Melbourne in pole position for IC11

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Melbourne in pole position for IC11

Authored by: tinka13
on Thursday, May 14 2009 @ 01:23 pm ACST

All these comments show enormous passion for International Footy.
The AFL took over the administration for the World Cup (International Cup) after a fair amount of success at the Arafura Games in 1995, 1997,1999 and have done a fair job of promoting it, however this can not continue forever. When do you think will be the time for International footy to administer footy Globally, like the ICC for cricket and FIFA for Soccer? I am fully aware that we need the AFL for money and resourses, however sometimes, what is good for the world may not be good for the AFL, or visa versa! They have had 10 years to administer the game, I am interested in positive feedback with regards to this. I don't want it to be a winge segment, lets keep it positive!

Melbourne in pole position for IC11

Authored by: Joel Adin Porretta
on Thursday, May 14 2009 @ 02:34 pm ACST

Some of the AFL administration could breakaway to form an international govering body that governs all league and clubs in the world including the AFL. I think International Australian Football Federation would be a good choice for a name.

Melbourne in pole position for IC11

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Thursday, May 14 2009 @ 04:24 pm ACST

This has been discussed a fair bit before, so I doubt it'll have too many legs here. But I'll summarise some of my own comments from the past. Personally, obviously having worked pretty closely with lots of leagues and the AFL for a while now, I don't see the demand or the likelihood of a significant breakaway any time soon. If it was going to happen it would have happened about 5 years ago. Since then the AFL have made significant improvements in the attention they pay to the international side of things, such as leveraging sponsorship, working with AusAID, IC functions, creation and support of AFL Oceania, appointment of a liaison to Europe, much more information on their website, public spruiking for the cause by David Matthews, international scholarship lists, sending Sheeds around places as an ambassador, plans for more exhibitions (perhaps restricted by the global recession), etc.

No doubt there may be some individual nations that could point to a reduction in direct cash handouts. But if we talk about the top say 15 to 20 nations, overall most will be about the same and the majority will be getting more support than they used to - some far more. If the trend is improvement then I can't see a great rallying cry to change things. Only if it flatlines for an extended period or goes backwards would there be much of a push. Of course we'd all like the AFL to do more, but what is the alternative, build one from scratch? But what does that provide. I guess the question is not whether the AFL assist enough, but do they hold anyone back? I don't see how.

Talking to various leagues you normally get some grumbles here and there but rarely any sense of a need to desire for a revolution.

My prediction remains that this will only rise as a serious issue when several countries have player numbers starting to get to the same order (i.e. factor of 10) of Australia (so say 3 or 4 countries with 100,000 players). Or of course if the AFL turned their back on international footy. So when might we see those kinds of numbers? Very speculative, but off the top of my head, maybe RSA in 10 years, PNG in 15 years, then who? Maybe China or India or the UK in 25 years? But even at say 20 years, the bigger countries will still be closely relying on AFL support and integration, so a breakway by them would still be unlikely. So if footy really kicks on, maybe in 30 years this will be an issue.

The only area I could see this theory breaking down would be if the AFL ignored Europe, with so many countries getting going. In theory a decent sized European body could be set up and breakaway over the next 15 years, if there was rapid growth and no AFL interest. But unlikely.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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