Does your interest in the AFL wane when the WC is on?

[PerthBoy86]

Croatia is like the Bulldogs in 2016. Same colours, theres a Croatian club here in Footscray, underdogs...

 

[Dogs till i die]

Bayern heaps in a row in Germany, Juve a heap in a row in Italy, Celtic a heap in a row in Scotland, Real / Barcelona a heaps in a row in Spain, Olympiakos heaps in a row in Greece, Ajax / PSV in the Netherlands, more concentrated in the EPL by the year - give me the AFL for eveness and interest any time. Sad to think the best my EPL team of 45 years, Palace can do is to survive in the Premier League.

 

[Cactus_]

My interest wains when Carlton is playing St Kilda.

 

[estibador]

Yes, clearly soccer is utterly perfect. That's why the A-League has been such a smashing success in Australia, destroying everything in its path with its undeniable superiority to all other sports.

One thing I respect about soccer and its fans is how they're secure in their game and accepting of the fact that it's first and foremost a sport and not always expected to be a stage-managed production line of highlights. Teams who do nothing but park the bus might not be as respected as those who take the game on more, but it's still accepted as a legitimate tactic without people whining about changing the rules to force all teams to play a certain way.

Aussie rules is my favourite sport by far, but AFL fans are turning into such whiny, entitled bitches lately, demanding that every game be played exactly how they want and that every team be forced to play the same free-wheeling attacking gameplan. Nothing but whinging and moaning every time a game isn't a classic for the time capsule and then they wonder why the governing body won't 'leave the game alone'.

 

[catscratchfever]

The end of the world has been averted. Thank you Croatia!

 

[NoobPie]

One thing I respect about soccer and its fans is how they're secure in their game and accepting of the fact that it's first and foremost a sport and not always expected to be a stage-managed production line of highlights. Teams who do nothing but park the bus might not be as respected as those who take the game on more, but it's still accepted as a legitimate tactic without people whining about changing the rules to force all teams to play a certain way.

Aussie rules is my favourite sport by far, but AFL fans are turning into such whiny, entitled bitches lately, demanding that every game be played exactly how they want and that every team be forced to play the same free-wheeling attacking gameplan. Nothing but whinging and moaning every time a game isn't a classic for the time capsule and then they wonder why the governing body won't 'leave the game alone'.

Great post

 

[Gavin Excell]

Excited about the 3rd place playoff match tonight

 

[____]

I missed my first Lions home game in 7 years because I was at the world cup. My interest in both AFL and NRL/Origin wanes, When the Roos played France I did not even look at the Broncos v Sharks score at all during the game. I did not watch State of Origin 2 but did get to see us v GWS on my friend's iPad and listened to our game v Fremantle on (AFL app) radio whilst I was in Russia.

The Lions are my number one sporting love for 47 out of 48 months but the world cup is the only thing that would make me go overseas during AFL season. The only reason why I didn't go to Brazil was because of uni messing around with my schedule and world cups before that I was a minor.

Having said that I didn't stay in Russia for the entire tournament because we got knocked out of the group stage, I deliberately booked flights that would get me back at the Gabba for our game v Carlton

 

[____]

America is. If soccer is so perfect, why has it failed to capture the imaginations of the third biggest (and most powerful) nation in the world?

Or India? One in every 6 humans on the planet is Indian, but most of them don't seem particularly taken by the "universal" superiority of soccer.

The USA World Cup in 1994 was actually FIFA's most successful world cup from a commercial/attendance point-of-view.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

The USA World Cup in 1994 was actually FIFA's most successful world cup from a commercial/attendance point-of-view.

I’m very happy for them but the sport’s hardly conquered America in the 24 years since, has it? You’d have to say that whatever flow-on effect it generated has well and truly run out of puff by now.

 

[____]

I’m very happy for them but the sport’s hardly conquered America in the 24 years since, has it? You’d have to say that whatever flow-on effect it generated has well and truly run out of puff by now.

