Some people don't want World Cup 2018

[midfielder]

A mate of mine told me the today that the first morning after FL & BB made it clear Australia would put forward a strong bid for the 2018 Woeld Cup, Peter Fitzsimons (famed football hater) on his morning radio show went on and on about it would cost to much grounds would never fill etc.

It made me realise just as when AFL heavies popped open the drinks when ever we did not make the World Cup. Union, league and AFL, and basketball as well I guess would not want the world cup to be played in Australia.

I then starting looking from a non football stance at the effect of the world cup coming to Australia. From a non football stance it would be their worst nightmare.

The World Cup in Germany blew everything else off the radar, even the State of Origin played a very. very , and poor second fiddle to the World Cup. Union already struggling in most areas, however the Wanterbees would struggle in comparison to Socceroos. Without the Wanterbees, Union is sunk.

Finally the AFL have most to fear as the facade they are nations biggest code when in fact they are in real terms number two to league (media watching terms). Some simple background, the stats for most popular are based on capital cities of the states. These are Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, and Perth. Regional populations are spread as if they watched in same overall percentages patterns as the state capital’s.

League is starting to kick up a huge stink over this method by illustrating that in NSW & OLD there are major regional towns that support league. Like the Central Coast is bigger than Hobart. Also there are very few regional centres in VIC . What the league are arguing is if you took the regional centres, some examples, Central Coast, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Townsville, Rockie, Cains, Bowen , Canberra etc, they follow league and by applying a capital cities pattern percentages spread to essentially league areas in what is watched the figures are totally distorted.

The world cup coming would / will cause this system to be thrown out as the planning for the WC would need very detailed analysis and this would tear down the myth and AFL would loose a gullible media.

So guys we need to be aware and I think spread the word as Simon Hill said “CAN YOU SMELL THE FEAR” Peter Fitz is already stinking and badly so.

[Foriegnmariner]

This reminds me of a story from last year wrote by michael Duffy a sokkah hater.

Simon Hill in 442 gave this the worst article of the year award so you know it's bad but it just reminds me off how mis-informed and desperate AFL/NRL/Union writers are getting to keep football down.





Jig is up - give World Cup the boot
Michael Duffy
September 2, 2006

MY HEART sank at speculation this week that Sydney might host the 2010 World Cup finals in the sport formerly known as soccer. Despite the recent media-encouraged palpitations, it is not a game Australia has taken to its collective heart.
It's not as if we haven't had plenty of opportunity. Large-scale immigration from Europe for decades after World War II provided the rest of the nation with lots of exposure to the sport. SBS has been devoting millions of dollars of taxpayers' money to promoting and broadcasting it for years. Yet as a spectator sport, it remains a minority interest.
Lots of parents force their children to play football for reasons of social engineering: they want to make their boys more like girls and their girls more like boys. Whether it achieves either of these noble aims is doubtful, but what's not in doubt is the speed with which most people abandon the sport the moment they don't have to play it.
I don't think we should worry about this. If anything, it's a tribute to the national temperament. This was brought home by watching Australia's games and the semifinals in the recent World Cup.
You rose from your bed in the early hours to spend an hour and a half watching the ball move from one player to another several hundred times without passing through the white posts at either end of the field more than once or twice. It was like golf without the excitement.
Meanwhile, enormous crowds of people shrieked and moaned as if in the grip of some drug-induced ecstasy. The outcomes were usually random and yet, weirdly, everyone accepted this after a bit of ritual huffing and puffing.
Australia is not the only country with little interest in football; Americans are also supremely indifferent. A paper by Allen Sanderson, an economist at the University of Chicago, provides reasons for this dislike of football, which I suspect will strike a chord with many Australians.
Sanderson starts by recalling watching the World Cup final between Italy and France with 20 French economics students "who were, in the end, more depressed about the outcome of that title game than they were about their own economy". Sanderson, who specialises in sports economics, found the whole thing puzzling. "Throughout the entire two-plus-hour ordeal, I kept asking myself: why would anyone waste good time or money watching this sport?"
He was struck by the lack of scoring and the "ubiquitous flops that would make an NBA [National Basketball Association] player jealous or incredulous" and the way players cannot touch the ball with their hands and arms but are allowed to risk brain damage by heading it. He wondered why these drawbacks are obvious to several hundred million Americans but not to 6 billion others. He came up with an ingenious hypothesis.

