Craig Foster Watch
Normo's coming home
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Everything that comes out of this guys mouth is ridiculous and really an embarassment to football fans. I think he deserves his own thread...
First piece of evidence:
Even for a football fan the arrogance he displays here is galling, imagine reading this as a die hard AFL or NRL fan? Perfectly timed to coincide with the lowest crowd figures in A-League history the tsunami doesn't quite seeemed to have built up the necessary head of steam.
The simple fact is that league and Australian rules ARE big time in Australia, they have great fans, a lot of cash and a lot of influence - and ultimately deserve respect. Trying to claim that because football is popular overseas that it will sweep all before it in Aus (and NZ) is quite a simplistic analysis that ignores (a) that a world cup bid needs NRL and Aussie Rules backing and (b) that 6 years ago the game in Australia was on the ropes.
This isn't to deny that Football isn't a rising force in Australia but realistically it will only ever sit alongside other sports which have strong traditions and amazing history.
His jumped up sense of self importance is completely disproportionate to anything that he has ever achieved, ever.
I encourage you to get stuck in...
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Foster is hardly writing about or for football in this piece. He's making a case about promoting an Australian nationalist agenda through sports.
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But his argument that other sports need to get out of the way is quite disrespectful to major sports that have been in place in Australia for a long time. Of course all thould work together but that's not what he's saying. His argument is Football is bigger and mroe important than Aussie Rules therefore pi$$ off and let us through.
Normo's coming home
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Totaly agree JD, the argument that just because Football is big everywhere else means that AFL and NRL should step aside is fundamentally flawed, it is the Australian market that matters in this case and the big players in that market are AFL and NRL
www.kiwifromthecouch.blogspot.com
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Boys,
Fozzie can rant and rave at times, but you've got to understand that people here in those sports have deliberately tried to destroy soccer over there at times (see Channel 7/NSL court case).
He can go off the boil, but you should see some of the other comments over here recently in the print and radio media especially.
Fozzie can rant and rave at times, but you've got to understand that people here in those sports have deliberately tried to destroy soccer over there at times (see Channel 7/NSL court case).
He can go off the boil, but you should see some of the other comments over here recently in the print and radio media especially.
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Boys,
Fozzie can rant and rave at times, but you've got to understand that people here in those sports have deliberately tried to destroy soccer over there at times (see Channel 7/NSL court case).
He can go off the boil, but you should see some of the other comments over here recently in the print and radio media especially.
Fozzie can rant and rave at times, but you've got to understand that people here in those sports have deliberately tried to destroy soccer over there at times (see Channel 7/NSL court case).
He can go off the boil, but you should see some of the other comments over here recently in the print and radio media especially.
Agree to some extent. What people need to remember is the conspiracy theories (and thats likely all they are) that we have here about NZRU and media actually have been proven to happen over there (and far worse than just mentioning rugby in unrelated sports stories).
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But his argument that other sports need to get out of the way is quite disrespectful to major sports that have been in place in Australia for a long time. Of course all thould work together but that's not what he's saying. His argument is Football is bigger and mroe important than Aussie Rules therefore pi$$ off and let us through.
Alright. I'll quote the article you linked to back to you. Foster writes, "the issue did serve to once again highlight the myopic view that says AFL or rugby league are in any way capable of fulfilling the international ambitions of this country... If it's money [that the other codes] want, give it to them, because the prize at stake has nothing to do with commercial revenue or one code taking on another. It's to do with making a statement to the world about who we are in the new century."
In case that's not clear, Foster advocates commercial co-operation if possible, but suggests/threatens an appeal to the national government if other codes refuse to play ball. Respect and what "should" happen really have nothing to do with it.
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