My cultish love for Ange Postecoglou

 

Normally I am only a follower of Adelaide United and the Socceroos. However, this year has finally given me a reason to support an English Premier League side which is Tottenham Hotspur predominantly due to the presence of Ange Postecoglou. It is great to see Tottenham have such a good start to the season and although there have been recent struggles due to the injury crisis of the Chelsea game I am sure it will be viewed as the 3-0 lost to Melbourne Victory moment. The lost that cement Ange style of play and Ange leadership of the club.

 

The first time I saw Ange Postecoglou was on SBS during the TV show The World Game and saw him self-destructing on live TV during his infamous interview with Craig Foster after failing to qualify Australia for the U-17 and U-20 World Cup which led him be unemployable in Australian professional football. My main impression was that Craig Foster was behaving unprofessionally, but Ange lost his cool. I can’t imagine at the time that he will become my all-time favourite Football manager.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWGNPFI-MtE

 

The first time I began to appreciate Ange Postecoglou as a manager was watching my side Adelaide United play Brisbane Roar on 6 November 2010. Adelaide United were a decent side that season and finished 3rd in the ladder. However, Brisbane Roar led by Ange Postecoglou made my team look like a joke dominating the match 4-0 with only 10 players. It was the best football I have ever seen an Australian side play where I was witnessing attacking Tika taka possession-based football. When we were 1-0 down Reinaldo received a red card which gave me hope that Adelaide United could come back from the game but instead of that, Brisbane Roar played better and continued to attack without any fear of conceding a goal and scored 3 more goals to demolish our side. When Tottenham was down to 10 men against Luton, I had absolute confidence that Tottenham would still win the match. Due to the brilliant style of football, I started watching Brisbane Roar play in conjunction with Adelaide United and they became my second team. This was the start of my joining the cult of Ange Postecoglou which was finalised when Australia won the 2015 Asian Cup.

 

Ange Postecoglou has now developed a devoted cult-like following among Australian football supporters. It's not just because he is a successful Australian manager or the first Australian to coach in the EPL. Graham Arnold, Patrick Kisnorbo, or Kevin Muscat would not inspire a similar following. Ange Postecoglou is not just a manager but also a symbol and representation of the hopes and dreams of Australian football fans. He embodies our dream that one day, Australian football will reach its potential, win the World Cup, and dominate the sporting landscape instead of AFL or Rugby Code.

The legendary Australian football figure Johnny Warren had the famous quote, 'I'm sick of us saying, 'When are we going to qualify for the World Cup?' When are we going to win the World Cup?' which captures the frustration and dreams of football fans in Australia. However, this was an expression from a retired player who was now a pundit. Ange Postecoglou is the first Australian manager with any degree of success who represents the ambition, dreams, and, unfortunately, the frustration of that quote. He has tried to fulfil Johnny Warren's dream.

 

To set the cultural context of the Brisbane Roar's success, there is a nationwide inferiority complex regarding Australian football. Australia doesn't win by dominating the game and playing attacking passing football. Australians win with fighting spirit and heart, but not with skill. Beautiful football is what we watch overseas at 4 a.m., not in Australia. Australian football is simply not skilful enough to play like Barcelona. The Golden Generations made some inroads in that belief, it was largely the prevailing belief among Australian football fans.

 

Ange Postecoglou's philosophy, which he maintained throughout his career, is that to be the best team in the world, you must play like the best team in the world. He would show footage of peak Barcelona dismantling Real Madrid 5-0 and tell the Brisbane Roar players that this is the standard he expects. If the team failed and lost playing that style, then the players could learn how to improve to become the best. Ange learns as the manager how to improve the team through recruitment, and later with the Socceroos, he learned how the nation has to improve to develop players to become the best in the world.

 

Ange Postecoglou was considered, quite frankly, naive and insane to challenge the cultural inferiority complex of Australia that Australian players aren't good enough and this showed that in his first season, he finished second bottom and he received significant resistance within the club and criticism from the public. However, he was able to win over the players and prove the critics wrong by becoming the greatest A-League team in history. The quickness of his success in implementing the style at Tottenham is not a surprise to me because it is easier to implement an attacking football style in the elite end of the game compared to the culturally entrenched barriers, he faced with Brisbane Roar. This is what people overlook when dismissing his CV based on the league he is in. While it’s not easier to win the A-League compared to EPL. It is harder getting an A-League side to play like peak Barcelona and win compared to coaching an elite well-resource EPL team. It is of note that whenever he "steps up" in league quality, the time it takes to implement his style becomes shorter. 

 

When he coached the Socceroos initially, he felt that he was part of a movement to reinvent the way Australia plays the game of football and to reach the goal of winning the World Cup by playing like World Cup champions. If he didn't succeed in that goal during his coaching career, at the very least, he would create the framework that the Australian national team can play in that World Cup-winning style. His success would lead to the wider football community in Australia developing players who would thrive in that style so that future generations could win the World Cup.

