If you have any interest in the World Game in Australia then Roy Hay & Bill Murray, A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2014 is the best buy. With 310 pages and illustrations on virtually every one it is the most comprehensive and interesting history of the game. It will be the ideal Christmas or birthday present for anyone who has an interest in football or has been involved in the game. The story begins deep in the 19th century and comes through to the present day. There is a chapter on the women’s game in this country, the first time this story has been told.

(Click and double click on the images in the text to enlarge them)

By Roy Hay

(Note: Interim revised version. A conference paper based on this article was given to the conference of the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport at the University of Stirling in Scotland on 17 July 2009 and an earlier, shorter version appeared as Roy Hay, ‘The real costs of sport,’ Dissent, 28, Summer 2008/2009, December 2008, pp. 58-60. I am now in the process of updating it to take account of developments in the last few years.)

‘I think the State Government has got a responsibility to treat all sports fairly and equally.’[1]

‘The astonishing truth is that ministers are more scared of upsetting the IOC than the IMF. When politics loses touch with reason, it runs for comfort to those who peddle glory.’[2]

Have you ever wondered how much our national and international obsession with sport costs us? As a died-in-the-wool sports nut, I sometimes wonder myself. There are issues which worry me and among the most important is the extent of existing public subsidies to sporting bodies and the lack of transparency in their provision. Then there are subsidiary questions about the distribution of funds among sports, about which there are massive public misconceptions, and the failure to meet head-on the claims by the sporting bodies that their contribution to the national economy and the health and well-being of society justifies the funding or subsidies or tax breaks they receive. Most of the examples in the following paper are drawn from Australian experience, but they can be replicated in many countries around the world.

It is time for a little bit of clear thinking and research on all these topics. Interestingly, the Federal Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis, announced a review of funding for Australian sporting organisations by the new board of the Australian Sports Commission in 2008.[3] David Crawford, a director of BHP and chairman of Fosters, who is credited with two major reports, which helped transform Australian Rules and football (soccer) into the corporate sports they are today, led the inquiry. It recommended much more public funding for grass roots sport and a cut back on the proportion that went to elite, especially Olympic sports. Before the report was even published John Coates led a high-profile counter-attack which quite spooked the Labor party and resulted in the report being overturned.

Elite athletes or community sport?

The pinnacle of Olympic sport. Brazil lines up for the Olympic Games football final against Mexico in London in 2012. One young athlete in a wheelchair forms part of their accompanying group.

Since Malcolm Fraser committed funding for the Australian Institute of Sport and for the promotion of elite sport, in part to improve the disastrous medal tally at the Montreal Olympics, the public contribution has grown significantly. It is an interesting back-of-the-envelope calculation to work out how much each medal won in Sydney or Athens cost the nation. Were the Beijing ones more or less expensive?[4] James Connor of the Australian Defence Force Academy reckons that the most often cited calculations, which are based on the Federal support for the Australian Sports Commission, are a serious underestimate. When funding by state governments and sporting infrastructure costs are taken into account, the figure could exceed $100 million per gold medal.[5]

Peter Bartels, Chair of the Australian Sports Commission, noted that the ASC received $219.9 million from the Australian Government or 0.075 per cent of total government expenditure. Of that amount, $141.5 million is allocated to the ASC’s high performance sports outcome, about half of which goes to sports on the summer Olympics and Paralympics programs and their athletes.[6] Before the Games were over John Coates, the Australian chef de mission, was ramping up the campaign for increased funding for elite athletes, citing the fact that the UK had gone from a nation of also-rans to beating Australia in the medal tally this time. He played on fears that it could be much worse in London in 2012 to try to extract even more revenue from the government in these straitened economic times. The result is the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee High Performance Plan (HPP) which calls for an urgent increase in funding for Australia’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes.[7] The bid is for $237.1 million in calendar year 2010, which involves an increase in federal funding on the 2009–10 estimates of $108.8 million.[8] There is no time to wait for the Crawford report, the funding must be available from 1 July 2009, according to John Coates and his Paralympic counterpart Greg Hartung.

The aims of the Federal Government’s document Australian Sport: Emerging Challenges, New Directions published in 2008 are laudable. ‘The ASC will develop and implement targeted initiatives in partnership with national sporting organisations, national sporting organisations for people with a disability and other key stakeholders to increase the involvement in sports by all Australians. A particular focus in 2008–09 will be on Indigenous people, women, youth and people with disabilities, and to improve the capability and sustainability of grassroots clubs and associations.’[9]

The total resourcing for the ASC in the 2008–09 Budget rose to $264.475 million. Of that approximately $84 million went to the development of a national sporting system underpinning the ‘Australian Government’s commitment to foster, support and encourage sport development from grassroots community sport through to high performance sport’ and $157 million to Elite Athlete Development—twice as much for the stars as for community sport and participation. [10]

There is a common belief that the existence of high performing role models has an effect on grass roots participation in sport. Yet as recently as 2003 an Australian Sports Commission report found that success in elite sports often had little impact on general participation in sport in Australia. In international research across 37 countries no relationship was found between children’s fitness and Olympic performance.[11] In his forthcoming book on Sports and National Identity, Tony Ward points out that the overall Australian participation rate in organised sport at 31 per cent in 2002 was very similar to that of the United States at 30 per cent, and behind New Zealand at 36 per cent.[12]

At least the funding of the ASC is accessible and reasonably transparent, but it would be a mistake to think that its support is an accurate measure of the public contribution to the finance of Australian sport.[13]

Meanwhile in Britain they are having second thoughts about the 2012 Olympic commitment and scaling back some of the infrastructure and other plans for the games. Even so the Olympic Games will swallow up the entire yield of the new 50 per cent tax rate between now and 2012.[14] In South Africa the distributional consequences of the hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2010 are being closely scrutinised.[15]

The launch of a plan for a football pitch for the first junior soccer team in Bannockburn, Victoria, brings out the politicians for a photo opportunity.

Hidden costs

It is more than a decade since Kerrie J Levy in Legal Issues for Non-profit Associations asked whether the privileged tax status of the Australian Football League should be reconsidered.[16] At that time, and as far as is known to this day, the AFL has an exemption from income tax on its ‘profits’ at a time when it has been transformed into a non-profit-making sporting body into a massive corporate enterprise. The public subsidy in the form of tax foregone is not widely known and, while it can be justified, there has been relatively little debate on the subject.

