In all football codes the combined pressures of fans, sponsors and a need for immediate results can lead to the toughest lessons and it’s about time our pollies learned from them.
One of the biggest lessons our football stars have had to learn is that when your dirty laundry is aired in public it’s already too late to send in the spin doctors.
Ben Cousins, Wayne Carey, Wendell Sailor, Andrew Johns and Mark Bosnich are some of the biggest names in Australian football; all have had public drug and alcohol problems, but it’s the way they confronted them, which is most telling.
Ben Cousins and Wayne Carey have both had public falls from grace, not helped by their handling of the media. With relapses, messy break-ups and some brief stints in the USA, their lives became a media circus and their careers soon followed.
Sailor and Bosnich both spent a large amount of their time away from their respective codes and escaped the media’s attention for many a year. The questions surrounding these two players are now about their ability and not about drug habits.
Andrew Johns at first denied his involvement with drugs but within days recanted and owned up to his mistakes. The honesty shown early and obvious remorse for the disappointment he has caused, slightly scratched his reputation but he still remains one of Rugby League’s greatest players.
Kevin Rudd was smart enough to own up to his strip club indiscretion and in some ways it improved his image, showing us he had blood running through his veins. The recent actions of his colleagues mimicked those of the most public sporting scandals. Instead of facing the truth and admitting their mistakes, the solution was to intimidate and possibly break the law.
It is an obvious lesson from sport, when you have been caught there is no advantage to being dishonest.
The trials and triumphs of Australia’s governing soccer body could also lend us a vision into global politics. In 1964 the Australian Soccer Federation tried to enter the Asian Football Confederation, and were denied entry. It was possibly an omen for Australian troops who would enter Asia a short time later.
The Oceania Football Federation was eventually formed creating one of the first South Pacific bodies. Within a few years successive governments would create closer ties with Pacific nations. By the time of the Howard years the government was becoming more entrenched in pacific nation politics, Soccer however was capitalising on the new wave of Asian Football. The latest government is now following suit, building a much stronger relationship with Asia.
Football Federation Australia is now looking to build a global presence, with bids for major football tournaments. It may just be a test case for this government’s desire to affect world politics.
The affect of money is not lost on sport.
Players will generally follow the money. But if a team has a good coach, quality support staff and a winning team, players will accept a smaller pay cheque. The government will need to remember that in order to have quality health and education conditions must improve or wages will need to rise in order to attract the best professionals.
The financial crisis of sports giant Firepower can show us the perils of relying on one stakeholder. Firepower’s inability to supply funds has seen the collapse of basketball’s Sydney Kings and caused serious doubts over the viability of rugby union’s Western Force. Both clubs have relied on one sponsor and have signed up to something too good to be true. Economists and investors are still not even sure of Firepower’s business model, let alone it’s financial future.
In some ways the Australian economy runs the same risk; huge growth in China and India has fuelled an exporting boom. There is no guarantee how long this will last. Like Firepower, we have little knowledge on where the money is coming from and how long it will last. The Chinese government is highly unlikely to admit weakness and this could drive us right to a cliff face without us even knowing it. This could be a harsh lesson one which we must learn from.
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