Source: News Limited.

Sunday morning’s paper is usually a relaxing read. Not so for former Socceroo and FOX Sports football pundit, Robbie Slater.  On opening the sport section of Fairfax’s Sun-Herald, he was disgusted to find an article by longtime Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) media adversary and former teammate, Craig Foster, on the appointment of Jim Magilton as Melbourne Victory coach.  Slater, so incensed, decided to vilify Foster through social media network, Twitter, that afternoon.

“OK, here goes.  I am sick of the continual attacks, and in my opinion, racist comments from Craig Foster on British people.  His article in today’s Sun-Herald, in my opinion, is a racist column and it is beyond me how he continually gets away with these vile articles.  You have disgraced yourself.  What a way to welcome someone to our great country and please, Jim Magilton, do not think this is the way that decent Australians welcome people from other countries,” said Slater.

It is well documented that Foster, and SBS, take a more multicultural view of football.  Hence the title of weekly football show, The World Game, aired on Monday nights.  Unlike FOX’s weekly roundup show, FOX Sports FC, The World Game covers more than Australian and English (primarily, Barclays Premier League) news and views.

Foster is revered for his analysis and firm opinions on what’s happening in the A-League.  Many viewers (particularly those new to the game) have branded him arrogant, patronising and unrealistic.  Often accusing him of bias towards his beloved continental football, and overdoing his praise of Barcelona.  It would be fair to say that he undoubtedly prefers Spanish, Italian and even German football to the English game.

“Who, Craig, do you think you are to tell the Victory of who they should employ and of what race.  Why do you pretend to know what and who is a good coach?  You have never coached anyone and why is nationality important?  British people have made a massive contribution to the history of our game and continue to do so,” continued Slater.

They most certainly have.  Throughout our grassroots clubs across the country, you’ll find them.  Barking non-stop from the sidelines, instructing developing footballers to “kick it long” and “fight for the ball” or perhaps, “keep it simple, lads.”  Those who’ve been in the game long enough, particularly the volunteers, know this beast.

Is Foster a racist for preferring a different style, to want the foundations of a developing league to be built on modern progressive football?  Would Slater call him a racist if he preferred a fine Spanish wine to an English lager?  Please.  One look at Foster’s Facebook page would highlight his tolerance and acceptance of all races, colours and creeds.  His ambassadorial role for refugee humanitarian organisation, Football United, is a shining example.

Slater’s sticking up for Magilton, his former Southampton teammate, and his monocultural employer, Premier Media Group by supporting his personal and professional relationships over the longterm interests of the game.  This type of loyalty is not uncommon.  It happens every day in corporate Australia.

“It is surprising that you dislike the British so much because after all, they gave you a career playing in the, guess what?  The Championship.  You didn’t mind the British then did you?  Good money you earned and you enjoyed it all with the help of an Englishman, Terry Venables.  The best you ever had, didn’t you once say?  A man who saw more in you than anyone else did,” Slater added, in an attempt to paint Foster a hypocrite.

If Slater actually bothered to apply critical thought to Foster’s article, he may have noticed his comments were aimed at the direction of coaching, systems and methodology in Australia.  Instead, Slater chose to focus on one paragraph which, at best, implies an institutionalised xenophobia still exists.

Foster believes, “It harks [Magilton's appointment] to both the historical reliance on Britons who built and quickly populated the coach education ranks in Australia and the beginnings of the A-League, when the immediate reaction of clubs was to import at a feverish rate from the mother country.”

This is a well-established view at SBS.  Slater was quoted as saying, “SBS is now redundant” not so long ago.  Why?  Because Australians only like English football or perhaps, they prefer to pay to watch the game that used to be free.

SBS’s football father, Les Murray, used to talk about this stuff on air with the late, Johnny Warren.

In his book, By the Balls (Random House Australia, 2006), he writes, “I’m sure Johnny would join me in shouting that Australia is a submissive football culture, deep in the throws of a colonial mentality, paying undue homage to motherland influences that are beyond their time and regressive to our football interests.”

“He would say that we should listen to the ‘wogs’, allow them to influence us.  Johnny never used the word ‘de-ethnicisation’ though he did campaign for football’s ‘Australianisation’: something he defined as the increased use of Australian players and coaches, giving our kids a go; and being pro-active in shaping our own football identity.”

