Why do people "hate" football (soccer)?

[Still Crowing]

So your thought process isn't to condemn the article but to say "well it was only one swipe at Soccer, that's allowed surely?" I wonder if you'd be so accommodating if the author was Craig Foster and the subject matter was the AFL Grand Final?
Doesn't address the overall point that it seems to be only Soccer as a sport in this country that is treated with such disrespect on a regular basis.

 

[Munro_Mick]

Re: Why do people "hate" soccer?

Take the financial aspect away and the major improvment the Germans felt was the general perception of the country...It was the best PR for the country since the country was founded as it would be for Australia if it were run properly. What price do you put on that?

and to the intangibles. The 'feel good' factor.

Well, in part, the price was going to be the potential disruption, because, unlike the Olympics and Com'th Games, the FFA was unable or unwilling to schedule in a domestic best fit time slot.

So, there was a pretty big disruptive price, good will price and real terms potential economic price for the AFL and NRL in particular that the MOU ensured would be paid.

For united Germany it was a big deal. In 2002, it was a far bigger deal for Sth Korea to 'join the big boys' and help push Samsung and other consumer brands to the broader public than it was for Japan. For post apartheid Sth Africa it was a big deal, although one hopes the people in the townships are greatful for 'soccer city'.

For Australia - having done two Olympics, having an annual F1 GP, MotoGP, and Grand Slam tennis championship, and having cities that regularly podium finish the worlds 'most liveable', and 'sporting capital' and the like.......I really struggle to see what we'd be having to 'proove' to the world.

Ironic too though - to be run properly really was code for "Can't afford to build new venues, need to bludge off the AFL and NRL".

 

[Admiral Byng]

I beg to differ, the question is a valid one. Many people are uninterested in Baseball or Basketball(and yes Soccer too) in this country, but Only soccer seems to attract the type of bile and hatred rather than just a perfectly reasonable "I don't like it so I'll ignore it" attitude that you'd expect and would be perfectly understandable.

....

On the other hand - only soccer seems to resent their minority status in Australia. Other sports you mention realise their relative position compared to AFL, NRL and cricket. Only soccer demands to be taken seriously as a mainstream sport in Australia because it is big overseas.

 

[mojito]

On the other hand - only soccer seems to resent their minority status in Australia. Other sports you mention realise their relative position compared to AFL, NRL and cricket. Only soccer demands to be taken seriously as a mainstream sport in Australia because it is big overseas.

This bugs me. Why does the sport have to accept its position? Why can't it do what it can to grow the code? I mean, Vlad expanded the AFL into traditional RL lands. Why couldn't they be content with what they had before? Cricket launched the T20 format. Why couldn't they be content with Shield, One-day and Test cricket?

 

[Admiral Byng]

This bugs me. Why does the sport have to accept its position? Why can't it do what it can to grow the code? I mean, Vlad expanded the AFL into traditional RL lands. Why couldn't they be content with what they had before? Cricket launched the T20 format. Why couldn't they be content with Shield, One-day and Test cricket?

Well that's the thing. FFA seem to be looking for short-cuts rather than steady organic growth. Through organic growth they've got decades of catching up to do.

 

[Still Crowing]

Well that's the thing. FFA seem to be looking for short-cuts rather than steady organic growth. Through organic growth they've got decades of catching up to do.

flipping ROFL, you mean like say, pinching players from other codes for publicity sake? how's the hypocrisy taste?

 

[Still Crowing]

This bugs me. Why does the sport have to accept its position? Why can't it do what it can to grow the code? I mean, Vlad expanded the AFL into traditional RL lands. Why couldn't they be content with what they had before? Cricket launched the T20 format. Why couldn't they be content with Shield, One-day and Test cricket?

That's where the fear factor kicks in. Many were happy for Soccer to bumble along as it was, but as soon as it decides it can and needs to do better, suddenly its treated like a black man in 1880's USA who wants to better himself, ie "How dare you uppity Soccer types get ideas above your station!" Now its all the powers that be cam do to try to keep soccer down in the dumps where the other sports could quite comfortable ignore it and not concern themselves with the fact that only Soccer can truly connect Australia with the world in a sporting sense and more and more Australians are loving the game by either watching it or increasingly playing it.

