QFT.

Yes, most sections of our media LOVE to put the boot into Football.
Why?
Because most of them grew up believing the game was played by wogs, poofters and shelas. AND money AND protecting their arses.

It’s a fact because I was one of them.

I have seen the light and its only a matter of time before that element becomes diluted but it will get worse before it gets better especially if we jag the World Cup

I think this is precisely the reason they hide football.
40k advised via word of mouth on the web.
100k watching AFL & NRL, which both receive saturation coverage on TV and print.

Just imagine the result if football was given the same saturation coverage - NRL would certainly suffer, as to a minor extent would AFL.

Just an aside the Bulldogs v Storm game @ Adelaide oval received more media attention than Everton yet it only got less than half the spectators that Adelaide United got ( although the weather would have kept a few thousand away )

160,000 people turning up in the middle of the night for the first 3 nights of the FIFA Fan Fest. 500,000 visitors estimated over the course of the event in Sydney. Only 2 articles to date I have seen detailing what a success it was.

I know what perjury means! so if you know what " perjure " means please enlighten us O wise one.

Oh socceroos supporter the media covered Beckham because of his high profile in L.A and not because he played football, and I'm sure if you randomly asked people to name a player for the socceroos that played in the A-League you'd find a pitiful few that knew - isn't that the local media's fault, and an indication of an anti-football bias?

Edited by redcup: 13/7/2010 06:10:04 PM

1-Money
2-Future earnings
3-Prohibitive broadcast agreements
4-Vested interests
5-Old boys club-all sports editors/programmers are supporters of the so called "big 2"
6-Perceived lack of interest
7-Perceived inability to financially capitalise from football
8-Paranoia

Many of these points become irrelevant once you realise that
1-AFL will be the dominant game for many years
2-AFL will continues to find other revenue streams
3-Although the AFLs market penetration will peak over the next decade ,the population will continue to grow allowing it to retain some minimal growth
4-The baby boomers in media management will retire over the next decade
5-New media driven by the demand of football and the lack of representation in established forms is continually emerging

Its an indication of a-league interest levels it doesn’t support a campaign against the code. We need to generate more interest not expect a free ride from the media.

[size=7]Warring partners on the brink[/size]

An email from C7 executive Steve Wise, cited in the Federal Court, makes it clear the network bought the rights to football only to bury it, to please the AFL.

The November 2000 email, written when Channel Seven still had the AFL rights, lamented the AFL's lack of gratitude, saying: "There is no credit that we have secured the soccer rights and sufficated [sic] the sport, much to the chagrin of its supporters."

Football Federation Australia chief executive John O'Neill, asked to comment on the email, said:

"Clearly FFA has moved on to a different era after having hit the depths of despair and having its fortunes resurrected by the Federal Government, via Australian Sports Commission funding. But in the light of this email, where, at the time Soccer Australia chairman David Hill trumpeted the Channel Seven-C7 deal as an absolute lifeline for mass entertainment soccer, to read it was a ruse whereby, if the email is interpreted literally, it appears their intention was to bury soccer rather than to promote it.

"And the objective of this was to gain favour with the AFL.

"Taken on its face, it's an incredibly alarming retrospective on how disadvantaged soccer was in a highly competitive market.

"Twenty-two months ago, we had no content; the NSL was in the last days of its history but not televised and the Socceroos had not played at home for 31 months.

"When you compare this with the visibility of the other three football codes, remembering the popularity of sport is inevitably measured by hours on TV, we weren't even on the radar screen.

"What I inherited at FFA in March 2004 could be traced back to the failure of that earlier transaction."

Correct. But instead what we actually get from the media is a deliberate campaign to undermine the game, its administration, its players and its supporters.

In the past month alone in ONE newspaper The Age, I read two (in THREE days) so-called humorous articles that did nothing but poke fun at various facets of the game, which were nothing new, the usual its low scoring, players dive, its a gme my two young daughters play blah, blah. Then several articles smearing the FFA and its World Cup bid which have now resulted in Court action against that newspaper. All timed to take away some of the shine of the World Cup in Sth Africa. Last season I listened to that dick on Triple-M "Huey" refuse to read out the A-League semi-finals results on their sport report, because he "hates the game", which then turned into a mock "You can't do that, mate.." whereby the prick spent the next 10 minutes ranting about why he hated the game, with snickering in the background from the other hosts. Which they then replayed during the course of the day. That would NEVER happen when reporting two AFL semi finals.

