Now football doesn't always get the coverage it deserves, certainly on FTA national channels it hardly gets the coverage crowds and the national team of the World Game deserves.
Even with so many people interested in the last World Cup campaign and numbers involved in the game.
So I guess there must be a number of media, a few at the elite of the AFL, Rugby League and Rugby Union who woke up this morning and said,
"Oh no they're off to the World Cup again.

I like my football, with a passionate crowd, something on the line, plenty of skill and the stadium sold out.
They said we didn't care about Asia, and it's football. Who's they? Well all those Aussie enlightened sports journo's; you know who they are...the ones that give football a fair go.

Now could anything ever be more popular in Melbourne than AFL,surely not Football. The Herald Sun's Alison Coster reports.

THE round-ball game continues to drive into Melbourne footy heartland.
In certain metropolitan pockets of Melbourne, junior AFL clubs are being outnumbered by soccer teams
In the Greater Dandenong area, there are only 16 Dandenong and Springvale teams in the Dandenong and District Junior AFL, down from 32 in 2003.

Sydney and Melbourne. The FFA research show that two teams in the A-League from these cities would be great.
But after the weekend's Sydney sporting crowds Canberra hopes must have risen a further notch
Everyone knows the AFL has the most money and least international expenses of any sport in Australia.

Well it's not the AFL Club's, Adelaide Crows or Port Adelaide. They might have been going 150 years but who's heard of them outside Melbourne:)
Is there even a Rugby League or Union side from Adelaide?
Adelaide United a club just a few years old, already well known across Pohang, Korea, Changchun, China and Kashima, Japan.

In case you don't have Fox and wondering what the heck I'm going on about in AFL/NRL Grand Final week(s), here's the video of the Adelaide goal.
And who would have thought that five years ago Adelaide newspapers and media would be front and back page football in Grand Final week.

Tonight in Adelaide, new football, takes another step. Appropriately, to me, it is a team from the old NSL playing in a stadium used in the old NSL, that will take us to a place this game, in this country, has never ever been.
Semi-Final time. Of the Asian Champions League.
Whatever your sporting passion, when there is a prize on the line, the crowd swells, and the intensity lifts.

While Rugby League and AFL are quick to say how strong their game is in Australia, and AFL is of that I have no doubt, here's the weeks viewing figures from PAYTV.
How acurate the figures are, who knows, but the ranking is what interests me.
Man United Chelsea ranked number 7 highest show of the week, in Australia, in the middle of the League, AFL and oh yeah the Union seasons.

Now in Australia we football fans used to open our newspapers, before t'internet, and have to read drivel like that written by Jason Akermanis about football.
But with t'internet we can give it back.
Jason Akermanis is an AFL player. He will play around 21 games a season. But when it comes to writing, and football knowledge he's a dead-set goose, and here's why.

Who is the highest paid footballer, in any code, in Australia?
It used to be Union's Matt Giteau (Western Force) some thought maybe Chris Judd (AFL) or maybe Willie Mason (Rugby League).
Well, it's an A-League player, an Australian. As of this morning it's John Aloisi who has just signed with Sydney FC.

The Daily Telegraph have printed this: Football to surpass TV revenues for Rugby League

THE battle of Australia's football codes is not confined to western Sydney, with soccer's TV rights tipped to rival AFL when a new deal is nutted out in 2013.
Leading media buyer and analyst Harold Mitchell claims soccer could surpass the NRL's $500 million deal and rub shoulders with the AFL.

AFL to reduce the size of junior teams...now where have we heard that before?
Apparently AFL want to introduce 12 players a team for juniors. So every gets ago, and they are living in fear of football, so it seems.
And as the local junior seasons start, the race is on to get our cAussie children, into AFL, Union, League or Football.

Socceroos outrate Super 14 Show piece.

Football continues to rate well on PAYTV. The Socceroos, who used to play in front of dismal crowds only a few years ago, outrated all the recent AFL, NRL games shown on PAYTV over the las two weeks; and even the Rugby Union showpiece final between The Waratahs and Crusaders.

AFL Finals. Big game in Melbourne drew 45,000 to the MCG. Across at the Dome Melbourne Victory passed another test.
They drew 25,000 to watch their 1-0 win over Adelaide United. This was the first time football had been played in Melbourne at the same time as an AFL Final.

