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Was the nationality ban on Aussie clubs necessary to build our future?

HappyGuus said:
I thought this would be a thread about when FIFA banned the Socceroos 😅

Maybe it was my sheltered soccer upbringing (barely knowing the existence of NSL), but I never understood the ethnic stuff that people went on about. When they said "it's football, but not as you know it", I took that as a dig at AFL and NRL, not NSL. My friends, who had nothing to do with NSL, thought the same. Different perspective I guess. AFL fans, like I was, thought it was about them. NSL fans thought it was about them. It was just a tagline for a new league.

And the new A-League clubs were about potential markets and bringing it all together, less "pigeonholed" clubs with nowhere to grow. That didn't filter through to me as anti-ethnic. But I did feel that sentiment years later with certain expansion rejections.

Times have changed and it's just about come full circle now where people are hoping these clubs get into the top tier. We've had to wait until 2025 to get some sort of decent competition to prove it can work. I'm still alive for it, so that's a bonus!
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I think that is a particular paradigm in Victoria. I used to watch Offsiders on the ABC until I got pissed off with Caroline Wilson. The talk would be about football - say the world Cup and she would bring the conversation back to the AFL. It could be about the Supercars and she would make an analogy about the AFL. I think if you are died in the wool AFL that is the way your mind has been trained.
 
RIMB said:
The tangible benefit I imagine would be a place where everyone can have a club that they choose to follow.

Old school the club was not the attraction - the relevant community actually were the club.

New school and the clubs are an attraction. You do not have to physically belong to that teams community to be part of it - just throw your hat in the ring and you are a fan. Same as you could choosing a team for any other sport. Your team wins you feel good and brag about it. Your team loses and you curse, prepare for the mockery on Monday, and hang out for next week.

I am not talking about "you've got to have a club" - anyone, from any community or walk of life, can pick a club on whatever grounds they like and support it.

It was never the ethnic clubs that excluded anyone else from being a part of it - it was the public perception that those clubs were FOR that community rather than something that could be shared.

Now if we can bring together the two halves of Australian football there are historic clubs with ethnic origins and a following that is no longer tied to the one ethnicity (as in look at the number in this small pool of ours who have an interest in that rotten Greek club for one example), and you also have the established franchise teams competing on level ground with their own established support.

In the mix of old and new lies a result that I do not think we could have achieved on the NSL path alone.

People always had the choice of clubs - many of them did not feel that they had a club to choose. The combination of historic and franchise teams would give that.
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During the NSL when I lived in Five Dock and worked in Leichhardt I was not a member of Apia but I was there more often than not on the weekend. I never felt anything but welcomed at the game or in the club as a 'skip'. It could have been that I lived and worked in the community but I suspect it was just the friendliness of the people. Similarly I was a Tigers supporter in the NSWRL and was treated as well at the games and in the club.

People for the most part are decent - yes there are fringe elements - but that is true in any sport or organisation.
 
BA81 said:
Well for one it’s my firm belief that the number of ‘skips’&other traditionally-⚽️-disinterested demographics in this country who do like the game will always be outnumbered by those who don’t 1000 - let’s say maybe 500 if I’m being super generous - to one. And those haters will always shift the argument goalposts no matter what; if they can’t exploit the ‘wogball’ angle like they used to, they’ll use something else instead.

Basically, I say once&for all forget about converting ‘mainstream 🇦🇺‘ to ⚽️. We as a sport don’t need it(arguably never did) and it’s just not fcken worth it IMHO.
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I very much agree with this point. The only thing I would say about the 'mainstream' is dominated by 'mainstream media'. While that media is still important its importance is waning considerably. The younger demographic are just as likely to be interested in football or basketball as NRL or AFL - not that you would know it from mainstream media coverage.

The only way we will get another sugar hit like qualifying in 2006 is by going at least to the semi-finals of a World Cup or by hosting a World Cup (Mens). Realistically neither of these things will happen in the next 50 years and I will not see it. But I am an optimist that over the next 15-20 years i.e. in my lifetime that football will be a top tier sport in Australia.

Whether that is a good thing or bad thing is another question. $20 a game to a South Melbourne game may be a thing of the past and my $27 half way tickets for CCM games will also go by the wayside as the business of football takes over. That said I can always go down to watch the Academy games or the local Gosford City Dragons for free. TBH watching players like Dan Hall, Josh Nisbet, Max Balard, Garang Kuol & Jacob Farrell playing in the Academy sides before breaking is almost as good as winning trophies ... almost.
 
patjennings said:
I think that is a particular paradigm in Victoria. I used to watch Offsiders on the ABC until I got pissed off with Caroline Wilson. The talk would be about football - say the world Cup and she would bring the conversation back to the AFL. It could be about the Supercars and she would make an analogy about the AFL. I think if you are died in the wool AFL that is the way your mind has been trained.
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Oh mate, don't remind me! The last time I tuned in for Offsiders was when the nation was going nuts for the Women's World Cup, and the bloody AFL nuffy kept trying to bring it back to funding AFLW. Nearly threw my slipper at the screen, but it was too frosty a morning.
 
patjennings said:
I very much agree with this point. The only thing I would say about the 'mainstream' is dominated by 'mainstream media'. While that media is still important its importance is waning considerably. The younger demographic are just as likely to be interested in football or basketball as NRL or AFL - not that you would know it from mainstream media coverage.
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The flipside though is that there’s still plenty of people who consume said traditional-media, and those people are living longer.
 