 

[Still Crowing]

On the other hand - only soccer seems to resent their minority status in Australia. Other sports you mention realise their relative position compared to AFL, NRL and cricket. Only soccer demands to be taken seriously as a mainstream sport in Australia because it is big overseas.

That's complete BS..(you actually want to fault soccer fans for wanting their sport to grow bigger?) Soccer for example gets the level of coverage in the newspaper commensurate with its popularity through the turnstiles, and the fact that a large portion of the community play the game, but...only Soccer in this country draws the following type of comments:

AdelaideNow article asking if Rini Coolen should be sacked, 2 responses and of course this is one of them..If I had a dollar for every time I read a 'who cares its only soccer' comment Id be bloody rich! Funnily, you never read a who cares its only women's basketball comment. What motivates this level of hatred towards soccer?? ..to motivate an imbecile like Chris to take 5 seconds to click on a Soccer article and then take more time to comment on it?

Dimi of Red Terrace Posted at 3:38 PM Today
Give him til seasons end and judge it from there. There is still a long way to go and if he still cant manufacture results with the quality players he has, then it's time to go.

Chris Donald of New port Posted at 2:50 PM Today
who cares it is only soccer which is a game played by the biggest actors going around

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport...coolen-be-sacked/story-e6frecj3-1226212979130

 

[Still Crowing]

My gut feel is that he[Chris and others like him] knows plenty of people care and its like he has to give himself positive reinforcement, like a mantra, "If I say no-one cares, maybe less people will" and my tiny little mind wont feel so threatened.

 

[.Shotties.]

This bugs me. Why does the sport have to accept its position?

There were plenty of suggestions that the AFL should have accepted it's position on the world stage and handed over Etihad for the World Cup.

 

[Boro]

I can't remember, what happened with AFL during the Olympics? Was it effected at all?

The stadium stuff is interesting, way off topic but AFL must be the only major sport in the World that has all it's clubs playing at the same couple of grounds? I know it suits the code but how good would it be to see North v Giants/Suns/Port played at a 15-20k all seater Arden Street I'm probably in a big minority but moving away from suburban grounds isn't always the best thing...

 

[phantom13]

Back on topic for a second, I don't hate soccer, but I'm not a fan of it in general, and I like most sports, soccer to me is just dull to watch and because of the value of a goal (alot of games are 0-0 draws etc) it seems to uninformed observers like myself that too many games can be hugely affected by one bad decision (see Neill v Italy in the 06 wc) whether the penalty was there or not I don't know, I'm happy to defer to someone that knows the game better, but my point is more that two teams slogged it out for over 90 mins and the game comes down to one moment not defined by the contest but rather by an outside force, I think most Aussies who grew up on AFL struggle with how non combative the sport is, we like our contests hard and fair and (especially in the last two world cups when the majority of afl fans will glance at a soccer game we saw the Neill decision and the Kewell handball) its seems to often the contest is too heavily infulenced by factors other than the competitors on the field.

 

[madmug]

Idiot.

Says it all, a good reply, concise thoughtful analytical. Certainly would convince a lot of people.

 

[.Shotties.]

I can't remember, what happened with AFL during the Olympics? Was it effected at all?

I think it started and ended earlier, but with the Olympics, they were run during September, so a chunk wasn't taken out of the middle of the season and games weren't lost.

The stadium stuff is interesting, way off topic but AFL must be the only major sport in the World that has all it's clubs playing at the same couple of grounds? I know it suits the code but how good would it be to see North v Giants/Suns/Port played at a 15-20k all seater Arden Street I'm probably in a big minority but moving away from suburban grounds isn't always the best thing...

It would be good if it were that easy. Unfortunately things like memberships, corporate sponsorship complicate it.

 

[Munro_Mick]

I can't remember, what happened with AFL during the Olympics? Was it effected at all?

For the 2000 Olympics, the AFL season started early. Round 1 was March 8 and the GF was done and dusted by the evening of Sat September 2nd. That's pretty well a 4 week phase shift forward.

For that to happen, the AFL had to have the permission of the cricket authorities for access to grounds such as the MCG. Docklands was unveiled for AFL footy, and Princes Park was still in operation.

For the Commonwealth Games in 2006, the AFL had delayed access to the MCG (and obviously Cricket had zero access after the Boxing day test wound up). The first AFL game at the all completed MCG was the Rnd 4 Anzac Day clash with a lazy 91K in attendance.

