13th March, 2011
I’m sure we’ve all seen those movies where the villain takes on the hero in single combat, and the hero proceeds to take beating after beating, staggering to his feet while the villain exclaims, “Why wont you die?” This is the story of association football at the elite level in Australia.
I frequently post on either the ineptitude of FFA administrators, the slight size of the crowds or the pitifulness of the TV deal, and taken separately to the whole picture, these make for a damning portrayal of the sport in this country.
However, those of us that have made these assumptions based on these three key components, may occasionally believe that it’s only a matter of time before the A-League dies.
I wanted to try and do something different for me, and write something positive about a sport that I vastly under appreciate, and at times unnecessarily persecute.
The banter flows thickly and freely across threads and forums, with the more zealous amongst the rival supporters eagerly anticipating the death of the sport at the elite level, falling into the trap that association football in Australia is nothing more than a sporting kindergarten for elite teams in Europe, or even Asia.
We are wrong.
Association football has been in this country since May 10, 1878, when the first matches in Australia were played in Tasmania, before making its way to Paramatta on the mainland in 1880. As such, it has a history as long as the established VFL/AFL and rugby union, and predates the establishment of rugby league by a fair margin.
The formation of the first Australian Association (in NSW) predates an Australian ran rugby union (it was governed from Britain until the Northern Union was formed in the 1890’s), and was just five years behind the VFA and WAFA.
Similarly, inter-colony association football matches were being played between NSW and Victoria in 1884, five years after the first match between Victoria and New South Wales in Victorian rules.
Association football led the way in the national conscience from 1977, with the formation of the National Soccer League, and although this eventually folded, it was this which most likely convinced the then VFL of the merits of moving to a national competition. The NSL was to last until 2004, replaced by the A-League.
Thanks for the history, Wookie, I hear you say, but how is it relevant to the article at hand?
It’s crucial to understand that association football is as deserving of a place in our sporting pantheon as any other code. Today it’s participation ranks at junior levels are higher than all other sports, thanks to the foundations laid more than 120 years ago.
Association football’s long traditions in this country make it every bit as deserving of Australian respect as anything the Australian football and rugby codes can expect.
Association football is as Australian as the MCG, as the Anzacs, and the Opera House. The legends of Australia’s association football are worthy to be written in our songs and lauded in our poetry. Great Australian soccer players deserve their place alongside the legends of other codes.
To give them less than their fair credit is un-Australian.
The Socceroos stand the equal of the Wallabies and the Australian cricket team in the national support stakes. Supporters of association football in this country are passionate in their support, whether for teams here or overseas, but they are united behind the national team.
I’m fairly confident we’ve all sat up at some point watching the national team campaign for the World Cup or play some friendly here or there, and at some point we’ve all desperately wanted our team to win.
Every sport has its violent incidents, and every sport has its idiots in the crowds. This is not unique to association football, whatever the recent press may say. The supporters are passionate, and it’s this passion, that keeps the vision of Australian association football alive in this country.
The belief in a better tomorrow, that the sport at the elite level, with its various faults and exposure issues, will rise like the proverbial phoenix, is the same belief that brought back the Rabbitohs from the NRL graveyard, the same belief that brings Melbourne’s AFL club debt back from being four million in the red, and it’s the same belief that sends 30,000 people to the first game for the Melbourne Rebels.
Like every other sport in Australia, the game is undergoing shifts and changes, and it’s to all our benefits that it succeeds in the long-term.
We may not – as some point out – completely understand or appreciate association football – but to actively wish it harm is un-Australian. It’s part of our national heritage, and that’s why it will never die.