It’s worth noting that it was Johnny who saw something special in Foster and invited him on the show, kick-starting his media career.

In an attempt to rile Foster, Slater said, “What is this pedestal you have put yourself on?  It is not the one the late and great, Johnny Warren, stood on.  He would be ashamed of you!  And, who are you to preach with your dark secret?”

“Well, bugger you.  You upset my 82-year-old father, who had a tear in his eye after reading your crap.  Yes, he is English but back to your secret.  Explain to all your followers why you are the only Socceroo to have been, to my knowledge, effectively banned, never to be selected again, after a disgraceful incident following a World Cup Qualifier in Tahiti.  Maybe the true legend who got you out of that Tahitian jail should have left you there!  Hang your head in shame.”

The Socceroos coach at the time was Frank Farina.  Those inside the game who know this so-called “dark secret” must be laughing.  It’s an absolute storm in a teacup.  I recall Farina doing a few things that got him in trouble during his stint as Brisbane Roar coach, no?  What about Slater’s good mate, Mark Bosnich.  Is he a Saint?  What, Slater’s never made a mistake before?  His emotional intelligence mirrors that of a toddler, to bring that up as blackmail is juvenile.

Perhaps the most amusing part to his dummy spit was his suggestion that Les Murray should reprimand him.  For what?

“And Les Murray, you should haul him into your office and tell him his comments are unacceptable.  After all, he does work for the excellent multicultural channel, SBS.  Surely, they can’t be happy with this sort of behaviour.  Enough is enough!  And that’s all I have to say about that!”

SBS is an “excellent multicultural channel” now.  Wasn’t it redundant?

In Chapter 15 of Johnny’s gospel, Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters (Random House Australia, 2002) he states, “Australia’s best coach is SBS.”

“[SBS] has singularly been the most influential organisation on the development of football in Australia.  From youngsters first being introduced to playing the game to internationals strutting their stuff in the most celebrated competitions, SBS has enhanced the knowledge and understanding of the world game in Australian fans and players alike.”

“SBS is a network with viewers from all sorts of backgrounds and allegiances.  Even when an Australian team has been playing, objectivity has had to be maintained at all times.”

If only Slater could understand, there’s a bigger picture.

Foster and his views on football, clearly articulated in his first book, Fozz on Football (Hardie Grant Books, 2010) has an unwavering passion.  That is, to see Australia reach a consistent and well-respected place in world football.

Instead of being emotional, single-minded and down right childish, Slater would do himself a world of good by thinking before he jumps to conclusions.  Australians typically love a larrikin, a boofhead, a glass half-full type of character.  In that regard, Slater wins the popular vote.

Foster is a different animal.  He is critical, often mistaken for negative, because he understands the historic struggle from the grassroots to the Socceroos.  The game is supposed to be fun, but someone has to get serious about its future.

The game, its players and fans lose in this kind of civil war of competing ideologies.  For those of us who have spent tens of thousands of dollars or more on football, watched and supported the game during the National Soccer League era (and prior to), packed the car for inter-State trips or flown around the world to support the Socceroos, and now embraced the A-League: we deserve better.

In response to Slater’s comments, Foster has come out today and said, “Whilst some of the comments yesterday were serious and warrant further action, I’m pleased an important issue is given oxygen for debate.”

Slater has defended his comments today on FOX Sports News.  He’s not one to back down until ingloriously proven wrong.  Remember his condemnation of Harry Kewell regarding his place in the Socceroos?  The embarrassing on-air feud?

This debate will divide the football fraternity.  On Twitter last night, there were so many tweets flying around that both “Robbie Slater” and “Craig Foster” were trending.  A personal and potentially defamatory attack on a former teammate isn’t the sort of trend to be proud of.

Slater, play the ball and not the man.

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Two young coaches, relatively speaking, sit atop the dais in deep reflection at the magnitude of their accomplishments.  José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola are the new breed of coach – highly detailed, indisputably passionate and obsessed with perfection.  Both have basked in glory yet they come from completely contrasting ideological and philosophical perspectives.

