13 Feb 2008

Dear 'Das Libero'

Your web magazine ws a great find. I really enjoyed all your articles and features. Even those that I did not agree with....which leads me to Matty's Mauling, and the article written by Paul Mavroudis.

Let's deal with Matty first.

It was certainly an entertaining read. And Matty makes a few pertinent points, and it was very funnily written.

However there was a part of me that felt uncomfortable. Not only because I do enjoy Australian Rules as well as football, but also because it was like reading the soccerphobes like Mike Sheehan, or Trevor Grant in reverse.

Matty rightly argues that Australian Rules Football people are deluded that their game is the 'greatest game in the world'. But then uses the same derision that some AFL writers use againts our game towards AFL.

Then again if this piece was meant as a bit piece of light entertainment I can understand why it was written. However imagine if that sort of tone was used towards football. We would have been outraged, the author would have been swamped with nasty emails and it would have been included in 'Das Libero' 'soccerphobia' section.

Now to Paul's article about Tony Ising's demise.

I thought that it was a terrific article. The metaphor of the rock band was right on the money.

The only thing I would disagree however, is the argument that the A-League has becomed something for those: "who needed something to do over the summer, those sucked in by the far too serious and self-referential 'atmosphere' and those who wanted to be in the 'in crowd', and who saw soccer as giving them some sort of cosmopolitan flavour in a country torn between cringeworthy parochialism and a need to be loved by everyone overseas."

That's a pretty disparaging description of A-League crowds. I understand Paul's poor opinion of the new football administration that stated (incorrectly) that everything about 'old soccer' was bad.

Traditional teams like South Melbourne, and the communities that created them and nurtured them were treated badly. "Thanks you did support soccer when it was treaded like crap over the decades, but now that is a desirable product you can go now" seems to have been the message from the FFA.

However people like Paul have to also recognise that 'old soccer' was dragging our sport down to a point of no return. Traditional teams like South Melbourne and the Melbourne Knights, may have been caring about the tradition of football, but it cannot be denied that they were inexorably linked (whether that was the truth or not) to a particular ethnic group.

This image, did alienate many potential football supporters.

Paul may be disparaging about A-League crowds, but personally I'd rather see 30,000 people at Telstra Dome following a football game with a mixture of cultural groups than 5,000 at Bob Jane Stadium with the crowds being predominantly from one ethnic group.

And I welcome those people that Paul describes above. People follow sport for whetever reason. Some of these 'bandwagoners' as they are disparagingly sometimes referred to, may turn out to be the committed fan of the future.

I agree with Paul that people like Lord may be in it for the money. But he did take a risk in getting the team off the ground. And the fact that football has moved out from the marginalised sport that was before is a success, by anyone's standards.

Hopefully as football develops in the future. The true believers from the old traditional team wont see the A-League as a plastic money making venture, and the FFA won't see those who were involved in football before the A-League as ethnic feudal lords only interested in their little teams.

Hopefully the two worlds will combine. And this would only serve to strenghten the sport in Australia even further.

Gweeds from rank and vile

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