"In our society and our sports," Sanderson believes, "most Americans like to see some relationship between effort and reward. In labour and product markets, we appreciate competitive market forces and incentives that reward ability, hard work and ingenuity.
"The same is true for the sports we participate in and follow as spectators. While we can appreciate the grace, artistry or skill associated with, say, figure skating or soccer, we like it best when someone keeps score. And we like the scoring to have some measure of justice or rationality to it."
He points out that in American football and basketball, domination of the game is usually rewarded by points, lots of them. Over the course of a game, these mount up to a concluding score that indicates clearly the extent of one team's superiority over the other.
In football, "over 90 minutes there are hundreds of changes of possession with no change on the scoreboard. A team can dominate the game, control the ball beautifully, pass with tremendous elan, out-play the other team, and still not score." When they do score, it can be from a penalty kick-off at the end.
"Settling a tie in basketball after 40 or 48 minutes of action by letting the five players on each team shoot one free throw, or picking the Masters champion by seeing how many consecutive three-metre putts Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson could make, would leave us quite dissatisfied."
Turning again to economic behaviour, he suggests the random nature of football outcomes is consistent with European feelings about equality, risk-taking and economic outcomes. He says those Americans who support the game "are uncomfortable with competitions that produce winners and losers, and soccer appeals to their egalitarian, risk-averse streak. The same crowd usually also can be counted on to oppose globalisation."
Sanderson also argues that men have evolved to have considerable strength in their upper torsos. They often use this in combat, and sport was developed as a way to channel physical aggression into less harmful behaviour. For football to prevent men from using their arms and hands is simply perverse, making it the sports equivalent of Irish dancing.
The spectator sports favoured by most Australians suggest we see things pretty much as the Americans do. This is not a football nation, and the state premiers should think again about their support for holding the World Cup.

[thesandman]

This kind of stupidity just shows how immature, stupid, short-sighted and self-centred these media pundits are.

Or they're doing it just to create controversy, in which case they're sellouts with no integrity :-)

Seriously, why does a NRL column writer, or an AFL column writer, etc etc, feel the need to comment on football?

We'd all be so much better off if we could support all sport, for sport's sake, as well as recognise that each sport does have its place, that everybody has a right to enjoy watching or participating in that particular sport without having to justify why that sport is better than the other sports. Furthermore, the more people play sport, the more the whole country benefits.

I might think that netball is a stupid sport (I don't really have a problem with it; it has its place, but I just couldn't think of anything better), but I'd still wholeheartedly support a bid for a Netball World Cup (if there is such a thing) in Australia.

Oh, what a woefule and unfulfilling job, and existence as a whole when we feel the need to abuse our position to achieve the sole purpose of embiggening ourselves by putting others down in any way we can!

Seriously, I would love to know - what is the point in saying comments like 'state premieres should think again about their support for holding the WC'?? There is none. It's just an attack on football, which serves no purpose than to put it down, so his favourite sport is less threatened.

F****** grow up, dickhead, for christsake.

While this article is absolutely appalling, and I could spend the next ten thousand words stating why, the sad fact is that there's just so much rubbish exactly like this.

[midfielder]

foriegnmariner said:

This reminds me of a story from last year wrote by michael Duffy a sokkah hater.

Simon Hill in 442 gave this the worst article of the year award so you know it's bad but it just reminds me off how mis-informed and desperate AFL/NRL/Union writers are getting to keep football down.

Foriegnmariner the only thing I don't agree with is how mis-informed it's deliberate.

[Foriegnmariner]

midfielder said:

foriegnmariner said:

This reminds me of a story from last year wrote by michael Duffy a sokkah hater.

Simon Hill in 442 gave this the worst article of the year award so you know it's bad but it just reminds me off how mis-informed and desperate AFL/NRL/Union writers are getting to keep football down.

Foriegnmariner the only thing I don't agree with is how mis-informed it's deliberate.

I mean mis-informed as in this article says that they don't want sydney hosting the cup when it's all of australia that hosts the cup.
It's just a deliberate attepmt to give themselves publicity by using there article to bagg out the easy target in Australia which is sokkah.

[midfielder]

thesandman said:

Seriously, I would love to know - what is the point in saying comments like 'state premieres should think again about their support for holding the WC'??

Did Fitz say that in his rant did he.

[serious14]

I don't have the exact quote on me, but some goose on Radio 3AW in Melbourne a day or two after the potential bid was announced starting ranting about how "sokkah" was just a fad that we shouldn't concern ourselves with and all that stupid shit, and how new stadium upgrades would be a waste of money blah blah blah........ but then this absolutely golden quote:

"The 2018 Wolrd Cup would be a bad idea for Australia because it would disrupt the AFL season". Honestly, that is what was said. Do you see the kind of insular thinking we're up against in this country's conservative media?? Absolutely disgusting.......

