Right. That's it. I've absolutely had enough of this.
If I have to read one more article about how Australia hosting the World Cup would be a threat to faux-football civilization in our sunburnt country, I think I'm going to go mad.
For years, football people have put up with sporting events from other codes. We've dealt with the 2003 rugby union world cup, the 2008 rugby league world cup and it's no secret that, on AFL final weekend, A-League crowds plummet. For years, we've dealt with biased and degrading "soccer" coverage (i.e. the Telegraph, Peter Fitsimmons, Channel 7's NSL ‘deal').
To be honest, it's about bloody time we had something to cheer about.
Over the past few weeks, the melodramatic scenarios proposed by alternate codes could put the soap opera script writers of the world to shame. NRL boss David Gallop said: "We are not trying to stand in the way of the World Cup bid but we are not prepared to fall off the face of the planet either." AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou claimed that "we'd have to cancel the season... cancelling a season is a disaster" and then went on to claim that it would endanger various AFL clubs.
What planet are these men living on?
Um, guys, just quietly...
NOTHING IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE COULD KILL THE AFL OR NRL!
It's not going to be a disaster, you will not fall off the face of the planet and, come the season after the hypothetical World Cup, your codes will run as smoothly as normal (although I can't guarantee the players will behave better).
The only way either of these codes could collapse would be if every person in the country who was mildly interested in them caught swine flu and died. Not very likely.
What is more astounding, though, is that the AFL's criticisms seem to be entirely based around the fact that the MCG would be unavailable for 16 weeks (even though FFA CEO Ben Buckley has stated that it would only be unavailable for around 8 weeks).
I mean, no MCG for 8 weeks? SHOCK HORROR. Move the season's starting time! Cancel the season all together! In fact, let's just cancel the AFL forever!
Or maybe you could use another venue like, um, I don't know Eithad Stadium? Or move some games to Moorabbin Oval or Princes Park? Surprise us!
Surely the AFL season could be structured so that, over the eight weeks in which the MCG will be used, games that would've been played there are moved to alternate grounds or are played at the other team's home ground instead? For example, if North Melbourne are playing West Coast and the game is scheduled to play at the MCG, the game could be moved to Subiaco Oval and, in return, North Melbourne could have another home game earlier or later in the season.
I understand how much preparation goes into preparing a football season but, to me, it doesn't seem to be that much of an issue. The A-League is structured to accommodate other codes, why can't other codes be structured to accommodate a World Cup?
This season, Melbourne Victory have played two matches (round 1 & 5) on Thursday nights to accommodate AFL fixtures. Round 8 saw matches moved to Wellington, Queensland and Newcastle in an attempt to boost A-League crowds on the AFL grand final weekend. In Round 9, an entire Sunday was left A-League free because of the NRL grand final.
A World Cup would be a massive boost to football in Australia. But it would not guarantee certain doom for rugby league, rugby union or Aussie rules. The pandemonium coming from other codes regarding Australia's world cup bid is just that - pandemonium.
Rival codes are not concerned that their code will disappear. They're not even concerned that they're ratings and/or crowds will drop. Because, the truth is, we all know they won't. What they are scared about is that football, real football, is coming of age in Australia.
