We Are The Reds

More than 650,000 people played indoor and outdoor soccer in 2013-14

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victor ... 7236075338

Great news. The real issue IMO is though how do we get more participants attending football matches?

There's definitely an inferiority complex about professional football in Australia.
Having old pros like Schwarzer (who hasn't played in Aus for 20 years) being dismissive about it certainly doesn't help.
Neither does young players doing everything they can to piss off immediately to some foreign league where the standard of play is no better than the A-League.
Thankfully both are changing .. albeit slowly

There's definitely an inferiority complex about professional football in Australia.
Having old pros like Schwarzer (who hasn't played in Aus for 20 years) being dismissive about it certainly doesn't help.
Neither does young players doing everything they can to piss off immediately to some foreign league where the standard of play is no better than the A-League.
Thankfully both are changing .. albeit slowly

True. Hopefully games like Liverpool coming to town as well can be great icebreakers for getting kids/families along to games more.

Counting indoor skews things a little because indoor is such a low commitment activity generally, without having to put in lengthy game commitments on weekends or multiple training sessions during the week.

Still positive though, although we have heard these sorts of things year in year out. I really could not care how football compares to another sport these day as it imo means very little

There's definitely an inferiority complex about professional football in Australia.
Having old pros like Schwarzer (who hasn't played in Aus for 20 years) being dismissive about it certainly doesn't help.
Neither does young players doing everything they can to piss off immediately to some foreign league where the standard of play is no better than the A-League.
Thankfully both are changing .. albeit slowly

Pissing off for substantially bigger paychecks - wouldn't you do the same in a short time career?

There's definitely an inferiority complex about professional football in Australia.
Having old pros like Schwarzer (who hasn't played in Aus for 20 years) being dismissive about it certainly doesn't help.
Neither does young players doing everything they can to piss off immediately to some foreign league where the standard of play is no better than the A-League.
Thankfully both are changing .. albeit slowly

Pissing off for substantially bigger paychecks - wouldn't you do the same in a short time career?

Substantially bigger in the greek second division or equivalent somewhere else i europe?

In the cut-throat world of professional sport in Australia, popularity doesn't necessarily mean profit. This is something football knows only too well. Participation has never been the game's problem. Monetising it has.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa- ... z48rjMkW8e
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

I don't agree with too much Cockerill says but I agree with this approach.
I think boards and organisations focus far too heavily on direct costs and profits when there are a great deal of indirect costs and profits to be identified.
How much more money could the FFA make if they invest the additional TV money into engaging the 78%?
One key element of the Crawford report was the Football needs to engage the silent majority. IMO the game has scratched the surface but has yet to properly do it still.

One key element I would love to see is each every local club benefiting financially from their HAL club. Bring in club rebates for every club to sell on HAL club memberships.
Offer junior memberships to registered players. This is especially important for clubs like Sydney, Brisbane and Melb City who play most of the season in front of a stadium with more vacant seats than used.
Update the transfer fee cap for NPL players so NPL clubs are begrudgingly losing players.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/art ... nja4gl31e2

Pop this bit of info under your mate's nose next time they pipe up that "no one likes socka in Straya".
Although I'd really question why you would be mates with someone that talked like that....

Football is Australia’s largest club-based participation sport by a wide margin with over 400,000 more participants than AFL, more than twice as many as cricket and four times as many as rugby league.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com.au/news/foo ... ort-459877

I love one of the comments from Facebook on this article.
"Gallop is highlighting to everyone that he owns the fastest car in the neighbourhood, but he can't drive."

Just imagine if every person involved in the game had an interest in the HAL.

Football is Australia’s largest club-based participation sport by a wide margin with over 400,000 more participants than AFL, more than twice as many as cricket and four times as many as rugby league.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com.au/news/foo ... ort-459877

I love one of the comments from Facebook on this article.
"Gallop is highlighting to everyone that he owns the fastest car in the neighbourhood, but he can't drive."

Just imagine if every person involved in the game had an interest in the HAL.

More teams, more games!

Expand the league now!

Football is Australia’s largest club-based participation sport by a wide margin with over 400,000 more participants than AFL, more than twice as many as cricket and four times as many as rugby league.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com.au/news/foo ... ort-459877

I love one of the comments from Facebook on this article.
"Gallop is highlighting to everyone that he owns the fastest car in the neighbourhood, but he can't drive."

Just imagine if every person involved in the game had an interest in the HAL.

More teams, more games!

Expand the league now!

Yes, some momentum would be nice.

Football is Australia’s largest club-based participation sport by a wide margin with over 400,000 more participants than AFL, more than twice as many as cricket and four times as many as rugby league.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com.au/news/foo ... ort-459877

I love one of the comments from Facebook on this article.
"Gallop is highlighting to everyone that he owns the fastest car in the neighbourhood, but he can't drive."

Just imagine if every person involved in the game had an interest in the HAL.

More teams, more games!

Expand the league now!

Yes, some momentum would be nice.

Yes, it's the only way forward.