In the community more generally there are signs of an emerging concern about the distribution of public monies to sports. In Scotland some sports receive more than 50 per cent of their turnover from public funds, while others, receive less than 20 per cent. ‘Sportscotland’s funding of rugby is more than twice that of cricket in cash terms, and a third greater in percentage terms. Scottish cricket receives nothing from the England and Wales Cricket Board’.[17] In Australia there are similar disparities. In Ballarat the substantial share of resources going to male football and cricket clubs has been called in question. In Geelong, state and local authorities have contributed very significantly to the development of Skilled Stadium, citing the contribution to the local economy that is said to flow from the playing of nine AFL matches there each year. On the Gold Coast, the refurbishment of the Carrara stadium for a new Australian Rules club seems to have attracted $60 million from the Queensland government, $20 million from the local council and $36 million of federal funding.[18] The AFL is said to be contributing only $10 million.[19] The Victorian Minister for Sport, James Merlino said recently, ‘No code gets better support in either the grassroots or the elite from the Government than AFL football.’ He claims his government has ploughed $176 million into the game.[20]

Sporting bodies often obtain significant rate relief from their local authorities. From April 2004 registered community amateur sports clubs can receive 80% mandatory rate relief from business rates in Wolverhampton.[21] It is less easy to justify rate relief for large commercial undertakings whose business just happens to be running a sporting competition and its venues.[22] At the local level the AFL was surprised in 2004 to get a land tax demand from the Victorian government after it ceased to use Waverley Park as a football ground and converted the majority of the site into a potential income earning asset which was later sold to a private developer.[23] Up to that point the AFL also had a huge rate concession from its local authority. The same is true of the Geelong Football Club whose rate payment on Kardinia Park falls well short of the amount that would be charged for a non-sporting body occupying such a prime site in the heart of the city.

The staging of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix illustrates the difficulty in establishing the extent of public support, for as soon as you try to obtain relevant data you run into the blank wall of ‘commercial in confidence’ claims by the sporting body, Melbourne Major Events and the State authorities.[24] One suspects that the Grand Prix organisation, like the generals in the First World War, keeps three sets of statistics, one to fool the public, one to fool the politicians and one to fool themselves. In 2009 in the midst of economic recession and following massive bushfires in Victoria which claimed 173 lives, the Age said the Victorian taxpayer would be contributing a fee of $47 million for the privilege of holding the Grand Prix.[25]

The scale and extent of public sponsorship of sport through Quit, the Transport Accident Commission, Vic Health and similar government sponsored bodies has not been thoroughly measured, nor has the effectiveness of these programs been compared with other more direct measures to achieve socially beneficial outcomes. Australian Football League clubs in Victoria have been using revenue from poker machine clubs for football-related purposes, but claiming that as a community benefit with an associated tax offset.[26] Frank Lowy, Australia’s richest person and the president of the Football Federation of Australia obtained around $15 million from the Federal Government, basically without strings, in order to pay off the debts incurred by the Australian Soccer Federation and its immediate successors, and the FFA has now gained Federal support of $45.6 million for a bid to host the FIFA World Cup in Australia in 2018 or 2022. In support the FFA cite an independent report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers which estimates the economic impact of Australia hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup is a $5.3 billion increase in GDP and a cumulative employment effect of 74,000 jobs. [27] But it is not just an economic benefit which is claimed. The other gains are proposed to include: ‘adding to Australia’s international prestige and reputation; the capacity to promote Australia’s regions and cities; the potential to motivate children to participate in sport leading to long term improved health outcomes; promoting a healthy lifestyle; providing an impetus for initiating improved environmental practices, and; providing an impetus for the creation of cultural and social events.’ Australians like to gamble and gamble on sports, but this exercise is a national gamble on a mammoth scale.

The sports bodies tell you they are only fighting their corner and that they are contributing to the health of the nation, setting an example, and doing good work in the community and that they generally deserve more and more largesse. The costs of sports injuries and long term health problems are not always included in balance sheets of the contribution of sports.[28] Research by the Australian Football League Players Association shows that one-third of past players have conditions requiring attention and 18 per cent have been referred to psychologists.[29] The trick for sports organisations is to get public assistance by stealth (tax relief) or for some ‘worthy national object’, like bidding to host the World Cup or ‘community benefit’. I have no great objections to them getting public support, but it should be transparent and measured against other real needs in our society, and they should be accountable for it. And the sports bodies should never be allowed to shelter behind ‘commercial in confidence’ in respect of public money.

Accountability is one thing Prime Minister Rudd seems keen to achieve for his own ministers, so why not do the same for sport, and each year we could have a chance to question its stewardship of the grants, subsidies, sponsorship and tax forgone. It might make the sporting bodies a little more appreciative of the contribution that we, the public, already make. And it would waken the rest of us up to the sheer scale of public subventions, which would also be no bad thing.

Where did it all begin?

According to German sports historian Arnd Krüger, the inspiration for the Australian Institute of Sport model goes back to the British preparation for the summer Olympic Games of 1916, which never took place, thanks to the First World War. That was probably the genesis of modern public support for athletic performance despite the deeply held cult of the amateur and the belief that sport and politics should not mix. The host city for 1916 was to be Berlin. ‘Germany had taken part in each Olympics since 1896, and when Berlin was awarded the 1916 games, the national government undertook not only the financial guarantees to underwrite the cost of the event, as was done in other countries, but went even further and paid for the selection and preparation of the athletes, a path the United States would not take until 1978.’ [30]

The notion of state support for sport for propaganda purposes was picked up by Mussolini, particularly with the Italian football team at the World Cup in 1934, and then by Goebbels and Hitler for the games which were held in Berlin in 1936. Later it was further developed by the Soviet Union and by eastern European countries under Soviet hegemony during the Cold War. Dennis Frost, an American sports historian, noted that Japan did the same thing in 1964, introducing ‘loads of policies aimed at “athlete strengthening”, and all kinds of new sports science [brought in] to train athletes more efficiently. Korea focused its elite sports program explicitly on the Olympics [in Seoul in 1988]’.[31] Australian sport took some though not all of these ideas over for the Australian Institute of Sport and the Australian Sports Commission even planned to appoint an East German coach who had been associated with the use of performance-enhancing substances until a public outcry prevented that happening. Now the Australian model and Australian coaches and sports scientists are exported to Europe and these personnel are involved with publicly and privately funded sports institutes and centres of excellence across the continent.

