Why be a Soccer Fan Prt 2
When I first read your comment, Ed, I had to go back and re-read my article. I didn’t realise how much it came across as so dark on the A-League. When I sat down to write I had in mind a bit of a comparison of the two soccer experiences of the day, highlighting the simple joys of junior and amateur league soccer. Clearly more than that came out.
The fact is that I too would be heartbroken if the Roar folded, and even moreson if the A-League suffered collapse. That neither of these things is impossible is of major concern.
Thanks all for your comments. I love the idea of a state champions / A-League top 6 Cup, or something. And you’re absolutely correct Guido to point out that the reasons people follow a sport can be very diverse and personal.
I want to write more about these sorts of topics – trying to really scrutinise, from a consumer’s point of view, what the A-League is. There’s a lot of unfiltered optimism about the rise of soccer in Australia, but if you read the introductions of soccer books from Australia going back to the 1970s, this optimism is nothing new.
Les Murray was quick this season to talk up A-League crowds, but we all can see the A-League isn’t in the clear yet. Why? What can be done? Does it matter?
I want the A-League to survive forever. Connectedness to the communities, however that is developed, is very important in my view but so is quality. When people follow Rugby or AFL in this country, or for that matter cricket or motor racing, they know they are watching the best in the world; the elite. I mean if you’re going to dedicate a lot of your discretionary spending to something, not to mention emotional energy, you don’t want it in the back of your mind that you’re really watching a second division league.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m a fan. ‘Fan’ is a shortening of ‘fanatic’ and in the football world we tend to wear it on our sleeves. The important realisation is that we are not the game’s locus of growth, or even survival. Fanatics do not a mass-movement make. Fanaticism, as we are often heard to candidly celebrate (see Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch), is a disease. It’s not even particularly healthy.
I’ll digress more. I am a ‘new fan’, as I’ve said. On the face of it, the FFA should see a bloke like me and say, ‘cool, a new fan; hope there’s lots more like that’. But they would be mistaken. You see I am someone who is guilty of having been utterly fanatical about various religious and political ideologies throughout my life. I may not have been a fan of soccer, but I have been previously diseased nonetheless. From my own mental health’s point of view soccer is a wonderful way to live out my disease with minimum adverse impact, a sort of ideological methadone program. So the FFA should not see me as the thin edge of an ever-broadening wedge.
The FFA also must know that to get people interested in the A-League you have to get them interested in the game of soccer, but their immediate dilemna is that an interest in soccer can exist in its own right, and they have only one product available, for which they’re asking real money. Back to quality.
I reckon the salary cap needs to be a) kept permanently, and b) raised, a lot. To begin with I think it should be doubled. Basically the criteria should shift from “What sort of figure could all the clubs afford?” to “What sort of figure could the four wealthiest clubs realistically afford?”
I think about the ‘market’ for Clubs. Not tickets, TV subs or merchandise, but actual Clubs. Dudes like Clive Palmer or the various Russians and Arabs who are buying European clubs for fun. A bloke has to have his train set doesn’t he? I think having a salary cap, and a set of reasonable restrictions on foreign players, actually makes the prospect more fun for your average fun-loving billionare. It’s just part of the game, and it keeps costs down to the merely stupendous. I’d like to see salary capping across the world for this reason. Note that a high cap can still allow for really amazing teams.
In ancient Athens there was apparently no business taxes and there was hence a very wealthy merchant class. Although these individuals paid no direct tax, they had burdens as citizens. It was normal for an individual to fund (and command) a warship for example, or a production of a play, or a sporting festival. There’s a certain sense to this, and there’s no real losers.
To have quality teams you need to be able to buy the best in the World. As Ed points out, the A-League is improving and there’s no doubt that every top player who comes into the league makes it more attractive for other top players. Lifting the cap on teams like Sydney and the Gold Coast, who can afford better players, would accelerate this process.