 

Now the narrative among Ange Postecoglou fans was at the first sign of poor results, there were calls from critics, fans, and board members to play more 'pragmatically,' and he realized he wasn't in a movement but on a personal crusade, which he wasn't interested in and was taking a toll on him. He completed his job of qualifying for the World Cup and then resigned. His replacement by a pragmatic, defensive manager in Bert van Marwijk from the FFA essentially represented the death of Ange Postecoglou and Johnny Warren's dream for Australian football. The intention shifted from developing a framework to win the tournament to merely being competitive in it. Ange Postecoglou became a martyr of Australia’s hope and dream to become a dominant football nation.

 

Although there is truth to that narrative it does obscure the reality that performance had deteriorated towards the latter stint of his coaching period with the Socceroos. The team struggled to adapt to him changing his system middle of the campaign and part of the deterioration of the performance is due to the pragmatism of him having a double pivot of Jedinak/Milligan (essentially two defensive players) and benching the Asian Cup best player Luongo resulting in Australia dominating possession but lacking cutting edge. However, the fact that this narrative persisted represents Ange’s strength in creating a narrative and myth greater than himself. Ange has explicitly stated that it is not enough to win as everyone wants to win. That special team have to play for something bigger than just winning.

So, he creates a narrative that the team is not just aiming to win but to revolutionise the way Australia play football and that one day Australia can not just beat the best team in the world but outplay them. This inspires the fans to accept this narrative and create a myth and legend out of Ange as he is not just a manager but a person who represents the "something bigger” principles which at times can obscure the truth and cover up his flaws. This helps inspire the team but helps relieve pressure and protects himself as well.

 

So, what now for the true believers of football in Australia now that Ange is gone and there is some pessimism regarding professional football in Australia due to the struggle of the A-League and that his dream seems so distant. Ange Postecoglou may have failed to 100% complete his dream, but if he succeeds in the EPL and becomes one of the greatest managers in the world, perhaps this will inspire future Australian coaches to complete his dream. This is why Ange Postecoglou isn't just a manager for Australian football fans but a myth and legend and why Australian football fans will follow him wherever he goes.

The English Football Pyramid And The American Dream

In an unrelated forum that has nothing to do with sports, I was chatting with an American who thought “Soccer” was an un-American and socialist game

However I will state the opposite to be true and in fact the way the English structure the football leagues does more to represent the American dream more than any American sports

The idea that opportunity for prosperity, success and social mobility and the idea that ""life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth." is a fundamental part of how Football is run in England. Football in England is an allegory to free enterprise, individualism and a "can do" spirit.

So how does the pyramidal system of football work in England?

There are 22 levels of football in England that contains 140 leagues and more than 7000 clubs. At the top of the pyramid is the spectacular rich grandeur of the English Premier League (EPL), the richest and most glamorous Football league in Europe. At the bottom of the pyramids are local park amateur teams of essentially bunch of friends getting together of having a game of football on the weekend. Every level of football in this pyramid are connected by promotion and relegation where the team that wins the league (sometimes 2nd and 3rd place team) gets promoted to the next level of the pyramid while the team that finish bottom (sometimes 2nd bottom and 3rd bottom) gets relegated to the level below the pyramid. So essentially the top of the English Premier League is connected via promotion and relegation straight down to the grass roots.

So what's so great about this system and how does it connect to the American Dream?

1. If you work hard, you can make it to the top

By connecting the grassroots with the superstardom of the EPL . Every single club in the pyramid, if they have the ability and work hard enough, they can reach the top. Every single club can dream of playing against Manchester United, Liverpool to win the English Premier League. This is because there is a clear progression from the bottom of the pyramid to the top of the pyramid and has a clear set path of social mobility allowing newly form club opportunity to strike it rich.

This pyramid is clearly a representation of the dream that many American wish for of starting a small business and making it big.

2. The barriers of entry is low

The barrier of entry to the Football pyramid is low. Any person who has access to a park to play football and have a bunch of mates can create a club and join the football league. Of course, the more money and the more fanbase and the better football ground the higher the level they let you join the league and clubs that stat of as amateurs, semi-professional and fully professional joins at different stages. However even a person with modest resources can form a football club and participate in the pyramid. This easily represents the ideal vibrant competitive marketplace where the barrier of entry is low that allows anyone with entrepreneur ambition to easily join.

3. No restriction of ambitions

There is no salary cap there is no wealth distribution and there is no draft. It is merely up to each individual club to sign whatever players and staff they can afford and the sky is the limit and there is only small limitation (due to the recent un-American Financial Fair Play) to what resources clubs are allowed to use. This freedom ensures that football is played to the maximum of their ability and to ensure the "pursuit of excellence" in sports is maximised. If you are successful, you aren't punish for the success by having your wealth redistributed to other teams nor will you lose players that help you succeed by unable to pay them the increase in salary they deserve due to salary cap constraints. Clearly this is reflective of the free enterprise that defined America.

