Now that the Socceroos brave run in the FIFA World Cup has come to an end, the question remains what will happen to football (soccer) in Australia and what effect will its success have on rival codes.
Previously, it may have been the case where our football players would disappear and not be seen in the national colours for another four years. With Australia's move to Asia this is no longer the case and our appetite for quality games should be satisfied in the second half of this year when qualifying for the Asian Cup gets into full swing. These matches will fall on FIFA approved dates, so at least some of Australia's best players will be available to get us into the lucrative Asian Cup finals.
Further down the track as South Africa 2010 approaches, World Cup qualifying will get underway. In this the Socceroos will have to take on some of Asia's finest nations home and away to again make the finals. Suddenly, the current heads of Football Federation Australia have something their predecessors didn't – a list of meaningful and marketable fixtures.
So what does this mean for Australia's three other major football codes? It seems that ruby union could be the most affected by soccer's success. Union marketed itself as our major international football code while soccer was unsure of itself. Meanwhile, rugby league neglected its international potential. Over the last six or seven years, the Wallaby jersey has become the most recognised Aussie sporting jersey. However, you only have to see the number of people wandering the streets in Socceroos jerseys to perhaps suggest that the Wallaby jersey's reign of dominance is over, at least for this year.
Now, the Wallabies and Socceroos will not only be fighting for the merchandise dollars, but also at the box office. With the Socceroos new and expanded meaningful fixture list, international rugby union test matches now have a direct competitor. This market will be further cluttered by the arrival of rugby league's Gillette Tri Nations, which for the first time is being held in Australia and NZ in October and November this year.
In the battle for the hearts of minds of the young, football is already extremely popular in the north-eastern states, where some junior federations already struggle to provide enough grounds for the thousands of kids wanting to play the game. Meanwhile, the AFL is spending millions of dollars in NSW and Queensland, while the NRL and ARU are forced to spend big defending what they already have. Over time, it will be interesting to see what effect football has on junior Aussie rules numbers in the southern states. The biggest factor not in favour of football is the timing of this World Cup, which is eight months prior to junior registrations taking place next year. But with the Victorian media finally forced to give some coverage to another winter sport other than Aussie rules, this is where football can potentially gain the most at a junior level.
Football has always been a game that the kids play on a Saturday morning, then they go home and watch rugby league, Aussie rules or union after the game. With the Socceroos success at the Cup, the general public is now more football educated and more kids will dream of playing for the Socceroos. More talented young players will be motivated to get through the rough teenage years and into senior football. In 2006, who wouldn't want to be a Socceroo!
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