Fox Sports’ voice of football Simon Hill has sensationally called on Australian governments to stop investing money in “internationally dead-end” sports like AFL…
“You’re not going to like me saying this, and I know some of your listeners won’t, but we’ve got to stop investing government money, state and federal, in internationally dead-end sports like AFL and rugby league,” Simon told Rowey and Bicks on FIVEAA.
“I’m sorry but it’s the truth. If you want to be competitive in international sports you have to invest in them.”
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“If you just want to be world champions in sports that only feature two or three other nations, or not even that in AFL, then great, but don’t call yourself the greatest sporting nation on earth if you’re not going to compete internationally,” he said.
“There is a correlation between investment and success… per capita we’re not investing enough in football in this country.
“We can’t even get $5 million… that’s the problem. It’s a big issue. This is the brutal reality of international sport.”
Simon said Australia risked being left behind by regional neighbours like China, Japan and Korea who were ploughing billions into their local leagues…
“All of a sudden you’ve this arms race going on. If we’re not careful in this country, we’re going to get left behind. We can’t match those figures but we’ve got to invest money in football in this country.”