4. No incentives for failure

It is open secret that with leagues where there are drafts that "rewards" teams that fail that tanking is prevalent. NBA in the United States have been bogged by tanking allegations with team deliberately not trying hard to maximises the chance of gaining a good draft pick allocated by the governing body.

Is there anything more un-American than that? This is essentially the equivalent of welfare cheat slacking off to get welfare payments from the government and leeching of the success of other people.

Even for sports where there is no draft. The worst thing that could happen in finishing last is that you get to try again the year later.

However in this football pyramid there is absolutely no incentive to play poorly and the consequences is dire. You finish bottom and you get relegated to the next division where you are exposed to much less revenue. Not only is this entertaining for fans where relegation battles are just as entertaining and tension filled as the battle for first place. The pyramid creates a culture of ruthless competition and accountability. Bad management will not be covered up by wealth redistribution and draft picks. The consequences of failure ensure the highly competitive nature that ensures the high standard of football being played in the country.

5. No regards to class, history, circumstances of birth

Imagine if major sporting clubs with a rich history such as Boston Celtics or the New York Yankees have a poor season due to poor management. Due to that poor season, they get relegated and the NBA and MLB have a season where they aren't present at all as they are stuck playing in lower divisions.

It's unthinkable isn't it but that's the reality that football in England face. Sheffield FC the oldest Football club in the world is playing in the 8th division of the football pyramid. Nottingham Forest the first English club to win back-to-back European cups has been playing in the 2nd and 3rd division in England. Leeds United one of the biggest clubs in England have been playing in the 2nd and 3rd division.  In the past Manchester united was relegated in the 1973/74 seasons.

This is sport at it's purist to adopt the "let the scoreboard decide" mentality that is very much a reflection of "let the market decides' attitude that traditional American culture celebrates.

Of course everything doesn’t last for ever and just as modern American society are lamenting the death of the American dream, there are threats to the English Football pyramid with the un-American “Financial Fair Play” that threatens to limit the ambitions of football clubs in Europe.  Nevertheless Football in England reflects the American dream more than any other sport.

So when you think of what is quintessentially American. Don't think about apple pie, hot dogs, Chevrolet, baseball. Think of Soccer in England

The Infamous XI of the 2014 World Cup

The World Cup is over and people will generally create their "Team Of The Tournament" and debate which players performed the best in the World Cup. However following up on my Infamous XI of 2010, I will also select an XI of players who were remembered for the wrong way this World Cup in 2014.

Manager - Luiz Felipe Scolari - Brazil

His coaching CV looks pretty good leading Brazil to win the World Cup in 2002 but it's not often a World Cup victory will be forgotten due to a single defeat. As Scolari stated ""I'm going to be remembered probably that I lost 7-1. But that was a risk I knew I was taking." and the responsibility for the loss rest with Scolari "The catastrophic result can be shared with the whole group ... but the results, the person responsible, is me." For that alone, Scolari will be the manager of this team as he will be forever remembered for managing Brazil to the worst defeat in their history whether that is fair or not. 

GK - Igor Akinfeev – Russia

He's here for the worst goal keeping error of the tournament. The South Korean team were peppering the Russian team with long shot throughout the game perhaps suspecting a weakness in his game. A speculative shot by Lee Keun-Ho went straight to Akinfeev for what seems like a regulation save. Unfortunately Akinfeev fumbled and he desperately dived unsuccessfully as the ball went over the line. South Korea drew the match 1-1 and the drop points were crucial in the early elimination of Russia from the tournament.

LB - Benoit Assou-Ekotto - Cameroon

Cameroon was the worst team in the tournament that was symbolises by instability and infighting. Pre-tournament there was problems with players arguing on bonus being paid to the team and the players even strike refusing to leave the hotel when they were scheduled to fly to Brazil. The disastrous 4-0 defeat to Croatia ended with the defining moment of their campaign when Benoit Assou-Ekotto headbutt Benjamin Moukandjo and required team-mates to separate them. 

CB - Pepe - Portugal

Portugal entered the tournament as dark horses with high hopes for them to at least make it to the knockout rounds. However 2-0 down,  Pepe hand knock Thomas Muller face and although Muller may have overreacted and went down hard. Pepe went up and head butted Muller and was promptly send off. This ended any possibility of a comeback and Portugal capitulated to a 4-0 defeat. Considering that Portugal was eliminated via goal difference, this was potentially the pivotal moment that realistically ended their campaign.

CB - David Luiz (c) - Brazil

The story from hero to zero. After scoring a spectacular free kick against Columbia, David Luiz was celebrated by the Brazilian public and was the toast of the town. He was given the captaincy arm band after the suspension of Thiago Silva for the semi-finals. What should have been one of his more proud moments in his life soon turned sour

He was heavily criticised for his performance especially him making adventurous runs in the midfield leaving the midfield expose and his poor marking for the first Germany goal as well as his poor leadership and his inability to regain composure after the early goal. 

Afterwards he was a subject for mockery about his $50 million euro transfer to PSG. 

