KEEPING THE GIANT ASLEEP

Often called the Sleeping Giant of Australian sport, the game of soccer
and those who played it endured hardship and discrimination to such a
degree that it is somewhat surprising that it is flourishing today. This
essay examines a few of the obstacles to the integration and acceptance
of the world game.

Australia has a very proud

sporting identity. As a nation, we
revere our sporting heroes as
gods, and sport itself is seen as
being a great leveller for the
many different segments of a
diverse and multicultural society.
However, the unfortunate reality
is that like all other areas of
society sport is not untouched
by the vices of prejudice and
racism. In no better way has this
been evidenced than in the
treatment of the game of soccer
by mainstream media outlets
and socially influential people.
Fear of a growing migrant
community on Australian shores
was masked as a disdain and
disrespect for the game and
those associated with it. The
measures taken by authorities
and mainstream media to
prevent any meaningful
integration of soccer into the
broader sporting landscape of
Australia revealed intolerance of
a more sinister sort. This essay
will argue that the processes of
segregating ethnic minorities
into ethnocentric clubs in
conjunction with the
sensationalist and disrespectful
media approach helped to
create and foster the very
situations which were feared
from the beginning:
ethnocentrism, ethnic tensions,
and a general failure to
integrate a large portion of the

migrant community into the

wider Australian culture. While it
is impossible to cover such an
expansive history in such a short
time, a focus on post-Second
World War South Melbourne
Soccer Club will provide a
glimpse into what certain
sections of the Melbourne Greek
community endured during the
latter half of the 20th Century,
thus giving a model for the way
in which soccer and immigrants
were treated. Through an
examination of player and fan
experiences and a close focus on
anti-soccer media reportage, it
will be seen how a clear agenda
existed and flourished to subdue
the world game and what it
represented in Australia.

The People
Australia is widely known as a
multicultural society. Since the
conclusion of the Second World War,
non-British populations around the
country soared. In particular, the
number of Southern Europeans
(namely Greeks, Italians and
Maltese) increased dramatically in
Australias southern metropolitan
centresi. Melbourne alone saw a 41
percent increase in the overseasborn population between 1947 and
1966ii. As a predominately British
nation, the ostensibly British game of
soccer had been introduced to
Australia at a much earlier stage.
The wave of European (non-Anglo)

immigrants from the mid-20th

Century brought with it a significant
interest in the round-ball code.
Having operated under the White
Australia policy for most of its young
existence, British Australians still
carried with themselves xenophobic
attitudes and viewed the growing
non-Anglo community unfavourablyiii.
Without the sense of integration, the
European communities remained
grouped together in enclaves,
seeking out their own types and
forming ethnically homogenous
societies and clubs, including
sporting clubsiv. As soccer was the
most popular sport from southern
and eastern European countries, it
was the most popular sport among
the new arrivals on Australian
shores. However, given the
marginalization of these new
foreign groups, this measure served
to marginalise the game of soccer,
and it became viewed as a fringe
sport by mainstream Australiansv.
This combined discrimination led to
the rise of the derogatory term for
soccer known as wogballvi.

The Clubs
Soccer clubs soon became heavily
associated with a particular ethnic
group. In particular, Italian, Greek,
Croatian and Dutch populations
became heavily involved in the
game, and clubs took on an almost
homogenous ethnic identityvii. (While
this was helpful for immigrants to
find a sense of belonging, the clubs
ethnic identities became so integral
that they were essentially closed off
to anyone not of that particular
ethnicityviii.) In Melbourne alone there
were three big clubs with a strictly
Greek orientation: Oakleigh,
Heidelberg Alexander, and South
Melbourne Hellas. South Melbourne
became the club most synonymous
with the Greek community, and is

certainly one of the most famous

clubs from the pre-A-League era. The
club became a safe place for
Melbourne Greeks to dwell, both
literally and metaphorically. It was
often assumed that the Greeks either
played for or strongly supported the
South Melbourne clubix. The sense of
togetherness was a clear goal of
the club administrators, who sought
to provide the Greek community with
a feeling of having a home away
from homex. As good and as noble
as such an initiative was, the
continued grouping together of the
one ethnic community hindered the
process of integration, thus the
majority of the soccer community
and by extension the game itself
remained separate from the
mainstream Australian sporting
landscape.

