It seemed to be an easy decision for Newcastle's councillors to offer six of the city's sportsgrounds and ovals to soccer's World Cup representatives hoping to bring that huge event to Australia. Even the $8 million, in today's dollars, that would have to be spent by the council improving those sportsgrounds was easy, given that the proposed date is 2018 to 2022. But is that far enough off?
As everyone who's watched even half a World Cup game will know, soccer is more a cringe-worthy exhibition of tantrums and histrionics than sport, and at international level especially it is those histrionics that are more likely to determine the outcome of a game than any kicked ball. We saw that happen in the Australia-Italy World Cup match four years ago when the untouched Fabio Grosso took a dive with a minute to go and cost Australia the opportunity to continue in the series. Grosso became a national hero for his dive.
Soccer's theatrics are not confined to the field, as has been more than evident in the dramas swirling around the Newcastle Jets for years. Do we need to finance and otherwise encourage more of these tantrum-thowing wankers to Newcastle? David Beckham is fine for women's celebrity magazines, but do we want his pouffed, primped, preened and perfumed understudies mixing in 2018 or 2022 in late-night Newcastle with our children now aged from 10 and six?
Maybe we should try to inject a modicum of manhood into the divers with a match between the Knights and the Jets - the first half they play soccer and the second half real football. Or should that be the first half they play real football and the second half soccer?
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