[Pete]

Please folks: pause for a moment and realise where we stand from , and where the advocates of other football codes stand from, and you'll soon realise why I walk around with a smirk on my face that would make Costello even cringe.

Football is played in so many countries and is so large in some major commercial and regional markets throughout the world, that if it succeeds here comparatively, the other codes are in big trouble. That is a FACT.

AFL is played where? Australia. Where else? Um, maybe a version of sorts every now and then between Ireland and Australia all star teams. AND THAT'S IT. Fact.

Rugby Union is a old school tie college sport in most countries that can boast a deal of players and a competition of any sort, and professionally played in others. It's reach is predominantly in the old British Empire realm. Little chance of RU taking off in most parts of Europe, where it is mostly an amateur/college sport at best. FACT.

Rugby League is played in only a few countries. It's strength lies in NSW and Qld. and parts of Northern England. It's played in France to a lesser level than RU. PNG loves the game, so too do some Pacific Island nations. FACT.
It is mounting a very expensive challenge in England with their Super League, but that is now dragging the talent away from the Australian heartland, and there's now genuine fears that the NRL comp may suffer from quality players if this keeps up in the future. FACT.
The English Super League is funded by the Pay TV rights, and the NRL is sitting very handsomely upon a good pay TV deal too. The same Pay TV conglomerate that is paying for the Hyundai A-League. If Football rises in popularity domestically, the fear for the NRL pundits is that their Pay TV value will diminish and lose them serious $$ in the next Pay TV rights negotiations.

Media who have played the game and now make a living out of providing column space for the newspapers have a lot to lose if they find a lessening in demand for their input. An increase in the popularity of Football will see the likes of John Taylor, Tom Smithies, David Davutonic(sp.?) being given more column space in the sports sections.

If this happens, the likes of Fitzsimmons is a dinosaur. And he should know.
He played RU in France and has seen how massive Football is in Europe, and the cross border news stories that give great benefit to the sports writers. A story about Beckham here means there's less story about the new ARU coach, which means there's less for Fitzsimmons to 'comment' on, hence less money for him.
More demand for overseas Football stories and a decent number of people patronising HAL matches will mean that when Aussie players head overseas after a few seasons in HAL, they'll cover their stories here too. Again less column space for Fitzsimmons and co.

In so many facets of our lives we have been told, for more than a generation now, that global is the way to go. Except, it seems for sport.

Australia sport IS capable of being very good on a global scale, but to me, there is always that element of doubt while we tinker around with sports that aren't truly global, like RU and Rugby League. And while the corporate world is supporting these codes and the AFL, there won't be enough $$ in Football in Australia to lift the game to a very high level like we see in Spain, Italy and the likes.

Maybe it is now time for the 'global' message to get down to the sports world and the corporate sponsors of each code. The winner, if global exposure and continuity across all commercial markets is desired, can only be provided by Football. FACT.

[Jimmydinho]

So basically?

[Pete]

Jimmy. Any chance of that picture of Fitzsimmons making it onto a Banner? Maybe with the words: "Don't believe a word he says.." Please.

[greenpoleffc]

Fitz was happy to clamber on the bandwagon in 06 and I hope that what he saw caused him to fear the future for his beloved Wannabe's and their boring, waning game.

We are the only sport that (so far) hasnt had a seamless pathway from Juniors to the national side. Everything that has been achieved so far has been done without a proper youth/junior development program.

When the new national youth league starts, there will be a clear progression for a kid who starts at 5 to go right through to HAL and beyond.

Give us another 10 years and Football will claim its rightful place, just like it has globally.

[midfielder]

Pete I hope you are right but me thinks we have a fight coming.

The electronic sports media outside parts of Fox and parts of SBS, are all controlled and job security by jurno's to other codes. There is big money at stake and lots of jobs and this lot are getting scared.

Fitz is I think a sign of things to come from existing media but with a bit more class. Eddie Mac on 9, Sam Newman on nine, & 7 has many.

The reason is simple world cup in Australian in 2018, means Football number one code by 2015 if not before. They all have much to loose and are only now starting to realise it.

So get ready for the fight it's coming.

[Pete]

Midfielder: Sooner or later supporters of sport will wake up and smell the roses.

Everyone who reads a newspaper must be getting a bit annoyed at the likes of Fitzsimmons taking a swipe at another code when his readers are aware he has his foot firmly entrenched in the Rugby world. Some may even think he's being unfair using his column space to attack another football code when he made his name playing Rugby.

But... it's not going to happen without a revolution of sorts in Australian Sports media.

