Combat sport !

Ugly scenes at the soccer yesterday when rival Sydney and Melbourne supporters seemed more interested in supporter combat than watching the teams on the field.

Soccer in Australia has seemed an enigma. Before the second world war soccer didn't exist in this country. There was no organised competition - and the newspapers virtually ignored it.
The flood of new arrivals from England showed little interest in a local competition. They still followed their clubs in the old country - and still put a wager on the Pools - but most turned to Rugby or Australian Rules.

All that changed when the huge post war migration of settlers from Europe got under way. They were Soccer mad - and they quickly established teams and got a competition under way.
Soccer was still ignored by the media, and this was not helped by the new clubs adopting names reminiscent of their original homeland. Clubs like Croatia and Marconi tended to draw concentrated supporters from Yugoslavia and Italy - and for that reason were labelled " Wog " clubs by many Australians.

Time was the great healer. As the original migrants aged it was their sons and daughters - now integrated into Australian society - that took to the sport and with new interest and money behind Soccer it reached the stage when the media could no longer ignore it - and then came entry into the World Cup.

This was the catalyst that drew Soccer into the spotlight in Australia - and now it is a sport getting equal attention to the other two football codes.
Hopefully it will not degenerate into the " warring tribes " code of anti-social behaviour that has diminished Soccer as a spectator sport in matches between the United Kingdom and Europe.