Mourinho, a Portuguese demigod to his disciples, has been the centre of attention in European football since he dumped Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United out of the UEFA Champions League on his way to lifting the trophy with FC Porto in 2004.  The power of language has not been lost on the self-proclaimed “Special One,” indeed his press conferences have been more like epic sermons for the media circus to worship.  His ability to engage and entertain draws comparison to great theatre.  Mourinho is the writer, actor and critic of his own play.  Now more than ever at Real Madrid.

In Guardiola we see a humble being, a Catalan with prodigious personality.  A man on a mission to maintain his ethics no matter what the outcome.  He believes in a system of play that incorporates every player with a common goal and that is, to create.  The defining element in modern football is creativity because it’s the one aspect in which a coach can choose to embrace or control.  Guardiola has embraced it, season-after-season on his way to three domestic league titles, and two Champions League honours in three seasons with Barcelona.

Both coaches will never be unemployed again, unless by choice.  Their list of achievements are long and enviable.  Mourinho and Guardiola have immense interpersonal skills.  To manage multimillion-dollar superstars and their egos requires more than intrinsic motivation.  They must (and have) challenged, sculpted and lead their players resolutely with arrant trust and honesty.

Perhaps the polarity between Mourinho and Guardiola was discovered during last season’s El Clásico battles.  The first was a 5-nil exhibition by Barcelona.  In an interview with El País, former Argentina World Cup winner and Barcelona boss, César Luis Menotti provided his thoughts on the competing ideologies.

“The 5-0 Clásico at the Camp Nou is for the rest of his [Guardiola] life.  I try to think and cannot come up with a game like that one – that I’ve seen or participated in. He conquered Mourinho for the rest of his life.”

Even so, revenge was brewing.  The two Spanish clubs met four times in 18 days between April and May – League, Copa del Rey Final and two Semi-Final legs of the Champions League.  A 1-1 draw, 1-0 Madrid victory in extra-time in the Cup, and 3-1 aggregate triumph for Barcelona in Europe showcased the beautiful game in spectacular drama.

The key difference between Madrid and Barcelona was not the players’ ability and perhaps a surprise to many, not the way the two sides train.  According to Menotti, “They do not train so differently, that what they do is very similar.  [Mourinho] trains very well.  Conceptually, they are very similar.  But on the field, at the hour of truth, they have nothing in common.”

Madrid under Mourinho have played with two defensive midfielders and hit on the counter-attack.  To be fair, for a side which has received much criticism for their style, they were the League’s top goal-scorers with 102 goals.  That was seven more than Barcelona.

When comparing the two coaches, how can it be done objectively?  They are two different men coming from two very different footballing experiences.  Mourinho is highly sought after for his methods, his neurotic sensibility.  He’s a winner, a problem-solver employed to do just that.  He is flawless when it comes to building a bunker mentality – it’s “us” vs. “them” and they hate you, and not just you but everything about you.

Guardiola appears to be more concerned with letting the football provide the answers.  He can always brag that he played the game at the highest level and under the tutelage of a visionary, Johan Cruyff.  It’s under Cruyff where he perfected the art of what’s referred to as, “Tiki-taka” a progressive form of Total Football.

It’s essentially a style of play in which well-timed short passing and movement is maintained whilst in possession, moving the ball through midfield in intricate patterns of one and two-touch passing.  Every player knows his role and the aim is to allow flair, creativity and expression.  This system allowed Barcelona to play Madrid off the park.

Is it just to criticise Mourinho for his approach to football?  He’s employed to win.

Is Guardiola merely implementing a system he was taught as a player?  Does he have to achieve the same success at another club in order to prove he made this current Barcelona side arguably the greatest in history?

What makes a good coach?  Ask a fan of a struggling club anywhere in the world, who would you prefer to lead your team, Mourinho or Guardiola?

The answer is not in the football.

Thorsten Wagner/Getty Images

Football does not discriminate.  Since the first kick of a ball in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup held in Germany, this statement has been proven.  In the past, football has acted in breaking down barriers to race and religion.  Now, gender barriers have been well and truly shattered.  The world game belongs to us all – its ability to unite, harmonise and empower.

This morning, Japan lifted the World Cup trophy after an inspirational effort against the mighty United States.  Underdogs by name, champions by stylish play.  The match was a high-energy thriller to the very end.

