Every four years since 1930 with the exception the war years, football’s World Cup has been held during the northern hemisphere summer. Every four years until now and football fans are none too happy.
Right now we should be in the midst of World Cup fever. Unfortunately, the latest iteration will be different with FIFA and the Qatar World Cup 2022 organising committee deciding to delay the tournament until November, disrupting hundreds of leagues around the world in the process and, more importantly, the routine of millions of football fans.
We should be watching the World Cup 2022 right now but because of Qatar, we are not !🙂
— Abdallah M.⓫ 🇪🇸 (@abdallah_rm11) June 19, 2022
The inaugural World Cup was held from 13 to 30 July 1930 and won by the home nation, Uruguay, in front of 93,000 fans at the Estadio Centenario, Montevideo. Over the years, the World Cup has been mostly held throughout June with the occasional May commencement or July conclusion.
The four-yearly traditional cycle that football fans have held dear for almost a century has become increasingly accessible thanks to evolution of radio and television broadcasts and more recently through streaming and internet services, making it a truly global event that millions of people around the world set their lives around.
I’m not willing to harp on the politics or questionable circumstances surrounding FIFA’s decision to award the hosting rights to Qatar except to say that as a football fan the timing is ridiculous with hundreds of club competitions around the world being thrown into chaos, including our own A-League. The last thing the A-League needs is another stop-start season especially after the season just gone.
The race to complete the 2021/22 A-League season including the backlog of postponed fixtures meant matches were shifted from traditional weekend time-slots to a more condensed schedule involving dozens of midweek fixtures.
While the A-leagues were keen to get matches completed under tough circumstances, it became clear that fans would struggle to accommodate midweek football into their weekly routines especially as their own grassroots football seasons started to ramp up. As a result crowds as fell away sharply with the A-League seeing some of the worst ever attendance records in the history of the professional game.
Attending two or three games over an eight day period simply wasn’t possible for many fans, not logistically nor financially. Many fans would also argue that midweek football simply does not work in Australia, let alone during a pandemic.
Thankfully for these fans, it was recently reported that the A-Leagues will abandon midweek fixtures for the upcoming season, a positive move in the eyes of many supporters who set aside both time and money to attend matches regularly. Understandably, several factors must come into play when scheduling matches but the most decisive factor of all must be taking into consideration is the habits, routines, customs and traditions of the fans.
Fans should know automatically that every second weekend throughout the league season their team will be playing at home. This should be a non-negotiable enforced by the fans, clubs and players alike. Clubs need the cash, players want the crowds and the rusted-on fans just want to be there, providing its logistically and financially feasible.
To be brutally honest, this should have been the case years prior to COVID-19 with inconsistent fixturing being one of the failures of the A-League since inception.
Whether it’s setting yourself up for a world cup year or an A-League fixture, routine is what gets us out of bed every morning as it gets the football fan to the stadium of a weekend. We plan for it, we look forward to it.
As well as fitting in with the weekly, monthly, yearly or four-yearly routines of the football fan, Australian football must also create its own dates and traditions. If I were to ask when is Christmas Day is or when is Australia Day, I’d put my house on most people of a sound mind being able to answer correctly, as would many sports fans if I ask when the AFL Grand Final is.
Aussie Rules Crooner, Mike Brady, even wrote a song about it! That’s how ingrained it is in the minds of Australian sports fans. I’m not suggesting anyone sing a song about the annual day we award the toilet seat but you get my point.
As for A-League or football traditions, whether it’s a Charity Shield-type season opener where they let all junior footballers into the Sydney Football Stadium for a tenner or holding the Australia Cup Final as a tradition in Canberra each year, or the A-League Men’s Grand Final on the weekend closest to ANZAC Day. Whatever it may be…
Tradition and routine has to start sometime, somewhere and somehow. Why not now? After all, football fans are creatures of habit.
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One of the reasons I stopped attending Perth Glory games was because of the crazy filtering. Totally agree the once a fortnight weekend game is a must. The number of games I missed because we had social engagements I was committed to because I didn’t realise there would be a fixture was crazy.