Key Points
- SBS began in 1975 as two "ethnic" radio stations – 2EA in Sydney and 3EA in Melbourne - before launching on television in 1980
- Longtime SBS Italian broadcaster Domenico Gentile says “you were in for a lot of criticism" if you played the game in those early years
- Former Socceroo Craig Foster believes SBS played a crucial part in football moving to the mainstream in Australia
The Socceroos' participation in Qatar marked the country’s fifth consecutive World Cup appearance, a run that began meteorically at the 2006 championships in Germany.
It was that famous campaign, where Australia pushed eventual winners Italy to the wire before falling to a last-minute penalty kick, which marked a crucial moment in the sport’s ascent to the mainstream in Australia, football analyst and former Socceroo Craig Foster said.
Another key moment, Foster adds, was the decision by the country’s multicultural broadcaster, SBS, to “utilise” football in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s to “celebrate all of the beautiful newly arrived communities in Australia through their love of the game”.
Craig Foster spent 18 years with SBS before leaving in 2020. He rejoined the network's coverage team for the 2022 World Cup. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE
In 1980, Channel 28 – now known as SBS – began broadcasting in Australia’s two largest cities.
Foster said football faced a number of challenges during those early years.
“Growing up in Lismore in a largely Anglo area of Northern New South Wales, the game had different challenges, to overcome the political and economic influence of larger games."
The influx of Southern European migrants following World War II saw the “energising” of the sport in Australia, leading to the birth of clubs that helped them integrate “through their love of football,” Foster added.
That brought a whole range of challenges along with the challenges that Australia has always experienced in its immigration history.Craig Foster
“That is, the demonisation of many communities who were newly arrived, racism that those communities experienced over many decades.
"The game of football experienced the same type of prejudice, coming to be so directly related to, or synonymous with, our immigrant communities.”
Marconi in Sydney's west was one of a handful of clubs to be launched by European migrants after WWII. Source: AAP / JEREMY NG/AAPIMAGE
If you were Australian and played football in those days, “you were in for a lot of criticism,” he said.
“First, it was called soccer, the sport was played mainly by European migrants and very little coverage was given by mainstream media which was predominantly interested in covering fights between opposing fans in the stands.
“The best way to describe it is through [former Socceroo] Johnny Warren's highly controversial book 'Sheilas, Wogs and P**fters' because that's what football players were often called in those days," Gentile added.
SBS Italian radio broadcaster Domenico Gentile joined 2EA in 1977. Credit: SBS
“Results, reports, and interviews became highly popular content for programs such as the Italian, Greek, Croatian, Turkish, Serbian, Macedonian, and so on.
“No other radio broadcaster, in my opinion, matched us. Then, when Channel 28 - the current SBS TV - was launched in 1980, football coverage from Australia and overseas became one of its dominant attractions, creating regular viewers.”
One of his most memorable moments as a journalist covering football occurred during the 1982 World Cup.
“Migrant children in the late '70s were reluctant to display their cultural background, but in a few weeks in 1982, when Italy was progressing well at the World Cup that it ended up winning, suddenly many children started proudly wearing the No.20 jersey of [Italian striker] Paolo Rossi.
“When thousands of Italians celebrated at the old Apia club in Sydney, I joined them, and for the first time since my arrival in Australia, I saw the joy of those children that were proud of being Italian, a memorable moment.”
Paolo Rossi played an integral part in Italy's 1982 World Cup win. He passed away in 2020 at the age of 64. Source: ANSA / ALESSANDRO DI MARCO - Z63/EPA
Foster explains the impact their work had on various communities.
“Les and SBS knew that by broadcasting the FIFA World Cup, the Croatian Australian community would feel deeply respected in being able to watch both their own national team with Croatian Australian players and the Croatian national team," Foster explained.
“SBS was the first organisation in the country to really accept this concept.
“They were very much ahead of the curve in relation to what multiculturalism meant.”
Gentile made special mention to fellow broadcaster Tony Palumbo, who worked across SBS radio and television platforms from 1982 to 2010.
"Tony Palumbo's passion for football is like no other. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the sport that has made him one of Australia's and Italy's leading football experts and commentators," Gentile said.
"People like Tony and Les are very rare, and having worked alongside them is an enormous privilege."
Former SBS journalist Tony Palumbo interviewed Argentine football great Diego Maradona in 1989.
Remembering Les Murray and his legacy on the game
The broadcast from Qatar is SBS’ 10th straight, and the second without Murray as the face of the coverage, following his passing in 2017.
Tania Murray, his eldest daughter, said the World Cup period remained an “emotional” time without her father, and this tournament comes after the family marked what would’ve been Les’ 77th birthday on November 5.
“It's a big thing that's happening for Australia to be going [to the World Cup] again, and it's something that we as a family wish that we could experience with dad once more,” she said.
“It's always been a very exciting time in our household, we wish that he was here to share that.”
Les Murray with his daughters, Tania (R) and Natalie (L), grandkids Brady, Alex and Aubrey and son-in-law Brent. Credit: Tania Murray
Separated from his friends, food and culture, he arrived in Australia with “nothing except his love for football,” his daughter explained.
He moved into journalism with the Fairfax Group, before joining SBS in 1980 – where .
“He relied heavily on football for his joy,” Tania Murray said of her father's first years in Australia.
“He would listen to it on the radio and so he understood that people that come here from most parts of the world have a huge love for football way more than they do in Australia.”
It was his own experiences, that football can bring hope, joy and comfort to newly arrived migrants, that inspired Murray to push the sport in those early years, his daughter said.
“He was really much a part of joining different communities together through the ‘language of football’.
“People find joy in football when they're suffering. And that is something that he very much wanted to make possible for migrants that come to Australia.”
(L to R) Les Murray, Tracey Holmes and Johnny Warren in the SBS Studios.
‘Finally, they were respected and accepted'
Regular World Cup appearances in the male and female forms of the game, as well as the sport's growing popularity, were proof that the game in 2022 was “culturally embedded" into the Australian way of life, Foster believes.
“This regular World Cup participation has placed the game on a different level of social consciousness, acceptance and passion.
"The nature of Australia's relationship with the game has changed in that respect."
For Gentile, it’s impossible not to connect the rise of football in Australia, with the efforts of SBS in serving newly arrived migrant communities.
“Until SBS brought football into people’s homes, there was something missing, a huge gap in our personal lives that SBS radio and television helped fill.
“It took some time for [migrants'] love of football to become mainstream, and finally they were respected and accepted.”
Listen: Tune into our dedicated FIFA World Cup 2022™ stations SBS Football 1, 2 and 3 on your DAB radio, the , or via the free SBS Radio mobile app, to hear every match live in 12 languages.