Economic benefits and costs

Sports marketers claim economic and commercial benefits from public and private funding of sports events. But the evidence on this is often weak or critically dependent on some heroic assumptions. Euro ‘96 has been claimed to be the most successful European football championship ever staged. Travel and tourist expenditure added 0.1% to UK GDP in the second quarter of 1996, about a quarter of UK total growth in that period. But some sectors of the economy went backwards and the impact on total UK consumer expenditure was modest.[32] In 1998 France experienced a decline in overall tourism during the FIFA World Cup as ‘normal’ visitors stayed away during the tournament, fearing the disruption caused by the football and the possibility of football-related hooliganism and violence. Stefan Bielmeier in The Globalist concluded that the 1998 World Cup produced a net drag on French tourist revenues which normally make up about 7 per cent of GDP.[33]

Though international visitors to Australia rose by 7 per cent in the year of the 2000 Olympics, this was below the rate of growth of 1993 to 1996, and in the following three years inward tourism fell.[34] The evidence on private gains is also problematical. Stadium Australia Trust lost more than $60 million before it was bought by its largest creditor, the ANZ bank which was owed $130 million. ‘Despite the success of the Sydney Olympics, the stadium failed to attract enough attendance to help pay down its mountain of debt.’[35] Adidas stated that its sponsorship of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany was its most successful ever after chalking up record football sales on the back of its association with the tournament. But a Standard and Poor’s survey of share price movements queried the value of previous World Cup sponsorships.

According to the NSW Treasurer, Michael Egan, the total cost of staging the Sydney Olympic Games was $6.5 billion. The Federal Government contributed $194 million and the private sector $1.3 billion, while the NSW State Government put in $2.3 billion.[36] Prior to the games there were many projections of the economic benefits, including increased tourism, that would flow. The NSW Treasury pre-games study concluded, ‘The Olympics is expected to cause some modest increases in investment, in particular in the pre-Games period. The increase in exports is expected to be significant in the Games year’. The economic effects of the Sydney Olympics were limited to New South Wales and virtually non-existent for the rest of the country. In a post-games assessment John Madden of the University of Tasmania concluded, ‘The effects of the Olympic Games over the 12-year period examined is quite small. The overall estimated impact on Australian GDP is that it will be 0.12% higher over the 12 years from 1994/95 than if Sydney had not staged the Games. For NSW, the Games are estimated to increase GSP by around a quarter of a per cent compared to what otherwise would have been the case.’ He went on to argue that it is important that over-optimistic projections of the effects of mega events, such as the Olympics, are not made and that many other factors influenced the ultimate outcome for NSW and Australian economic variables.[37]

If even a mega-event like the Olympics has very modest economic effects are we wise to continue to pour resources into sport for its economic benefits? I wonder how far Ken Livingston’s five legacy benefits of hosting the 2012 games In London will be fulfilled?[38]

Other costs: Is it worth it?

The economic costs of sport are not, of course, the only ones. Sport is often associated with violence among players and spectators. Its role in character formation has often been praised but modern male sport has been at the centre of numerous instances of sexual assault, raising questions about the kind of masculinity it has drawn on and fostered.

In sports clubs pushing the boundaries of the rules and playing out of your skin are attributes which are encouraged in young active males. Selfless behaviour on behalf of the club is demanded, not just expected. If team bonding and going in for your mates are key virtues and serious alcohol sessions are indulged in after matches it is not surprising that young men are likely to engage in conduct in groups which they might not consider when they are alone and sober. If willing females congregate around celebrity footballers, also under the influence of drink or substances, the chances of a moral breakdown occurring are substantially increased. Also the likelihood of circumstances changing during the course of an occasion are high and people can find that defence mechanisms and prudence are not enough to prevent escalation occurring. In such circumstances it requires a strong will to back out as an individual and even stronger one to intervene and demand that unacceptable behaviour be terminated by your mates. That is a huge test of leadership and it is not perhaps surprising that it is sometimes failed.

A hungry media knowing that scandal sells and a corporate world which demands that brands be protected by higher standards than those acceptable to the general community or those observed by members of their own organisations are ready to pounce on events in high profile sports. Respect for females and gender equity are key virtues which need to be reinforced and sports clubs are waking up to this, though strong resistance remains.[39]

Barriers to indigenous participation remain high with racism still occurring in sporting contexts.[40] Homophobia abounds despite recent education campaigns by clubs and associations.

The cost of security at sporting events is now very significant. In South Africa and Brazil the costs of securing the World Cup football tournaments in 2010 and 2014 were enormous. Sporting events have always been at risk from political groups with the Munich Olympics in 1972 and the tour by Sri Lankan cricketers to Pakistan in 2009 two notorious examples.

Sport has been associated with and sponsored by commercial companies dealing in alcohol, tobacco smoking and gambling. The costs of advertising these products is high and sports have been a means of achieving greater brand and industry awareness. Their effects on national health and well-being remain almost certainly negative.

Let me end where I began. I am not arguing that sport should have no public and private funding, but rather that we should have a clearer and more coherent debate, based on full knowledge of the costs and claimed and realised benefits about our current financing of sport in comparison with other areas of expenditure. That debate might make the sports bodies a little more appreciative of the contribution which we, the public, already make. And it would waken the rest of us up to the sheer scale of public subventions, which would also be no bad thing. And the sports bodies should never be allowed to shelter behind ‘commercial in confidence’ in respect of public money.

Mexico lines up before the Olympic Games football final in London in 2012. Mexico scored in the first minute and beat Brazil 2-1.

Author details

Roy Hay is a partner in Sports and Editorial Services Australia and an Honorary Fellow of Deakin University where he taught for 25 years. He is the co-editor with Bill Murray of The World Game Downunder and has just published A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2014 with him. A conference paper based on this article was given to the conference of the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport at the University of Stirling in Scotland on 17 July 2009 and an earlier, shorter version appeared as Roy Hay, ‘The real costs of sport,’ Dissent, 28, Summer 2008/2009, December 2008, pp. 58-60.

References

[2] Simon Jenkins, ‘Britain’s Olympic Obsession,’ Guardian Weekly, 1 May 2009, p. 21.

