Recession, Politics and Football

Reflections on Men and Women's Football in Italy

Greg Downes has sent us another piece from Florence. This time he contrasts the fortunes of the Men's and Women's games in Italy.

Recession, politics and football. You don't have to go too far afield to find a passionate view on any or all three in Italy today. Italy is suffering through its worst recession since WW2, with its Prime Minister declaring that the current economic situation as the "true nightmare of our country". Everyone I speak to has an opinion, from the lovely Michela the owner of a local alimentari who is working two jobs in hope of having her first child, to the mother of an 18-year-old who is fearful that her son will never get work in his home country and the father of a young woman footballer who is fortunate enough to be able to support his daughter in her quest to play the game she loves and at the same time pursue a career of her own. No money, no jobs, no future! The locals seem keen to express their feelings about the issues their country is facing, and it is no more common than on the sidelines of the sport that defines it in so many ways– football.

Having now become an adopted supporter of Firenze Calcio Femminile the conversation at home games often turns to the effects of the recession and the very urgent need to change if in fact the country and football does have a future. Attending my third game I have become recognised by some of the locals (there are not too many so I kind of stand out) and the nonna smiles at me in recognition and tries to chat about the game, which is about to start. Of course I can't fully understand her and have to give up and explain that I non parlo Italiano. She immediately grabs a gentleman sitting in front and introduces him to me - he can speak English! It turns out he is the father of one of the players, with the number seven on her back. Her name is Greta. He introduces himself as Mauro. She is just back from injury and her dad is anxious about how she will play. In the end he needn't have worried; she had a good game in a tight contest resulting in a hard fought win for the locals.

At half time with the locals holding onto a 1 - 0 advantage we talk about the women's game and football in general. Mauro confirms that the league, although the pinnacle of women's soccer, is not professional in that no one gets paid. Clubs meet some expenses but there is just no sponsorship money to go around. When I mention the men’s game Mauro immediately and expressively waves his hands "well that is a completely different thing! Some players are earning a million euros a season! women's football is not so important.” If you take a quick look at the list of player salaries in the Serie A, Mauro’s comment quickly becomes one huge understatement with the majority of players from the top clubs all earning way above the one million euro mark.

While the women’s game in Italy continues slowly to grow and develop unnoticed, the same cannot be said about the once proud men’s Serie A league.

With the recession in Europe affecting many businesses and individuals alike, it seems that the men's top 5 professional leagues (Germany's Bundesliga, Spain's La Liga, France's Ligue 1, English Premier League and Italy's Serie A) are immune to the trend. Deloitte’s football money league 2013 reports that the combined leagues earned a massive revenue total of 9.3 billion euro for the 2011/12 season, representing an increase of 8% from the previous year. However while it remains in the top five, Italy is fast losing ground to the other big leagues in Europe. Once known as the “Hollywood” of football talent and success Italy’s Serie A has become a hot topic of conversation among local supporters, commentators and the media alike, with many calling for urgent action to halt the decline. The Italian Football Federation in a recent report states that Serie A alone is in debt to the tune of 2.6 billion euro, with a total professional club debt of 388 million euro for the current campaign. Finances are not its only concern as the league is suffering from a number of self-inflicted issues, which are fast eroding the value, and culture of the league. A recent article in the Bleacher Report by correspondent Cheyenne Hollis titled, ‘Serie A: The Slow Death of the Greatest League in Europe’ states that “The once-proud league is quickly becoming an afterthought as scandals, crowd troubles and a poor product continue to plague the Italian game”.

Television broadcasting rights which account for approximately 50% of the league’s revenue are essential to Serie A’s survival. As the league begins negotiations with providers it is faced with an increasing list of problems and none more pressing than a massive decrease in consumer spending as a result of the recession. If you include the current level of club debt, increasing concerns about violence, incidents of racism, past corruption and the poor state of club stadiums the league has a lot to be worried about. Match attendance figures alone have decreased a massive 30% over the last 5 years. Cash-strapped clubs can no longer afford to support star international players who were once attracted to the league and are losing local talent just as fast. But what matters most to the broadcasters is that viewers have begun to switch off in large numbers. Supporters can no longer afford television subscriptions and match day tickets and are not prepared to put up with the dilapidated state of their team stadiums. Personal safety concerns and increasing violence and corruption in state and football management is adding to the collapse of the league’s support base.

Joaquin of ACF Fiorentina scores a goal during the UEFA Europa League Group E match between ACF Fiorentina and FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk at Stadio Artemio Franchi on December 12, 2013 in Florence, Italy.

