Australia

They’re unhealthily nutty about sport in Australia. This is a country where one state has a public holiday for a horse race that takes all of three and-a-half minutes (the Melbourne Cup), an office without a “tipping comp” is practically unheard of, and girls not only like, but – make sure you’re sitting down, fellas – are knowledgeable about cricket. The top five highest television audiences in 2005 were all for sports programmes.

But the crucial word is sport, not football. In fact few words are as confusing Down Under as the ‘f’ word. AFL (Aussie Rules – or “footy” in Victoria) is the country’s most popular spectator sport, then there’s rugby league (often called “footy” in New South Wales and Queensland), rugby union, cricket, horse racing, swimming... and somewhere in amongst the last few is “soccer”.

At least it was before 2005. The sport used to be nicknamed “wogball” (“wog” is a derogatory term for southern European immigrants) and a key problem for the perennially struggling National Soccer League (NSL) was the ethnic divisions which brought violence to the terraces and alienated mainstream sports fans. Unpopular and poorly run, the competition’s termination in 2004 was a blessing.

At that point, the people who really cared about the round-ball game in Australia teamed up with mega-wealthy Auschwitz survivor Frank Lowry and former rugby union chief executive John O’Neill and went away for a brainstorm. The result was the 2005 launch of the A-League, backed by a £1.2m advertising campaign. There was also a bold change of name from Soccer Australia to Football Federation Australia and the Australian FourFourTwo sounded the fanfare for a new era, launching under the headline “Hello football, goodbye soccer”.

The inaugural season was a success. Though some inevitable debt was incurred, crowds averaged 10,861 – 17,000 at champions Sydney FC – and the Grand Final could have sold out the 41,000-capacity Aussie Stadium three times over.

Many ethnic groups got behind the teams, but so did ‘sports’ fans wondering what all the fuss was about, kids who had previously played without watching, and returning overseas travellers who’d caught the bug during working holidays in London (indeed most young Aussies are up-to-date with the “EPL”).

The A-League’s encouraging beginnings were given a shot in the arm by the hullabaloo surrounding the Socceroos’ exploits in only their second World Cup finals appearance.

While Australia excel at many sports, they’re usually ones that most of the world doesn’t play (fancy an AFL World Cup, anyone?). This was the first time, other than the Olympics, where they competed on a truly global stage. And genuinely competed – neither Brazil nor Italy overawing or outplaying them. Despite 2am and 5am kick-offs, the World Cup became the cool new drug of choice; TV ratings records were smashed and tens of thousands of new fans were found.

Whether the new football fever translates into long-term support for the A-League remains to be seen – Australia’s sporting public can be fickle, tending to cling to winners only until the next one comes along – but the signs are certainly promising...