The country is 10 hours ahead of the Premier League and 14,000km away from Europe.
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00:00 After co-hosting the biggest competition in women's sports, Australia was at the centre
00:04 of the footballing world earlier this year.
00:06 But soccer down under isn't just about getting behind your country.
00:10 Despite the long distances and time difference, there's plenty of support for clubs in Europe
00:14 too.
00:15 Hello there and welcome to Football Now from Sydney, Australia.
00:22 Now this country has had football fever ever since the FIFA Women's World Cup kicked off
00:26 earlier this year.
00:27 So on this week's episode of the show, we thought we'd take a look at what it's like
00:30 to support some of Europe's biggest clubs from down under.
00:33 Now this city is an average of eight hours ahead of the rest of Europe, meaning some
00:36 of those big matches sometimes fall on somewhat inconvenient times.
00:40 But it's all part of the experience of being a football fan when your club is over 15,000
00:45 kilometres away.
00:47 Yeah, so even though you're on the other side of the world, there's still an extremely passionate
00:53 fan base.
00:54 It's not quite the same as supporting the team locally.
00:58 It's different and it's in our own sort of unique way.
01:01 Whether that's your big clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Celtic and Rangers in Scotland,
01:07 and even the league clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona, all have huge pockets of support.
01:12 Even though you are on the other side of the world, I don't think that necessarily detracts
01:16 from people's fandom.
01:18 It's just supporting it in a different way and supporting it the best way you can when
01:23 you're half the world away.
01:25 Now despite being thousands of miles away, the passion for the fans here down under is
01:29 obvious.
01:30 The success of the FIFA Women's World Cup at stadiums like this one earlier this year
01:33 proved that there is still a huge appetite for the sport here.
01:37 For many fans, they may never get the chance to see their team play in Europe, but they
01:40 are still vitally important to the club's success.
01:42 So yeah, we've seen with the advent of the Premier League, but also in the last few years
01:47 that it's not just the match going fans that are of vital importance to clubs.
01:51 That is now that they have these big global footprints, and whether that's in the Americas
01:55 or Australia or in Asia, clubs appeal to people all around the world.
02:00 They're big brands.
02:02 Having these clubs that people can support, whether they have ties to their homeland or
02:06 not, is of vital importance for these teams all across Europe.
02:12 Now former Socceroos captain Craig Foster knows all about football in Europe, having
02:15 played in the Premier League for Crystal Palace in Portsmouth.
02:19 He says getting more local fans to support their domestic clubs is the next step for
02:23 Australian football.
02:24 We know here in Australia that support for the big clubs, Liverpool and Manchester City
02:30 and mainly Manchester United and others, like much of Asia, is immense.
02:36 And the problem that countries like ours have is that, and we see this across Asia in many
02:41 areas, is that that support is so big that it can dwarf the local domestic competition.
02:49 And it can be difficult for the domestic competition to compete with that fan base.
02:54 Because if you're watching Liverpool every week, you know, it's very different to watch
02:59 a domestic competition.
03:00 And because we don't have, you know, 50, 100 years of history in our own domestic clubs,
03:06 we're still trying to build that.
03:08 So the challenge that the game has in Australia is to translate fandom and support for football,
03:15 Socceroos, Matildas, Champions League, EPL, La Liga, into people in the stadia, memberships
03:25 for our domestic competition.
03:27 Well it might be approaching midnight here in Sydney, but that hasn't stopped a number
03:33 of hardcore Liverpool fans coming to support their teams.
03:35 So let's head over the road and inside to Cheers to meet some of them.
03:39 Come on Liverpool!
03:45 I love supporting Liverpool Football Club.
03:49 This is Cheers Bar, it's basically the hub for Liverpool supporters to come and watch
03:53 the game.
03:54 It's kind of like Anfield away from Anfield.
03:56 It's just where the supporters come together and, you know, sing the song 'You'll Never
04:00 Walk Alone' and support the team.
04:03 It's a superb atmosphere.
04:05 All the supporters can mix.
04:06 It's completely different to being back in England where you would not be able to mix
04:09 like this.
04:20 The late starts are a real killer.
04:22 When it comes to work it's a lot of two hour, three hour sleeps.
04:26 Waking up at 12, 1am, it's pretty hard, but we love it.
04:34 So we heard from Craig Foster earlier, but he isn't the only Australian to have played
04:41 in Europe.
04:42 There have been plenty of high profile players who have made waves on the continent.
04:46 Brett Emerton was Oceania's Footballer of the Year in 2002 and enjoyed successful spells
04:51 at Feyenoord of the Netherlands and Blackburn Rovers in England, making 339 appearances
04:56 during his time in Europe.
04:58 Mark Schwartzer is widely perceived as one of the greatest Australian players of all
05:01 time and one of the few to win the Premier League.
05:05 He was part of the Leicester squad that defied the odds in 2016 to lift the title, after
05:09 also having long stints at Middlesbrough and Fulham.
05:12 Tim Cahill is an Everton cult hero after making 226 appearances on Merseyside.
05:18 He's now the Chief Sports Officer of Qatar's Aspire Academy in Doha.
05:21 And not forgetting Harry Kuehl, who spent the most successful part of his career in
05:25 Europe across the park from Cahill at Anfield.
05:28 Kuehl is, to this day, the only Australian to win the Champions League, after picking
05:31 up a medal in 2005 with Liverpool and in 2012 was recognised as Australia's greatest ever
05:37 footballer by the general public.
05:39 Yeah, some names in the past in there.
05:41 And with the way that the Matildas performed at the World Cup, there's plenty to be excited
05:44 about for Aussie fans in the future too.
05:47 That is it from me in Sydney and the team back in Doha.
05:49 Do let us know your thoughts at home using the hashtag #FootballNowDownUnder and we'll
05:53 see you at the same time next week.
05:54 Bye for now.
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