I don't care for Rugby, but I don't talk about in either a positive or negative way, I simply don't care, it doesn't interest me. My preference is to promote the game I support, not denigrate ones I don't.

What you need to ask yourself is why do media personalities, AFL supporters, and the AFL waste so much time, energy and money discussing why they don't like this sport? It suggests an insecurity about AFL itself. On the face of it, why would that be-look at their crowds, their stadia, their TV deals! Yet it still happens. Why? Its beacsue they know what the kids are playing, they know that they can't compete with International representation or overseas career pathways that football provides to these kids, they know that half the population has migrant roots, where football rules. They remember all too well the way the Soccerros gripped the nation in 2006, and they know that enormous interest and money will flow in to football in the 10 years leading up to the World Cup in 2022, where they could lose an entire generation of support. There's a lot at stake.

I have simply stated that even Pura Cup with no spectators always gets coverage on evening news on commercial TV, unlike Sydney FC v Everton game 40 000 crowd and not one word, if you want another example of media bias against football, our local community paper Advanced and Chronicle hardly mentions our local teams results in NSW Super League, but there will always be something even about pigeons racing.
I do not know where your problem is comprehending and where do you live not to notice that mine stream media is bias against Football in Australia and has been for the last century. You have painted your self in the corner with your arguments and your replays on this forum do not make any common sense.

I think you are naive if you believe that.

Beckham would. But the focus was on his celebrity, not the football. The football was just incidental to the Becks show.

And Cahill hasn't had the best relationship with the local media.

What we need to do is work more with those who are supporters of our game, give them exclusive access to certain events and let everyone in the football community know that they are covering a certain event. then when all the football fans tune in to listen or watch the numbers will speak for themselves. in saying that it has to be radio and or FTA. I know this already happens to a certain extent but it should be made common knowledge.

The media is not against football, just when we lose. There was a lot of hype for this World Cup, many journos for the commercial networks over there. They were cashing in on the hype but it raised expectations and people who don't understand Australia football would have thought we had a shot of winning the whole thing like in Rugby or Cricket... thats simply not going to happen in our lifetime.

The problem is I'm a football lover but the standard of play in the A-League is not very good lets be honest. Its not the prettiest football to watch so getting new people into the games expecting Premier League standard action would most likely not turn up the week after.

People with those expectations are insane, a lot of squads in the EPL could purchase the entire HAL with out sweating. How many of our average players earn 100k per week? Absolutely stupid argument for not supporting your local team in the national competition.

The commercial media is certainly against football because the other sports have so much money tied up their advertising it allows for prohibitive broadcast agreements.
Why else do you think World Football News stopped on One HD just before the biggest event for football.The only reason they cover it at all is because they try and network off it in the hope that you watch some of their other programs.FTA broadcast the absolute bare minimum to stay good with their dominant sporting partners.

Once they work out that there is good money to be made out of football things might change a little but in the meantime the baby boomers in management who are all solid supporters of the big two will put up roadblocks left right and centre

I get the feeling it was stopped as some of its participants (Aloisi, Zdrilic and kalac) were appearing on SBS for their World Cup coverage? Also, I get the feeling it stopped during the Cup because host Bailey was coveringthe World up in South Africa itself?

The show will be back. Like the World Game show, most of he hosts were busy with commitments during the Cup proper.

QFT

Sorry, Mr Football /Kapow, you have presented an anti-football media case for some time on this forum.

I happen to know a football journo, who had no end of difficulty with the anti-football agenda of his editor, and sports editor. They had been instructed by the owners to give limited coverage to football, the sport with the biggest number of participants in the state. There was always plenty of scope for bad news football stories. It has always been easy for back page coverage.

Where I live the media has been obsessed with promoting AFL during the World Cup.

Here are the type of stories we hear:

AFL making a big splash in South Africa.