Of course these rich teams would come to dominate the league. It’s common knowledge that playing against superior opposition helps lift your own game so the result would be a better quality league and the extra drama of actual, rather than merely statistical, ‘David and Goliath’ stories. And then there’s always that other bored billionare…
Finally here, can we allow ourselves to be as ambitious in the long term for the A-League as we dare to be with regard to the Socceroos? We do dare, don’t we, to dream for our countrymen the Socceroos to be in the top 10 in the World? Top five even? I have had halucinagenic moments of even thinking that they could, just could, with a mixture of luck, terrible luck for various other teams, and perfectly timed form, win the World Cup! Admit it! You’ve done the same.
Shouldn’t we be aiming to have one of the top 10 leagues in the world? Top 5?
Just as a post script, I also said in my last article that ‘Queensland’ teams meant nothing to me. What bullshit! Queensland teams all in the top 3 by season’s end, and I will be hyperbolically happy.
What attracts a Soccer Fan?
For a while now I’ve been wondering about the nature of following football. What got me? What is keeping me? What sort of things “get” people in general? Especially new people, like myself. I’ve mentioned it before in this blog, but for the context of this article I need to point out that I am very much a “new fan,” and as a blogger can only pretend to be a new fan’s voice. Over the past three years I’ve felt the differences between old fans who’ve known the sport for decades and for whom the A-League is a bold new adventure, and people like myself for whom the A-League is just part of the terrain I’m discovering. For this reason I rarely try to analyse games or players, but am more interested in writing about the experience.
Now I am a fan of Association Football, and I did not become a fan through the A-League but discovered the A-League a few games into Season 2 (It was a 5:0 thrashing of New Zealand Knights, which might have helped my initial enthusiasm). The things that I can identify that came together to make me a fan of the game, were my son’s team, the 2006 World Cup and the movie Goal! The point here is that it was the game itself that seduced me, and not any particular team or league.
Ok, what’s my point? Well there’s a few reasons I am into football. One of them is the beauty, grace and skill of extraordinary athletes playing a complex tactical battle. For this of course, none of the games I watched yesterday really fulfilled. It’s hardly dissing the A-League to point out the obvious fact that there is much better quality soccer on free-to-air TV. I watched Arsenal play Celtic the other morning, so please don’t even argue with me – there is no comparison. Purely on the criteria of virtuosity, the A-League is relatively expensive and relatively poor at the same time.
There’s more though right? Of course! Accessibility and community connection come together as another reason I’m a fan of this sport. It didn’t take me long to realise that, even at the venerable age of 38, I could play. I still play in a futsal team on Tuesday nights and it is pure joy, especially when we win, as well as social, and mentally and physically engaging. Pretty quickly I added up just how accessible soccer is, with junior leagues down to the age of 6, women of all ages, disabled competitions, homeless competitions and indeed, for tragics like myself, divisions up to over-55s.
But the A-League fails here too right? I’ve got mates in good senior teams, both women and mens, mostly playing for West End. The truth is I haven’t gotten to them for a while, but I have done and will be trying to catch the finals. These games are free, you can shake the player’s hands afterwards and get more than a ‘next please’ from your comment about the goal, manouvre or foul. You’re likely to even be asked if you’d like a drink.
But they’re not as good are they? Of course not, but really, is the A-League $50/person/game better? To use the analogy of music, we’ll pay $100 to watch the very best, we’ll pay $15 to watch a pub band, but will we pay $60 for something in between? I’d argue no. If it’s not going to be larger-than-life, we’d prefer the everyday talent of our friends. The A-League, as the most expensive football experience available to Australians, is stuck in the middle whilst charging top dollar, even to watch it on TV.
There’s a third reason people, including me, are attracted to football, and has to do with very ancient, probably genetic, urges toward tribalism and place. It’s the reason Australians in particular will follow any sport where their team is winning, and why a valiant few will follow their team even if it’s losing. Make no mistake I am a Brisbane loyalist and although other sports don’t really turn me on, the Brisbane Roar has my interest for the long term, thick or thin. These sorts of fans are the ones you meet on the blogosphere, the ones who wear their team shirts to unrelated social events and join fan organisations. The territory comes with belonging and identity and for single young males in particular (but not exclusively) it probably aids sanity in a bewildering world. As a religion soccer is far more rational than Christianity or Budhism precisely because it is explicitly human contrivance and does not pretend to be breathed from the mouth of God.
