World Footy News

As the AFL celebrates 150 years since some of the first games of what was to become Australian football, it is time to ask where to now? I am not going to answer that question because I don’t know the answer. Actually, I don’t know the question. When we look to the future of Australian football, whose interests are we talking about, whose future are we talking about?

Are we talking about the AFL going global with the Seattle Grizzlies competing in the Pacific Division of the WFL? Are we talking about 10,000 Americans kicking a red leather ball around on the weekend by 2020? Are we talking about the West Coast Eagles taking market share of global merchandise sales from Man United? Or are we asking whether my son will have the opportunity to represent his country (the USA) in his favorite sport (footy) against the best players in the world.

Is Carlton going to look like the 2007 San Antonio Spurs with only 60% of the team being native born? Will footy help kids of the South African townships overcome poverty, AIDS and years of institutionalized racism? Are we going to see Chinese signage around the MCG advertising domestic products to the Demons’ large fan base? Is International Rules going to become an Olympic sport? Is USFooty going to become the largest footy league in the world, competing with the AFL for talent from Ireland and South Africa? What is the future? What future do we want?

Dunno. Yet, determining the question is the first step to working out the answer. Moreover, as millions of dollars gets allocated to developing FootyWild in South Africa, a team in Western Sydney or NAB Cup games in Florida, shouldn’t we have a plan? And if we are going to have a plan, don’t we need to work out what it is we want the plan to do? And if we want the plan to do what we want, don’t we first have to work out what it is we want?

What happens if we don’t answer the question? What if we don’t have a plan? The future will happen. The trickle of Irish players may become a stream or even a flood. USFooty will continue to grow. Man United will develop its international operations. The Seattle Mariners will realize that their fan base is in Japan and adjust their TV schedule accordingly. China will become a large developed nation drinking Fosters and shopping at Westfield. AFL clubs will start competing with each other for international talent and fans. The NFL will realize that it needs to go global.

Blainey’s Tyranny of Distance is being replaced by Friedman’s Flat World. Whether you like globalization or not, it is happening, it will happen and it will matter. Globalization will change footy, the question is whether we get to choose how that change occurs. In the 1970s, Melbournians were upset by the concept of the VFL going National. What many didn’t realize is that Nationalization was going happen no matter what. Luckily, people like Colin Carter and Allen Aylett knew that Australia was changing and the VFL was going to change – the question was whether the VFL was going to be proactive or reactive. We have the same question today – just on a bigger scale.

The AFL is the “keeper of the code”. What does that mean? Is the AFL under an obligation to help grow the game across the world? Do the AFL’s interests sufficiently overlap with those of USFooty or AFL South Africa? If the AFL of today makes the type of commitment that the VFL made in the 1970s, will there be “windfall” TV payments for those AFL clubs that survive globalization? Should the AFL spend money on developing junior programs in Arlington VA (USA) when the Kangaroos are hanging on for dear life? Where to now?

A bloody good question.