South Melbourne
Like many other ethnically branded
clubs, South Melbourne had very
close ties with religion, namely the
Greek Orthodox Churchxi. Such
alliances served to further alienate
ethnic clubs not just from
mainstream Australia, but also from
each other. Traditional European
rivals now had extra outlets to
oppose each other, and the CatholicProtestant-Orthodox divide only
served to add to the rivalry. Old
adversaries of the Greeks, such as
the Turks and Macedonians who
themselves had similarly ethnically
homogenous soccer clubs in the
Melbourne region continued their
ages-old conflict on the sporting
grounds and in the terraces. The
level of enmity which developed
between clubs and their respective
supporters was particularly high in
instances where the Greek South
Melbourne faced off against Preston
Makedonia. Interviews with
supporters who attended these

matches reveal the level of vitriol

that opposing fans had for each
other. Racist terms would get hurled
from supporter groups during
matches, with even children
witnessing or being subjected to
such behaviourxii. Occasionally these
situation descended into physically
violent encounters, with punch-ons
being recalled and reported onxiii.

Tarnished Reputation
Incidents which saw fans clash with
each other soon were seen as being
typical to the game of soccer,
particularly by the white
mainstream Australian. Media
reports of violence and disruptive
behaviour produced a particular
mindset about the game, and
enhanced its existing reputation as
being disruptive, foreign, and
thoroughly un-Australian. While there
was indeed truth behind much of
what was espoused by news outlets,
the sensationalist nature of the
reporting indicated a specific agenda
to maintain the status-quo in
Australian sport, which would be
much more blatantly obvious in the
move into the 21st Century.

1950 article from the Brisbane

paper Courier-Mail, highlighting the
migrant interest in the game of
soccer and the unusual attention
that it drew. This article speaks
primarily of the formation of Greek
clubs in the Brisbane area,
highlighting the segregation and
ethnically homogenous nature of
soccer clubs in Australia.

Preston Makedonia or the Croatian

club Melbourne Knights contributed
to the public mindset that the soccer
in Australia was un-Australianxvi.

1990 article from Canberra Times

showing the Macedonian-supported
club Preston Makedonia asking fans
to be well-behaved. Incidents
between Macedonian and Greek fans
were known to be quite intense, and
while news outlets had
responsibilities to report the facts,
the soccer community gained
undesirable monikers such as
hooligans and thugs.

The Media
The Australian tabloid media has
long been regarded as an enemy of
the round-ball code in Australia.
Whether one believes that the
supporters of soccer simply suffered
from a persecution complex or that
the mainstream media really did
have an anti-soccer agenda, it is
difficult to ignore the
disproportionate level of bad press
that soccer seems to have received.
Increasing reports on the troubles
associated with soccer games often
those involving South Melbourne,

1994 article from Canberra Times

describing measures taken by soccer
authorities to limit the possibility for
ethnic tensions to erupt in a match
between Melbourne Knights and
South Melbourne. The fears of racial
violence at a high profile soccer
match caused the organisers to ban
items which might incite racial
insensitivity.

The Response
The level of bad press that soccer
was receiving particularly in
relation to its ethnic diversity and
instability caused soccer authorities
to drastically rethink the structure of
the game. Reports conducted in
1990xviii and 1992xix for the governing
body of the sport suggested that the
game was seriously in need of a new
image. Seemingly a drastic measure,
the governing body sought to
deethnicise clubs in Australiaxx.
This initiative brings about an
interesting twist on Australias stance
on multiculturalism. That such
intolerance of ethnicity should be
seen at a specific level of society
seems inconsistent with Australias
reputation as a multicultural society,
and raises questions about how

deeply Australians truly embraced

multiculturalism in practicexxi.

Continued Media Bias

While many soccer clubs with prior
ethnic affiliations (including South
Melbourne) continued to operate into
the 21st Century, a new league of
professional soccer teams was
created in 2005, with teams
designed to appeal to a much wider
audience than previous ethnically
focused clubs. Despite this effort to
make the game seem more
Australian, tabloid media still
continued to negatively portray the
sport. Sensationalist articles in
newspapers such as Melbournes
own Herald Sun showed a distinct
lack of excitement and acceptance
for what was becoming an
increasingly popular game. In no
better way was this exemplified than
when AFL legen Ron Barassi was
plastered on the front page of the
newspaper, aggresively crushing a
soccer ball and defiantly refusing to
entertain the thought of the soccer
World Cup being hosted in Australia
and disrupting Australias better
game of AFLxxii. Barassi himself had
no say over what the respective
sporting organisations would decide,
but his legendary status among AFLloving Australians gave tremendous
weight to the emotion that the paper
sought to elicit.

