Smell the fear?
Saturday 12 December 2009
Written by: Scott Weigand
Despite the egg ball doomsdayer minorities, clearly most Australian's want the World Cup
In either 2018 or 2022 Nostradamus' prediction of the end of the world will come true. Sound a little over the top? Not if you are an administrator of the "egg ball" codes in Australia.
After football has been treated like a second class citizen for countless decades all of a sudden the AFL, NRL and now the ARU have started their push for compensation and even in the extreme case of the AFL a push to deny access to facilities key to the Australian world cup bid.
Why would they do this? Are these people not Australian? You bet! The stench of fear can be smelt from far away and the rival codes are well aware that in a limited marketplace football has been making giant strides in recent times. So much so that if Australia were to win the world cup bid, all of a sudden the next TV deal for football becomes even more attractive for the giant free to air networks and commercial sponsors keen to have their product seen not just in a couple of states in Australia but overseas as well, something football can offer - just look at Clive Palmer, he knows the opportunities which exist in Asia through football.
An increased TV deal for football would of course leave less money in the kitty for other TV deals and this is the lifeblood of these codes. It is no coincedence that the AFL timed their complaints publically immediately after Australia's world cup group was announced, any publicity for football scares the AFL who know only too well how Australians responded with our qualification win over Uruguay and subsequent appearance in Germany 2006. These matters could have and should have been handled in a gentlemanly manner behind closed doors, instead the AFL and to a lesser extend the NRL have opted to publically denounce plans for the world cup in a bid to derail the bid and maintain the status quo.
The AFL dont want the world cup here, instead they want more of this
Ironically, this will most likely work in Australia's favour with FIFA well known for taking the most prized event in world sport to new frontiers, leaving behind a football legacy. Clearly our bid has been extremely well received by the FIFA powerbrokers and im sure that behind closed doors the FFA's bid team would be showing FIFA just how concerned the other codes are, and FIFA have the muscle to hit back and hit back hard.
A further backlash against the AFL could be Government funding of new rectangular stadia in traditional AFL areas of Adelaide and Western Australia. It seems the more they push their cause the further the hole they have to climb out of and for mine it is nice to see them tasting some of their own medicine after years of popping champagne corks each time Australia failed to qualify for the world cup. Now all we need is for the biggest show on earth to head to our shores for the first time and stamp our permanent footprint as a mainplayer in the Australian sporting landscape.
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