Australia winning the Asian Cup Semi-Final on Australia Day, in a crushing defeat of Uzbekistan 6-0. This is the stuff that legends are built on; this is the sort of thing that writes the story of football in this country and inspires the next generation to follow on the glory trail.
Except...
If you didn't happen to have cable television you would have seen NOTHING (except highlights on the news later).
On October 12 2005 (which is a night forever etched into my memory), Australia beat Uruguay 1-0 on home soil to force extra-time and a subsequent penalty shoot-out which they won 4-2. This mean that for the first time since 1974, Australia qualified for a World Cup.
Fast forward 5 and half years, and Australia has made it into the Asian Football Cup Final, but unlike 2005, the events of 2011 will not be seen by the majority of people.
It is utterly disgraceful amidst calls of wanting to "grow the game" in this country that even when the national side makes it into a final, the match isn't shown on free-to-air television.
Of course marketing people will say that it costs money to show live sport and that putting it on pay television puts it into an audience which is prepared to pay for it. But therein lies a conundrum. How do you expand interest to people who wouldn't ordinarily watch the game whilst at the same time those people can't watch the game?
How is it that the people of Uzbekistan saw the Australia-Uzbekistan game LIVE on MRTK1 but the majority of Australians didn't? I bet that more people in Tashkentsaw the match than the whole of Australia on Australia Day. How's that for a sense of national pride?
I think I might move to a third-world country so that I can watch Australia play.
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