Further illustrations of the Herald

Suns questionable journalism can be

seen in the disproportionate

reportage of troubles at soccer
matches. While in no way is this
meant to excuse the misdemeanours
of soccer supporter groups, the
sensational headlines and front-page
placement of flares, fan scuffles and
the like is hardly comparable to the
minor mentions of crowd trouble in
other sports. Even as recently as
2013, a Sun-affiliated newspaper has
even gone to the trouble of posting
an article which includes a picture
taken in 2005. The article served as
a preview for a match between
traditional rivals South Melbourne
and Preston, with the photo showing
crowd trouble from their meeting
nine years earlier, serving to create a
sense of worry and fear around the
fixturexxiii. Again, while this is not an
attempt on the authors part to
excuse poor crowd behaviour, it does
come across as quite unnecessary to
point to poor behaviour from so long
ago on the off-chance that it may
occur again.
Australian soccer has a truly unique
history. From a widely played and
accepted game, to a symbol of the
other and a foreign element, to an
increasingly popular major football
code, Ausralian soccer in many ways
gives a picture of Australias own
story. The hesitancy of British
Australians to welcome soccer-loving
foreigners shows just how deeply
entrenched the White Australia
policy was for the country. The
struggles that ethnic groups had with
integrating into the nations
admitedtly-crowded sporting
landscape not just with Australians
but with other ethnic groups raises
questions about how deeply
multiculturalism penetrated into
every aspect of Australian society.
And the growing interest in the game
now perhaps gives a more accurate
glimpse into Australias current

makeup, and even the nations

future.

Notes

i I. H. Burnley, Immigrant Absorption in the Australian City, 1947-1971, International

Migration Review, 9/3 (1975), pp. 319-333
ii Ibid.
iii James Skinnera, Dwight H. Zakus & Allan Edwards, Coming in from the margins:
ethnicity, community support and the rebranding of Australian soccer, Soccer and
Society, 9/3 (2008), pp. 394-404
iv Ibid.
v Ibid.
vi Ibid.
vii Roy Haya & Nick Guoth, No single pattern: Australian migrant minorities and the
round ball code in Victoria, Soccer and Society, 10/6 (2009), pp. 823-842
viiiChristopher J. Hallinan; John E. Hughson (eds.), Containment of Soccer in Australia:
Fencing off the World Game (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010)
ix Georgina Tsolidisa & Vikki Pollard, Being a wog in Melbourne young people's selffashioning through discourses of racism, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of
Education, 30/4 (2009) pp. 427-442
x Loring M. Danforth, Is the "World Game" an "Ethnic Game" or an "Aussie Game"?
Narrating the Nation in Australian Soccer, American Ethnologist, 28/2 (2001), p. 370
xi. Roy Haya & Nick Guoth, No single pattern: Australian migrant minorities and the
round ball code in Victoria, Soccer and Society, 10/6 (2009), pp. 823-842
xii Georgina Tsolidisa & Vikki Pollard, Being a wog in Melbourne young people's selffashioning through discourses of racism, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of
Education, 30/4 (2009) pp. 427-442
xiii Ibid.
xiv MIGRANTS TO PLAY SOCCER, The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Ql), February 11, 1950,
p. 7, in Trove [online database] Retrieved October 14, 2015
xv Cool soccer fans wanted, Canberra Times, October 9, 1990, p. 20, in Trove [online
database] Retrieved October 15, 2015
xvi Loring M. Danforth, Is the "World Game" an "Ethnic Game" or an "Aussie Game"?
Narrating the Nation in Australian Soccer, American Ethnologist, 28/2 (2001), p. 374
xvii Croatian, Greek flags banned for soccer match, The Canberra Times, March 5,
1994, p. 13, in Trove [online database] retrieved October 18, 2015

xviii Christopher J. Hallinan; John E. Hughson (eds.), Containment of Soccer in Australia:

Fencing off the World Game (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010)p. 94

xix Loring M. Danforth, Is the "World Game" an "Ethnic Game" or an "Aussie Game"?
Narrating the Nation in Australian Soccer, American Ethnologist, 28/2 (2001), p. 373
xx Ibid.
xxi Ibid.
xxii Michael Warner, Soccer chiefs cave in after footy fans send message to favour
AFL over Australian World Cup bid, Herald Sun, December 8, 2009
<http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/soccer-chiefs-cave-in-after-footy-fans-sendmessage-to-favour-afl-over-australian-world-cup-bid/story-e6frf7jo-1225807904448>
accessed October 19, 2015. Image from <http://fearofaroundball.com/ron-barassi-andthe-herald-sun-put-soccer-in-its-place/>
xxiii Andrew Jefferson, Restrictions to deter crowd trouble at South Melbourne vs
Preston Lions soccer match, Preston Leader, July 23, 2013
<http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/north/restrictions-to-deter-crowd-trouble-atsouth-melbourne-vs-preston-lions-soccer-match/story-fnglenug-1226683217863>