A game of distinction: Football, the world cup, and the Australian urbane

The title of Johnny Warren's Shielas, Wogs and Poofters (Warren, Harper et al. 2002) encapsulates an Australian attitude towards soccer, its players and its constituency that while certainly problematic, may also be outdated. But for a brief period in the 1970s, when a team led by Warren contested the World Cup finals, Rugby League and Australian Football ruled the ball-sports roost (Rugby Union trailed a-ways behind): the sport that most of the rest of the world knows simply as football was, in all senses, marginal. More recently, and especially in the midst of a FIFA World Cup finals held in a favourable time-zone, football is increasing its Australian presence.