Attending the Europa Cup match between ACF Fiorentina (Florence Italy) and FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine) at the Stadio Artemio Franchi seemed to confirm all that is worrying about the men's game. Tight security surrounded the stadium as supporters are ushered along outside of a high chain wire fence surrounding the stadium. Many, including myself, are searched and questioned about smoke bombs and flares as they entered. The stands are old and dirty and the complex has no toilets or amenities. The addition of a row of porta loos, while providing to those in need, did nothing to promote the venue. The crowd was in the most part friendly but it did get a bit heated at one end with flares and smoke accompanying huge flags, banners and hearty barracking. Maybe the security checks were only meant for those entering the grandstands, but they didn't seem to have made any difference to me. But what I did notice was the poor crowd attendance. There were many seats left unoccupied. This was an important game for Florence against a club that was determined to overturn a previous loss and to reclaim and leading position within the group. Why were the numbers so low? The stadium built in 1931 has a capacity of 47,000 odd supporters but my guess put the figure at about a quarter of that. While the stadium has a rich history including hosting matches of the 1934 World Cup, the 1960 Olympics and even some games between American service teams at the end of the second world, the stadium is in a very poor state. Despite the conditions the locals that braved the cold night to support their team enjoyed a hard and exciting tussle, with ACF Fiorentina running out winners in the end two goals to one.

Thinking about the crowd numbers, the state of the stadium and the amount of money in the men’s game, as I always do, I draw a line of comparison with the women’s game. While they too struggle for people to attend matches, albeit on a much smaller scale, they have long faced many similar challenges and concerns which are only now starting to affect the men’s game. No media support, no money, no stadiums and no interest. They have never been in a strong financial position and being paid as a professional is just a dream to most. Many women have long been in the position whereby they have to choose between the limited opportunities offered at home or leaving to find greener pastures elsewhere. Not all however in the search of the dollar but to be able to improve their game in an environment which is encouraging and supportive. This is not say that premier women players are not interested in being financially rewarded, it is for the vast majority the only option available in countries where the game is dominated culturally by men.

Amanda Axelson a soccer writer for the Puget Sound Premier League comments on the large number of Italian women soccer players who are travelling to the United States. “Football in the U.S provides Italian females the chance to branch out from their male-dominated Italian soccer world.” Many see football in Italy as only a game for men and because it is so dominant the women’s game is not followed at all. These women see the United States, and other footballing nations that support the women’s game, as a rare opportunity to enjoy the game they love. Interviewed for the same article Italian women’s footballer Alessandra Nencioni commented that all “Italian female players have the American dream to play in a country where soccer is maybe the most followed women’s sport.”

So in facing the cultural and practical realities of women’s football, what really motivates the thousands of young women who play football in Italy today? An article published by Urbino University Professor, Ivana Matteucci titled, ‘Sport as a Cultural Model: Italian Women's Soccer over the Past Ten Years’, may provide some answers. The article based on a survey questionnaire distributed to 100 women who play soccer regularly endeavors to shed some light on the obstacles which block the development of the female sport and what motivates female athletes to continue to play the game.

At the top of the list we find passion for the sport and the enjoyment they get out of playing. Many of them have been repeatedly discouraged from playing the game by parents, relatives and friends for different reasons, but above all, because women’s soccer is not comparable to the men’s game. Many women play for simple personal pleasure and use the sport as a diversion to get a break from the repetition of everyday life. As one might expect, the percentage of those who play soccer only for financial compensation is very low.

Mauro talks again about his daughter and of the game she has loved to play since the age of eight. Greta now shares a flat with two of her teammates (one a former Japanese national goalkeeper) directly opposite the Stadio Comunale San Marcellino where they train and play on the weekend. All are studying at University in Florence. While the club does provide rent assistance Mauro explains that with training four nights a week and a game each weekend, the girls don't have time to work part time (if there is in fact work available) and would not be able to study at the tertiary level without financial support. He is happy to be in a position where he can provide the support that Greta needs to both play the game she loves and to attend University in the hope that she will have the best opportunity for a successful future.

Many find it hard to have any sympathy for the current condition of the men’s game in Italy when most of its problems are self-inflicted due to the league’s unwillingness to act in the face of the challenges at hand. It is clear from the parents and family supporters and that of the many commentators of the game that drastic change is needed both in Government and in the management of football if the both the country and the game is to once again reclaim a leading position in Europe. While they are deeply proud of their country and passionate about the game they love, many believe that the country needs to stop and start all over again if it has any chance of moving forward towards a brighter future.