It will never be bigger than the NFL there but it's popular enough for big name players to play in their domestic league (such as David Beckham getting one million a week with Galaxy), it bid (unsuccessfully) to host the 2022 World Cup then (successfully) bid to host the 2026 edition, with FIFA knowing full well that an American world cup would generate more revenue for them than any other country would. Also the biggest ever crowd for a stand-alone women's sporting event was a football (soccer) match in the USA in 1999.

Before 1994 there was not even a domestic league in the US.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

It will never be bigger than the NFL there but it's popular enough for big name players to play in their domestic league (such as David Beckham getting one million a week with Galaxy), it bid (unsuccessfully) to host the 2022 World Cup then (successfully) bid to host the 2026 edition, with FIFA knowing full well that an American world cup would generate more revenue for them than any other country would. Also the biggest ever crowd for a stand-alone women's sporting event was a football (soccer) match in the USA in 1999.

Before 1994 there was not even a domestic league in the US.

None of that proves much. It’s the biggest economy in the world (well, maybe for a few more weeks).

 

[stax on the mull]

Croatia is like the Bulldogs in 2016. Same colours, theres a Croatian club here in Footscray, underdogs...

Oh yeah, so what are the colours of France?

 

[Frank Bunn]

America is. If soccer is so perfect, why has it failed to capture the imaginations of the third biggest (and most powerful) nation in the world?

Or India? One in every 6 humans on the planet is Indian, but most of them don't seem particularly taken by the "universal" superiority of soccer.

No one claimed soccer is perfect.

Your argument about the lack of appeal of soccer across the globe by finding outliers of countries where it's not the main sport is a little bizarre when we are comparing it to a code that has failed to capture the imagination of every country bar the place it originated and is not even popular across the whole of that country.

 

[Frank Bunn]

I mean, I do understand basic maths. I do know that diving is a curse in soccer. I do know that scoring goals in soccer is fiendishly difficult. I do know that players of all sports try to put one over the ref.

Might it just be the case then, that the likelihood of a player successfully fooling a ref is more likely to lead to a match-winning score in soccer than in a game with more prolific scoring?

I mean, do you question the fundamentals of probability? I'd love to hear your reasoning if so.

Some games in soccer are decided by refereeing mistakes. It's not many, and technology such as goal line and VAR is reducing it even more. There's probably some refereeing bias due to home crowds. During the course of a season the bias tends to even out.

In most soccer leagues each club plays each other in one home game and one away game. At the end of the season the team who has performed best across all those games is the winner of the competition.

In AFL, every season has an uneven draw which is based on financial considerations rather than fairness. This has influence due to home crowds boosting their team, and also has umpiring bias. At the end of an uneven, biased 22 round season we have a 4 round mini season. Then the winner of the competition is decided by one game only.

When it comes to probability it's more likely that a winner decided by who is at the top after a full season, based on a season long fair draw, is fairer than the AFL system decided by a biased season followed by a short knockout mini season and a one game decider.

 

[AstroboyUK]

the world cup makes no difference to me- its kinda cool to watch England play when you live in England but overall i remain focussed on football. Put it this way- i care far more about Australian football- and if i had to choose- a Richmond premiership means far more to me than soceroos winning the world cup. sure it would be nice if the soceroos did, but if i had to choose between the 2, Richmond comes before the soceroos every time.

 

[Macpotata]

https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...tch-2010-fifa-world-cup-south-africat-1473143

Almost half the world tuned in at home to watch 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™




2014 FIFA World Cup™ reached 3.2 billion viewers, one billion watched final

https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...-billion-viewers-one-billion-watched--2745519


https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...-billion-fifa-revenue-reach-6-billion-1120071

Soccer World Cup 2018: Global Audience to Hit 3.4 Billion, FIFA Revenue to Reach $6 Billion


lol!

