![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
Abstract
In this essay, Janus is used as a metaphor for examining the nature of cultural diversity in Australian sport. It does so by firstly presenting a historical context for sport in Australia and the relative lack of cultural diversity found in sport. Within a country dominated by the running codes of football and cricket, the position of soccer in Australia was somewhat unique as it became a bastion for many non-Anglo migrant groups. However, in the 1980s and 1990s soccer's lack of organizational success at the state and national level was negatively ascribed to the tensions between the ethnically affiliated clubs, the same clubs that were ironically the stalwarts driving the growing popularity of the sport. We examine the initiatives used to restructure the game in Australia to make football more appealing to mainstream (i.e. non-ethnically aligned) spectators. The contemporary situation is explored through secondary documentation and the results of a survey of 3,056 spectators undertaken during the first season of the new A-League are presented. The essay concludes with a discussion about the relative success of the restructure in terms of changing the face of Australian soccer.
Notes
1 CitationHanna, Reconciliation in Olympism.
2 CitationSherington, Australia's Immigrants 1788–1988.
3 CitationStasiulius and Yuval-Davis, Unsettling Settler Societies, 3.
4 Hallinan and Krotee, ‘Conceptions of Nationalism and Citizenship’.
5 CitationCastles, ‘Nations of Immigrants’.
6 CitationBirrell and Betts, ‘Australians' Attitudes to Migration Review’, 3.
7 CitationJayaraman, ‘Inclusion and Exclusion’, 136.
8 CitationGalligan and Roberts, Australian Multiculturalism, 7.
9 CitationCarrington and McDonald, Race, Sport and British Society.
10 CitationHallinan and Krotee, ‘Conceptions of Nationalism and Citizenship’; CitationHarrison, ‘What's in an Ethnic Name?’; CitationHay, ‘“Our Wicked Foreign Game”‘; CitationHughson, Building a Brotherhood from Otherhood’; CitationMosely, ‘Balkan Politics in Australian Soccer’.
11 CitationHallinan, Hughson and Burke, ‘Supporting the “World Game” in Australia’.
12 CitationHay, ‘Fan Culture in Australian Football (Soccer)’.
13 CitationJupp, ‘Waves of Migration to Australia’.
14 Sherington, Australia's Immigrants 1788–1988.
15 CitationVamplew, ‘Violence in Australian Soccer’, 3.
16 CitationFoley, ‘Subversive Possibilities’; CitationLynch and Veal, Australian Leisure.
17 CitationHay, ‘“Our Wicked Foreign Game”‘.
18 Sherington, Australia's Immigrants 1788–1988.
19 CitationJupp, ‘Waves of Migration to Australia’.
20 Sherington, Australia's Immigrants 1788–1988.
21 CitationMurphy, The Other Australia.
22 Jupp, ‘Waves of Migration to Australia’, 25
23 CitationWaterhouse, Private Pleasure, Public Leisure.
24 CitationCashman, Paradise of Sport.
25 CitationDepartment of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Croatian Born Community Profile, 3.
26 CitationMosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer.
27 Jupp, ‘Waves of Migration to Australia’.
28 Hay, ‘“Our Wicked Foreign Game”‘.
29 Hay, ‘British Football, Wogball or the World Game?’; Mosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer; Vamplew, ‘Violence in Australian Soccer’.
30 CitationAdair and Vamplew, Sport in Australian History; Hay, ‘British Football, Wogball or the World Game?’; Hughson, ‘A Feel for the Game’; CitationHughson, ‘Australian Soccer's “Ethnic” Tribes’; Mosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer; Vamplew, ‘Violence in Australian Soccer’.
31 CitationHughson, ‘Australian Soccer's “Ethnic” Tribes’; Mosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer; Vamplew, ‘Violence in Australian Soccer’
32 Hughson, ‘Australian Soccer’; Hughson, ‘A Feel for the Game’; CitationHughson, ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’.
