MONTY BENFICA | Amusements | CONTACT
A-league executives are trying their very best to ignore the glaringly obvious reason why a second-division soccer game deep in the industrial suburb of Reservoir, Melbourne, was able to create a better atmosphere better than that of a professional match.
The A-league — Australia’s top flight of soccer — was created in 2005 to move away from the pesky ethnically tied clubs that were the bedrock of Australian football, in an attempt to gain more traction among the non-European Australians.
This brand-new league, which was to be set up by the world-renowned marketing titans from Australian Rugby Union, would have one club per city and absolutely no culture, history or ethnic ties under any circumstances.
Despite the polished rebrand of Australian soccer, A-league bosses are still puzzled as to how Preston Macedonia Lions vs South Melbourne FC Hellas was able to pack a suburban stadium despite many of the players being part-time athletes, having zero publicity, and the match being played in the middle of nowhere.
“We just can’t figure out how clubs like Associazione Poli-sportiva Italo Australiana Leichhardt or Alexander the Great-Melbourne Soccer Club are able to create the passion we have been searching for so long,” said one spokesperson for the A-league.
“Why can’t we have the same energy at a Perth Glory vs Newcastle Jets game?? What are they doing differently that we aren’t??”
When it was suggested that the unique atmosphere of niche second-division soccer might be due to both European Australians and mainstream Australia alike wanting to witness the spectacle of 80-year-old immigrant community clubs, steeped in culture and tradition, and carrying with them centuries of ethnic rivalries, battling it out on community football fields, the spokesperson quickly dismissed the claim.
“Don’t be silly! We have everything you could want and more at clubs like the Central Coast Mariners!”
“We know that if we continue fighting for Australian soccer to have a sterile and clean-cut image, we could maybe one day become like the sports leagues in Australia we’ve always dreamed of being…”
“…Like the NBL.”