 

[NoobPie]

No one claimed soccer is perfect.

Your argument about the lack of appeal of soccer across the globe by finding outliers of countries where it's not the main sport is a little bizarre when we are comparing it to a code that has failed to capture the imagination of every country bar the place it originated and is not even popular across the whole of that country.

Actually the only people making objective assertions about a sports merit based on its (partial) global appeal are the soccer boosters here.

In response to this it’s perfectly valid to highlight that soccer has precisely zero success at dislodging an existing football culture in any place where one established before soccer arrived....despite, in the two most significant cases, massive immigration from countries were soccer is dominant

 

[PerthBoy86]

Oh yeah, so what are the colours of France?

Also talking about their on field colour combo, not just the flag. France is just blue or white.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

No one claimed soccer is perfect.

Your argument about the lack of appeal of soccer across the globe by finding outliers of countries where it's not the main sport is a little bizarre when we are comparing it to a code that has failed to capture the imagination of every country bar the place it originated and is not even popular across the whole of that country.

What’s bizarre about that?

Here we are in Australia, followers of Australian Football on an Australian Football forum, talking about our relative levels of interest in the soccer WC.

I pointed out that soccer has hardly taken Australia by storm. Someone replied that Australia is not the centre of the world. Despite the fact that that poster seemed to have missed the point that we were talking about soccer’s relevance to Australians, I pointed out that soccer has not exactly captured the hearts and minds of India and the USA, the second and third - biggest countries in the world. Hardly “outliers”. More like a quarter to a third of the world’s population.

And I was making no claims about the “perfection” or appeal of Aussie Rules; only that our game has shown a willingness to modify its rules in response to a changing environment, something soccer has distinctively failed to do.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Some games in soccer are decided by refereeing mistakes. It's not many, and technology such as goal line and VAR is reducing it even more. There's probably some refereeing bias due to home crowds. During the course of a season the bias tends to even out.

In most soccer leagues each club plays each other in one home game and one away game. At the end of the season the team who has performed best across all those games is the winner of the competition.

In AFL, every season has an uneven draw which is based on financial considerations rather than fairness. This has influence due to home crowds boosting their team, and also has umpiring bias. At the end of an uneven, biased 22 round season we have a 4 round mini season. Then the winner of the competition is decided by one game only.

When it comes to probability it's more likely that a winner decided by who is at the top after a full season, based on a season long fair draw, is fairer than the AFL system decided by a biased season followed by a short knockout mini season and a one game decider.

I’m not claiming the AFL is a paragon of perfection. I agree the fixture is very questionable, likewise holding the GF at the MCG.

I’m not talking about various competitions, I’m talking about the fundamentals aspects of the respective games.

VAR may well bring about some changes; that’s good. But it’s not without its flaws, and it certainly can’t eradicate all staging.

Which, as I’ve contended, can have an inordinate influence on the outcome of any given soccer match, because there is so little scoring occurring.

 

[Luv_our_club]

Best headline from the World Cup when Germany got eliminated.

"Don't mention the VAR!"

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...tch-2010-fifa-world-cup-south-africat-1473143

Almost half the world tuned in at home to watch 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™




2014 FIFA World Cup™ reached 3.2 billion viewers, one billion watched final

https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...-billion-viewers-one-billion-watched--2745519


https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...-billion-fifa-revenue-reach-6-billion-1120071

Soccer World Cup 2018: Global Audience to Hit 3.4 Billion, FIFA Revenue to Reach $6 Billion


lol!

Something you’re trying to say?

 

[PerthBoy86]

That a game is so often decided by a few unclear ref calls makes me glad I don't invest much emotion into soccer. After France got the second penalty it made me lose all interest.

 

[NoobPie]

Something you’re trying to say?

I think we were meant to be in awe of the sheer size of the world cup

Ironically FIFA apparently get around the same revenue from the world cup than the AFL plus clubs get over a four year period