When Australia won the America’s Cup in 1983 in a yacht race that finished in the early morning, then prime minister Bob Hawke famously said, “Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum.”
Employers should take the same indulgent approach to staff who missed work on Thursday because they stayed up till 4am to watch the Socceroos defeat Denmark and qualify for the last 16 in the FIFA World Cup.
Even if you follow one of the rival football codes, or no code at all, this achievement deserves respect.
It gives Australia extraordinary exposure on the global stage. The World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world. A total of 3.5 billion people watched the World Cup in Russia in 2018, compared to 3 billion for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
When the Socceroos play Argentina, captained by superstar Lionel Messi, on Sunday morning in the sudden death phase of the competition, it will likely attract an audience in the hundreds of millions.
This is crucial and highly contested media real estate. The Iranian team’s refusal to sing their national anthem before their first game in solidarity with domestic political protesters was a statement that rang out all over the world.
Reaching the knock-out phase is all the more noteworthy because the Socceroos, ranked 38th in the world, were never expected to get this far, even by their die-hard supporters. They were underdogs. Few of them play in the world’s top leagues. Mathew Leckie, who scored the winning goal against Denmark, the 10th ranked team in the world, plays his club football at suburban grounds for Melbourne City in the A-League.
But after reigning champions France thrashed them 4-1 in the opening game, the Socceroos have pulled themselves together and made up for their low ranking with their team spirit, professionalism and determination. They have been great ambassadors for this country.
Other codes of football have recently made huge strides in becoming more culturally diverse. But the Socceroos squad still has a special role in representing multicultural Australia. Four of the 25 players, Thomas Deng, Garang Kuol, Awer Mabil and Milos Degenek, came to this country as refugees. This means a lot to them and their communities.
Soccer players in Australia always have something more to prove than other football codes because they feel their sport deserves the same respect at home it has in the rest of the world.
This sense of struggle came through in the beautiful profile in Good Weekend by Andrew Webster of Socceroos coach Graham Arnold, for whom soccer was an escape from an abusive and alcoholic father. He is now showing his players the paternal kindness he never had.
Of course, this is all part of the big business of sport and it is important not to get too starry-eyed.
This World Cup has been overshadowed by allegations of bribery and human rights abuses against the host country Qatar. An unknown but substantial number of migrant workers died in the building of the infrastructure.
It is also unfair that the Matildas, Australia’s more successful women’s team, is not given the same prominence as the men.
Still, Sunday morning will be a moment like the Sydney Olympics to take off your cynic’s hat and enjoy the focus of the world turned on Australia’s unique and rich sporting culture. It is the day a sporting David takes on a Goliath. Win or lose, the nation can be proud we have come this far.
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