Well, when you got a $2.5 billion TV deal, and player salaries will only come to about half that - what else you gonna do with the rest of the money?  may as well splash the cash

It looks like you pay more attention to BF than I do!

In Yoorup it's a reewwwl not catching a ball koltcha

Is that Sampdoria's owner in that pic? I think it is.

They already do that.

That's lesson 2. You have to be able to stud someone in the back of the knee and scrape their achilles before you master the art of pretending the same has happened to you...

Add to that the regular visits of high profile players. Suddenly Europe doesnt seem that far away. 

Nice, I'm doing a similar thing.

I think you hit the mail on the head on how football is grabbing the imagination of the young ones. Through playing their FIFA games on the screen they also seem to grasp an abundance of information on football like player and team name, rules, tactic etc. Knowledge and information is a powerful tool.

Surely you know a thing or two about simulation? being Italian

Can't tell if you're trying to be gross (I can take a guess) but she's actually bring ing the soccer ball to my partner's birthday tomorrow so will show her basics like trapping, shielding, passing properly, dribbling with your head up and kicking the shit out of the kids you don't like while you have a chance at lunch in the name of sport. You know, all the basics.

Music to my ears. Maybe theyll use the $2.5billion deal to bribe school kids into playing the insular game...

Social media and being able to access stuff from all over the world means kids know about the superstar players now and they seem way more exotic than the mullet heads playing AFL and it doesn't all seem a million miles away.

That and the FIFA series are a massive problem for the AFL. They have reached their limit. It's a massive limit and they are a huge organisation but if they keep up with the gimmicks they will only chip away at their own empire and we will feed on the scraps. I grew up going to SANFL matches as much as soccer matches but fuck the AFL.

What did you show her?

Yeah I went to the Royal Adelaide Show for the first time in years over the weekend and couldn't help but notice all the show bags that had a ball as the toy option were all soccer balls. 

My niece in law (if that's a thing) went the other day and came home with a Socceroos show bag. Her family is ENTIRELY made up of die-hard Aussie Rules fans. Like soccer is for pansies types. We asked her why she had a socceroos bag and she said she "plays soccer at lunch time like all the other kids" and she got so excited when i said I loved soccer and would show her a few things.

As others have pointed out,most sports have a presence in many counties through expats,but few have serious competitions.
If you look at rugby league as an example,they have had first grade competitions in many countries from USA to Russia for decades. Teams from those countries have even competed against Australian teams.
But getting quality atheletes of a high enough standard is another thing altogether.
Look at places like France .League used to be big there,with serious internationals against us..Now they are a tiny outpost swallowed by the might of Rugby Union.

The problem all sports face is funding,infrastructure,management and players.
You might be able to get expats to pool resources and have some sustainable novelty z grade teams.But beyond that having a serious high level competiton is a pipe dream.


Even locally the top sports have trouble making ends meet.
Look at Rugby.They have teams in Melb and Perth at the elite level.But still rely on resourcing those teams from NSW and QLD.
Look at NRL they have a team in Melb but the players mostly come from NSW ,QLD and NZ.
Look at AFL,they have two teams in NSW and two in QLD.Yet where do most of their players come from?
Not NSW and not QLD.


So these well established sports,that pump millions of dollars to expand in their own country still struggle to sustain grass roots here.
What hope for AFL overseas?
As I said, AFL are deluded ,with blind arrogance ,if they think they are going to conquer the world by heading off overseas with their bags of cash and a new hybrid game for expats.







.
It's a sobering lesson for any sport trying to expand.

After sitting in a bar next to an expat in Manila, I have no concern where ALF are going with this.
This fine Aussie chap with a beer gut told he was on his way overseas to play in an international ALF tournament no one ever heard about and he was representing the country lol.

With such seriousness and quality resources how could they go wrong?

AFL - X

Mostly slated on Big Footy but this comment (from presumably mister football)  is amazing 

Would work overseas.

Imagine this scenario.

Wembley Stadium virtually is unused most of the English football season and the off-season.

Have AFLX playing there in say 10 years time

Also many local footy ovals in VIC I see kids kicking a soccer ball around, using the footy goal posts as goals with an imaginary cross bar :)

I am currently in Australia and see a massive difference every time I come. In shopping centres there are products of European clubs. I see many more people walking around with EPL shirts on. It has coverage on the news. There are Bein commercials on tv. 