A very big truck from SAKAI.
The other codes said Aussies didn't care about the Asian Champions League.
Well here's evidence to show they do.
Adelaide United just 900 tickets left for tonights Quater Final against Kashima Antlers. What code wouldn't like a midweek sell-out!

Canberra Raiders CEO Don Furner said,

'It could be going to local sporting teams, it could be going to the new A-League team.''

The ACT Government are considering paying $3 million dollars per year to sponsor the Sydney Swans. Now the Canberra A-League team don't need more handouts but this is clearly ridiculous.

Warwick Hadfield on Nearpost Radio on Tuesday.
Despite what you read here, I'm very highbrow and enjoy listening every morning to Radio National's Breakfast programme with Fran Kelly. Love ya Fran, you are the best.
And at 7.35am every morning Australia's best all-round sports journo Warwick Hadfield fills us in, as only he can, on the days news in sport.

Roy Masters is the Sydney Morning Herald's Rugby League expert. He's also on the Board of the Australian Sports Commission
In his recent article factual errors abound.

The reality is that Sydney's parallel to the MCG is at Homebush and its equivalent of the 55,000-capacity Telstra Dome is the football stadium, with one NRL club playing there.

Australian football scored $32 million in the Federal Budget. About time football was given the support to boost the game played across the world, and across Australia. The money is mainly for Women's football, grassroots and to support our nine International sides.
And Kevin Rudd withdrew Howards $25 million for the Rugby Union Academy, $10 million for the Leagues' Hall of Fame, and also some money from the Fishing Hall of Fame.

Talking at the Tattersall's CEO Sporting Lunch were Australia's Big Five White Chief's. Reflecting the true nature of Australia:)White Anglo males, but there you go.
And Football was at the table, alongside League, Union, Cricket and the big elephant in the room AFL.
FFA CEO Ben Buckley his confidence, humour and intelligence giving the code, our code, great respect.

Sick of Fuelwatch...well now there's Footballwatch.
The Federal Government concerned about increasing obesity in Australia, has announced "football watch" on the back of it's widely known fuelwatch.
"Basically people can log in anytime any place and see where football's are being kicked, in which state, which town and even at which club," said a spokeswoman for the Government.

So 70,000 watched the Socceroos v China last week and only 48,000 filed in to the same stadium on Saturday, some on free tickets, to watch the Wallabies take on World Cup finalists France.
Interesting times. But does it have any benefits to the Canberra A-League bid? Yes it does, and here's three Canberra anecdotes to start you thinking.

From the Daily Telegraph

Monday Night Football sales for Melbourne-Warriors have been a tad slow. The Telstra Dome game is shifting the same number of tickets as the average Olympic Park home match but Docklands staff remain hopeful of hitting their 18,000 target.

It's the opening round of the Rugby League and crowds are expected to be very healthy everywhere in the centenary year.

The Weekender: This week Russ Gibbs gives his thought on the "Code Wars" in operation in Australia.
Anyone can write The Weekender, we talk football, in its broadest sense. The aim is to provide Canberra readers with guaranteed football coverage on the Weekend.
CODE WARS
By Russ Gibbs
It's only a personal opinion, but I simply cannot fathom the undisguised ‘hatred' of the differing forms of football that we see in this country.

Given the AFL's desire to copy most things football. Talk of a red card, substitutes, small sided games are just a few doing the traps at the moment.
Well watching Bend it like Beckham on Saturday night, no A-League on so what sport is there to watch at the moment, I was thinking about the great lift this gave the women's game and the game of football and feel sure AFL and the other codes in Australia will come out with a version soon.

Matildas, Carl Valeri, Boca Juniors to tour Australia, Olyroos World Cup draw for Beijing, Channel 9 want football, ACT Government spending.
It's all here...
Six Matildas are playing or will shortly head overseas to play for foreign clubs as women's football continues to evolve.

Scott McDonald, Carl Valeri, FourFourTwo stars go Nearpost, Rugby League a flop?, Ticket Sales, Melbourne Victory
Scott McDonald, Celtic's prolific scorer has done it again. Facing his old club Motherwell McDonald equalised before Celtic's Greek star Samaras scored the winner.