Should we take a stand against soccer?

[Underdog]

Simply Aussie Rules is the best,most spectacular and exciting of all the football codes and as new migrants and their kids are exposed to it they soon realise what a crock of shit soccer is!

See, that's just emotive bias. I agree in the sense that I far prefer Australian Rules to Soccer, but calling it the most exciting and spectacular is silly. It sounds like the ramblings of a man who thinks we should introduce 9 points for supergoals.

You get boring games of soccer, you get boring games of AFL. You also get exciting games of each. Just because you don't like a particular sport doesn't mean it's all automatically boring. Plenty of foreigners find Aussie Rules boring and don't like it.

Have a look how well (NOT)the supposed ALeague is going this year and soocer has a long long way to go to threaten Australian Football!

A-League is a low quality league. Why is that representative of the game as a whole? How many spectators do WAFL/VFL/Amateur clubs get?

 

[invinciBlues]

I object to my taxpayer dollars going to SBS so they can show wall-to-wall effing soccer. 100% of Australians subsidising their narrow broadcasting ofwhat is a minority sport in this country. There's millions of sports out in the world - how about they spend our money covering them as well.

I'd love it if they could shine a light on Hurling. That game is freaking nuts

 

[Slattery_20]

I wonder if this conversation was being had on internet forums by cricket fans about the new upstart Australian game in about 1870?
"Dear sirs I consider it an outrage!"

 

[3kzisfootball]

No. I love Association Football (aka 'soccer') but I know that Australian Rules Football will remain the main code in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

There is no reason to 'take a stand' against soccer. The interest will grow but not at the expense of the AFL. The growth will come from sport fans following both.

 

[wobblypunt]

This is absolutely ludicrous. Take a stand against soccer? Like we are some homogenous emtity that feels threatened and so we have to annihilate our enemies. Soccer is the world game, it is the biggest sport in the world, and it hasn't been a serious threat to AFL ever. Can't we all just get along? FWIW, i think football is a better sport than Aussie Rules, so what are you going to do? Am i a half-caste freak that needs to be targeted? I'm not sure why you think AFL won't be the most popular sport for all of our lifetimes, and it would only have itself to blame if it was to suffer some cataclysmic demise. Surely this is just a lame troll?

 

[collingwill]

This is absolutely ludicrous. Take a stand against soccer? Like we are some homogenous emtity that feels threatened and so we have to annihilate our enemies. Soccer is the world game, it is the biggest sport in the world, and it hasn't been a serious threat to AFL ever. Can't we all just get along? FWIW, i think football is a better sport than Aussie Rules, so what are you going to do? Am i a half-caste freak that needs to be targeted? I'm not sure why you think AFL won't be the most popular sport for all of our lifetimes, and it would only have itself to blame if it was to suffer some cataclysmic demise. Surely this is just a lame troll?

everyone deserves their opinion i guess, same as everyone deserves the right to follow the sport they want too, soccers getting bigger in Australia all the time but the populations getting bigger as well, theres plenty of room for both.

 

[thetigerman]

Who the hell do FIFA think they are. Demanding that we can't use ''OUR'' sports stadiums for 4 weeks before their circus, starts or play any sport up against it.
What money are THEY going to put in to make any improvements, i can tell you - nothing - we the tax payer will.

Wake up people, it's like saying that because you leave home every day for work, some stranger should be able to move in until you return.

 

[Underdog]

Who the hell do FIFA think they are. Demanding that we can't use ''OUR'' sports stadiums for 4 weeks before their circus, starts or play any sport up against it.

Who owns the stadiums? Not the AFL.

What money are THEY going to put in to make any improvements, i can tell you - nothing - we the tax payer will.

Good. It's just the kind of event to force the government to upgrade the stadiums instead of pissfarting about.

 

[Hawthorn United]

Who the hell do FIFA think they are. Demanding that we can't use ''OUR'' sports stadiums for 4 weeks before their circus, starts or play any sport up against it.
What money are THEY going to put in to make any improvements, i can tell you - nothing - we the tax payer will.

Wake up people, it's like saying that because you leave home every day for work, some stranger should be able to move in until you return.

Sigh.

Again, these set of circumstances will only happen if we, Australia, win the bid. It is a bid remember. FIFA aren't trying to sell it to us and having problems selling so need to resort to "discounting".

 

[twentydollarnote]

You have many things to learn ... and so do i.

A few hints:
- If you care so much about soccer growing don't talk about it. For soccer at the moment pretty much any publicity is good publicity, and all you have to do is sit and wait for a few really bad Australian soccer stories to start creeping out.
- The best defense is a good offense. So if you like football and not soccer get out there and start promoting football (in australia and overseas). Because football needs to grow in order to survive.
- Don't pay out soccer, but don't glorify it either. If you pay it out you're basically making people not want to play football.
- Make friends with people who love soccer. Introduce them to football slowly. Its taken me years for some of the hard-core soccer fans ive converted.
- Learn the history of both sports.

Trust me, the above works. I used to go around preaching soccer hatred (i still dont like it). But now im smart about the way i convert people to football.
When i finish my uni degree i plan help out third world countries, and at the same time introduce them to football.
What Robert Walls says is a losing strategy. Eventually soccer will hit the jackpot in terms of structure in Australia. Many people thought 74' was that jackpot (Rale Rasic did trigger the huge participation rates for soccer bacck then), and many are stating that the Crawford Report and the A-League, along with 06' may be the time. Whatever time ... the only way football can 'win' is to keep growing. We need to grow overseas, as well as NSW and QLD.

what a interesting life you must live.....

