system in the national body, giving futsal, junior and women's football significant say in the running of the game. with some former socceroos (australian national team) who were consistent vocal supporters of real change for soccer in this country he established the a-league which finally kicked off just a few weeks ago. the teams for the a-league had to fulfil certain criteria, of cash to the table in the first instance, no clubs owned or run on an ethnic basis and representation across the country.
in its fledgling form, eight teams represent five states & new zealand, with six of the eight being brand new clubs - the other two remain from the old national league from perth and adelaide and were never troubled by ethnic division - each allowed a 'marquee signing' (sydney fc has signed dwight yorke, for instance) and a salary cap for the rest of the squad. a number of near-socceroos and some current squad members play in this new league and the football has already been of a pretty high standard.
the plans are to increase this competition in the coming years to ten then twelve and i think eventually it is hoped up to sixteen teams might exist. i expect this latter number will include more new zealand sides and sth east asian sides.
the major breakthrough for football in this country was formalised just a few days ago when australia was formally admitted to the asian football confederation. we leave oceania to the kiwis...
we seem to have suffered from fifa's allotment of just a half-berth in the world cup finals, necessitating us playing a handful of barely challenging games in oceania, against the likes of american samoa who we once beat 31-0, a world cup record still, i think, before having to play off for the final world cup berth against a fifth place team from asia [we lost to iran infamously before the 98 finals] or sth america [we almost beat argentina, who went on to win the cup! last outing we struggled away against uruguay].
the dilemma with this route is that the team we play is coming off a dozen or twenty hard, real games against serious opposition while we warm up with seven nil drubbings of tiny pacific island states and thus gain little or no match hardness. we are behind the eight ball from the off.
so now we hope and dream and this year in november play once more the fifth placed sth american team - colombia, uruguay or peru seemingly - and we have the vast experience of guus huddink to lead us, he who took sth korea so far last wc. we shall see. he has been in control for only two games, wc qualifiers against samoa.
we play jamaica in our last hit out, in england (anyone know where?) next week, i think, or the one after.
on the broader scheme of things, junior and women's football, and futsal, are burgeoning and the a-league has piqued real interest. where nsl games, even massive clashes, might have scraped in three or four thousand, the a-league attendances have been heartening with twelve, sixteen even eighteen thousand at matches. live tv coverage is not yet tenable given the audience share of the other codes, but the a-league is being played mainly against cricket - the only odd thing, this winter sport in a hot australian summer! it can only grow. australia for the world cup in 2018. we may even host that one...
i'm excited. |
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