A league expanding.

[The Future is League]

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/a-leagues-to-add-canberra-auckland-teams-in-50m-expansion-20230314-p5crwp.html

[hw88]

Where is the money going to come from? Will these teams be viable? The A league has already lost 3 teams and it's only been going 17 years!

On the other side of the coin there seem to be an awful lot of junior teams so there should be quite a big pool of talent to pick from.

[The Future is League]

9 hours ago, hw88 said:

Where is the money going to come from? Will these teams be viable? The A league has already lost 3 teams and it's only been going 17 years!

On the other side of the coin there seem to be an awful lot of junior teams so there should be quite a big pool of talent to pick from.

I have no idea where the money is coming from, but as you say they won't have any trouble signing up players, and also should see an upgrade to the stadium where the Raiders play

[HawkMan]

Countries where Soccer isn't number 1 have all seen a concerted effort by FIFA to get the game upwardly mobile. Got to say , credit to them, if only RL had that kind of joined up thinking from a Worldwide governing body. Obviously staging world cups that generate billions of dollars to plough back in to the game helps.

India, Canada,  Australia have all got pro leagues, they'll never top the popularity in those places, but they're probably here to stay.

What Countries,  excluding tiny little islands,  don't have a professional soccer league?

I thought maybe Pakistan, until I looked it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Premier_League

Edited March 16, 2023 by HawkMan

[gingerjon]

17 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Countries where Soccer isn't number 1 have all seen a concerted effort by FIFA to get the game upwardly mobile. Got to say , credit to them, if only RL had that kind of joined up thinking from a Worldwide governing body. Obviously staging world cups that generate billions of dollars to plough back in to the game helps.

India, Canada,  Australia have all got pro leagues, they'll never top the popularity in those places, but they're probably here to stay.

What Countries,  excluding tiny little islands,  don't have a professional soccer league?

I thought maybe Pakistan, until I looked it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Premier_League

Even the little countries are likely to have a club that is professional.

Football Australia will be fine subsidising if they need to as it’s all about pathways really. The A League seems to have accepted it’s never going to be a global player but it can be a decent grounding for Australian players.

[HawkMan]

13 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Even the little countries are likely to have a club that is professional.

Football Australia will be fine subsidising if they need to as it’s all about pathways really. The A League seems to have accepted it’s never going to be a global player but it can be a decent grounding for Australian players.

Grounding for managers as well. I think Robbie Fowler had a reasonably successful career as boss in the A league, surprised he hasn't got a job in English lower leagues. 

[hw88]

19 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Countries where Soccer isn't number 1 have all seen a concerted effort by FIFA to get the game upwardly mobile. Got to say , credit to them, if only RL had that kind of joined up thinking from a Worldwide governing body. Obviously staging world cups that generate billions of dollars to plough back in to the game helps.

India, Canada,  Australia have all got pro leagues, they'll never top the popularity in those places, but they're probably here to stay.

What Countries,  excluding tiny little islands,  don't have a professional soccer league?

I thought maybe Pakistan, until I looked it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Premier_League

Correct.

FIFA appear to be going for world domination. If you look at the rankings there are 211 countries playing football - more than in the UN I think! All of these have a 'national' league. Even Greenland - a place hardly conducive to football - has a league although they aren't in FIFA. 

I think now that they have the male market sown up they are going after world domination in the womens' game too.

[HawkMan]

5 minutes ago, hw88 said:

Correct.

FIFA appear to be going for world domination. If you look at the rankings there are 211 countries playing football - more than in the UN I think! All of these have a 'national' league. Even Greenland - a place hardly conducive to football - has a league although they aren't in FIFA. 

I think now that they have the male market sown up they are going after world domination in the womens' game too.

Greenland!? LOL You are dead right though. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Greenland

Edited March 16, 2023 by HawkMan

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Greenland!? LOL You are dead right though. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Greenland

They’ve had a team for a while and, I think, compete in the non recognised associations World Cup that is held from time to time

[The Rocket]

17 hours ago, hw88 said:

On the other side of the coin there seem to be an awful lot of junior teams so there should be quite a big pool of talent to pick from

Now there`s a contradiction in terms, `talent` and Australian soccer. I don`t know if you`ve watched Oz soccer but it is awful, they honestly can`t string three passes together, it is almost laughable it`s so bad. Unfortunately, it always suffers by comparison with the highlights shown on our nightly news everynight of the EPL.

BTW crowds this year are at an 18 year low, definitely no World Cup bump.

[hw88]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

They’ve had a team for a while and, I think, compete in the non recognised associations World Cup that is held from time to time

They take part in the Island Games football tournament and have been runners-up twice.

[hw88]

1 hour ago, The Rocket said:

Now there`s a contradiction in terms, `talent` and Australian soccer. I don`t know if you`ve watched Oz soccer but it is awful, they honestly can`t string three passes together, it is almost laughable it`s so bad. Unfortunately, it always suffers by comparison with the highlights shown on our nightly news everynight of the EPL.