[3] Glenda Korporaal, ‘Reviews herald a funding win for sport,’ The Australian, 6 September 2008; ‘Expert Independent Sport Panel Appointed,’ http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr08-ke-ke045.htm, accessed 18 December 2008.

[4] ‘Gold medals cost taxpayers $17m each’, The Australian, August 24, 2008.

[5] James Connor, ‘Who wins when we spend so much on so few?’, Sunday Age, 24 August 2008, p. 19.

[6] Peter Bartels, ‘Review our sports system,’ Geelong Advertiser, 26 August 2008, p. 11.

[7] ‘AOC and APC urge Government to act quickly on funding,’ Australian Olympic and Paralympic Committees, Press Release, 13 March 2009, http://corporate.olympics.com.au/news.cfm?ArticleID=10034. The full High Performance Plan is available as a PDF from this website, accessed 15 March 2009.

[8] AOC/APC High Performance Plan, Sydney, March 2009, p. 5.

[9] ASC Agency Budget Statements, pp. 326 and 334. http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/170567/ASC.pdf, accessed 22 September 2008, p. 329.

[10] ASC Agency Budget Statements, pp. 326 and 334. http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/170567/ASC.pdf, accessed 22 September 2008.

[11] T.S Olds, et al. Children and Sport. Report for the Australian Sports Commission, University of South Australia, September, 2004, pp. 109–110.

[12] Tony Ward, Aussie. Aussie. Aussie! Sports and National Identity, Taylor and Francis, 2009, citing Australian Bureau of Statistics Participation in Sport and Physical Activities (4177.0) in 1996-97 and 2002, Sport and Recreation New Zealand SPARC Facts ’97-’01, (drawn from surveys conducted in 1997, 1998 and 2000) and Statistical Abstract of the United States 2006, 791, available from www.census.gov. All surveys asked respondents if they “took part in at least one organised sporting activity in the last year”.

[13] Roy Hay, ‘Untold story of sports rorts,’ Geelong Advertiser, 14 May 2008, p. 23.

[14] Jenkins, ‘Britain’s Olympic Obsession,’ p. 21.

[15] Alex Duval Smith, ‘Shadows over the party: South Africa’s poor find little to cheer in $1.2bn World Cup preparations,’ Guardian Weekly, 13 February 2009, p. 40; ‘Sleaze and anger as South Africa heads for first World Cup,’ Observer, 1 February 2009..

[16] Kerrie J Levy, ‘The Australian Football League: Is it time for the siren to blow?’, in Legal Issues for Non-profit Associations, eds Myles MacGregor Lowndes, Keith Fletcher, A S Silvers (Sydney: LBC Information Services, 1996): 95–120.

[17] Mike Stanger and Doug Gillon, ‘Financial support for sport is short on consistency,’ The Herald, Glasgow, 9 May 2008, http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/headlines/display.var.2258424.0.Financial_support_for_sport_is_short_on_consistency.php, accessed 10 May 2008.

[18] Scott Spits, ‘AFL wants state’s help,’ Age, Sport, 9 May 2009, p. 3.

[19] Richard Hinds, ‘ Upbeat Demetriou would inspire more confidence if his team could get footy’s mind-bending rules right,’ Age, Sport, 16 March 2009, pp. 6–7.

[20] Jake Niall and Caroline Wilson, ‘AFL, clubs consider moving games in arena battle,’ Age, Sport, 24 March 2009, p. 2; see also Roy Hay, ‘AFL pays price’, Age, Insight, 21 March 2009, p. 6.

[21] Rate Relief for Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs), Wolverhampton City Council, www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/business/finance/rates/sports_clubs, accessed 7 March 2009.

[22] For discussion of rating issues for sports stadia see www.voa.gov.uk/instructions/chapters/rating_manual/vol5sect970/frame

[23] Jake Niall, ‘AFL’s $1.67 m Waverley boost,’ Age Sport, 28 February 2006, p. 3. AFL won a court case to recover the money paid.

[24] Geraldine Mitchell, ‘Australian GP deal for Melbourne cost $250m,’ www.news.com.au/heraldsun, 2 October 2008, http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24434207-2862,00.html; ‘Vic govt dismisses claim over Grand Prix cost,’ ABC News, 2 October 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/02/2379868.htm.

[25] Ben Doherty, ‘$47 m fee a formula for easy profits,’ Age, 14 March 2009, p. 1.

[26] Melissa Fyfe, ‘Hawks claim $2m pokies revenue as community benefit’, Sunday Age, 5 October 2008, pp. 1 & 4.

[27] Football Federation Australia, media release, Sydney, 10 December 2008.

[28] Lorna Edwards, ‘Sport injury crisis “is being ignored”’, Age, 23 September 2008, p. 3.

[29] Greg Baum, ‘Pies’ greats serenade good old Collingwood,’ Age, Sport, 6 June 2009, p. 10. See also Martin Flanagan, ‘It’s best to stay grounded, even in footy,’ quoting Michael Mitchell, a star of Aboriginal heritage and now program manager for the West Australian indigenous mental health unit, on the “void” when he finished playing. “You go from having 90,000 people at the MCG shouting every time you do something good to hearing nothing. You’re not a footballer any more but you are not part of the community same as you were before.”

[30] Arnd Krüger, ‘Germany: The Propaganda machine,’ in Arnd Krüger and Bill Murray, eds, The Nazi Olympics: Sport, Politics and Appeasement in the 1930s, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 2003, p. 17.

[31] Dennis Frost, Assistant Professor of History, Xavier University, ‘Some thoughts on the Beijing Olympics,’ SPORTHIST@listserv.manchester.ac.uk, 27 August 2008.

[32] Mick Finn, ‘From Sport to Spectacle: the Emergence of Football as a Destination Attribute or Look What They’ve Done to Our Game: the McDonaldization of Football’, in Richard N Voase, Tourism in Western Europe : A Collection of Case Histories, CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, UK, c2002, p. 173, citing N. Dobson et al, ‘Football Comes Home,’ Leisure Management, May 1977, pp. 16–19 and J Loynes, ‘Euro ’96: an extra kick for the economy,’ Greenwell Gilt Weekly, September 1996, pp. 2–3.

[33] Stefan Bielmeier, ‘Kicking off economic growth,’ The Globalist, 5 April 2006, Boston Globe website, http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5232, accessed 9 August 2006.

[34] Richard Cashman, The Bitter-Sweet Awakening: the Legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Walla Walla Press, Sydney, 2006.

