Opinion: Report card on IC2005

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Opinion: Report card on IC2005

Authored by: Sean Finlayson
on Thursday, August 25 2005 @ 07:51 pm ACST

If the IAFC is a figurehead of the AFL, why does the AFL own international footy ?

Does the NSWRL own International Rugby League ? Does Australian Rugby own the World Cup ? Does A-League own World Soccer ?

What makes the AFL the custodians of the game ? It doesn't seem logical for what is essentially the league of one country (with questionably limited funding and interest) to control the destiny of a sport that has the potential to rival all of these sports.

Opinion: Report card on IC2005

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Friday, August 26 2005 @ 03:00 am ACST

Sean, as I explained earlier, the IAFC has nothing to do with the AFL or any of the countries that competed at the International Cup. The role of the IAFC was taken over by an AFL International Development Committee on a vote by the countries. The IAFC was wound up. The IAFC you are probably thinking of is a different one that was set up by a guy involved with the original but who didn't accept the decision made by the IAFC and countries. It is primarily a website with a couple of regular people working for it and the rest mainly people who become involved for a while then leave when they understand the politics. Unfortunately it causes a lot of confusion as people get the impression that it has the support of the major countries or is some kind of official body.

At last check the guy running it appeared to have dramatically changed its plans and was considering changing its name and focus. But the main point is that it isn't really an issue in international footy - it's doing its own thing without the support of most leagues. Whether it will have any success remains to be seen. But at this point in time it would contribute less than 1% of resources or manpower to international footy, but seems to grab a lot of attention for itself and cause a fair amount of grief for the main leagues, which is why this site chooses not to support it. If the main person involved can repair a dozen or more bridges and the leagues change their views we'd reconsider our position.

Why should the AFL control world footy? Well it doesn't, but it makes perfect sense that if it is the body that provides the bulk of the funding for countries and runs the International Cup, then clearly it has a right to have some say in things. And it doesn't stop countries from doing their own work too.

One day there will need to be a FIFA-style body to run international footy. But that day is most likely decades away. The IAFC were very pleased that the AFL was going to pay more attention to international footy and were happy to hand over control - one official described it as what they had wanted in the first place. Sometimes people don't realise that international footy is purely amateur and very small. An independent world governing body is only likely to be needed when some of the countries grow to be a similar size to Australia in footy terms - or at least within even a factor of 10! Right now well over 90% of the world's Aussie Rules players are Australian. So the difference from League and Union and soccer is that Aussie Rules is still tiny around the world. The argument that the AFL should not have any say in world footy and that there needs to be a FIFA now is really quite superficial and doesn't bear close inspection.

So again, people are quick to knock the AFL on this one, but what is the alternative? Give us your money and your time and we'll decide what to do with it? No one works that way. And the AFL has shown they are happy to work with other organisations that haven't set out to undermine them, e.g. this site has a good working relationship, and the organisers of the Barassi youth tournament work with them. And all leagues are reasonably free to do what they want within their own countries. The only issues I know of are that funding from the AFL is normally required to be focussed on junior development, and there are some issue on sponsor clashes.

Colin's comments have some merit about a forum to discuss the future, but there was something like this at the Cup. If countries want to do it independently of the AFL they would - the fact that they don't is that for now, although eager for more, they are relatively content within the system.

I had a lot of the views that are being floated here such as yours Sean, but when you get involved and talk to all the parties involved, from the AFL down to the leagues to the clubs to the players, the theories don't stand up. And remember, it's only been 3 years since the AFL took over from the original IAFC, and in that time numbers have grown dramatically in NZ, PNG and South Africa, and are improving in most other countries. Some of that is to the credit of the AFL, and much of it to hardworking individuals around the world. Those people want to work with the AFL, so take their word for it and where possible lend them a hand.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder of WFN, Chief Editor and Editor for North America and Africa

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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