However the defining image of the World Cup would be David Luiz post-match interview where he was in absolute tears and it's hard for even the biggest detractors to not feel sorry for him

RB - Juan Zuniga  - Columbia

The man that broke the back of Neymar and broke the heart of Brazil.

On the 87th minute, Juan Zuniga in an act of negligence kneed Neymar in the back. Neymar had to be stretchered off and it was revealed a fractured vertebrae. Neymar revealed that it was only a few inches of causing paralysis and was happy that he wasn't in a wheelchair.  No card and no punishment was given for this act which was quite surprising from an Australian perspective seeing controversy over spinal injuries in other codes and then seeing nothing done when a near miss occurred in Football.

Juan Zuniga became the number 1 villain of the World Cup for the Brazilian public where he received death threats and extra security had to provided for him and the rest of the Columbian team.

DM - Sergio Busquets - Spain

It's not often where a defensive midfielder is given the tag of the worst miss of the tournament. Spain was 2-0 down and desperately needed a goal. When the ball arrived to Sergio Busquets he just needed a solid connection for him to tap into an open net. He horribly mistimed it as the ball harmlessly went wide off the post as Busquet collapse holding his face in shame. Spain despite numerous chances were unable to score and the defending champions were eliminated from the World Cup.

DM - Wilson Palacios - Honduras

Honduras were one of the most physical side in the tournament and that was encapsulated by Wilson Palacios send off in the opening match against France. 

Palacios ended up stamping on Pogba's leg and then continued to kick him when Pogba was trying to retrieve the ball. Knowing he was in trouble, he then added a dive to the mix in trying to cover up his brutality. He was lucky not to be send off there and then and he only received a yellow card. Later on a rash challenge on Pogba that gave away a penalty and he was send off in an act of stupidity and Honduras collapse to a 3-0 defeat. 

DM - Alexandre Song - Cameroon

When Cameroon was trailing 1-0 Alexandre Song in a moment of madness elbowed Mario Mandzukic in the back. Playing with 10 men, Cameroon capitulated to an embarrassing 4-0 defeat.

However there may be more to this event considering that Cameroon are being investigated for match fixing with 7 players being implicated when convicted fraudster Wilson Raj Perumal, accurately predicted the 4-0 result and the fact that a player would be sent off. I can only hope that there isn't anything more sinister to this send off then simply an uncharacteristic mindsnap from Alexandre Song.

LM - Ante Rebic - Croatia

He probably only made this side due to lack of competition in this position as this event happen when the match was already lost at 3-1. Ante Rebic who came in as a substitute in the 69th minute to turn the game for Croatia. Instead in the 89th minute he dribbled inside the box and stuck his foot out in a dangerous tackle towards Carlos Peña and got himself an automatic red card.

RM - Arjen Robben - Netherlands

In some ways it's harsh to put Robben on this list considering that the biggest controversy was the penalty decision that won the match for the Dutch and replays shows that he was actually fouled even if Robben was theatrical about it. 

Nevertheless Robben was diving throughout the match as shown in this video () and after the match he admitted to diving even if it wasn't for the penalty 

However whether he was a villain or not, Robben performance against Mexico sparks controversy and debate about diving in football and he would be remembered for that in this World Cup as long as with his sparkling performances. The following match he was continually booed every time he touched the ball by the Brazilian crowd and his reputation caught up to him where the referee ignored him being consistently fouled.

ST: Luis Suarez (vc) - Uruguay

The only player to made both my list in the infamous XI in 2010 and in 2014. Suarez created the biggest controversy of the tournament where he bit Giorgio Chiellini in the arm and then seeing him collapse to the floor holding his teeth. The fact that he was this was the 3rd biting offense and the bizarre unrepentant attitude from him and the rest of the squad who denied the bite ever happen. He was suspended for 4 months and arguably contributed to Uruguay defeat against Columbia. 

Bench

Iker Casillas – Spain

He was dropped from Real Madrid in their league match and was replaced by Diego Lopez and only played in Europe. Suspect performance in the UEFA Champions League final creates question mark whether his selection in the squad was due to sentiments rather than performance. In the end those doubts was prove correct due to a poor tournament and was widely criticised for his performances against the Netherlands in the 5-1 defeat and against Chile in the 2-0 defeat. However missed out on the first XI as his mistakes was when Spain were already behind in the match. A sad end to a great career.

Marcelo - Brazil

Arguably the worst individual performance of the World Cup. Virtually all of the attacks went down the left back zone and the pattern of the play was Marcelo making a rampaging run down the left and then Germany taking advantages of the space. He probably had a hand in half of the goals Brazil conceded although he wasn't alone in that regard.

Maxi Pereira - Uruguay 

The first red card of the tournament was due to an excellent volley from Maxi Pereira. Unfortunately it was to the shin of Joel Campbell instead of the ball.

Sulley Muntari - Ghana 

The Ghanaian team were striking and threaten to boycott the deciding match against Portugal due to unpaid fees. However Sulley Muntari took the dispute to new levels where he committed an unprovoked physical attack on Executive Committee member of GFA Mr. Moses Armah and he was sent home from the tournament. 