But here’s the thing. People who just love soccer for its beauty will get up at 4.30am for Champions League games and look forward to the World Cup. Why would they bother with the A-League, especially as it is so much more expensive? People who love to play and watch in their communities are actually likely not to go to A-League games because they have their own games and their own league to follow (anecdotally, I find this is literally true – very few grassroots players follow the A-League except distantly).
And lovers of tribe?
I love the Brisbane Roar, I know their names and try to follow events, but the media is very poor, and mostly reads like highly filtered propaganda. Yesterday made things very clear to me.
I watch every single game of the Annerley Under 14s, Division 3 team, and follow very closely the fortunes of the Brisbane South Under 14s Division 3 competition. I know every player on the team. Some of them I’ve known since they were toddlers at child care. I’ve coached and managed quite a few of them and before that used to watch many of them play handball and basketball after Primary School every day. I know their strengths and weaknesses, their parents and even some of their personal issues and problems.
Not as good as the Roar? It depends what you mean. The kids never play a cynical game. They go out to score goals. Some of them are genuinely skilled and are not afraid to take crazy risks which occasionally come off. The left winger can chase a through ball past any defender, do a one-two if necessary, and score or direct a pinpoint cross. Is it actually less entertaining than watching Zullo? Frankly, no. The right back is a natural and brilliant defender but also has the unique ability to throw-in a very long way, so that a throw-in near the touch line is as good as a corner kick. Brilliant to watch. About a month ago I watched one of the attacking midfielders, a kid I’ve known since he was born, deflect a corner kick, leg high in the air, off the outside of his foot, into the top right hand corner of the net. If that goal was in the Champions League it would have been replayed to death and posted on U-Tube. Jacob’s own signature move (he usually plays up front this season), which he pulled off twice yesterday, is kicking the ball back over his own head along with a defender, and then recollecting it past the defender. His one goal yesterday was an individual effort, beating two defenders and the goalie.
Sure they stuff up a lot. So do A-League teams. But they get some brilliant passing going too, and not because it has been drilled into them by a coach who has mega-qualifications and experience, but because it’s fun to do so.
So far I have the A-League as having the problem of bad value by which I refer to quality for dollar. There’s much better games for free and only slightly worse games that are live and pretty much free. (Incidentally, I can’t wait for the W-League, which is not much poorer, much cheaper and is on free-to-air TV – I had m0ments last season of wanting to abandon the men and just follow the girls.)
There’s a constructive criticism I need to add. If the A-League could connect with the rest of the enormous soccer community in Australia, as it is fully connected in England and Spain, I think it would inspire many more people, especially participants, who are many and remain the great-untapped. What I mean is that my son’s team can aspire to get into the first division next year or the year after, and one day to play at the highest level of seniors in Brisbane, but not to ever be promoted into the A-League. This might even sound absurd, but it is precisely this joyful absurdity, a source of millions of childhood dreams, that exists in the traditional football countries. A-League teams are constructed exclusively from the top by dealings between rich men. There is no question at all in my mind that there are senior men’s teams in Australia who would out-compete some A-League teams some of the time, but they have no way to aspire to compete in that competition. A system of relegation and promotion, fully connected to the entire football league system throughout the country, is essential in the not-too long term, for this sense of connectedness. You can not develop connectivity culturally before it is the case institutionally.
Honestly, of the two games yesterday, of the two teams I went to follow, of the two leagues of which they were a part, there is absolutely no question about which one I enjoyed more, which one I felt more a part of, which one I am more loyal to.
Incidentally, Annerley Under 14s Division 3 won their game 8:2 (goals, people!). It was the last of the home and away fixtures and next week is their semi-finals. Good luck to them, and with slightly less enthusiasm and commitment, good luck to the Brisbane Roar.
A Rose by any Other Name Smells Just as Sweet (We Call it Soccer Prt 2)
So there will be more. But here’s instalment Two.
