soccer
Soccer is, at most, the third-most popular football code in Australia by viewership (behind Australian rules football and rugby), but the most popular by participation. There’s an ongoing “culture war” whereby snide Europhiles want to force everyone else to call the sport “football”, and Sydney-based media outlets obey while the general population ignores them. The primary men’s soccer league in Australia is the A-League, which has existed since 2005. For female players there’s the W-League. I don’t mind soccer as a sport – it’s certainly more enjoyable to watch than rugby 🤣 – but the kind of soccer fan who can’t be happy to just enjoy soccer and feels the need to trash every other football code makes it a little off-putting. Soccer crowds are also way more male-dominated than Aussie rules crowds.
Links
Jessica Smith is a left-wing feminist who loves animals, books, gaming, and cooking; she’s also very interested in linguistics, history, technology and society.