Steven Defour – Belgium

Made a terrible two footed lunge on the shin of Kim Shin-Wook that earnt him a red card.

Antonio Valencia – Ecuador

A studs up challenge on Frenchman Lucas Digne that earn him a straight red, Also notable that it was the 2nd red in 4 games as he got a red card in the warm up match against England as well after getting in a fight with Raheem Sterling.

Diego Costa - Spain

A flop of the tournament and played poorly. Created controversy with a questionable penalty and then headbutted Bruno Martins Indi that wasn't picked up by the referee but was picked up by his manager who promptly subbed him off.

The Psychology Of The Code Wars

Once in a while a Code War article pops up on The Roar and they are generally the most commented article of the day. It is obvious why the code war exist for the CEO of the sporting organization as there are limited resources and the different sports are competing with each other for the share of the market. However, this blog post is trying to analyse why the code war exist for the supporters of the sport who often don’t care much about the economic machination of the people in suits upstairs.

1.      The ties that bind us is the ties that divide us

It is often say that sport is entertainment but although that is an aspect of professional sport, it is a limited definition as video game, movies, TV shows, theatre, music are also entertainment. It could also be argued that sport is any activity that displays any degree of athletic ability but even if that is a component of sport, however people don’t always consider working out in the gym as “sport”. What binds all sports fan together is the love of competition. There have to be individual or teams competing with other individuals and teams. Generally there is a side that represents you and you are supporting that side to defeat the opposition. It is the sense of competition that unites all sports fan together to follow the game but divide us as we are competing with each other. The fact that the codes are all considered to be called a variation of “football” and have historical linkage, it makes the football codes natural competitors.

Also in sports the fans who attend the match often are active participants of the match and often the fans feel they have a role in making their side “win” with their support (such as the home ground advantage phenomenon). It’s not far fetch that people will bring that competitive active support mentality over the internet where they can do battle with the opposition with written words.

Of course this explains why fans of one particular club do battle with a fan of another particular club. However you may ask why they will battle with a completely different sport?

2. The Code War is the internet fandom equivalent of representative football.

The bread and butter of most of the football codes are club football. However once in a while players from two different clubs that could actually be bitter historical rivals suddenly are united  and become brothers in arm to represent their country or state. 

The Code Wars have fans of competing clubs suddenly become brothers in arm arguing against supporters of different codes of football. The code war has a role in developing a sense of unity within the football community when normally they are divided amongst club lines. As a coincidence a code war article general pops up in a similar infrequent but regular occurrence as an international fixture in association football.

This is in combination with the nature of the internet that also adds to the unity where instead of relying on some degree of luck with meeting someone out there with similar interest, the internet allows people to seek out community with similar interest. The resultant is that the internet represents the most hardcore fans of the sporting community where in the general community; people generally have broader taste and have a higher proportion of crosscoders. However in the internet, where you are surrounded by people who are interested in the same sport as you, bring out the club mentality. That this is Club Association Football, Club Australian Rules Football, Club Rugby League, Club Rugby Union. When this club is form, you are going to look out for another club to compete against and the code war article are a lightning rod to demonstrate your loyalty to that club.

Of course, if there is a code war, surely there must be a winner and a loser of the war. Then why does code wars article keep on popping up?

3. Person A: Hey, look at the scoreboard. Person B: Which scoreboard?

Often players on the pitch in response to a sledge will respond in look at the scoreboard if their side is winning.  The same is with fans of two different clubs. Look at the scoreboard. Or look at the ladder or look at the name engraved on the trophy. Sure people may argue about the referee or whether one side cheated but in the end what matters in the end is who is leading in the scoreboard and everything else is academic. Two side debate and the debate is resolve when the match is played or when the season is finish before the cycle is repeated next season.

However what is the scoreboard used to determine who is winning the code war?

Is it crowd attendance aggregate? Is it crowd attendance average? Is it revenue the league makes? Is it the value of the TV rights? Is it the value of the TV rights per game? Is it participation rate? Is it international appeal?

The answer to that question is whatever scoreboard shows your side to be winning. The Code War is essentially a sporting match where there are 20 different scoreboards and each one showing a completely different side is winning and people are arguing which scoreboard they should use.

So people may ask, why do people keep on arguing when there is absolutely no way to definitively determine who is winning the Code War?

4. Everyone is a Winner

The Code War is one of the very few wars where there is no loser. In fact it’s impossible to lose a Code War because there is always a scoreboard out there that shows your side is winning.

Of course I previously mention about measures of the success of a code such as crowd figures or revenue or participation rate which have some degree of objectivity even whether its importance and value can be subjective. Often code war debates revolve around even more  subjective matters such as which game is more entertaining to watch? This type of debate again is something that is impossible to lose. For example to used Association Football and it’s low scoring nature of the game, from one perspective that low scoring makes the game tense as any goal can prove decisive and it makes any attacking move to be a nail biting affair. Or alternatively the lack of goals could make the game really boring as there is a lack of end product to a lot of the play of the game. Which one is right? The answer is both of them are right… from a certain point of view.