33 Vamplew, ‘Violence in Australian Soccer’.
34 Hay, ‘British Football, Wogball or the World Game?’.
35 Mosely, ‘Soccer’, 164.
36 Mosely, ‘Soccer’, 164 CitationCollins, ‘Cultural Diversity and Entrepreneurship’.
37 Hay, ‘British Football, Wogball or the World Game?’.
38 Hay, ‘British Football, Wogball or the World Game?’
39 CitationJones and Moore, ‘He Only Has Eyes for Poms’.
40 Hay, ‘“Our Wicked Foreign Game”‘.
41 CitationMosely, ‘Soccer’, 164.
42 Mosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer.
43 Hughson, ‘Australian Soccer’, 12.
44 Hay, ‘“Our Wicked Foreign Game”‘, 174.
45 Mosely, ‘Soccer’.
46 Mosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer.
47 CitationHughson, ‘A Tale of Two Tribes’.
48 CitationKerkyasharian, Moss and Waller, Report of the Independent Panel of Inquiry.
49 Hughson, ‘A Tale of Two Tribes’.
50 Hughson, ‘A Tale of Two Tribes’
51 CitationAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities, Australia.
52 CitationCrawford, Report of the Independent Soccer Review Committee.
53 CitationKemeny, Report of the NSL Task-Force.
54 N. Shoebridge, ‘Modest A-League Faces Uphill Battle’. Financial Review, November 8, 2004, 50.
55 Hay, ‘British Football, Wogball or the World Game?’; CitationHughson, ‘A Feel for the Game’; Mosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer; Vamplew, ‘Violence in Australian Soccer’.
56 J. Huxley, ‘Football's New Kick-start’. Sydney Morning Herald, August 26, 2006, 28.
57 With the exception of Perth Glory and Adelaide United.
58 Hallinan, Hughson and Burke, ‘Supporting the “World Game” in Australia’.
59 M. Cockerill, ‘Lowy Targets Young, Welcomes Old’. Sydney Morning Herald, August 9, 2005, 38.
60 M. Cockerill, ‘Lowy Targets Young, Welcomes Old’. Sydney Morning Herald, August 9, 2005, 38
61 CitationAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Migration, Australia figures as at 30 June 2006.
62 CitationAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Migration, Australia figures as at 30 June 2006
63 CitationHughson, ‘Australian Soccer’.
64 CitationAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities, Australia; Australian Bureau of Statistics, Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities; CitationAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Participation in Sports and Physical Recreation.
65 Hughson, ‘Australian Soccer’.
66 Hay, ‘Fan Culture in Australian Football (Soccer)’; Hughson, ‘A Feel for the Game’; Hughson, ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’.
67 Hay, ‘Fan Culture in Australian Football (Soccer)’, 101.
68 CitationLock, Taylor and Darcy, ‘Fan Identity Formation in a New Football Club’.
69 CitationLock, Taylor and Darcy, ‘Fan Identity Formation in a New Football Club’
70 Cockerill, ‘Lowy Targets Young, Welcomes Old’, 38.
71 Cockerill, ‘Lowy Targets Young, Welcomes Old’, 38
72 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Migration, Australia. The cultural background of participants was included as an open ended question. It is for this reason that the UK, England and Scotland are all included.
73 CitationBradley, Australian Soccer Federation.
74 Hay, ‘“Our Wicked Foreign Game”‘.
75 CitationBrabazon, ‘What's the Story Morning Glory?’.
76 CitationBrabazon, ‘What's the Story Morning Glory?’
77 Hay, ‘Fan Culture in Australian Football (Soccer)’; Lock, Taylor and Darcy, ‘Fan Identity Formation in a New Football Club’.
78 CitationBurdsey, British Asians and Football.
79 Vamplew, ‘Violence in Australian Soccer’.
80 Hallinan, Hughson and Burke, ‘Supporting the “World Game” in Australia’.