Alex Morgan opened the scoring on 69 minutes but Aya Miyama levelled it with nine minutes remaining.  1-1, another match headed into extra-time.  A goal on 104 minutes by the USA’s, Abby Wambach was again cancelled out by Japan with just three minutes to go, 2-2.  Japan captain, Homare Sawa was determined to take the match to a penalty shootout.  There was no contest.  Japan dominated the spot kicks, 3-1, leaving the USA crestfallen.  Americans don’t do second well.

Japan is the first nation from Asia to win the tournament.  It means a lot to the team but even more to the nation after the recent earthquake and tsunami tragedies.  What a story for Sawa, the number ten was an outstanding contributor.

“We came here for a medal but I could never have imagined winning it and I could never have imagined collecting the Golden Boot as well as being a world champion,” Sawa said, in an interview with FIFA.com.  Sawa went on to say, “I’ve been through the difficult times for women’s football in Japan so I really feel relieved.  It doesn’t feel like reality.”

The tournament was a shining display of why the beautiful game is watched by billions around the world.  The women’s game seldom features the simulation (diving, playacting etc.), time-wasting and egotism regularly featured in men’s football.  Kudos to the good nature and ethical respect in women’s football.

For those who have watched the women’s game grow, the World Cup in Germany was in many ways a watershed moment.  The game has met the point of no return – it has engaged the world.  Be sure to watch the London Olympic Games in 2012.  It will be another year of superb women’s football.

Congratulations to the players, coaches, administrators and fans of Japan.  It’s a win for Asian football and an undeniably inclusive game.

It’s not every day you stumble across a masterpiece but that’s exactly what happened to me today.  In my local bookstore, there it was, a uniquely illustrated and fascinating hardcover history of the FIFA World Cup titled, World Cup 1930-2010.

The book’s illustrator is Germán Aczel.  To put it simply, the man is a genius – hand and creative mind act as one.  The writer, Randall Northam (founder of SportsBooks) compliments Aczel’s drawings with fluid text and quirky facts.

Your zygomaticus major and risorius muscles will get a serious workout as you turn each page.  If you’re not smiling, close the book and start again.

Only a few pages in and there’s a glorious sketch of the Jules Rimet Trophy.  Then a detailed storyboard of the 1930 World Cup Final which Uruguay won 4-2 against Argentina.

Each tournament is examined in the most idiosyncratic fashion.  Tactical player lineups and fan facts sit perfectly amongst the divine sketches that get more emphatic with every turn of the page.

As a zealot of the Italian game (and an FC Internazionale Milano fan), the depiction of Giuseppe Meazza in ’34 is really quite something.  The Italians were just as dashing then as they are now.

Be sure to keep an eye on the formations used by the teams contesting each Final.  How the game has changed.  Hungary broke the two-defender mould in ’54 with three and in ’58, Brazil used four.  Aczel introduces us to a 17-year-old, Pelé and a sketch of one of the greatest goals of all-time against Sweden in the Final.  What a frontline: Garrincha, Vavá, Pelé and Zagallo.  What a team.

Brazil’s dominance in ’58 and again in ’62 is beautifully illustrated.  As is ’66 when England won their first and only tournament against West Germany.  Again, Aczel designs the lionheart in delicate style.

Bobby Moore holds the Jules Rimet aloft and if you look closely you’ll see a hilarious likeness of Nobby Stiles, famous for his victory jig, minus his front teeth.

Banks, Cohen, Moore, Wilson, Ball, Stiles, the Charltons, Peters, Hunt and Hurst dominate 12 pages that will take Anglophiles back to the nation’s proudest sporting achievement.  It’s certainly a highlight.  The sketch of the Russian linesman conferring with the referee as to whether the ball had crossed the line is priceless.  We’ve all seen the footage.

Perhaps the most important of all World Cups was ’70.  The Brazilians dominated yet again and the world’s best got to showcase his talents for the last time.  A Seleção bid farewell to the great, Pelé.  Aczel captures the skill, emotion and momentous occasion artistically.  You’ll be stuck on these 10 pages for a while, trust me.