Hence two sides will argue against each other and both of them can make perfectly logical arguments without any logical fallacy and then walk away thinking they won the war. You know what they say, everyone loves being a winner. So whenever another code war article pops up, it’s a moth to the flame for any code loyalist whose competitive nature will always be fulfilled as they will always win.

To summarise, the competitive nature of the sporting fan + unity and loyalty to the sports + no objective method to resolve conflict + everyone is a winner will results in a perpetual code war that will never end.

Solid evidence that there’s no media conspiracy against Football

The mainstream media treatment of Football has always been a problem amongst supporters. It always seems like the media is out there looking for and sometimes creating negative story on the game to bring down the game as Football is a main competitor of AFL and NRL. It doesn’t help allay fears of conspiracy when it was demonstrated that Channel 7 in the past tried to bury this game.

Now people may be sick of the whole Ljubo Milicevic controversy and so I’m not going to rehash whether his comments were right and wrong. However, even if you agree with Ljubo, you got to admit that those comments were controversial.

One of my first reactions to watching this interview was that this is going to cause a shitstorm. Sure Ljubo Milicevic is hardly a household name and most Australia doesn’t know who he is but I was sure that wouldn’t have stopped the mainstream media to put the boot in the game. After all if an AFL or NRL captain of a club and said similar comments in the middle of an interview and that interview was publish online for everyone to see than I’m quite sure that would have caused a major controversy. Ljubo may not be famous but the media could have made him famous solely due to this comment.

For the game to be derogatively known as “Wog Ball”, it was a perfect opportunity for the media to reinforce that stereotype that football is only played by “Wogs” and encourage ethnic division. I could imagine headlines such as “Ljubo Racist Row”, I could imagine Rebecca Wilson writing an article about how this is returning to the bad old ethnic division days of the NSL. Cue reports about Soccer shooting itself in the foot. I could imagine Today Tonight doing a hatchet job story and show footage of Ljubo describing the Union Jack as a flag of rapist and pillagers and then asked some war veteran what they think of that comments and then have random people complaining about “Reverse Racism”. Then conservative shock jocks would bag the comment and have viewers calling in the show to express their disgust at him and the game.

What ended up happening was nothing. No articles from any professional journalist. No Today Tonight putting fuel to the fire. No controversy at all.

I’m not too sure whether I should be relieved or offended. On one hand I do feel relieved that this game avoided a massive controversy and that there was no big PR blow for the game. However, I’m also offended that Football is considered such a small fish to fry that they are not going to even bother raking in a controversy.

The lack of controversy hit me in the core of my belief about a conspiracy against Football. That perhaps the newspapers don’t have groups of people searching for negative stories on Football. That Channel 7 no longer determines to wreck Football in Australia. That perhaps Rebecca Wilson doesn’t look for any opportunity to put the game down at any moment. That perhaps the AFL and NRL aren’t out to get us. That maybe there is no media conspiracy against football in this country.

__________

Nah, the media just happened to missed this opportunity this time  :)

Ljubo Milicevic leaves Australia in disgrace

I was watching Ljubo farewell interview in SBS and was finding it mostly entertaining, with his forthright opinions. However, towards the end of the interview, Ljubo pulled out the stunner: “I’m Croatian, I’m not Australian. You guys don’t want me here.”

He justifies this by saying he doesn’t feel any loyalty to the Union Jack as he believes that the flag represents rapists and pillagers; that his backyard has fruit in the trees (like the rest of Australian doesn’t have fruit in their trees); that his father has Croatian music in his CD player and that he was raised as a Croat; that he’s emotional and passionate and relates more with Goran Ivanisevic than Australian sports stars as he finds them dull and boring; that Australians can’t pronounce his name right; and that he is embarrassed about Australia Day, where people use the day as an excuse to get drunk. He also criticises Australia for picking and choosing when migrants are considered to be Australian.

Now, whether you agree or disagree with what he says is kind of irrelevant. In fact, a lot of his supporting statements make a lot of sense to me, but there’s a big leap with agreeing with his supporting statement and then saying, “I’m not Australian.”

You see, the problem with Milicevic is that he has confused negative stereotypes of being Australian. The fact is Australia is a liberal democracy and there’s no precondition in personality or political belief to be Australian.

All you have to be is an Australian citizen to be Australian (to be a good person on the other hand has a lot of conditions, but unfortunately people have a tendency to mix being a good person and Australian up).

About 45 per cent of the population voted yes for the Republic, which shows that a lot of people don’t have loyalty to the Union Jack. However, those people aren’t less Australian than people who voted no. We have a former Prime Minister in Paul Keating who wanted to change the flag to remove the Union Jack. Whether you agree with Keating or not, you can’t say that he isn’t Australian.