There are no easy answers to the problems facing both the country and men’s football in Italy, but there just might be some lessons to be learnt from the women’s game. No matter what nationality women and girls just like Greta continually face many hardships and obstacles in order for them to play the game they love. Ultimately the future of the game will depend in part on the willingness of the fans and the old English proverb, “Where there’s a will there’s a way!”

What game is this?

The following images comes from a Sports Memorabilia site. They're beautiful things that date from between 1877 and 1907. I suspect it's closer to 1877 given the qualities of the images. The first raises an interesting question: what game are the South Adelaide FC playing?

This description is found in the listing:
The following four lots are another impressive collection of collector cards, this time South Australian Football Association postcards c.1877-1907 from the renowned Valentine series: South Adelaide Football Club unused card, a few marks and internal creasing else a very scarce and presentable card 

Everything about the South Adelaide players' image points to soccer, except the shape of the ball - which looks more like the conventional rugby ball which was often used in Victorian rules at the time.

Of the images in the series, only one (Norwood) represents a handling game. As the mark and therefore handling were a part of early soccer and also the English Association rules as temporarily adopted in Adelaide in 1873, even this gives us no clearer indication of the code of football being played. The scene represented occurred in every code of football in this period.

The West Torrens image (below right) could well be a classic representation of early soccer with its focus on dribbling and individual head-down charges up the field. Or it could be a rugby scene - or one derived from Victorian rules as played at the time.

The fact that only one of these images involves handling doesn't prove all that much. Though it does suggest that while handling was a part of the game, kicking the ball along and off the ground was a more important component of play.

One more possibility is that the artist's (probably English or Scottish) origins might well have meant that they favoured one code over another, bringing a 'foreign' perspective to bear. As a result the artist imposed or accentatuated the soccerist aspects of the football he or she was meant to be capturing.

It's a conundrum. But nonetheless, these cards are interesting little cameos of one moment in the development of football codes in Australia.

In their shadows

A memoir of soccer in South Australia the 1950s

Bill Murray saw my piece "Bastards Like Them' on Shoot Farken and thought he'd send his own recollections of the time. Bill played with and against the trinity of Perkins, Moriarty and Briscoe and has some fond memories.

Harry Williams in action, photo courtesy Roy Hay

Before Harry Williams played for the Socceroos in the 1974 World Cup in Germany, there were very few Aboriginals playing soccer, yet among those who did were three who would go on to make names for themselves in the world beyond sport. And all of them began their careers in South Australia, playing for Port Thistle, formerly Port Presbyterian Thistle, merging in 1955 with Port Adelaide, one of South Australia’s oldest clubs. Most famous of these three, of course, was Charlie Perkins, the leading Aboriginal activist from the 1960s until his premature death in 2000. Outside of soccer circles his name made the headlines in the Freedom Rides to Moree and elsewhere in 1965, but he never forgot his passion for the game he took up more or less by accident and became a star of South Australian soccer before moving to New South Wales where he had a brilliant career with the Greek team, Pan-Hellenic. Until his last days he was involved in soccer in some way or another. Most notably in the Australian Capital Territory where his exploits have been extolled by the Liberal Party’s Steve Doszpot, himself of Hungarian heritage and another soccer fanatic.

John Moriarty and Bill Murray in recent times.
Photo courtesy Roy Hay

Johnny Moriarty’s success has been even more impressive, albeit less spectacular. Unlike his friend Charlie, he was a stolen child, from Borroloola, who arrived at the St Francis House, an Anglican boys’ home in Semaphore in South Australia, from whence came several young Aboriginal lads who would make a major impact on the world around them. Moriarty’s success on the soccer field led to him being selected to play for the State against Western Australia in 1960, permission for which had to be granted by the relevant body then overseeing Aboriginal affairs. Beyond soccer Johnny went on to make a reputation using his talent in Aboriginal art, above all with the Jumbana Group and the dreamtime painting of two of Qantas’s Jumbos in 1994 and 1995. Richly rewarded for his artistic skills, he has never forgotten where he came from, devoting much of his time to the development of young Aboriginal soccer players, in New South Wales and back in his birth place, Borroloola, or wherever young Aboriginal talent is being encouraged. He hopes to take a team of young Aboriginal players to Brazil this year.

The third star to emerge from South Australian soccer in the 1950s is Gordon Briscoe. Of more modest soccer talent than Perkins or Moriarty, Briscoe is today a professor at the Australian National University, in academic terms going beyond his two “cousins” from the St Francis home for boys in Semaphore with their bachelor degrees: but like Perkins a fighter for Aboriginal rights, alongside Gary Foley and others from the late 1960s. Unlike Perkins and Moriarty who never lost their love for soccer, Briscoe’s interest in politics took over from his interest in the game, although two years in the UK in the early 1960s and recurrent injuries played their part.