My point is not trivial. The insistence on the word ‘Football’ in the Australian media is holding the game back from the public mind. Now me merely stating that view will not convince anyone, so I ask that you read my points (including my first article) and THINK about this. I honestly and seriously believe that the Australian soccer community has so far lost the plot on this front.
First, in case anyone thinks I’m making this business up, consider the following sentences, from two bloggers I respect greatly for their love of the great game:
From Eamonn, of Nearpost: “It might be acceptable to Australians in State Of Origin or AFL but in my view football, men and women’s doesn’t need it.”
And from Ambrose’s Bloggerfella: “The only leagues I can think of which may offer precedent for the A-League’s four subs are the other Australian “football” leagues, the AFL and NRL, which both employ four-man interchange benches with unlimited changes allowed in AFL and 10 in NRL. Their formats are entirely different and irrelevant to football‘s.”
Now both of these intelligent people know the word ‘soccer’, they know what it means, it’s 100% in their vocabulary and, importantly, they have no other meaning for the word. Also, their audience also understands the word, unambiguously. From a purely editorial point of view, the word ‘soccer’ is appropriate in these sentences, for the very simple criteria of clarity of meaning.
Why don’t they use the word? This is just two cases from the past week. I see this editorial absurdity constantly. Now from an insider’s view they may even get a bit of congratulations for holding the flag or something. But from any other point of view (in Australia and many other countries) it just looks like they are, um, holding the flag. That is they look like they’re promoting an ideology or religion rather than a great game. They reinforce, every time they do this, the image of a slightly esoteric pursuit for foreigners and fanatics. It glares, and there’s no way that these writers aren’t self-conscious when they’re doing this.
In the second case the author goes further, and actually tries to imply that other football codes (there is no synonym for the word football-as-generic) shouldn’t be called that. That’s also common, from Les Murray for example: “so-called football codes”. Now that’s aggressive, even rude, toward codes that have generations of passionate and loyal followers, and even evokes the question, toward us, “Who’s afraid?” I’ll pursue that more in the future, but suffice to say here that it’s not helping anyone.
Ok, here’s another quote, from a bumper sticker I see around: “Support St Aidans’ Soccer.”
Now I have no idea about St Aidans, but this sticker is, by being around the place, also promoting the game I love to play and watch, so I think it’s cool that people have it on the back of their cars. Can anyone tell me what word they should use? Let’s just state the fucking obvious: “Support St Aidans’ Football” would simply NOT be promoting our game AT ALL. “Support St Aidans’ Football (Soccer)” would be editorially clumsy, I add because we actually see this absurdity, even in the mainstream press.
I’ve barely started. I know I’m up against pretty much the entire soccer community (‘football community’ would only make sense if I was referring to all the codes) here, but I know I’m right and I simply have to keep hammering this one.
For my money, every time the media, on radio, TV or in print is speaking of our game, which does have a greater actuality than a decade ago and has found its rightful place in our sports press (however reluctantly), the public should be seeing the word, the brand, SOCCER. Soccer, soccer, soccer. That’s what the public mind, however oblivious or married to other games they may be, would be being bombarded with. Bombarding it with yet more of the brand ‘Football, football, football’ does nothing. Read it again. From a promotion viewpoint, it does nothing.
Incidentally, on the three occasions I’ve been to the United States I’ve thought to ask everyday people whether they follow Gridiron. They have had no idea what I was talking about. They know it only as ‘football’. Funny how language works. And funny how authority doesn’t get to tell the public what words mean, except in Orwell’s dystopia. People decide what words mean, and linguists tell us why, whilst lexographers record the meanings in dictionaries. Next time you want to know what ‘soccer’ and ‘football’ mean in a particular language or dialect (and Australian is a dialect) try a dictionary. The FFA are not an authority, and neither are the fanatics, and neither am I.
A Day at the Football
I took Jacob of course, and also Dawn, my fiance (I successfully proposed last Sunday), for her first ever soccer game (not including watching me play futsal last Tuesday).