[35] Danny John and Scott Rochfort, ‘Fitzpatrick’s grab lands Olympic venue,’ Age Business, 24 June 2009, p. 1,

[36] Jill Haynes, Socio-economic impact of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, National Sport Information Centre Australia, [online article]. Barcelona: Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB. [Consulted: dd/mm/yy] <http://olympicstudies.uab.es/pdf/wp094_eng.pdf> [Date of publication: 2001].

[37] John R. Madden, The Economic Consequences of the Sydney Olympics: The CREA/Arthur Andersen Study, http://www.commerce.otago.ac.nz/tourism/current-issues/homepage.htm, accessed 21 September 2008.

[38] Increasing opportunities for Londoners to become involved in sport; Ensuring Londoners benefit from new jobs, business and volunteering opportunities; Transforming the heart of East London; Delivering a sustainable Games and developing sustainable communities; Showcasing London as a diverse, creative and welcoming city. Ken Livingston, Mayor of London, Five Legacy Commitments, January 2008, http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/olympics/docs/5-legacy-commitments.pdf.

[39] Catharine Lumby, ‘Why group sex is not the main issue here,’ Age, 12 March 2004. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/11/1078594493551.html

[40] Paul Oliver, What’s the Score? A survey of cultural diversity and racism in Australian sport, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney, 2006.

Mexico stun Brazil to take gold

Brazil 1 Mexico 2

Roy Hay

Mexico pulled off the biggest upset of this footballing Olympics as they downed the favourites Brazil by two goals to one at Wembley this afternoon in front of 86,162 fans. So once again Brazil has faltered when expected to triumph. This was no fluke. Mexico deserved to win and might have got home by a bigger margin. A goal in the first minute and another in the 75^th minute could easily have been accompanied by two more as Marco Fabian hit the bar with an overhead kick, and Peralta ran offside before putting the ball in the net in 69 minutes. Brazil’s goal did not come till the first minute of added time at the end of the game and while this ensured a fraught spell, Mexico saw it out comfortably in the end.

Javier Aquino of Mexico takes on Raphael of Brazil

For Brazil, Sandro of FC Porto started while his team-mate Hulk was on the bench. Gabriel got the nod in goal. Mexico’s top scorer, Giovani dos Santos was injured and did not come up for the game. Hector Herrera took his place. Mark Clattenburg, the British referee, took charge.

Mexico got the perfect start when Manchester United full-back Rafael dwelt on the ball out on the right. He was robbed by Marco Fabian who pushed it inboard to Javier Aquino. Aquino in turn released Oribe Peralta and the striker placed a fierce but directed shot just inside the left hand post. That incident took longer to describe than to happen and the ball was in the net only 30 seconds after kick-off.

Mexico, not surprisingly settled more quickly and were happy to play the ball out of defence but often then resorted to long balls forward for Peralta to chase. When they did continue to keep possession they looked very dangerous and it was Brazil which were struggling to put some rhythm back into their game. In 20 minutes Leandro did get to the bye-line and his cross gave Oscar a sniff, but the playmaker poked at the ball and Mexican skipper Jose Corona saved. On the half-hour the ineffective Sandro was replaced by Hulk, whose physical presence and shooting power were soon evident. In 38 minutes his shot was spilled by the keeper and Leandro almost got to the loose ball, but Corona deflected the shot for a corner. Marcelo had been looking dangerous down the left for Brazil and he finished off a good combined move with a shot which shaved the post.

Fabian of Mexico (8) is upended.

Neymar in particular lifted his game in the early stages of the second half, going past players at speed and shooting with venom whenever he had the chance. In 53 minutes Oscar sent over a tantalizing cross but keeper Corona made it his ball flattening Neymar in the process. The young star resumed after treatment but he was not the same player thereafter. In 72 minutes following a flick on from a corner the little Fabian rose unchallenged to head just over the bar. This showed the fragility of the Brazilian defence.

Then in 75 minutes Mexico got a soft free kick out on the right when Marcelo and Fabian both went up for a header. Fabian struck it sweetly enough and Peralta ran across the defence and found a gap to head past Gabriel. Mexico and its supporters were in delirium, but the players soon regained sanity and continued to repel the increasingly frenetic Brazilian attempts to salvage a result. Hulk was the main focus of the better moves and his cross from the right should have been converted by Oscar who seemed to duck under the ball. Then the big man from Porto took matters into his own hands and thrashed the ball past Corona from close range. Then he made another break only for Oscar to head the last chance over the bar.

17 South Koreans celebrate

South Korea received their bronze medals at the end of the game, followed by Brazil with the silver and the Mexican players who thus won the country’s first gold medal of the London 2012 Olympic Games. At least 17 of the Koreans did. Park Jongwoo was rubbed out for raising a poster saying his home island was Korean not Japanese.

Mexico's flag is raised

The elongated medal ceremony at the end was further prolonged by what appeared to be a funeral march past the photographers. So unlike the women who celebrated with their fans, the men finished with a memorial shoot. By the time the Mexicans could do a lap of honour nearly all the fans had gone home. The players need to take control of their own occasion.

Oribe Peralta is under the sombrero behind Nestor Vidrio (15)

Captions for pics:

Javier Aquino of Mexico takes on Rafael of Brazil.

Marco Fabian (8) of Mexico is upended.

Two goal hero Oribe Peralta is under the sombrero behind Nestor Vidrio (15)

The Mexican victory wave.

The Mexican flag on top.

Seventeen South Koreans celebrate their bronze medal.

Mexican victory wave

All photos Roy Hay.

Getting to Wembley on final day

Roy Hay

Final day in the football promised sunny and hot in Essex and delivered as I left Leigh-on-Sea for Wembley via train and underground. The privatised rail services in this area are run by c2c, which I take it translates into Sea to Sea. Walking down to the station I was among families making their way to Hadleigh Castle in the next suburb to the west where the mountain biking is taking place. My niece had snared tickets for this so she and her family were already on their way to the station where a series of red double-deckers were lined up to take them to the venue. When I got on the train there were little groups walking all the way in the sunshine. The route through fields overlooking the Thames estuary and the Essex marches had toilet tents and stopping points, while a blimp flew overhead.

Blimp over Leigh-on-Sea in Essex on the way to Hadleigh Castle

This is all part of the mammoth organisation which is this decentralised Olympic Games. It is London 2012 certainly but many activities are taking place in the suburbs and beyond, including the football in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Coventry and Cardiff as well as Wembley.

