Soccer - yikes!

Last week I received my topic for my Vox Pop assignment. I did not have much of a choice unfortunately, due to my lateness in turning up to class (always come early!), but I am satisfied with what I was given. Even if the topic had been as boring as dishwater, I would still have appreciated it. I know that in journalism, not every topic is going to interest you. It's just a simple part of the industry. I would have been interested in getting the Indigenous affairs question, but I know since I work in this field daily, it would not have stretched my abilities.

So I will introduce you, dear reader, to my topic... drum rolls please:

Canberra is lauching a bid to join soccer/s national A-League competition but is there enough public and financial support for a team from the ACT?

So that involves me researching sport. Yikes. I've never been good at sport and to be honest, I don't care that much about it. The only time I take an interest is when politics leaks into it, like the recent case of the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan. Was it the Tamil Tigers? Was it the Pakistan Taliban? Was it the ISI? *clears throat* Ok.. .back to the subject.

Luckily, I have had quite the history in soccer. My father is an excellent player and would have made it big had he not broken both his legs, and my sister is planning to accept a soccer scholarship to America later this year. My family pretty much views soccer as their second religion. You can imagine the shame when I didn't convert.

Anyway, despite my background, I still needed to read up on this bid to host an A-League soccer team from Canberra.

I have only just touched the surface, so here are some news articles which I have dug up on the subject:

This is an after-shot of the Australia vs Kuwait game held in Canberra, written by the Canberra Times:

Proponents of an A-League team in Canberra would have been delighted at Thursday evening's Asian Cup qualifier between Australia and Kuwait at Canberra Stadium: not at the result the Socceroos lost to the lowly rated Kuwait team but at the fact that 20,000 people turned up for the match.

The healthy turnout adds weight to their claims that the ACT is ready to support an A-League team if the game's governing body, Football Federation Australia, grants it a licence when the competition expands from 10 to 12 teams in the 2010-11 season.

Here's another one I found over the weekend, and it looks as if we are pretty set to get our A-League team:

Canberra is a significant step closer to having its own A-League team.
That's the word from Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley after a successful audition from the Canberra community on Thursday night and a meeting with the A-League4Canberra bid team yesterday.

Buckley attended Thursday night's Asian Cup qualifier between Australia and Kuwait and said the crowd of 20,032 had impressed him.

''It's been a fantastic two days,'' Buckley told The Canberra Times yesterday.

''[On Thursday] it was a great atmosphere and the crowd was enthusiastic in their support and they came out in strong numbers.

''So we were delighted with the response from the football and sporting community from Canberra and the surrounding region.''

Buckley and other FFA officials sat down yesterday with Canberra's A-League bid team led by Ivan Slavich to find out the finer details of the bid.

Buckley confirmed it was likely to be the last meeting with the full bid team before the FFA makes its decision on the 12th A-League team in June.

As I was researching, I had the feeling that I would need to go to external websites, as the bid seems to be covered only by The Canberra Times. This makes it seem as if it is largely a local agenda, so I have decided to frame my questions around this when I begin drafting them. I will also have to be careful in picking my target audience, because soccer is not a huge sport in Canberra.

The A-League 4 Canberra site is a good one for general information. It can be found here.

The Football Federation of Australia is also an important site for research.

So that is all I have done so far. I will do my vox pop questions fairly soon, as I am worried about the timeliness of the questions I will ask. The Australia vs Kuwait game is gradually becoming a distant memory for Canberrans, so I feel as if I will have to get an epiroll out soon and try and get as many opinions as possible. This feels rushed, but I feel I will get the best reaction from people if the questions I ask are more current.

I plan to draft my questions soon and I will document this process later in the week.

Another interesting sidenote is, my friend offered to give me the phone number of an ex-soccer player who represented Australia, and is since heavily involved in the decision over A-League teams etc. I decided against it, mainly because this is a vox-pop assignment with ordinary voices. But it's interesting to note that contacts go a long way, especially in Canberra!