There is a lot of Australians who bemoans the fact that sports stars are boring and there are a lot of people who find the frankness of some foreign sports stars to be refreshing as well. I seriously doubt that most people weren’t embarrassed by the Cronulla riots or some of the past treatments of Aborigines as well.

His statements about the Union Jack being a flag of rapist and pillagers are just outright offensive and racist due to its gross generalisation. There isn’t a single country in the world that doesn’t have rapist and pillagers and there is no evidence that the United Kingdom and their respective colonies are pillaging any more than any other country in the world. I’m quite sure most countries’ flag would become symbols of atrocity if we go through past histories, and I’m not too sure why the Union Jack has to be singled out for that.

There are also Australians who don’t support Australia Day and cringe at the excessive alcohol that is drunk on that day. In fact, there are certain groups on the left who believe that Australia Day should be changed to another day in respect for Aborigines as we shouldn’t be celebrating the day England colonised Australia. Other countries with Indigenous cultures don’t do that. Now whether you agree with those views or not, it doesn’t make you any less Australian.

He says that he was raised as a Croat. Well Australia is a multicultural country that doesn’t discourage people from expressing their cultural identity and doesn’t overtly discourage people behaving differently to the mainstream. Therefore, contrary to his statement, that is a very Australian upbringing. I also find it strange that he justifies his status as a Croatian because he listens to Croatian music, has a cellar and has fruit in the trees in his garden. It seems an overly simplistic summary of Croatian culture.

I do agree with him that Australia does have double standards in terms of how they treat migrants. If migrants are successful, they are Australian. If the migrants commit crime or fail, they are ethnic, when, in reality, the success and failure of migrant communities are a reflection of Australian culture just as much as the success and failure of the wider community are reflection of Australian culture. After all, Martin Bryant is just as Australian as Don Bradman. This type of double standards encourages nationalistic thinking that Australia equals good values and foreigner equals bad values. However, having problems and criticising Australian culture doesn’t stop you from being Australian as Australia is a liberal democracy.

I also believe that he is being overly sensitive on Australians being unable to pronounce his name. The Chinese have been in Australia since the gold rush in the 19th century, however I doubt Milicevic will be able to pronounce the names of most traditional Chinese names as he doesn’t know the Chinese language.

If you don’t know the language of a particular country, then it is expected that people will find it difficult to pronounce names of people coming from those countries. It is expected that the European countries have a far more developed language education due to the closed borders with countries that speak a completely different language, and therefore it makes sense that people in Europe are more likely to be able to pronounce his name more accurately than people in Australia. Nevertheless, I’m quite sure if you become friends with people, eventually they will get your name right.

It’s a shame that Ljubo could only make friends within his own ethnic culture as he boast that there are “no Anglos” at his BBQ. It’s a shame that he couldn’t find someone of an Anglo background with similar political and social values that he can relate with, but I’m quite sure his negative assumptions of Anglo culture prevents him from doing that.

I felt sad watching the interview with Ljubo as we see a person rejecting a country where he has lived for most of his life. Australia gave him his education and a football education.

I do believe that Ljubo got it completely wrong in his announcement that he isn’t Australian. I also believe that Ljubo revealed his racism by picking and choosing negative attributes to summarise the entire Australian culture.

However, I don’t completely blame Ljubo because the worst feeling I have watching the video is the realisation that perhaps the nationalists have won; that perhaps the idea that being Australian, you have to have a narrow specific personality and political values is so widespread, that people outside the mainstream such as Ljubo end up agreeing with the nationalists that to be Australian you have to have these certain values.

Therefore, he and other like minded individuals agree with the nationalists that they aren’t Australian and therefore fuel criticism of migration and how they don’t integrate within Australian society.

Hopefully Ljubo’s attitude to what it means to be Australian is not widespread across the community.

_______

Note: Ljubo Milicevic himself has responded to this article

How we could have made our 2022 bid video a winner

Obviously there was more to winning the 2022 World Cup bid than the bid video, but Australia surely didn’t leave a good final impression with their presentation and were rightly criticised for it. Here are some of my suggestions on how Australia could improve the final presentation.

1. More Australianisms
Okay, so they got the jumping kangaroo and Uluru but what about other classic Australian icons? We should also have seen other classic Australianisms such as “shrimp on the barbie”. As shown by this ad   “We love football, meat pies, kangaroo and Holden car” and this is the direction the bid video should be focusing on (of course referring to Association Football instead of AFL).

How can we not show classic Australian legends such as Don Bradman and Phar Lap? They certainly should have shown those two during the montage about how we Australians love sports.
What about classic Australian sayings such as “fair suck of the sav”, how we are a “lucky country”, and that we will put in the “hard yakka” to make this World Cup well organised and promise that we will display our “Aussie spirit” if it comes down under?
We also should have had the song “A Land Down Under” playing in the background throughout the bid video.