The tournament has really caught on among the British public. There are long queues for returned tickets, probably from the corporate allocation, in London. On the way I met a family from Upminster who missed out on tickets but have been glued to the television for the duration. They were off to the city and would probably finish up at one of the outdoor centres with big screens which exist in most places. On the underground I met a volunteer writing up his diary so we agreed to exchange notes after it is all over. Wembley Way was already thick with people going to the game, or even to the rhythmic gymnastics which were taking place in the Wembley Arena round the back of the stadium.

Brazilians on Wembley Way

I set off deliberately very early as the game does not kick off till 3 pm and was at Wembley just before noon. It was a breeze through security but then they did not open the press working area till the clock struck 12.00. It is this mixture of open welcome and volunteers who cannot do enough for you and the pettifogging changes to promises made in brochures that press facilities will be open all day which irritates. Once inside I decided to settle into the seat in the press box (tribune they call them following an Americanism of Latin origins) staying just under the roof line so that the sun was not beating on my head all day. Normally I start in the work area inside but given that this is a final there will be a rush to grab positions nearer kick-off and so it is worth getting in early.

They were trying out the sound system long before the game. I think it is only a matter of time before someone challenges the stadium organisers for physical damage caused by the noise pollution which results from this in every moment when there is not football being actually played. It has become a complete nuisance.

On the other hand they were showing the mountain biking at Hadleigh Castle on the screens at the ground so I could get a sense of what my niece and her family were watching on the ground. This is a seriously dangerous sport and the miracle is that there are not more injuries resulting from the way these competitors throw their bikes and bodies down cliffs and inclines one would struggle to descend even with climbing ropes.

Mountain bikers at Hadleigh Castle

All part of the London 2012 experience.

Viva Mexico

Viva Mexico.

Brazilians on Wembley Way.

Mountain biking at Hadleigh Castle.

All photos: Roy Hay.

Selective gloating in London

Roy Hay

Trying to find information about Australia and Australian performances at the Olympic Games in the English media is usually a needle in the haystack operation. Suddenly the Independent devotes nearly a whole page to Australia. Do you already smell a rat? Of course, it is because in their terms Australia is doing so badly in this competition that it is outperformed by New Zealand with three gold medals (Here is the news for Australia and it is all black!) and Yorkshire and which has four. So the selective gloating, of which this item is quite typical, is growing rapidly.

Australia, as of yesterday, had actually won more medals than Italy, two less than Germany and South Korea, nearly three times as many as New Zealand and only six less than France. It is just that there were only two gold among the 20 collected. Mind you the source of much of this wailing and gnashing of teeth is Australia itself, where John Coates has been trying to tell people that the problem is that not enough public money is spent on elite sports. This is the man who led the campaign to overturn David Crawford’s excellent report on Australian sports funding which argued that a far higher proportion of the sports budget should go to grassroots development and sport for the young.

The United Kingdom is not alone in its normal focus on its own athletes and there is no doubt that the media here are providing the majority of the people with what they want—stories about their own stars. Australian media does just the same when it covers events hosted there. This is particularly unfortunate however if you ever want to address why you are not doing as well as you expected in international competition. I have only run into one Australian photographer/journalist covering the football competition so far, though I know that several of Australia’s elite footballers and coaches, including Tom Sermanni and Melissa Barbieri are here to watch, to talk and to learn.

The success of the East Asian footballers, men and women, has been particularly enlightening. The Japanese men and women and the South Korean men are all in contention in their respective tournaments. Japan’s women survived a second-half onslaught by France to reach the final where they will reprise their World Cup final against the United States. Today the men play Mexico for a place in the final, while South Korea only has to beat Brazil to join them. Not a small ask of course. All three teams are superbly coached, extremely well organised, they run for each other incessantly forming Barcelona triangles to play out of defence with aplomb. They defend from deep in their opponents half when they can. It was because the French women pushed the Japanese back into their own half, that they came so close to snatching a result in that game. They all are prepared to throw their bodies in the way of shots and tackle extremely cleanly. Their disciplinary records are exemplary. In most case they also give away some height and weight to opponents, though that gap is narrowing rapidly. There is more to learn from studying our neighbours I suspect than paying attention to baying and gloating from London or Auckland, or navel gazing in Australia.

The Independent near to full page.

Wembley at last

Roy Hay

The journey which began at Hampden Park in Glasgow now reaches its end at the new Wembley stadium in London. Multiplex may have had a tough time building the thing, financially and otherwise, but the result is impressive. No doubt it will be more so when it is filled with spectators for the semifinals and finals of the women’s and men’s tournaments but even empty it resonates. Today it is France versus Japan in the women’s semi-final and the journos of both countries are filtering into the press areas as I write this.

Inside Wembley stadium when it was empty before the semifinal between France and Japan

Both teams have continued their excellent form in the World Cup in Germany into this tournament. The French were two goals up against a stunned United States before going down by four goals to two. Japan beat Canada, which is in the other semi-final, and drew with Sweden and South Africa in its group, but then beat Brazil in its quarter-final. France had a tough match against Sweden but came out on top by two goals to one. The France-Japan match starts at 5 pm local time and will be followed by the USA against Canada at Old Trafford at 7.45 pm. A repeat of the World Cup final in which Japan upset USA is very possible.

Tomorrow the Asian presence will be even stronger when Japan plays Mexico and South Korea takes on the mighty Brazil. I fear for the Koreans who had an exhausting match against Team GB which went to penalties and they lost Kim Sangchoo with a broken arm early in the game. Brazil had its hands full with a rampant Honduras, who finished with nine men, but eventually won three-two. So the Selecao should get up. Japan at its best is capable of beating the skilful Mexicans who will be without Hector Herrera who scored their final goal in extra-time against a physical Senegal.

This tournament has been a marvelous showpiece for the East Asian teams and Australia’s men and women need to take note of the improvement in the standard of all of the teams from the AFC, including North Korea’s women who had a thrashing at the hands of the USA, but otherwise were very competitive. The investment in youth in Australia is very worthwhile but so far the results have not been as impressive as everyone would wish. But improving the skill level and confidence on the ball are the key to matching our northern neighbours.