For our part all we can do is to be without controversy --the fans, the administration and the players. No Ben Cousins, Joey Johns scenarios, no riots in the stands, no corruption or bad management practices at either club or Federation level. That is harder said than done, but achievable.

In the interim, the Socceroos have to do well in WC qualifying, the HAL has to prosper, the HAL clubs have to bring on a better level of playing and coaching staff, the expansion plans have to work, and us fans have to be very careful about incidents in the stadium. Give the rivals nothing to write about in a negative aspect.

I tend to feel that media networks and the publishers of newspapers will go with what the people tell them is the best thing. Look at the coverage of the election. They have got a whiff that Rudd will win, so they are carefully pulling their bias towards Rudd and levelling out the coverage. Previously he was treated as a pretender, but the polls leading into the election suggested he had a good chance. The media has changed the way it now covers Rudd's exposure.

Same thing for football. If the ratings show that Foxtel is getting good viewing for the HAL, and Socceroos matches rate well etc. then the media networks will realise there's something there to get viewers and will respond. The thing now is that the HAL is Foxtel only for coverage, and that puts a few noses out of joint on the FTA channels and they won't give it due exposure. But if this ratings success continues for Foxtel the FTA channels won't be able to ignore it as a product and may want to get some package from Foxtel in the future.

Also, if Foxtel continues to gain audience on the HAL and other Football coverage (EPL etc.) they may have to make way for the growing demand and reduce coverage of AFL and NRL games in their next payTV deals with these other codes (particularly if these codes suffer a reduction in coverage). And that will be the start of a downward spiral for them.

[midfielder]

Pete, agree with everything you say and double ticks to fans behaviour.

There is an additional thing fans can also do and that is protest / object searching for the right words but in some way counter what is said or printed. Maybe email campaign maybe right direct calling in the radio stations if talkback, looking for suggestions as well.

I worked for a number of years on Murdock’s (as in News limited Chairman) personal staff. If in fear the sports media Marfia starts to object to the world cup on mass they can get very dirty and intense, without appearing to attack football. Story lines about school not being built so stadiums can be, only short term effect, what benefits have come out of Sydney 2000 and so on.

Frank L and BB would be very aware of this is my guess have a plan but we as fans will in some way have to get involved even if as you said Pete it’s by turning up for games, watching Fox, having a no dick head fan policy, but I still feel a media attack is coming on the WCB and in some small way we can play a part.

[Pete]

The other thing that Lowy has made it perfectly clear from the outset of the new FFA that they are not in the business of wiping out other football codes. That point should be emphasised more.

The fact we run our main national domestic comp. in summer does keep us away from the other codes, and that helps sponsors too.

Also, there will still be kids who don't wanna play football or who turnout the wrong physical shape for a footballer, but better suited for RU, AFL or NRL.

Surely the main aim of any junior sports people is to ensure that kids get some form of fitness, play some sort of game, have some fun with their schoolmates? Given we have this emphasis now on juvenile obesity, all forms of physical activity should be encouraged to kids.

If a kid happens not to like football but prefers to ruck it out in Rugby or take marks in AFL, then that's fine by me.

But I can see wise parents moving kids towards football, because if a kid is any sort of athlete they have the opportunity to play football and go through to a very high level of earnings for their efforts, as opposed to the sums and salary caps of the NRL and AFL.

[omni]

The SBS thing is interesting though as there are a number of people in SBS who talk down the A-League at every chance, I'd argue that's more damaging to Australian football than these idiots.

As for Fitzsimmons, he's a Sports Journo not a rugby journo and he's deliberately trying to stir us, he's happy to watch football (I know he's watched it a fair whack) he says all this stuff to stir people, his column in the Saturday SMH is one that even he admits is not entirely serious, and it's not.

[midfielder]

omni said:

The SBS thing is interesting though as there are a number of people in SBS who talk down the A-League at every chance, I'd argue that's more damaging to Australian football than these idiots.

As for Fitzsimmons, he's a Sports Journo not a rugby journo and he's deliberately trying to stir us, he's happy to watch football (I know he's watched it a fair whack) he says all this stuff to stir people, his column in the Saturday SMH is one that even he admits is not entirely serious, and it's not.

SBS agree extremely damaging, and very sad by people who gave so much to the game to act in such a childish manner.

Fitz it was not his smh article it was during his radio show, I have been told by those that listened he was holding nothing back.

[Jesus]

Money changes peoples minds. Murdoch wanted to buy man utd. He knows there is money in it. When football gets far enough up, he will certainly have his eye on it. If we get the world cup, expect an explosion in the value of the rights to roos and a-league matches.
Does sbs already have the rights for the 2018 world cup?