’74 features a page dedicated to remembering the era’s hairstyles.  As a fan of sideburns, I find this one particularly funny.  No one did hirsute like the Germans and Dutch.  There’s a magestic caricature of the Dutch master, Johann Cruyff and a comic representation of the Cruyff Turn – thoroughly enjoyable.

Aczel shows us the brilliance of “Total Football” in serious detail and carefully stresses the characteristics of the Final by drawing Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer’s men in all their glory.  We also see the new, solid-gold, FIFA World Cup Trophy.

The “paper storm” portrayal of Argentina’s victory in ’78 is surreal.  The world learned to never take Argentina to extra-time.

There are some passionate drawings of Italy’s ’82 triumph, Azzurri fans.  But the infamous, Harald Schumacher clattering of Patrick Battiston when West Germany played France in the Semi-Final is the pick of the bunch.

It becomes clear that Aczel (an Argentinian by birth) has a strong affection for the ’86 Finals.  No surprise.  The drawings which accentuate the flair and unequalled gifts of Diego Maradona are perhaps, the best I’ve seen.

Maradona’s “Hand of God” moment followed by the “Goal of the Century” please the eye.  In ’86, it was all about El Diego.  For many, myself included, he’s the best player to have ever played.

Italia ’90 is a real treat.  Aczel opens with the penalty which decided the Final – West Germany defeating Argentina by a goal to nil.  He perfectly captures the angles of both the taker, Andreas Brehme and the outstretched goalkeeper, Sergio Goycochea.  Brilliant.

There is some serious effort put into the depiction of this tournament.  It’s obvious that Aczel really lived through this period (as did I).  West Germany, led by Lothar Matthäus, were just unstoppable.

USA ’94, this is hot, hot, hot!  Bebeto’s rockin’ the baby, Oleg Salenko scores five goals against Cameroon and Maradona’s international career ends in drug controversy – all superbly illustrated in colour.  What about Roberto Baggio’s missed penalty?  Well, see for yourself.

France hosted the ’98 Finals and Aczel features the iconic, Zinedine Zidane.  Of course, this tournament would make his career.  David Beckham’s red card for kicking-out at Diego Simeone and Dennis Bergkamp’s goal of the World Cup are the standout drawings.  France’s 3-0 drubbing of Brazil in the Final was pure teamwork.

A state-of-the-art ball, a glittering performance from a real Brazilian superstar and the vindication of an Englishman made South Korea/Japan ’02 a highly engaging Finals.  Asian football is on the map.  Don’t laugh too hard at the picture of Ronaldinho.  Brazil are champions, again!

The World Cup in ’06 will be remembered forever.  It was meant to be a fairytale ending for a truly graceful man.  However, for Zidane, it was more like a nightmare.  Aczel comes up with, for me, the funniest sketch in the book.

Zidane’s headbutt into the chest of Italy’s, Marco Materazzi is sidesplitting.  The tournament cannot be discussed without mentioning this moment.  Materazzi apparently made a derogatory comment about Zidane’s sister and the France captain wasn’t about to let it slide.  He saw red, literally, and the Italians hoisted another trophy which they probably deserved for their uncompromising defence.

So, the final set of illustrations of course, belong to the highlights of last year’s tournament in South Africa.  What stands out here is the creation of the modern footballer.  Aczel does an amazing job at painting Cristiano Ronaldo as a superhero, Lionel Messi as a little magician and Fernando Torres as some kind of matador.

If you don’t buy this book, you’re missing out on a visually fixating journey through time.  The world game has never been so carefully crafted in pictures, so meticulously scribed and fun in so many ways.

This is one for the coffee table not the bookshelf.  Everyone can enjoy this thoroughly entertaining look at the World Cup.  Just don’t ask me to lend it to you.

Buy World Cup 1930-2010.

Don Arnold/Getty Images

Corporate games are highly tactical.  Like professional footballers on the pitch, employees at Football Federation Australia (FFA) have to be elite.  A coach, manager and even a scholar will tell you, in order to be considered so requires 10 years or 10,000 hours of training.  Today, FFA announced a major overhaul of its staff – a new structure.

