Average attendance for Adelaide United in 2007-08 - 12,697. Average attendance for Port Adelaide, the worst supported team in AFL in 2008 - 25,297 Average attendance for Adelaide Crows in 2008 - 36,501. Biggest crowd in Adelaide United history - 25,039, last home match of the 2008 season, a game played at the Adelaide Oval. Thus, their best crowd in history was less than the AVERAGE crowd of the WORST attended team in the AFL, and was played in the same city. So, really, who is going to be in the minority for the forseeable future?
I'm pretty sure the AFC CL Final match vs Gamba Osaka drew more than that. Say what you want about Aussie Rules, 10 years from now very few people will think of that sport when anyone says "football". Maybe none at all. Then Gridiron will be next to bite the dust.
Umm, no. 17,000. Here's your link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_AFC_Champions_League_Final You have no evidence, not even a trend, to back what you say is going to happen in 10 years. But, then, I'm hardly surprised. And for the record, the best attended club championship in all of sports is the AFL Grand Final. So, really, who are YOU to tell them what to call their game, which as I explained to you in another thread, was being played and called 'football' even before the association rules were codified. Can't you at least make this a little bit challenging? According to you, I'm 'sad' and 'dumb,' but I'm having no trouble countering everything you say. Next, please.
NASA called. They wondered if you could help them with their research by telling them what the atmosphere is like on the planet you are on.
17.000 because of the stadium size...the tickets sold out in few hours... you yanks gettin' more funny day by day...australia gave the respect to the world sport...search the biggest sport sites, newspapers etc in australia..it's football...socceroos just a nickname for the national team..more ppl are callin' football day by day...
I can't believe some people here. SAFC Yank is a spazzo, so his behavior is understandable. But RichardL... what a dissapointment. If you are a true football fan, you'll stand up for the name of our sport. There is only one Football- the world's game
The term soccer was derived from the term " Association Football" See the "soc" in association, British folks in America shortened the term and their accents formed the word " soc'r"
It's not SOCCER it's FOOTBALL, Americans think they're better than everyone else so they change the name of a sport they stole, and then go on and make a twist on rugby and call it football. Disgrace and I'm ashamed we ever did that. Remember, soccer isn't a sport because soccer isn't a word, FOOTBALL is a sport and FOOTBALL is a word.
I fully recognize 17,000 was a sellout. But your mate said he was "sure" they'd drawn more than 25,000 for that match. And by the way, the three home group matches drew 10,510, 13,802, and 11,805, although there were virtual sellouts for the quarter and semifinals. I searched the newspapers - looked at the major dailies for the six major markets, checked how they label their sections - you get 1.5 out of 6. The Sydney Morning Herald calls the association code 'football.' The Canberra paper uses both. Its headings are "Football-Soccer" and "Football-Australian Rules." Mind, there's exactly ONE story from the past month on soccer on the Canberra website, hardly shows a boom, does it? The other four papers - Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and even Adelaide - call it soccer. The Irish Times calls it soccer, too; as does the NZ Herald. Oh, my, maybe "It's called FOOTBALL" was right about this American plot to get the name changed.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/ http://www.smh.com.au/sport/ http://www.abc.net.au/sport/ etc 'Football federation Australia'.. and many biggest sport forum in australia... i didn't claim that everone calls football...i said biggest..and i haven't any mate in this forum.. and it's getting more funny that you yanks are loosin' your biggest excuse that australia calls it soccer too...and your new excuse now is irish and nz?...kinda sad. really. @ubigbobby, calcio is italian...capisci??
the point was that it's their own name for the sport (taken from a completely different sport played with a ball). It's not a translation of football.
Nice to see you do some research, unlike It's called Football. I might actually have to work a bit at this now. I'll give you that most of the TV networks seem to have it that way. But save the Sydney Morning Herald, and the weird example in Canberra, all the major papers, including the Sydney-based Australian and both major Melbourne papers, call it soccer. You claimed otherwise. And the name change to Australian Football Federation was done at least in part to distance itself from the shambles of Soccer Australia, not because that was the name most broadly used for the code within Australia. I'm sure that is the federation's wish, but that doesn't make it reality. YOU didn't claim "everyone calls it football," but the other guy in your corner (mate or not) did claim everyone soon would, and that there was some sinister American effort to prevent it. Thus the mention of Ireland and NZ. For the THIRD time, I have no problem with calling the association code 'football' when the context fits. But trying to give it that title to the exclusion of other football codes, and to claim 'football' is the only proper name for the association code is utterly nuts. If you're not trying to do that, wonderful, you're three steps ahead of "It's called Football."
I don't think examples from other languages are relevant. We're just concerned with English here, or ought to be. Incidentally, and not to get off the subject, but are there any languages that have literally translated "football" to get the name of the sport in their tongue? It seems to me that it's mostly just transliteration of the English word "football", that is, converting the sounds from English to their closest approximation in the target language. Thus: futbol -- Spanish футбол -- Russian futebol -- Portuguese (I think) etc.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/the-word-from-soccer/2005/12/04/1133631147646.html That should show you the reasons why Football Federation Australia changed its name. Seriously, FCYank, what's the problem? I didn't say Football should be the only name, I said it should be the official name. You may keep trying to label football the way you want it, but I and other true football fans will continue defend the sport's true identity. It's obvious you are more of a Gridiron fan than a football fan. I watch Gridiron too, no big deal. But out of respect to the sport that was here first, the sport that has contributed to society more than any other, I recognize Football to be the rightful owners to the title.
In Japanese, They actually use both. Most people call it "Sakah" because that fits in with the alphabet. In Japan, there are 3 alphabets, kanji, which is the really complicated one from China, hiragana which is the domestically derived, and katakana, also domestic, but used to write any "loan" words that the Japanese take from other languages. The Japanese Association is the "JFA" using football, clubs are "FC's" My favourite programme is Yabecchi FC, the use of football is widespread, but when talking, people use sakaah (Phonetic spelling) because it uses only 2 characters to write it (coupled with a couple of other simple characters to give the pronunciation) whilst football uses 5 or 6, and is slightly harder to break down and fit it into the katakana alphabet.
by the way, itsfootballnotsoccer isn't English. He a Mexican-American, so it's whatever part of the USA that he comes from that needs educating as well.