Now and Then
26/03/10 17:56 Filed in: A-League
What would a pub conversation between a football fan of the past and a football fan of the present be like? In the week after the stunning close of A-League season 5, Zeroagainst draws a literary long bow to help you find out.
Present: The A-League Grand Final only drew a shade under 45,000 people this weekend. Disappointing really. I was expecting over 50,000.
Past: 45,000 people! What..the Glory vs Brisbane Strikers?
Present: No, no - Sydney vs Melbourne....exciting game - just a pity it wasn’t on free to air - so many more people would appreciate the game if it wasn’t only on Fox.
Past: Wait..you mean Michael J Fox has a soccer show on Channel 7? Does it air before midnight...my boss is losing patience with me at work because I keep sleeping in after watching NSL Match of the Day at 1am in the morning after Hour of Power and the re-runs of Skippy.
Present: No, not Michael J Fox...FoxSports - you know...PayTV? Looks like they will even get the World Cup broadcasting rights. At least we’ll get to see Australia at the World Cup on free to air this year, for the last time...
Past: What, the Rugby world cup?
Present: No, idiot, the World Cup. The FIFA World Cup...
Past: The Socceroos are in the World Cup? What? You mean we finally grabbed one of those half places FIFA throw our way every four years?
Present: No... that was part of the last World Cup..This time we qualified over 6 games via the AFC - the Asian Football Confederation.
Past: Wait..we are part of Asia? We have made another TWO WORLD CUPS?
Present: Yeah this is our third campaign. But we will struggle to make it to the round of 16 this time - they all know what to expect from us.
Past: Wait you mean we made it through to the SECOND round of the World Cup! What happened, did we naturalise half a dozen European footballers?
Present: Umm, no actually the first team Socceroos play in top leagues all over the world and A-leaguers get snapped up by clubs abroad every year.
Past: That would make Soccer Australia happy, I bet.
Present: Mate, soccer is regularly called Football now. We even have a Football Federation of Australia.
Past: That’s something! Same old personnel though I bet...
Present: No - you don’t understand - there was this thing called the Crawford report..Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I am just worried that the new A-League teams that came in this year aren’t doing too well There is a new team in Melbourne next year, and a second Sydney team coming - the game is growing too quickly and the clubs are losing money.
Past: Hang on. There are new clubs forming every season, but they are losing money? How does that work....? People are still running scared from investment in football, hey?
Present: Well, actually, they are lining up to invest. The FFA are pretty strict about business models and the like, though. Not every Tom Dick or Tony gets granted a franchise.
Past: Next thing you are going to tell me we are going to HOST a world cup!
Present: Well actually we are bidding for the 2018/2022 tournament hosting.
Past: Sheesh! That must be annoying the crap out of rugby league.
Present: Actually it's the AFL that's kicking up a stink.
Past: Don't tell me...they have a world cup now, too.
Present: aahh no mate....things haven't changed THAT much.
Past: Of course what was I thinking.... Now, if only we had our own Champions League...
This story also appears in the March 2010 edition of Half Time Heroes, Check it out!
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