More AFL needed in Tasmania.

AFL will be played at Bellerive.

Tasmania AFL under 6s win national second division carnival, is closer to the back page that the World Cup.

The Riewoldts, greatest athletes the world has ever seen, better than any Olympian in the history of the Olympics.

AFL a major sport in Japan, South Africa, the USA, England - next stop -AFL played on Mars!

AFL bad boys of the AFL, impregnating sheep, copulating with cormorants, shooting up washing powder, fornicating with minors, punching each others' lights out - get the drift?
Gossip about AFL players, where barely a soul in NSW, let alone the rest of the world, even recognises any AFL footballer, takes precedence over the biggest four yearly sports event in the world.

Baby boomer journalists, whose speciality is writing on other issues, have made fatuous comments demonstrating ignorance about their interpretation of football at the World Cup, and how lucky we are having AFL to watch instead. The inverse perspective to their claptrap is that the rest of the world is obsessed by football and actually understands the nuances of it.

I am also a cricket supporter. There has been no radio coverage on the ABC in Australiafor the Pakistan/Australia test series when club games of AFL are on in Australia.


So Kapow you are talking a lot of gobbledygook. You are probably employed by one of the anti-football media outlets.

Edited by Decentric: 19/7/2010 12:53:34 AM

So you actually think there's a conspiracy to keep football down in Australia by the media? Based on what exactly? The negative stories on football and the fact that there's a massive shortage of news-stories on football compared to the AFL and NRL?

Wouldn't it be simpler and more heartening to assume the following:
A) The media write negative stories on all sports, not just football. If I had a dollar every time they I've seen a negative story on 'aerial ping pong'...
Negative stories arent exclusive to football. To those that think that, are pretty one-eyed.
B) Football in Australia isn't followed religiously by massive numbers as NRL and AFL are, as they both have had a 70 year head start on football. Sure, the socceroos have a massive following, but so does any of our national teams. Heck, if we can't fill the MCG of all places for a farewell match before the World Cup, then that does say a lot. It just seems logical to me that there isn't much coverage of the HAL due to the lack of popularity. The TV networks are driven by capitalism and if they don't think football will be profitable, they won't cover it. It's actually quite true you know, the future of football in this country does actually depend on how well the socceroos perform at each World Cup. Give it about ten years and I predict football will be in a better position to complain about media coverage.

So you actually think there's a conspiracy to keep football down in Australia by the media? Based on what exactly? The negative stories on football and the fact that there's a massive shortage of news-stories on football compared to the AFL and NRL?
[/quote]













Even journos working in the industry believe there is a conspiracy against football.

Simply put, the volume of stories about what AFL stars eat for breakfast, being filmed at airports catching planes, who is having affairs with who, all these stories can take precedence over reporting of football matches which are actually taking place.

A few years ago a football statistician studied a local paper over a month. He examined the column space taken up by cricket, football, AFL, swimming, etcetera. This was in November, which was when AFL is not even played. The football season in Australia and overseas was in high season.

AFL still got about four times as much coverage as football. Of the football coverage there was also an incredible bias against Australian football in Australia. It only achieved 25% of all football coverage.

I wrote the rest of two articles for the local branch of the FFA which was placed on their website and publicised.

It seems some stakeholders in the media here can tolerate football overseas, but not in their own back yard.


The one time the local game got coverage a few months ago, was when the football federation was having problems with CEOs constantly resigning. The local paper gave it full back page coverage. Far bigger than any Socceroo matches at the World Cup.

Edited by Decentric: 19/7/2010 09:01:33 AM

Have you read all the posts on this thread?? There is a lot of sentiment that mainstream media is keeping football down due to vested interests. People have given examples that they were actually involved in. How can you not see this??

Why would they have an agenda to put down football? Football does not clash with the other codes. Also it has been a lead story when the Socceroos play and also special live crosses to South Africa for the sports bulletins etc...

The only worry is football in Australia is seen mainly as just "The Socceroos". Therefore a major focus every 4 years only. Much like the Wallabees or Australian Cricket its more national team focus than local league focus.