BA81 said:
The flipside though is that there’s still plenty of people who consume said traditional-media, and those people are living longer.
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Yep but they are still dying off and less and less people are watching that way,
 
patjennings said:
I think that is a particular paradigm in Victoria. I used to watch Offsiders on the ABC until I got pissed off with Caroline Wilson. The talk would be about football - say the world Cup and she would bring the conversation back to the AFL. It could be about the Supercars and she would make an analogy about the AFL. I think if you are dyed-in-the-wool AFL that is the way your mind has been trained.
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Definitely. Plus considering how old she is, there was realistically never gonna be another sporting-option for her in life except for another ‘traditional’ 🇦🇺 sport like cricket or swimming.
 
RIMB said:
I think the aleague has enough legs to run for some time yet so I cannot see it simply folding.

But for financial and contractual reasons there has to be a period without relegation for the franchise holders in the current scheme when we head into our hoped for open future.

However long the licences run for now should be the deadline for safety. It is not reasonable to deprive any financial backers the commodity they have paid for. But open the damn gates and let the best teams join until then and you have secured a much stronger future.

Relegation then follows reasonably if the financial backers and clubs don't do enough to stay up - but they will have had plenty of time to get their ducks in order.

Sounds fair and reasonable to me.

Make it so.
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I understand what you are saying but the A-league clubs have had a free run for 20 years. How many more years do they "need"? When will this free run end.. there is always an excuse for no pro/rel so if we keep using an excuse for not doing it, then we will never get it.

I'm tired of the BS in the game in Australia. I've gone from watching A-league to the Socceroos/ Matildas to watching zero. I watch NPL and that is it. I'm burnt out from the BS and I'm sure there are plenty of football fans like me. Time to unite our game.
 
HappyGuus said:
Oh mate, don't remind me! The last time I tuned in for Offsiders was when the nation was going nuts for the Women's World Cup, and the bloody AFL nuffy kept trying to bring it back to funding AFLW. Nearly threw my slipper at the screen, but it was too frosty a morning.
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Not that the other AFL bird Kelli Underwood was much better; thank fck she’s now gone from the show at least.
 
BA81 said:
Definitely. Plus considering how old she is, there was realistically never gonna be another sporting-option for her in life except for another ‘traditional’ 🇦🇺 sport like cricket or swimming.
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Talking about traditional sports media people. I was always impressed by Bruce McAvaney and his knowledge of peoples' times when he was calling athletics. He would always quote that the qualifying time was their PB or seasons best. The I turned up at the Sydney Olympics and read the same from the scoreboard.
 
patjennings said:
Talking about traditional sports media people. I was always impressed by Bruce McAvaney and his knowledge of peoples' times when he was calling athletics. He would always quote that the qualifying time was their PB or seasons best. The I turned up at the Sydney Olympics and read the same from the scoreboard.
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TBF to ol’ Brooce, I have no beef w/him because from all accounts he is a friend of ⚽️; he has stated on several occasions that commentating(or ‘calling’ in AFL-vernacular) a FIFA World Cup Final is absolutely at the top of his career bucket-list.
 
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patjennings said:
During the NSL when I lived in Five Dock and worked in Leichhardt I was not a member of Apia but I was there more often than not on the weekend. I never felt anything but welcomed at the game or in the club as a 'skip'. It could have been that I lived and worked in the community but I suspect it was just the friendliness of the people. Similarly I was a Tigers supporter in the NSWRL and was treated as well at the games and in the club.

People for the most part are decent - yes there are fringe elements - but that is true in any sport or organisation.
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Well said pj re your APIA outlook from a ol skip outlook.
We have not been as noisy as some other fellow Clubs and as mentioned it’s always a small %.
Olympic when I used to frequent had a strong % of support that I would keep away from and SC would be a challenge what had happened at times but again you kept away.
Trouble is the visiting skip unless an ex pat football supporter knew what to expect at times but the casual first timers would have been a compared to the nrl conservative supporter outlook.
The ethnics exude passion compared to the Anglo conservatives and that in turn was the local media’s mis understanding of it all and the threat they have always had towards the world game.
 
theFOOTBALLlover said:
I understand what you are saying but the A-league clubs have had a free run for 20 years. How many more years do they "need"? When will this free run end.. there is always an excuse for no pro/rel so if we keep using an excuse for not doing it, then we will never get it.

I'm tired of the BS in the game in Australia. I've gone from watching A-league to the Socceroos/ Matildas to watching zero. I watch NPL and that is it. I'm burnt out from the BS and I'm sure there are plenty of football fans like me. Time to unite our game.
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Bang on my friend.
I tried to embrace Lowys ploy for the so called good of the game, Pro yep brilliant but not do anything more for the rest of the game and leverage from the npl he banished I figured it out and only ADP drew me to see live games more so for my 3 football mad kids.
Then I walked.
It is BS - license’s assured till ‘34 - like gtfo.
 
theFOOTBALLlover said:
I understand what you are saying but the A-league clubs have had a free run for 20 years. How many more years do they "need"? When will this free run end.. there is always an excuse for no pro/rel so if we keep using an excuse for not doing it, then we will never get it.

I'm tired of the BS in the game in Australia. I've gone from watching A-league to the Socceroos/ Matildas to watching zero. I watch NPL and that is it. I'm burnt out from the BS and I'm sure there are plenty of football fans like me. Time to unite our game.
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Excellent post.

'Time to unite our game'

If I was the owner of this forum I would put that on the front page banner.

If I was the CEO or Chairman of the FFA I would have it emblazoned across everything the governing body had.
 
Devils advocate wasn't half of the A-League, clubs in the early years that played in the NSL at some point? Adelaide United, Newcastle Jets (the former Newcastle United), Brisbane Roar (were founded by former NSL club Queensland Lions), Perth Glory were all clubs that played in the old NSL.
 
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