Ange Postecoglou rules out a Socceroos comeback as he paints a bleak picture of the Australian game
London: Ange Postecoglou doesn’t believe football will ever reach its full potential in Australia, saying the collective will to improve the sport’s status both domestically and internationally just isn’t there – and probably never will be.
Postecoglou’s pessimistic view of the code’s prospects emerged during a brief roundtable with London-based journalists, including this headline, ahead of Friday night’s (Saturday 5.45pm AEDT) clash between the Socceroos and England at Wembley Stadium.
Ange Postecoglou celebrates the Socceroos victory in the 2015 Asian Cup final at Australian Stadium. Ange Postecoglou celebrates the Socceroos victory in the 2015 Asian Cup final at Australian Stadium. CREDIT: BRENDAN ESPOSITO
The Tottenham Hotspur manager also said he believes he will never manage the Socceroos again. “No. I have given up this fight,” he answered when asked about the upcoming match with the national team. “It’s a much easier place for me to live because I was so frustrated for so long. That was my biggest disappointment. One of my main motivations for what I did was to change football in Australia. And that’s why I left. I felt like I didn’t make an impact at all.
“It’s easier for me to deal with it than to think that maybe I can still do what I’m doing now. I think I’m just disappointed, so I’d rather think it’s not going to happen.”
Postecoglou, who led Spurs to the top of the English Premier League table after the first eight games, is an exciting factor in England. And the historic friendly this week momentarily shifted the focus to his complicated relationship with the Australian game – a big surprise if he was Socceroos coach when they last played England at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light seven years ago.
According to Postecoglou, Football Club’s 2015 Asian Cup victory left no legacy for Australian sport. According to Postecoglou, Football Club’s 2015 Asian Cup victory left no legacy for Australian sport. CREDIT: BRENDAN ESPOSITO
“You’re only talking about it for me,” he said. “Some of you have probably been there but you only found me a year ago mate.”
Postecoglou previously explained how the failure to create any kind of legacy at the 2015 Asian Cup left him disillusioned with Australian football, despite still being deeply passionate about it. On the eve of the recent Women’s World Cup in Perth on a pre-season tour with Tottenham, she recalled how hosting the Asian Cup left “barely a ripple” on the wider sporting landscape, a theme she returned to a number of times. times after arriving in England.
“There are a few things,” he said when asked to explain why he thought football would never “take off” in Australia. loading
“One of them is obviously the sporting landscape, which has some pretty strong codes that have dominated the landscape for generations. There’s Aussie Rules, which is an indigenous Australian sport that’s unique to them and they’re proud to protect it as their code. The rugby codes dominate, of course. It is very difficult for football to influence this condition.
“And the flip side of that is just how global football is. If you want to penetrate with such odds, it becomes almost unbeatable. You cannot take the necessary steps. If I can compare it to a country like Japan, which also has the tyranny of distance, baseball is quite strong – but they put a lot of resources into soccer and you can see that it has an impact. I don’t see Australia going down that road.”
Her vision has not changed despite the wild success of the Women’s World Cup in July-August.
“I just don’t see it. I don’t think it registers,” Postecoglou said. “When you look at what the Matildas did at the World Cup – unbelievable. But you still won’t see an influx of resources to the game. You won’t. I guarantee it. They build stadiums and other codes use them.
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“I just don’t think the whole nation understands that you can influence the world of football, but it takes a kind of nationalistic approach that I just don’t think Australians at their core are really interested in.”
While there is no doubt that Postecoglou’s success in club football in Japan, Scotland and now England is changing the way Australian coaches are viewed overseas and should open doors for others, he is not sure if his own achievements give him the big picture. views
He said he has no regrets about leaving the Socceroos: “It was the right decision for me, it was the right decision where I saw the next stage of my career and if I hadn’t made that decision at the time I would have waited. see you later the World Cup, I have no doubt so that I am not sitting here now.
Postecoglou was even asked if he would
ever consider becoming England
manager, to which he replied: “Oh come
on mate.”
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