 

[shoe]

I object to my taxpayer dollars going to SBS so they can show wall-to-wall effing soccer. 100% of Australians subsidising their narrow broadcasting ofwhat is a minority sport in this country. There's millions of sports out in the world - how about they spend our money covering them as well.

Ever watched SBS? They don't show anywhere near 'wall-to-wall' soccer.
Ridiculous.

Plus half the time it's in the middle of the night.

 

[wikipediaAFLproject]

what a interesting life you must live.....

More interesting than yours ... im certain of it.

I dont go out of my way to do the above. I just do them if its suits me at the time.
Oh and i coach a soccer team.

 

[twentydollarnote]

on a whole though throughout the year its shown on SBS more than the AFLs shown on every channal combined, weekends on SBS you get about 4 hrs minimum.

SBS is part of the problem though basically a boys club that marginalizes the game from the wider australian auidence.

 

[twentydollarnote]

No. I love Association Football (aka 'soccer') but I know that Australian Rules Football will remain the main code in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

There is no reason to 'take a stand' against soccer. The interest will grow but not at the expense of the AFL. The growth will come from sport fans following both.

exactly i dont see a problem with watching/supporting both.

 

[twentydollarnote]

Soccer Australia or whatever they are called would have to pay a free to air network to get the A League on there.
There would be no such thing as "rights" for such a poorly supported competition.
The pay tv ratings for the A League are almost non-existent.

What are the tv ratings for it?

 

[twentydollarnote]

More interesting than yours ... im certain of it.

I dont go out of my way to do the above. I just do them if its suits me at the time.
Oh and i coach a soccer team.

lol secretly trying to convert people and boasting about refining your conversion techniques over the years, yeah you sound like a lot of fun.

 

[wikipediaAFLproject]

lol secretly trying to convert people and boasting about refining your conversion techniques over the years, yeah you sound like a lot of fun.

tbh ... it was probably wrong to use the term convert. Probably better to use introduce. I realise that many of them will not give up soccer.
And as above, i dont actively try and convert (or introduce) people to football.

Football is one of many sports that i play throughout the year as part of organised competitions. As well as many arts and cultural events. Oh and partying ...!!!!

Its hard to compare lives, but based on post counts, id have to say i have a lot more to life than you outside of football.

 

[twentydollarnote]

haha post counts, anyway use of the term convert had nothing to do with it, its your whole mentality thats funny taking it upon yourself to convert people to the game instead of just enjoying it. Its just a game just like soccer.

 

[Dimenhydrinate]

1HD has the Bundes Liga and Serie A games on there so it could be possible they get A-League rights sometime in the near distant future.

Only if they want the A-League buried, like happened to the NSL at the hands of Seven.

 

[Wonaeamirri33]

Soccer is a low low sport in Australia yada yada yada...

Anyone who seriously suggests that the next AFL club should be in America has pretty much forfeited any hope of credibility around here, I think it's safe to say...

 

[Wonaeamirri33]

How the heck are we going to "take a stand" anyway? They toook eeerrrrr jeerrrrrrrbbbbssss!

Yeah, that's about the level most of the posters raving emotionally in ludicrous ways about this subject are at...

 

[MadMac]

Great words written there mate.
Watching AFL is pure bliss, compared to watching soccer which is akin to the aftermath of a nuclear war.
The countries that love soccer know nothing else.

Basketball, Handball, Waterpolo, Ice Hockey and to an extent Volleyball have huge attendances/audiences. Each sport has it's own Champions League [ala soccer] as well. Just because Poms are not quite active in those sports, doesn't mean other European countries are not either. There's plenty of choice, yet soccer is still No. 1. But hey, whatever makes you happy...

 

[skipjack]

1. Perhaps the dumbest premise for a thread I have ever seen.

Who the hell do FIFA think they are. Demanding that we can't use ''OUR'' sports stadiums for 4 weeks before their circus, starts or play any sport up against it.
What money are THEY going to put in to make any improvements, i can tell you - nothing - we the tax payer will.

Wake up people, it's like saying that because you leave home every day for work, some stranger should be able to move in until you return.

2. FIFA write the rules for the opportunity to host the biggest sporting event in the world. Don't like them? Don't apply to host it. Done. There are PLENTY of other countries in the world who will bend over backwards for it.

The general reaction by the way, actually shows how stupid an idea it is for Australia to even put their name in the hat. We simply don't have the stadia or support to make it work. It would be a travesty.

 

[collingwill]

1. Perhaps the dumbest premise for a thread I have ever seen.




2. FIFA write the rules for the opportunity to host the biggest sporting event in the world. Don't like them? Don't apply to host it. Done. There are PLENTY of other countries in the world who will bend over backwards for it.

The general reaction by the way, actually shows how stupid an idea it is for Australia to even put their name in the hat. We simply don't have the stadia or support to make it work. It would be a travesty.

it will be interesting considering how the MCC has held the AFL over a barral regarding the contracts, if the AFL play hardball then they wouldnt have to stop playing at all, nothing the government, soccer Australia or the MCC ccould do about it exept offer reasonable compensation, and remember it isnt in the AFLs interest (or the NRL for that matter) to have the world cup here, it will be interesting and i think the AFL and NRL would only come to the party if they were givin a deal they couldnt refuse.

 

[Wonaeamirri33]

Raking over old ground here again... the AFL and NRL are already in support of the bid.