I played soccer for Port Adelaide for three seasons from shortly after my arrival in Australia in October 1954, and well remember my first encounter with Moriarty. It was a state trial for the Intermediate (Under-18) team to play against Victoria for the Skolnik Cup, where I was given the instruction: “Just put the ball in front of the little black kid”: that was it as the young Johnny Moriarty flew down the wing with the ball at his feet leaving everyone else in his trail. Moriarty’s career took off, mine drifted, but one of my favourite memories of him after that was the fun to and from an Under-21 State team visit to Port Pirie in 1958. (I was a reserve.  I might also add that in the squad was Denis Harlow,  future historian of the game in South Australia to which he has devoted his life in every capacity)  I have since been told that Johnnie was not a singer but I seem to remember some very good Elvis interpretations. An outstanding feature of Moriarty that I noted then and have had no reason to change my opinion since is that he was always a great sport and a gentleman in the best meaning of that word.

Charlie Perkins watches SA goalkeeper gather the ball against Victoria,
photo courtesy Roy Hay

No-one would have called Charlie a gentleman, in any sense. And yet my early memories, vague and mixed up with games at Gepps Cross migrant camp and anywhere else where a group of migrants got together, was of this most skilled Aboriginal player who epitomised the sporting ideal. My guess is that when Charlie found himself faced by a very unsporting racist society which took advantage of a native population too reliant on the goodwill of the white masters, he made a conscious choice to show on the field of play that he could be as tough and ferocious as anyone. Charlie says that he did not find in soccer the racism that contaminated cricket (where he was equally brilliant) or the other football codes, even if it meant, as has been said, that he might allow himself to be seen as Greek or southern European, rather than Aboriginal. Certainly he was at home among the footballers who made a name for themselves in South Australia at that time: Alex Beattie, who was in Australia’s 1956 Olympic squad, the young Billy Graham, the Ferguson brothers, and most notably South Australia’s best ever goalkeeper, Jimmy McCabe: all Scots,  not surprising - although there were others. I got to know McCabe when we came out as emigrants to Australia on the same ship, the Otranto, where he made a name for himself in deck and other social activities, on one occasion taking over at the microphone to serenade his fellow passengers (until a perhaps jealous sailor switched the microphone off.) When McCabe went to Scotland to trial with Glasgow Celtic he left his car with Perkins to use – with unfortunate results.

Image courtesy Roy Hay

Among this galaxy of stars, albeit from a minor firmament, Charlie was not just a top soccer player, but one of the boys. He was certainly not shy, as Ian Syson reports the secretary of the South Australian Soccer Association as saying, and when he left Adelaide for Sydney in 1961 there were a few people, in particular at the Adelaide Croatia soccer club, with darker memories. Aboriginal politics would soon take over from soccer in Charlie’s career, and as in the way he had come to play soccer, he was prepared to make enemies if it was in pursuit of the new goals he had taken up.

Like me, Gordon Briscoe did not reach the same playing level as Charlie and Johnny, but in becoming a university professor he has surpassed any level I achieved in academia. We both played in Port Lincoln, but he before I arrived there in late 1958. There was a very strong aboriginal presence there, but none in any of the three soccer teams. In my memory, which conflicts with those who say Aboriginals did not play a big role in the Rules games, Aboriginals starred in more than one team. I played Rules on Saturday and soccer on Sunday, Gordon seems to have played only Rules, but I well remember Charlie Oliver who got Gordon to play Rules: he reached the top level in South Australian Rules  but I knew him best as a spearfisherman. (Gordon says he played soccer in Port Lincoln) Gordon and I did not see much of each other after the days at Port Adelaide until we had a brief meeting at the Australian National University in 1969. I also met up with Charlie again, by then better known as an activist on Aboriginal causes, and was pleased to give him a copy of a book of documents on Australian history I had compiled, with one document unambiguous proof of how the Aboriginals of South Australia had been robbed of their land.