According to FFA Chief Executive, Ben Buckley, “Our strategic focus for the next four years will be all about elite performance of our national teams on the international stage and the key domestic targets of consolidating the Hyundai A-League and enhancing the vital connections with the game’s grassroots participation base.”

Pardon me, but wasn’t that the plan from the outset?  Can’t see anything new about that.  Apparently, the old staff missed the memo.

Maybe they didn’t.  Maybe the football people just weren’t used to ticking little boxes on a sheet marked, “KPIs” and handing it to their line manager for weekly appraisal.  Believe it or not, there are (or were) some “football” people working away in the bunker.  With clinical precision, they were the first to go today.

Buckley’s primary objective is, as he said, to “give FFA the right size and right skills and resources for the strategic priorities in the lead up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.”  Yet all he’s done is give the men in the highest-paid positions with the greatest amount of responsibility, more accountability – a higher perch to fall.

Call it downsizing, a restructure or streamlining.  Whatever hyperbolic human resource management term you can find in your old Business Studies textbook.  It’s sociopathic behaviour at its best.

A strategic plan is important in any corporation, vital in fact.  Any MBA graduate will state its function as the foundation of a sound business model.  But cutting support staff is the first sign of a deeper cultural problem.

The established organisational culture at FFA is the responsibility of the CEO.  Buckley’s house, Buckley’s rules.  So, we’ve all got Buckley’s.

How quickly “new football” has become a game of politics.  Buckley is aligning his henchmen like a fascist dictator who’s losing the support of his people.  He took his eye off the metaphoric ball and put all “our” eggs in one basket with the 2022 FIFA World Cup bid.  In doing so, the A-League and W-League suffered, the clubs in particular.  None more so than the recently axed North Queensland Fury, who are demanding an independent review.

Opportunities missed, lessons unlearned and one big mess that resembles an old administration bereft of leadership.  There’s something unsettling about a former AFL player running football.

While some are now preparing their resumes others are smiling ear-to-ear.  National Technical Director, Han Berger, has said all the right things to be given greater autonomy.  He may consider himself some kind of Abel Tasman but don’t be fooled, he hasn’t discovered anything.  What we have here in Australia – the widely underestimated and undervalued talent pool – has been developed by those at the grassroots long before he flew into town.

Berger’s now officially the boss of Socceroos coach, Holger Osieck and Matildas coach, Tom Sermanni.  According to FFA, Berger will “oversee and implement a comprehensive player pathway from grassroots to elite levels and will build a uniform national program designed to set the foundations for sustained Australian success on the world stage.”  You can do all this by cutting staff, hey?

Lyall Gorman better have his cholesterol under control.  The A-League is his baby but now he’s been given the W-League and National Youth League to run.  Gorman will also be in charge of event management for all national team games played at home.  How many eyes, arms and legs has this guy got?  Buckley’s paid him handsomely to do his worrying for him.

Of course, rugby man, John Boultbee is always there to lend a helping hand.  Boultbee is now in charge of ensuring the application of national programs to football’s grassroots participation base.  Good luck sorting out the States and Territories.  You’ve had what, six years to do so?

There is a fresh face in a senior position.  Former SBS broadcaster, Kyle Patterson, has been handed the Head of Corporate Affairs and Communications role previously held by Bonita Mersiades.  This is an interesting appointment.  Patterson, one-time host of SBS’s On The Ball program, would be considered “old soccer” by many who have been in and around the game for a long time.

According to FFA, Patterson will have responsibility for “an overarching and comprehensive communications strategy engaging all stakeholders within the ‘football family’ and will cover media management, marketing, public relations, government relations, on-line communications and broadcaster operations.”  Can one person really make an impact in each of these key areas?

He can start by putting the A-League on free-to-air television so more than 25% of the country has access to it.  So the people have access to the people’s game.

Buckley said today, “These changes recognise where we’ve come from as well as set us up for the next four years.”  He went on to say, “A key to this is integrating the three core areas of our game and engaging at all levels of football.”

A toxic culture is like a cancer: it spreads if not caught early.  Buckley may believe he’s stopping the rot but the fish rots from the head down.