With Team GB out of both men’s and women’s competitions at the quarter-final stage there will be less UK media interest in the culmination of the football tournament. That will be myopic on their part, and quite typical, because they face exactly the same deficiencies as Australia despite the much larger pools on which they draw. Because British athletes, cyclists, tennis players, rowers and sailors have done so well, the emphasis in the local media has been heavily concentrated on them. It is hard even to find a mention of Australians even though they have accumulated more than 20 medals. The lack of gold, till now, has not helped.

Luckily I have not had to worry too much about the other sports for football has been nearly a full-time activity as I have covered the games geographically from Glasgow via Newcastle, Manchester, Coventry and Cardiff en route to Wembley. The best may yet be to come here in London.

Captions for pics: Wembley Way. Photo: Roy Hay.

Inside an empty Wembley stadium. Photo: Roy Hay.

Roy Hay

Today’s match is at Old Trafford, home of the mighty Manchester United, which necessitated a trip across the Pennines from Newcastle. My wife and I set out early by tram from the centre of town so that we could get a ticket for her for the game between the United States of America and its ideological rival the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the women’s tournament Group G. After snaring the ticket we walked back to the Trafford pub on the corner of Sir Matt Busby Way and sat down for a bite to eat.

Next to me was a young woman with a Canadian bag watching Canada play Sweden in Group F. Sitting side on the face looked familiar but it was my wife who spotted immediately that it was Melissa Barbieri. So you go half-way round the world to meet the Matildas’ most capped keeper, a girl from Templestowe, who is doing her coaching badges and roughing it around the United Kingdom to see the later stages of the women’s tournament at this Olympic Games.

Incidentally, earlier in the day at the National Sports Museum, I had run into Dr Rob Hess, from Victoria University, who has just published an article of mine on football in Australia in the 1850s and a chapter in a book on the history of the women’s game in this country. But back to Melissa.

She is very impressed by the United States team for its mental toughness and its self-belief. ‘They are not as technically skilled as the Swedes or as tactically aware, but they always believe that they can win and that they are going to win,’ she said. She agrees that the East Asian women have gone ahead by leaps and bounds and Australia will have to lift its game even further to continue to keep pace with them.

We talked about the game and its history and she insisted, as she has done on several occasions, that Australian women want to be recognised as footballers, not women footballers. Their performances in recent years warrant that appreciation, not least their triumph in the most recent Asian championships. It is such a pity that they were unable to dislodge Japan, South and North Korea from qualification for this tournament.

I asked Melissa about her protégé and successor as Melbourne Victory keeper Brianna Davey. She launched into a bitter attack on the requirement to train on artificial surfaces pointing out the injuries which occur, particularly to goalkeepers when they have to throw themselves around on astroturf. ‘Last season, Brianna could not train between games because of osteosis as a result of injuries. She was just playing in games.’

After today’s game she is off in the reverse direction to Newcastle for a quarter-final match. She admitted to being a Manchester United supporter so today at Old Trafford will be something to remember for one of Australia’s genuine stars of the game.

Olympic football tournament taking shape

Roy Hay

After two rounds of group matches in both the men’s and women’s tournament, the form of the teams is becoming evident and the likely shape of the quarter-finals is beginning to appear. Among the men, Japan has emerged as a real threat to the Europeans and South Americans. There was a little bit of luck about the manner of their victory over Morocco, but it was deserved as they had much the better of the late stages of the game. Japan will top Group D with a draw against Honduras at Coventry on Wednesday night. Morocco will have to defeat Spain and hope Japan thumps Honduras if Pim Verbeek’s team is to get to the knock-out stages.

The other Asian Football Confederation representative from the east in the men’s competition, South Korea is level on points with Mexico on four in Group B. The Koreans should easily account for Gabon and progress comfortably along with Mexico who will probably be too strong for Switzerland. If these results go as suggested, that will be a real feather in the AFC cap and is something which should be carefully studied by Australia. If we want to be competitive in future then we are going to have to lift our sights and invest even more in youth to match these extremely well organised and highly-talented teams from East Asia.

Team GB has a win and draw in Group A, level with the physically strong Senegal, while Uruguay has been a disappointment so far. It is likely that Senegal will overcome the United Arab Emirates and so top the group, while Team GB must at least draw with Uruguay to get through.

In the final male group Brazil is clear with two wins and Belarus is likely to join them unless the New Zealanders can pull off a massive upset with a win over the Selecao. Even that would not be enough unless Belarus and Egypt play a low scoring draw. I am assuming that goal difference rather than head to head records come into play in event of equality in this tournament but that is something I need to check.

Among the women, Team GB is through to the quarter finals along with Brazil no matter what the outcome of their final encounter in Group E turns out to be. New Zealand is out despite two very narrow losses, each by a goal. Group F is close with Sweden and Japan on four points and Canada on three. Japan will probably score heavily against South Africa to win this group, but Canada versus Sweden could be very close and a draw is enough for Sweden.

In the final group, the USA has qualified with six points and a massive goal difference advantage over its final group opponent DPR Korea. The Koreans ran out of legs against France and will be giving away height and weight to the Americans and this could be an ugly end to the tournament for them. France will almost certainly deal comfortably with Colombia, whose individual flair has not been enough to disturb their organised opponents so far.

Once the knock-out stages begin of course it becomes more difficult to predict winners but if I were betting I would be having something on Japan to reach the final of the men’s tournament, though most people will still favour Brazil to win the gold medal. The United States women have been most impressive and it looks like they will pick up their third Olympic victory in succession, though the Brazilians might have something to say about that. Marta is in excellent form and might conjure another victory for Brazil over its North American rival.

USA 3 Colombia 0

Roy Hay

The defending Olympic champion made sure of its place in the quarter finals of the women’s tournament with a comfortable three-nil win over Colombia at Hampden Park in Glasgow. USA made three changes to the team which fought back to beat France by two goals to nil. Shannon Box was injured and did not come up, and Carli Lloyd her replacement started. Amy le Peilbet and Tobin Heath were replaced by Heather Mitts and Heather O’Reilly. Tatiana Ariza came on as a late substitute of Colombia against DPR Korea and held her place as did Daniela Montoya.

