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Hey Pollies, It's time to put your money where your scarf is!

The follow up email from FSAAUS regarding the email

Beyond the green & gold scarf: A message for your local MP!


G'day,

Our recent editorial—"Hey pollies, it's time to put your money where your scarf is!"—has completely taken off across the Australian football community.

The overwhelming response proves what we already know: football supporters are tired of seeing politicians wrap themselves in green and gold scarves for a quick social media photo-op while our grassroots infrastructure is systematically starved of resources.

Right now, while the World Cup is front of mind and national attention is at an all-time high, we have a critical window to convert this digital noise into direct political leverage.

We are asking every registered FSAA member to take two minutes today to contact their local federal MPs.

To make this as seamless as possible, we have published a pre-formatted, copy-and-paste letter template on the website. This specific version is cut for general supporters and fans—you don't need to be a club administrator or coach to use it. Your status as a local voter and a football fan is more than enough to hold them to account.

Your 2-Minute Action Plan

Step 1: Click the link below to access the general supporter template on our platform.

Step 2: Copy the text and paste it into an email addressed to your local MP. Contact can be found by using the search tool here

Step 3: Add any personalisation including local club experiences. as well as your local suburb and postcode so they know you are a constituent in their electorate.

Step 4: Hit send

Get the MP Letter Template & Take Action

Politicians love the spectacle and cultural capital of a World Cup campaign, but they need to understand that the football community does not pack up and disappear when the final tournament whistle blows.

Let's make sure they hear the collective weight of the terrace in their office inbox this week.
 
Any politician knows there are votes in this. But it will take some really smart work by football stakeholders.

It's going to be a tough time for governments of any stripe to invest $2.8B. Believe it or not, the FFA is still on its P's as far as government is concerned stretching way back to the WC bid and the credibility lost there for all concerned. They still don't fully trust football governance, from the grassroots all the way up to FIFA. There's also the optics of trying to shave 10s of billions from the NDIS while at the same time funding sporting infrastructure and wide distrust of federal funding allocations and capacity to deliver local infrastructure following the colour-coded spreadsheets pork-barrelling scandal.

None of that is insurmountable but it's just part of the picture we are dealing with.

*sorry, edited after you quoted @SocceroosFan84
 
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Punchanello said:
It would be great to see but think it will be a tough time for governments of any stripe to invest $2.8B. Believe it or not, the FFA is still on its P's as far as government is concerned stretching way back to the WC bid and the credibility lost there for all concerned. They still don't fully trust football governance, from the grassroots all the way up to FIFA. There's also the optics of trying to shave 10s of billions from the NDIS while at the same time funding sporting infrastructure and wide distrust of federal funding allocations and capacity to deliver local infrastructure following the colour-coded spreadsheets pork-barrelling scandal.

I'm not saying it can't happen. Any politician knows there are votes in this. But it will take some really smart work by football stakeholders.
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I did have a conversation with the chief of staff of my local MP on the phone yesterday.

It has seemed that Canberra have taken notice.
 
Lets be brutally honest here....

Australian football suffers from a crippling identity crisis. While it possesses the country’s highest participation rates, it remains treated as a second-class citizen by government funding bodies.

These politicians treat the sport like a convenient accessory, donning scarves for World Cup photo-ops before abandoning the grassroots reality....

And until these politicians abandon this performative patronage and start pivoting to long-term, equitable investment, football’s massive cultural influence will continue to be hollowed out by a systemic, cynical failure to provide the basics required for survival in this crowded house of multi-code Australia...

The cold sobering reality is Football’s growth is stifled by a political landscape dominated by AFL and NRL interests. Politicians favour traditional codes all day long, leaving football to fight for the financialcrumbs. It's nothing short of systemic bias which turns football into this aforementioned performative accessory, prioritising legacy status over the sport’s massive, underfunded participation reality.
 
Football us life said:
Lets be brutally honest here....

Australian football suffers from a crippling identity crisis. While it possesses the country’s highest participation rates, it remains treated as a second-class citizen by government funding bodies.

These politicians treat the sport like a convenient accessory, donning scarves for World Cup photo-ops before abandoning the grassroots reality....

And until these politicians abandon this performative patronage and start pivoting to long-term, equitable investment, football’s massive cultural influence will continue to be hollowed out by a systemic, cynical failure to provide the basics required for survival in this crowded house of multi-code Australia...

The cold sobering reality is Football’s growth is stifled by a political landscape dominated by AFL and NRL interests. Politicians favour traditional codes all day long, leaving football to fight for the financialcrumbs. It's nothing short of systemic bias which turns football into this aforementioned performative accessory, prioritising legacy status over the sport’s massive, underfunded participation reality.
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That's what FSAUS's article was about mate.
 
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If Australia is dead serious improving in football then people need to invest in it, its that simple the AFL and NRL cant go past our borders so it means football can give a Australia a different outlook to the world if the politicians are willing to embrace this theory.

For me it comes down to our identity as a nation and are willing to get rid of our inferior complex we have, alot of our thinking from politicians is still fairly inward and cant look beyond these borders which show where we at right now.

Football can give us an appeal to the world to look at, put it this way you won't see global audiences talk about what happens in the state of origin over a Lucas Harrington penalty at the World Cup.
 
SocceroosFan84 said:
That's what FSSAUS's article was about mate.
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Yep.....and it's the classic case of "we’ve heard it all before." Every few years, the same article gets written, the same stats get cited, and the same scarves get hung back in the closet while the goalposts stay rusted. It’s a recurring loop of indignation on forums like this where posters all trott out the same lines of contention.

Amd of course, it's something that everyone in the game knows by heart until the next World Cup rolls around to start the cycle all over again.

Rinse, repeat....

The strategy is depressingly consistent: exploit the spectacle when the national teams are in the spotlight, ignore the infrastructure rot when the cameras turn off and rely on the hope that fans will be distracted by the next highlight reel.

It’s a masterclass in performative governance....keep the optics high, the budget low, and the "other codes" comfortable.
 
You could bribe politicians with all the money in the world and they still wouldn't help football. It's a photo op and that's it.
 
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