BTW crowds this year are at an 18 year low, definitely no World Cup bump.

Am I right in thinking that there is still quite an 'ethnic' element to Australian soccer. I remember in the 70s we used to get the Aussie football results in the summer for pools purposes and a lot of the teams had names like Hellas, Juventus, Croatia, Yugal, Budapest, etc.

[EggFace]

3 hours ago, hw88 said:

Correct.

FIFA appear to be going for world domination. If you look at the rankings there are 211 countries playing football - more than in the UN I think! All of these have a 'national' league. Even Greenland - a place hardly conducive to football - has a league although they aren't in FIFA. 

I think now that they have the male market sown up they are going after world domination in the womens' game too.

Football Fundamentalists.

[lucky 7]

3 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Now there`s a contradiction in terms, `talent` and Australian soccer. I don`t know if you`ve watched Oz soccer but it is awful, they honestly can`t string three passes together, it is almost laughable it`s so bad. Unfortunately, it always suffers by comparison with the highlights shown on our nightly news everynight of the EPL.

BTW crowds this year are at an 18 year low, definitely no World Cup bump.

This would be a set back for fumbleball in its hopes to have a team in Canberra, as Canberra is now full with sports and the Bruce stadium where the soccer team will play does need some upgrades.

[The Masked Poster]

13 hours ago, hw88 said:

Am I right in thinking that there is still quite an 'ethnic' element to Australian soccer. I remember in the 70s we used to get the Aussie football results in the summer for pools purposes and a lot of the teams had names like Hellas, Juventus, Croatia, Yugal, Budapest, etc.

X

Edited March 17, 2023 by The Masked Poster

[gingerjon]

5 hours ago, The Rocket said:

Now there`s a contradiction in terms, `talent` and Australian soccer. I don`t know if you`ve watched Oz soccer but it is awful, they honestly can`t string three passes together,

Doesn't need to be good. Seems to have accepted it won't be. Just need it to be a pathway and be providing the equivalent of US Soccer-Mom families with something for their kids to do and for the occasional decent one to be off earning an annual NRL salary per week in Europe.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

26 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Doesn't need to be good. Seems to have accepted it won't be. Just need it to be a pathway and be providing the equivalent of US Soccer-Mom families with something for their kids to do and for the occasional decent one to be off earning an annual NRL salary per week in Europe.

It does seem that in a lot countries where football isn't number 1, it is embraced by the white middle-class family. I don't know if it's specifically marketed to these families necessarily or not but it does seem to be who is targeted by the sport's governing bodies. 

I remember once seeing a programme where the presenter was investigating the popularity of football in the US and he interviewed black teenagers and asked if they liked football and their mindset was simply that black kids did not play football, I guess based on what they had seen in their own country. As we know of course there are many, many, many black players in other parts of the world but they were just oblivious to this. 

Edited March 16, 2023 by The Hallucinating Goose

[GUBRATS]

Went to NZ back in 75 , aged 14 , 2 years later I was player coach of an adult football team , took myself of in one game because we were winning 14-0

Edited March 16, 2023 by GUBRATS

[EggFace]

7 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Doesn't need to be good. Seems to have accepted it won't be. Just need it to be a pathway and be providing the equivalent of US Soccer-Mom families with something for their kids to do and for the occasional decent one to be off earning an annual NRL salary per week in Europe.

Aussie's don't fall for the Soccer ###### but it's too late but never mind the NRL has the market of people of Island heritage etc.

[Copa]

Canberra can be a hot dry wasteland over summer and many people also depart for holidays down the coast or elsewhere (same for long weekends, Canberra is quieter on a long weekend because we leave for elsewhere).

Canberra stadium will not be a pleasant place to watch daytime soccer if we get a typical summer.

A number of the big soccer clubs here also have traditional ethnic base and they like their own club and that’s that.

My son has played soccer in Europe, North America and in Australia in various leagues and one off tournaments so I’ve had some exposure to the Australian soccer scene. Soccer talent identification in Australia is appalling. It often involves scamming middle class families out of $1000s for all sorts of courses and development teams by telling them their child has potential. These kids are mostly rubbish but the $ keeps coming in.

For some higher level clubs if you’ve got the right surname or your old man is a club sponsor, your chances of being picked for match day can go right up.

At my small local suburban soccer club they used to have a sign saying “Go Raiders!”.

I won’t attend any a-league game in Canberra. It’d be boring, hot and depressing,

[gingerjon]

5 hours ago, Copa said:

Soccer talent identification in Australia is appalling. It often involves scamming middle class families out of $1000s for all sorts of courses and development teams by telling them their child has potential. These kids are mostly rubbish but the $ keeps coming in.

 

Sounds like cricket over here.