It took just over half an hour for the United States to get its first goal when Megan Rapinhoe, who had been running rampant down the left, took a pass from Alex Morgan and lifted it over the diminutive Colombian keeper, Sandra Sepulveda. Maria Usme who plays as Catalina tested the USA custodian, Hope Solo with a long shot from 45 metres, but this was almost as close as Colombia came to equalising. The USA had the ball in the net three times during the game but each time were flagged for offside or another infringement. In injury time in the first half Rapinhoe beat the keeper again but Colombian skipper Natalia Gaitan cleared off the very goal-line.

The second half saw the USA camped on the edge of the Colombian penalty area for long spells, but again it took time to turn possession into goals. Abby Wambach finished off an excellent combined move by taking a pass from substitute Tobin Heath to beat Sepulveda from inside the penalty area in the 74^th minute. Three minutes later Rapinhoe released Carli Lloyd for a simple finish to complete the scoring. The USA look very strong in defence of their title, prepared to mix it physically and with constant high pressure running in support of the player on the ball. Colombia was unlucky not to get some consolation for their contribution to an entertaining match in front of 11, 313 hardy souls who braved the cold of a Scottish summer in support of the teams.

In other matches, Team GB also qualified for the knock-out stages with a three-nil win over Cameroon. Casey Stoney, Jill Scott and Stephanie Houghton scored for the home team. This opens the door for New Zealand to gain a place as one of the best third-placed teams if it can score heavily against the Africans in its final match. The Kiwis ran Brazil quite close, going down only by a goal to nil in Cardiff. Christiane got the goal in the 86^th minute. Japan and Sweden played a scoreless draw and Canada thumped South Africa three-nil, with a goal by Melissa Tancredi and a double from Christine Sinclair.

France 5 DPR Korea 0

France on the ball. Photo: Roy Hay

France overran North Korea by five goals to nil in what was ultimately a clinical effort at Hampden Park this evening.

The first half saw the teams cancelling each other out, with action confined to midfield until the last minute of normal time.

France won a corner on the right and Laura Georges attacked the ball with a flying header past Jo Yun Mi in the Korean goal.

The second half was a complete transformation as France ran the Koreans off the park in a series of sweeping attacks.

Louisa Necib could have had two goals within the first few minutes.

Clean through on the left she poked a weak effort past the right hand post, then she had a second shot which Korean defender Kim Nam Hui almost deflected into her own goal.

French coach Bruno Bini made a double substitution in the 62 minute and the fresh legs overwhelmed the tiring Koreans.

Marie-Laure Delie, Elodie Thomis and Necib combined in a flowing move with Thomis finishing it off with the second goal in the 70^th minute.

60 seconds late she got away down the right and crossed for Delie to finish.

A corner on the left in the 81^st minute allowed towering defender Wendie Renard to outjump the defenders and head a spectacular goal.

Finally yet another substitute Camille Catala headed home from a cross by Thomis.

France versus DPR Korea. Photo: Roy Hay.

DPR Korea deserved a consolation goal for their contribution but were denied by an obdurate French defence in which Renard and keeper Sarah Bouhaddi dealt with everything they faced.

The Koreans now can hope to make the quarter-finals only if they get something from their final match against the United States which is a very tall order in all senses.

France can march on with confidence that their tournament is back on track and they would be favoured to beat Colombia in their last group match.

Roy Hay

The 30^th Olympiad football tournament had its first major upset when one of the tournament favourites, Spain, was thoroughly upstaged by Japan. The Asian Football Confederation champions thoroughly deserved their one-nil victory, Indeed had Manchester United keeper David de Gea not been in brilliant form the Japanese could have scored half a dozen goals, not all the later stages when the Spaniards were chasing the game. Australians should be very concerned at the way Japan’s huge investment in the game is paying off, not only at senior level but in the younger age groups.

Right from the start the Japanese players did not allow Spain to settle to its fluent passing game. The Spanish defence was too physically strong for Japan in the early phase, causing the players to rush their efforts at times, when a more measured approach might have had better results. Kensuke Nagai, the Nagoya striker, flitted along the front line threatening when in possession and chasing every loose ball at high speed. In the 28^th minute he was on the end of a great Japanese move but just could not turn inside Jordi Alba to finish it off. Six minutes later Japan won a corner on the left. It should have been meat and drink to the tall Spanish defence but the ball dropped in the goal area and Yuki Otsu reacted quickest to push the ball past the unprotected de Gea. Hiroshi Kiyotake then got past the keeper but the angle was too acute for his attempt to place the ball in the net and it flew across the area with no one up in support to knock it home. With three minutes to go to the break, Nagai got goalside of Inigo Martinez who wrestled him to the ground. The referee, Mark Geiger of the USA, had little option to show the big defender a red card.

The second half saw the Spanish Under-23s trying to chase the game, something their coach said was unusual for them, though they have lost games in recent times. Despite the influence of Juan Mata of Chelsea and Jordi Alba of Barcelona they were unable to breach the Japanese defence. At the other end Keigo Higashi drew a finger tip save from de Gea, then Nagai slid the ball wide after being set clear by Higashi and Kiyotake. Spanish skipper Javier Martinez came close to rescuing a point with a header from a corner on the left. Alba beat the keeper for once, but the defence scrambled the ball away. As Nagai was on the point of collapse from all the running he had done, he had one more opportunity in the 86^th minute but once again de Gea came out to block his shot. So the Japanese and their legion of fans had a stunning victory to celebrate, but the players will not be allowed to get ahead of themselves.

After the match Japanese coach Takashi Sekizuka played down any thought of medals or even qualification from the group. He stressed that the next two games would be equally hard to win though he could hardly conceal his satisfaction with the first match.

Spain have a habit of starting poorly in major tournaments which they have won. They lost to Switzerland in South Africa in their opening game and in Euro2012 they did not hit their straps till after the group stage. Coach Luis Milla congratulated Japan but stressed that his players still had a very positive mentality. Small things matter in tournament games and Spain has to be more consistent if it is to progress. Asked about the increased pressure Spain faces because of recent tournament success, he said that he and his players welcomed that and the Olympics provided a lifetime opportunity for them which they should embrace wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile Team GB took an early lead against Senegal through Craig Bellamy, who might have had a penalty later in the game after being cut in half on the edge of the area. But Senegal rebounded from a corner kick to equalise late in the match. Uruguay recovered from an early goal to the United Arab Emirates to win two-one and take the lead in Group A. Brazil beat Egypt three-two, Belarus got the only goal of the game against New Zealand. Mexico and South Korea played a scoreless draw and Gabon and Switzerland drew one-all.