Dear Australia…… Your rules are rubbish!

I’ve just watched my 13 year old cousin play football for his local team the Tarmoor Tigers in Australia. I’m still astounded and shocked at what I’ve just witnessed and realise why the football here will never be there national sport! It was the quarter finals of the local cup so there was a big turnout. I’ve only recently come to Australia so was quite excited to watch him play and see what the quality was like.

 It was a fairly matched game with neither team giving anything away. Half time came and it was a stalemate at 0-0. The second half kicked off with both teams attacking well, parents of both teams cheering their kids on enthusiastically you could tell most of the parents weren’t avid football fans with shouts of ‘good kick!’ ‘Come on get it over the goal line!’ and my favorite ‘that players such a good defensive blocker!’ which added to the mornings entertainment.

 With about 10minutes to go still 0-0 I asked the other parents ‘does it go to extra time? Or golden goal?’ Most of them had no idea when the opposition’s manager GLOATINGLY said ‘there is no extra time or golden goal! The winner goes through on who has had most corners and goal kicks and we are winning 10-4!’ I could not believe what I had just heard! In a country where the sport is in decline the kids are being encouraged to get pointless corners and goal kicks rather than scoring to win the game! I would love to know what kind of people make up the Australian Football Federation who thinks this is good for the sport. If this happened in the premiership Stoke would be crowned champions every year and Rory Delap would be the richest sportsman in history! What kind of example are they setting for their future stars of the sport! This is the most ridiculous rule I have ever heard and with rules like this Australia doesn’t deserve our beautiful game!!

On a positive note my cousin’s team scored in the last minute and won 1-0! I made sure I gave my commiserations to the other team’s manager…..

Harry O’Donnell

Comments

[Burgz]

Mate i don't know where your child is playing football but most kids Leagues here in Melbourne go to extra time and penalties if required. Football is the most played Sport in Australia at a junior level ahead of Australia's 2 main sports AFL and Rugby League, and continues to grow. To make the statement that the Sport will never grow based on a kids game and rules is fairly far fetched. For a country to be ranked 24th in the world where football is not it's National Sport is a fair effort!

[J D Smith]

Dear Harry,
My granddaughter played in her final two weeks ago. The match like the one you saw were similar in that both teams tried their heart out. However it was nil all at the end of the hour, so they played extra time. It ended nil all again. After the whistle the teams shook hands , cheered each other and her team was announced the winner
for getting 4 corner kicks to two, so won. The kids were beside themselves with the joy of it. Even the beaten team joined in the celebration with them. So it really didn't matter who won, the girls all had a great time.
Remember the ages are 6 to 10 yrs old, It is the joy of the occasion that matters and not the result at that age.
Next time you go a final match for the over tens you will find it then is exactly the same as the u.k.
There is something quite wonderful which is lost in later age groups. Football rules.

[Harry O'Donnell]

Hey guys,

First of all thanks for your comments, but as all football fans we all have different points of view. I’m not basing this on why the sport will never grow, im basing it on the fact for the past 40 years the football here has struggled. The National Soccer League ran for 27 years before it folded in 2005 due to poor attendances and financial losses, it then took 18 months to form the A-league. The A-league teams constantly run at a loss every year and only two games last year had attendances over 30,000 and 8 over 20,000. With 150 games being played 8-0 and 5-1 were the two biggest margins making it un-attractive for any hopes for converting non-football fans. I love football and I’m an avid Sydney FC fan and have just bought my season ticket. I do hope one day it can be as big as the NRL and AFL, with the introductions of Kewell and Emerton surely won't harm it chances. However i think we need to look at reality and realise we are far from this goal! I don't really take too much notice of the FIFA rankings as Spain who are the current European and World Cup champions and have the world’s best team in the world in Barcelona are ranked 2nd in the world makes no sense at all!

With regards to the kids football I think they should be having as much fun as possible at that age. There’s nothing better than watching them, however should there really be one eye on the corner count? Penalties only take a small amount of time and football has always been won with the team scoring the most goals not corners. I cant see the actual purpose in this rule and what they are looking to achieve?