Scott Barbour/ALLSPORT

Australian football is in crisis.  Don’t let the spin doctors fool you – and they will try.  The game’s grassroots could do with some industrial strength fertiliser.  The A-League is starving to the point of emaciation, and the failed 2022 FIFA World Cup bid was nothing short of jejune.  All of this under the leadership of Frank Lowy and his heavily sedated lapdog, Ben Buckley.

Who’d be a football fan in Australia?  For those of us who are (and have been for decades not moments), it’s a constant battle for respect and acceptance.  Let’s make one thing clear: football apartheid exists.  Australian football has some critical issues to address internally before even contemplating a move to become the nation’s game of choice.

It’s times like these, we need Johnny.  He told us so, but we’ve lost our way.  Of course, I’m referring to Johnny Warren.  The man who aptly titled his autobiography, ‘Sheilas, wogs and poofters‘ in reference to a social mentality that still exists throughout the sporting community – one that should have been erased by now.

What’s wrong with Australians?  Why don’t they like football?  Hang on, it’s soccer.  No wait, wogball.  Why didn’t the people of Australia back the bid?  332,788 people registered their interest on the bid website.  Not ‘our’ game, not interested.  European, South American, Asian – but not Australian.  Isn’t it sad that a country in love with sport is more interested in the visit of Oprah Winfrey than the prospect of hosting an event that could inject $5 billion to the economy?

An insightful text was published this year titled, The Containment of Soccer in Australia: Fencing Off the World Game (edited by Christopher Hallinan and John Hughson).  It discusses a number of contemporary issues and highlights a paradox:

“According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, outdoor soccer was the second most popular organised sport for Australian children after swimming.  It far outstripped the popularity of the three other football codes that are played in Australia – rugby league, rugby union and Australian Rules football.  Yet the soccer participation phenomenon in Australia is matched neither by the media coverage of the game… nor by the academic interest.”

It just doesn’t make sense.  Parents want their kids to participate in the game but they’re seemingly disinterested in it outside of that environment.  This is why the majority of the work needs to be done at the grassroots – culturally, socially, collectively and inclusively.  Bottom up, not top down.  But how can it be?

Football Federation Australia (FFA) is a governing body replete with insipid corporate types – staunch capitalists with as much feeling for the game as a two-dimensional cartoon kangaroo.  Where are the football people?  Ignored, forgotten, discarded – old soccer.

The National Soccer League (NSL) wasn’t professional enough – let’s agree on that.  But it had real passion, people who loved the game for its fluid passing, creativity and ability to infuse emotional breadth.  Now, we’ve just got goals, beers, hotdogs and plagiarised English chants.  Six seasons of the A-League and it’s up to the fans to build the game, create the atmosphere – what an abdication of administrative responsibility.  Marketing 101.

Many of the game’s most loyal, intensely technical and worldly fans left their NSL clubs in 2005 to embark on the promise of something amazing – the A-League.  Hated by the NSL diehards, who call them dogs and traitors, these people are now completely jaded by the road less travelled.  As if to say, “we trusted you and you led us to limbo.”  Lions for lambs.

Remember what happened when the South Sydney Rabbitohs were kicked out of rugby league?  There were street parades and riots, celebrities coming out in droves to support the club – mass hysteria.  Perhaps more poignantly, when Rupert Murdoch came back to town and sent league into chaos with the formation of ‘his’ Super League, the fans stood up to be counted.  Wasn’t going to happen.

Australian football is beholden to one man: Frank Lowy.  He doesn’t own the game, his money doesn’t rule the game, he isn’t the game.  It was quite clear to FIFA that he thought he was above the game – “my dream is” he said.  Most don’t know the history of Australian football, how he failed with the NSL and Sydney City (Hakoah).  That is not to say that he hasn’t done a good job as chair of FFA, his effort has been admirable.  But if the game’s future rests solely on his shoulders, well, that says it all.

The fundamental issue surrounding the state of football is tradition.  Tradition is part of every major sporting competition in Australia.  But sadly, football’s tradition is looked upon as toxic – ethnic, corrupt, and unmarketable to the Australian people.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The suits have passed their used by date – the milk’s off.  Bring in former NSL players, Socceroos, coaches, and even fans to consult to FFA.  The only way ‘our’ game will go forward is to accept the history, be honest about the present and strategically focused on the future.

Stop shooting the messenger and missing the message.