As we approaced the stadium, by train then bus, it was clear that the Celtic support would rival the Roar support. I’m guessing over half of the 31,000 people were Celtic, which is kind of embarrasing but very cool at the same time. Approaching the stadium itself there was colour, bagpipes and chanting hoop-clad yobos. All fun.
Still in the tunnels, the PA began playing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. I thought that was kind of cool, but a bit daggy. Then I started hearing voices – many, many voices – competing with the PA. I ran through the closest entrance and witnessed the entire southern end on their feet belting out the song. Wow! Now that was very, very cool. This crew was, quite frankly, showing the locals how it was done. It was already a brilliant event, indeed a unique cultural experience, and the game hadn’t begun.
Next comes my one complaint. We went up the first set of stairs, along with many others, which stated clearly that they led to “Sections 726-732″ (we were in 731). AT THE TOP was a single security person telling us that this entrance was closed to us. I’m talking seven flights of stairs. Maybe place the guy at the bottom of the stairs? Or maybe a single sign, “Please use another flight of stairs”? As I told the poor guy (who had clearly been given a bum job), this is terrible management. I emphasise again that the stairs were actually correct ones, according to the signs. They did not lead to closed sections, they were just for reasons known only to the management not being used. Anyway, good for the thighs, and a small complaint when compared to the total experience.
This crowd was brilliant. We were at the opposite end to “The Jungle”, where the Celtic hardcore were designated, but we were surrounded on all sides ourselves by Celtic support and wild celtic accents. From our birds-eye view you could see green hoops throughout the stadium. Being above “The Den”, where the Roar loonies are, we could not actually see them, and truly it seemed like a Celtic home crowd. Not flattering for the Roar fans that’s for sure, but bloody brilliant to see and experience.
After the first Celtic goal, I almost hoped the Roar would not score because the cheer would have been embarrassing. I have never heard such a roar from a crowd. I had my Roar scarf on and of course hoped the Roar would not embarass themselves (to be sure, the first 30 minutes looked very competitive), but it was actually difficult to maintain my loyalty. With a crew like this, thousands of miles away from their home, Celtic deserved to win, they almost must win. “You’ll never walk alone” indeed.
About half way through the second half Jacob noticed a Mexican wave getting going, which looked pretty feeble and he noted, “That’s not going to get far.” The stadium was just over half full after all and the season-ticket side was very thinned. How wrong we were! It went around FIVE times and then some, and it quickly became obvious that the momentum was from the huge portion of ‘away’ supporters throughout. I remember when Australia played Paraguay in the same stadium, to a packed house (50,000+) and being so impressed when it nearly went round three times. These guys just know how to party.
And not one but THREE seperate streakers. Talk about a complete package of entertainment.
Yeah, yeah the game was good. Both sides attacked throughout and it was always exciting. Nice to see Robbie Kruse back and he was very impressive for the first half after which he seemed to sort of lose control. Overall I wasn’t embarassed for the boys in haz-chem. Celtic was just too good.
In the throngs back to the station after the game there was some brilliant (and all good-natured) yoboism from the hooped fans, climaxing in a staged group sex session between about five of them in the middle of Caxton St.
Dawn had fun, and not just for the reasons of spectacle, which bodes well for our future marriage. She said she actually found herself ‘rivetted’, and I could see why. As I said, the game wasn’t cagey, but open, attacking and attractive. That’s the way to seduce new fans.
Fantastic day at the football. Thankyou to whichever geniuses managed to organise this one. And, for what it’s worth, and I hope these things have some impact, a Red Card to Racism.
PS. Jacob and I have booked our packages to The World Cup South Africa, paid deposits and, according to the correspondence, have tickets to Australia’s three group games. How cool is that?
Grand Final Tippng
What do you reckon?
I’ll update everything and do a final wrap of the Bloggers Cup after the game. Last I worked it out Mike was still holding a lead, miraculously after going intercontinental for a few weeks, but Eamonn was pushing hard.
Btw, I’m happy with the Roar’s season. Better than last year, which was my first. We beat Sydney. Does the rest matter?
