Ferocious Aardvark wrote:
We won't begin to approach soccer as an elite in our lifetimes, and soccer does have the length and breadth, but then again what you overlook is that our elite league beats into fits already the support and finance of the overwhelming majority of soccer clubs in the country, most of whom draw attendances in the hundreds or not much more.
Soccer is pervasive due to its mega media domination, but that doesn't mean that at grass roots level tens of thousands pack the grounds.
The grass roots are not really the point though. Soccer has four, full time professional, divisions of around 20 odd clubs - we have only [I think] currently 15 full time clubs in total, and our second division is generally in a similar financial position to the Vauxhall Conference.
But it's not just in the UK where the problems for the England coach lie. Our International competition, which is what the England coach is judged against, is in the opposite position with RL in both Aussie and NZ being much higher up the food chain. RL is one of the two dominant sports in /Australia and whilst clearly second in NZ, this is to rugby union and there is a fair amount of crossover these days, with soccer just making up the numbers.
It's all down to money, of course. I guess if top RL players in the UK were on three or four million pounds per annum, with papers running around after them on a daily basis, then young kids would maybe stop dreaming of being the next Beckham and yearn to be the next Robbie Paul.
There's obviously a fair amount of up and down or ebb and flow in the relative positions of Eng/Aus/NZ and currently, imo, we're pretty much at the top end of expectations, and unless things change, [as in last paragraph] we're due to drop a bit.