I have been in Australia for about 6 weeks and a few days ago I saw a guy kicking a footy with his son. At the beach it is only kids with soccer balls and all over the parks too. In Qld but havent seen anyone throwing league balls around. But RL has Logan and NZ so theyll be fine. 

If by recruit, you mean 'employ' then yes. :)

Not surprising.

In Western Sydney Muslim girls were paid to play - obviously for the PR shots, and in Victoria clubs have started to wipe playing fees as they cannot attract kids 

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/outer-east/the-eastern-lions-junior-football-club-in-wantirna-has-waived-fees-to-attract-new-players/news-story/60981f8a3e092c8d6f062bc4895a3d3a

Even the adults have had enough

http://www.vafa.com.au/latest-news/st-francis-xavier-player-shortage-sparks-appeal/

Yes absolutely, recruiting a few young muslim ladies and throwing to them every time they attempt to 'grow our great game' in NSW shows that your sport is diverse. Well done.

Its true, there are AFL teams all over Europe but outside of the UK it's Australian guys who can scrap together 18 guys for an excuse to have a piss up after training and matches twice a week and pretty much one team per city I think.

I have tried to be recruited myself when they stumbled into my pub one day.

WTF are you talking about?  

there AFL leagues all over Europe....just as there Rugby union leagues all over Europe.....or baseball, or cricket, or  lacrosse


should we close down the Australian Handball Federation in Australia, no body play that game in Australia...what about Australian Lacrosse Association, should we lose that down, have then give up 

AFL X is not about starting pro-Leagues 

Handball is s much bigger than than you give it credit tbh


My mistake Red Dog.I just checked and wow handball is much bigger than AFL.played seriously in many countries .Who would have thought.

The funny thing is there are many national sports which have spread to other countries .Which suggests a bigger problem for AFL .
Here are some:
Kabbadi played in Bangladesh.
Pato played on horses in Argentina
Buzkashi played on horses in Afghanistan
Pesapallo played with bats and balls in Finland and now with a team in Australia.
Gaga from Israel


I think the long term future for AFL is a smaller ground with heavy balls ,two halves and shorter games.
Having massive ovals taking up so much space in prime real estate is just a code killer.
How is it sustainable to have so much money tied up in a junior or lower grade game in capital cities?

How can you export a game so socially incompatible with space and economic realities in virtually every other country in the world?
Where in Hong Kong,Manila,Bangkok,Tokyo,London,NewYork,Paris,blah blah blah are you going to find space for even one team to play?

AFL internationally is doomed!
Give up all hope now .






Insert numerous emojees at will,because I can't yet from an iPad unfortunately.

Mr Tardball trying to pretend that there are a dozen or so VFL leagues in Europe. Would be lucky to find a dozen clubs in Europe. Will never be anything more than the minority game played in the uninhabitable parts of Australia, one day it will be recreated alongside Morris dancing and medieval reenactment.

Log out of your other account tard?

go away monkey 

I don't care if they "come". As I said from my perspective they have been a somewhat small but successful presence in my area for my entire life. They already here.
What I severely dislike about recent AFL expansion tactics is that they seem to claim a usable space as theirs and refuse to relinquish control even when they don't have the numbers to maintain a presence in that space. It has created a very much us vs them situation. Why should they have control of 4-5 grounds in the area when at the moment they only need one to satisfy their demand, while other sports have so many players on so few fields that they are digging themselves to China with overuse? 
I get that all sports would like to be able to have spare fields just in case and football would do the same if it was in a similar situation. In my area there is resentment from football towards both rugby league and AFL because from our point of view they currently do not have the numbers to justify locking us out of the use of the grounds they currently hold. Half the season that we pay for gets cancelled because we have too many playing on too little fields while the pristine rugby league and AFL fields are sitting opposite largely unused for the year.

I think that the AFL would be much better served in Sydney to start with developing itself at the minimum amount of grounds that it needs to satisfy demand. If it starts to grow in playing popularity that is when it should be asking for more space. By locking in grounds before you have the people to play on them you are just asking for the local inhabitants to be angry with you.