I have been in New Zealand for a while for some much needed holidays but even there I was unable to escape the ego fight between the AFL bosses (Andrew Demetriou and company) and FIFA (and head Australian Soccer honcho Ben Buckley). I am sure every AFL, Soccer and sports fan has their own opinion on this matter.
Has Demetriou meet his ego match in the FIFA?
If you have been in a placed deprived of AFL that is bigger than New Zealand (honestly AFL has no footing there) basically the Soccer heirachy lead by Ben Buckley (ex footballer, ironic is it not?) and Kevin Rudd are aiming to get the FIFA World Cup held in Australia in either 2018 or 2022.
While on face value there is nothing wrong with the FIFA trying to improve on their standing in Australia to really lay claim to the fact that they call Soccer “The World Game” the problem lays in their demands and this is what I want to focus on.
This is the sticking point in the fight and to be honest I do not see any of them backing down, so unless someone backs down, I expect we will never see a down under Soccer (Football) World Cup.
Like I said before I have been out of the country so I may have missed some of the finer details but quickly, to host the FIFA World Cup they need 10-12 Stadiums that can host 40,000+ people and the event to be hosted in the months of June or July and on top of that they demand that no major sport event/ competition can be played during and before for 4 weeks – to build the expectation.
This is where the battle of the ego’s starts, as no way can the AFL stop their competition for two months in the middle of the normal season. Yes they have previously started early and modified the season before but you are talking about a week or two and not two whole months.
So on one hand you have FIFA being pig headed and demanding that the cup has to be played in June or July to match the northern hemisphere season and then you have the AFL who will NEVER give up a 150+ million (correction) 3+ billion dollar season but most importantly let their push into Sydney and Queensland be effected just 10 years after the new teams have been placed.
So who will win and who will loose the ego fight? Only time can tell…
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December 13th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Just remember Jermayn, that it is also the NRL in danger of losing their season as well.
If you cancel the AFL & NRL seasons, there will be a major uproar by fans of the respective codes.
Now remember that WA, SA, VIC, TAS & NT are AFL dominated states, and NSW & QLD are generally NRL dominated states with AFL close behind in QLD. So basically the entire country will lose their preferred sporting season to make way for a game that is NOT Australian and is probably the fourth most popular sport (behind AFL, NRL & Cricket)
Honestly as much as I would love to see a SOCCER (Not football) World Cup in Australia, I would rather miss out on the World Cup than an AFL or NRL season.
Oh and by the way it is interesting to note that the FFA (Football Federation Australia) will appeal to allow the AFL/NRL seasons go ahead. Why? Well basically the AFL & NRL can prevent the FFA from getting the Stadium deals they need to lodge a successful appeal.How? They are the major leaseholders at the stadiums, for example (and correct me if I’m wrong) the AFL has leased the MCG until 2033.
So if the FIFA World Cup wants to come to Oz…then they will probably have to still allow the AFL/NRL seasons to continue or…fork out a couple of hundred million dollars in compensation…
December 14th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Yes I have not forgotten the NRL and the other Rugby codes but lets be honest the FIFA will affect the AFL more financially…
I would argue that maybe Swimming and the other Rugby codes are still ahead of Soccer (I will not call it football) but you make a very very good point and my point of 150+ million the AFL makes is way wrong, its more like 3+ BILLION dollars….
The only benefit I can see with the FIFA World Cup coming to Australia is that Subiaco may finally get the upgrade it needs.
December 15th, 2009 at 7:53 am
I just think honestly we don’t have the infrastructure and adequate stadiums to cater for all domestic competitions and the Soccer World Cup.
Perth barely has a decent stadium to host anything bigger than a minor group stage game.
Sport is a business and another business is not going to let a competing business prosper if they have to suffer.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Oh I think we have the infrastructure and enough stadiums to host the World Cup, in fact without any upgrades to any of the stadiums we could host the FIFA World Cup tomorrow.
However as you say the issue is that June/ July is our busiest time for sports with Rugby Union/ League, Soccer and also AFL and there is no way you can also have a World Cup at the same time.
I bet you if you could have the FIFA World Cup in September, no one including the AFL would have an issue….
December 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
‘I just think honestly we don’t have the infrastructure and adequate stadiums to cater for all domestic competitions and the Soccer World Cup.’
not at the same time somethings got to give…
December 17th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
FIFA aren’t being pig-headed, Jermayn. They anticipate that countries/regions bidding for the World Cup will be football followers, as indeed most of the world is. FIFA didn’t specifically ask FFA to bid. FIFA have developed a set of pre-conditions that work well in a football — as distinct from Aussie rules — area. I think it was commonsense for FFA to have ironed out the calendar clash scenarios before announcing the bid. Note too that the ‘rectangularisation’ of the MCG appears to be the point at which FFA’s dreams began to unravel. AFL seem to have been amenable to an arrangement until that little hand grenade was thrown.
.-= aussierulesblog´s last blog ..AFL vs FFA/FIFA: No contest =-.
December 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
@AussieRulesBlog – So you say its FFA that is being pig headed and not FIFA? If you look at other sporting organisations that hold world competitions they allow flexibility when to host the competition, FIFA does not..