Charlie Perkins vaulting his APIA opponent playing for Pan Hellenic in Sydney.
Image courtesy James Hothersall

Each of these young lads in South Australia reached national prominence in sport, politics and social affairs, and all through their meeting at the St Francis House. Each has given his own account of the time there, but you can’t help wondering how they would have made their name if it hadn’t been for them being drawn into the scratch matches at Semaphore. It leaves open the question as to why until recently there have not been more not only Aboriginal stars but Aboriginal soccer players, as there have been in Rules and League and to a lesser extent Rugby where the Ella brothers are stand outs. It is certainly not a case of white racism, as soccer has been much less racist than the other football codes. With Jade North and others as portrayed in the excellent book by John Maynard on Aboriginal soccer players (especially the women), this augurs well for the biggest untapped source of soccer talent in Australia.

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Gift of a soccer ball

This is a strange one: a soccer ball gifted by the West Bromwich Boys' Brigade to the Ooldea United Aborigines' Mission. Who knows what became of the ball and the uses to which it was put but it really is a striking photo. And those hats . . . .

News, Saturday 5 May 1951, page 2

Football and its fans: A delicate balance

by Roy Hay

Football fandom, like sporting performance in general, involves a delicate balance. When you are coaching youngsters to play the game, you want them bursting out of their skins to achieve the highest level of performance on the field, but yet you expect them not only to obey the laws of the game but recognise and respect its spirit as well. So too with fans. Without them there is no atmosphere. Australian football is privileged and lucky to have thousands of youngsters who are prepared to sing, chant, shout and jump about for ninety minutes at games around the country.

This has not come about by accident and while the football authorities deserve much of credit for the changes they have made in the organisation of the game, most of it belongs to the fans themselves. All the evidence suggests that they were desperate to have teams which they could support whose ideology was inclusive and whose locus was ‘a geographical expression’ in Australia not something that could be portrayed as foreign. Hence they poured out in numbers to support Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United, Perth Glory, Sydney FC and now Western Sydney Wanderers and give the A-League something which its predecessor struggled to obtain—a dynamic demographic based on the domestic population, not just the most recent cohort of immigrants.   

There is no chance that this new style of fandom will be satisfied with the sedentary enjoyment of the qualities of the game by the majority of those who are drawn to A-League games today. Without the ‘active support’ Australian games would be like those of some teams in the English Premier League, characterised as ‘Highbury the library’ or the ‘Prawn sandwiches brigade’ at Old Trafford as castigated by Roy Keane. But these fans are very demanding. They expect high levels of equally committed performance by those who wear the colours of the teams they support. They are protective of each other in face of critical attacks in the media. They are noisy, boisterous and as offensive as sledging cricketers or the Barmy Army or, for that matter, Australian Rules barrackers. Many of them also attend footy matches regularly.

The Melbourne Victory supporters consist of a number of distinct groupings. The largest by far was the Blue and White Brigade which was there when the club began in 2005, even before the league season kicked off. Unlike many of the fan organisations at other A-League clubs, the BWB and other supporter groups are not part of the Victory club but want to influence its policies. They do not accept formal responsibility for policing their peers, though they try hard to influence behaviour and collective support. Victory has been at loggerheads with another group of its active supporters, the Northern Terrace Collective. A loose amalgam of different sections this element of the attendance professes to want to fill their end of the ground with active supporters. The club however wants to cordon off and control entry to the active support area at roughly its current size so that room is made for the accommodation and protection of other less vocal and active fans.

The activities of the active supporter groups also provide cover for more nefarious behaviour by others whom both the fan groups and the football authorities would like to do without. So Football Federation Australia also has to be careful. Its proposed penalty of a suspended three points deduction from Victory or Wanderers offers a free kick to anyone or any group which wishes to foment an incident at a game or in the lead up to or aftermath of one. This is not beyond belief. Examples have occurred in the past where people associated with one club provoked incidents at the home ground of another resulting in penalties for that organisation. Moreover, it is not clear what the clubs could have done to prevent the incident in Bourke Street which preceded and may have been the catalyst for the events at AAMI Park on Saturday night when Melbourne Victory met Western Sydney Wanderers.

In the stand at AAMI Park the other night when the firecrackers went off there was a brief moment when you wondered whether this was something much more serious. The thought of a terrorist attack briefly crossed my mind before it became clear that there was a flare and firecracker episode. That was worrying enough, having been in the press-box at a Victorian Premier League grand final when a projectile flew past the open window at eye level traveling from one end of the stadium to nearly the other and striking a young girl at the conclusion of its trajectory. So the notion of stamping out flares and firecrackers and anti-social behaviour at A-League games is laudable and to be supported, but it needs to be associated with measures to encourage the self-expression of the active fans without whom the football experience would be much poorer. Right to the end of the comprehensive defeat by Brisbane Roar on Saturday night, the active fans kept up their vocal support as others left the ground.