In both cases, the AFL fitted in as well as was probably possible/reasonable. The WC situation though really was a massive stretch. Let alone, any notion of starting early/finishing late was going to impact other sports (cricket, Spring carnival, F1 GP).

The stadium stuff is interesting, way off topic but AFL must be the only major sport in the World that has all it's clubs playing at the same couple of grounds? I know it suits the code but how good would it be to see North v Giants/Suns/Port played at a 15-20k all seater Arden Street I'm probably in a big minority but moving away from suburban grounds isn't always the best thing...

The economics of the 1980s made that pretty impossible. The VFL was broke, and too many of the suburban venues were fire/safety hazards (after the examples from Bradford - cigarette stub and old wooden stand, and Hillsborough in Sheffield were overcrowding on terraces and whopping big fences lead to all seated stadiums). The idea of reducing the number of stadia in Melbourne was a logical one at the time.

Certainly for North, as a North fan, it'd be great to have a nice boutique ground to play games that might only attract 15-20,000. For now, we'll head down to Hobart, and perhaps in the near future trek across to Ballarat. But, Princes Park I didn't mind.

 

[Munro_Mick]

That's complete BS..(you actually want to fault soccer fans for wanting their sport to grow bigger?) Soccer for example gets the level of coverage in the newspaper commensurate with its popularity through the turnstiles, and the fact that a large portion of the community play the game, but...only Soccer in this country draws the following type of comments:

AdelaideNow article asking if Rini Coolen should be sacked, 2 responses and of course this is one of them..If I had a dollar for every time I read a 'who cares its only soccer' comment Id be bloody rich! Funnily, you never read a who cares its only women's basketball comment. What motivates this level of hatred towards soccer?? ..to motivate an imbecile like Chris to take 5 seconds to click on a Soccer article and then take more time to comment on it?

Dimi of Red Terrace Posted at 3:38 PM Today
Give him til seasons end and judge it from there. There is still a long way to go and if he still cant manufacture results with the quality players he has, then it's time to go.

Chris Donald of New port Posted at 2:50 PM Today
who cares it is only soccer which is a game played by the biggest actors going around

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport...coolen-be-sacked/story-e6frecj3-1226212979130

Oh come on now.

1 posted comment in Adelaide.

Look, anytime there's an article about international AFL there'll be soccer people commenting mindlessly along the 'why bother' path, and heck, I recall noting a couple of years back when Ben Cousins' exploits made a major US 'gossip' site, and in the comments on came the RL folk going on about how AFL isn't the toughest game, RL is, and RL's bigger or better.......

......and yep, you really gotta think - what make's 'em tick when there isn't even a x-code (wars) linkage.

What IS interesting though - is review some of the comments from late 2009, around the WC bid.

 

[HawkMongrel]

Maybe the original question should be rephrased as "Why are so many Australians uninterested in football (soccer)?"

Maybe you should read my original question before asking for it to be changed.

 

[HawkMongrel]

On the other hand - only soccer seems to resent their minority status in Australia. Other sports you mention realise their relative position compared to AFL, NRL and cricket. Only soccer demands to be taken seriously as a mainstream sport in Australia because it is big overseas.

lol, and when was it decided that somebody or something in this country isn't allowed to try and better itself?

Thanks Adolf ffs.

 

[.Shotties.]

Thanks Adolf ffs.

You're a ****ing idiot.

 

[HawkMongrel]

You're a ****ing idiot.

lol, wow. From that post that's all you got?

Nothing of any substance to respond with? Twat.

 

[.Shotties.]

lol, wow. From that post that's all you got?

Nothing of any substance to respond with? Twat.

Between completely missing the point of what he said and invoking Godwin's law, that's all it deserved.

 

[Puddy]

Thread will get closed if this banter goes on. This isnt supposed to be a Football v Soccer shitfight.

 

[Admiral Byng]

lol, and when was it decided that somebody or something in this country isn't allowed to try and better itself?

Thanks Adolf ffs.

Gee. That's not quite the way I meant it.

 

[Still Crowing]

Gee. That's not quite the way I meant it.

How did you mean it then?
You certainly gave me the impression that Soccer's "minority status" was something the game shouldn't try to alter and that by attempting to do so it risked alienating fans of other sports.

 

[HawkMongrel]

Gee. That's not quite the way I meant it.

It certainly reads that way.