2. Replace Skippy with a Crocodile
Although we should definitely have a kangaroo throughout the montage, I felt a better character to steal the World Cup would be a crocodile.
Why you ask? Well we have Paul Hogan chasing the thief, haven’t we?
Instead of having Paul Hogan disguised with a helmet, he should have dressed in his traditional Crocodile Dundee outfit “hunting” down the crocodile who stole the World Cup. Imagine the hilarity of having Crocodile Dundee hunting the crocodile across the Australian outback.
At the end we can have Paul Hogan finishing the cartoon crocodile off like we see in the movies. After all, a bit of action never hurts any movie.

3. Sex sells

According to undercover reporter’s footage of former FIFA secretary-general Michel Zen-Ruffinen, he claimed that some Executive committee members can be bought off with money and woman with him quoted of saying “X is nice, he's a nice guy, but X is money.”, “He's the guy you can have with the ladies and not with money."

It’s quite obvious that Australia couldn’t compete with Qatar with money so therefore Australia has to target the FIFA Executive Committee members who are influence by woman and not money to stand a chance of winning the bid

So in the bid video we should demonstrate to the world that us Aussie have the hottest ladies in the world and having woman in bikini playing Football on the beach.

Julia Gillard should announce in her cameo with a promise that the oldest occupation in the world – prostitution – would be legal in Australia in all states by 2022.

Also mention that we were previous successful host of Miss Nude Universe Pageant. Instead of sending Executive Committee members with bottle of wine, we should have used have used some of the $43 million tax payers funded money in hiring “escort services”.

4. Make better use of Elle McPherson
Related to point three, it was obvious that Elle McPherson was there was to add a bit of sexiness and glamour to the proceeding. So they should have just show select footage of her “acting” in the movie “Sirens”. That would sure get the attention of the quite elderly Executive committee members.

5. Make sure everyone knows how great Frank Lowy is
There was a segment where Frank Lowy tells his rag to riches story and where Elle McPherson keeps on telling the audience how great Frank Lowy is and how he is a hero and how much he has done for the game.
Well during that speech we should have a halo appearing above Frank’s head and have him entering the stage under a bright white light just to emphasise her point.
Hell, he would certainly do a better job than Morgan Freeman at playing god.

6. We don’t like the English as well
It’s quite obvious that the English aren’t particularly well liked throughout FIFA. We should have used that to our advantage to show them that the English aren’t particularly well liked throughout Australia as well. You can’t show Australian culture without us cursing the “whingeing pom”.
We should have Craig Foster telling us his history of Australian Football where the English mafia has held back the game with their archaic style of football and that’s why Australia is a third world Football nation.
It was only the influence of ethnic clubs from continental Europe and us hiring foreign coaches (such as Rale Rasic and Guus Hiddink), as well as SBS influencing the population by promoting “joga bonito” which was played by South Americans, and our entrance in Asia that made Australia competitive in Football.
Craig should tell the world that it was our abandonment of Anglo culture that made us qualify for three World Cups. We blame England for why we aren’t superpowers of the game.
This will surely get us onside with the other 21 Executive Committee members.

7. Show us the legacy of the World Cup in Australia
We have to show the world what the World Cup would achieve in Australia. Therefore there should be footage of AFL and Cricket matches being played in front of full crowds in even larger stadiums then what they currently have.

8. Johnny Warren’s legacy
It was a disgrace that our greatest Football hero wasn’t mention in the bid video. Therefore at the end of the video presentation there should show Australia winning the World Cup at home, holding the World cup trophy with Johnny Warren face appearing from the sky watching down on us saying, “I Told You So”.

________________________________

Epilogue
I know that we didn’t lost the bid due to the video but at least if we got the bid video right we would have been eliminated with our dignity still intact.

I honesty think the bid video was a disaster and made us a laughing stock. It's like Australia was stuck with 80's Australian cliche and the video had very little to do with Football. There was also overly gratuitous used of celebrities that had no connection with Football. When the motorcycle driver caught up with "Skippy" and started to take off his helmut, I actually thought it was going to be Cahill or another Australian Footballer who will return the World Cup back to FIFA and I was gobsmacked when it turned out to be Paul Hogan and comfirmed that this video was almost embarrass in showing any of the members of the Socceroos. It made us look like a footballing backwater nations. The whole presentation was so bad that it was more a parody of Australia rather then advertising this country to host the World Cup.

Frank Lowy commented that the people at FIFA thought it was funny but I have a feeling that they were laughing at us rather then with us.

One of the thing overlook in the common criticism of the video presentations was the narcicism displayed by Frank Lowy. I think Lowy is a hero of Australian football and it’s true that he did so much for the game in Australia. However this wasn’t the moment to be showing the world that as the bid is not about Frank Lowy but Australia as a football nation. Having Elle Mcpherson started going off about how much of a hero Frank Lowy was just astoundingly bad and it seems like it was presenting to the world that the World Cup bid was a platform to glorify Frank Lowy rather then for the benefit of Australian Football.

Also on The Roar (edited) http://www.theroar.com.au/2010/12/15/how-2022-bid-presentation-could-have-looked/