Do you see results for local rubgy or cricket very often? No. Its about on par with A-League in coverage.

The beauty of football is that its truely an international sport. Rugby League and AFL will never be. So football although not the most popular in this country, will generate a much greater national following when major tournaments are on.

Heard it on 3MMM sports report this morning that Chanel 9 is dropping Wimbledon from its broadcast to concentrate in getting AFL broadcast in the near future.
If Wimbledon will be restricted to Pay TV only what can we expect from main stream media when football is concerned. The only way main stream media will protect their income advertisement dollar is keep football out of Australia and concentrate on AFL, NRL and Cricket, these sports have many interruptions during the game great for advertisement during game time.
Remember once Socceroos played USA about 10 years ago and we got their broadcast, the only game I have ever seen where every 10 min went to a commercial brake.
Football can not be interrupted for 45min each half and that is hard to sell here, so high scoring games with lots of commercial brakes is the way.
There is not much positive about football in main stream media in Australia and it is not getting easer.

Wimbeldon is on the anti-siphoning list. Ch 9 would be absolutely mad to mess with it.



I remember that.

Because he got on the bandwagon in 2006. Socceroosupporter?pfffttt

What?

Football and AFL will off the top of my head, be competing for nearly 2 months this season. As the A-League grows, the over-lap will be more. Do you not remember all the problems the AFL tried to create when the A-League Grand Final was being played, EVEN WHEN THE FFA had booked Docklands, where they wanted it moved to play some pre-season match involving a recovering drug-addict AFL player?


Only to show the "party-animal Aussie" supporters. What did they actually say about FOOTBALL?


Its true that the Socceroos are the jewell in the crown, and the AFl and NRL rightly see this as their biggest threat. Cricket will NEVER be a true competitor to AFL, and neither will the Wallabies. The Socceroos OTOH, playing Asia Cup qualifiers, World Cup qualifiers, friendlies against current WC finalist, are a different story.


Cricket results are shown whenever there are cricket results to show. Local rugby is more or less non-existent in Melbourne, unless you count The Storm with their massive 12 k crowds. When you consider the participation rates of the different sports where football dominates, the coverage should FAVOUR football, not be equal with cricket or rugby. Yet it doesn't. Why?


And the AFl and the NRL know this very well..

No offense to journos or anything, but they aren't always the sharpest knives in the drawer. And when you say 'jouranlists' in the industry, you're talking about mostly football journalists, right?




Which football matches? A League matches that aren't popular or Premier League matches that have little to no relevance to the common man in Australia?

I think their tendency to do this is perfectly reasonable, considering the circumstances. Do you just expect them to report games people aren't interested in due to the massive popularity among the couple of thousand posting on this forum?

The socceroos got extremely good coverage during the World Cup, due to their popularity. If A League teams and the Premier League had more interest, the newspapers would follow. I like to think football in this country controls its own fate rather than outside forces such as the media and AFL. To think that way is extremely negative and self-defeating.




Is it any wonder when all of our best stars go overseas to European clubs? If journalists had the sense that the A-League could take on the world and that we had a competition that rivalled those in Europe, then I bet my balls they would jump on the bandwagon.




Ben Cousins got greater coverage than the Grand Final and Melbourne Storm salary cap generated more coverage than a state of origin could ever hope for. It's just the nature of the beast. Bad news = good news.

There is sentiment, and that's all it is. Paranoid, the sky is falling, chip on your shoulders opinion. I have yet to see anything on this thread convincing that the media is deliberately trying to bring/keep football down in Australia. And I think in most cases, the media are justified for giving football little coverage considering it's the number four sport (Some would argue number 3) at local level. You have an entire channel dedicated to football and treats the NRL and AFL with contempt(SBS), so isn't that enough?

Is this your strategy to win over new supporters and make the game successful in Australia?

In the end, there is no big loss with football not being covered as much as the other codes. You and I love football, so why do you really want to attract the part timers to follow the sport?

It would be good if we could attract more players to the A-League and make it more popular, but the fact is NRL and AFL are the top leagues of their sport. The A-League is on par with English First Divison. So at the moment the only way football can get on the map in this country is by showing more Socceroos.