This debate was done ages ago AusFootball...we had the poll and its been done.

Thankyou for your input, but really do we need this debate to come up after all the good points about the A-League.

Really were not doing anything detrimental to the game by officially calling it soccer...so get it through your head that its ok for people to recognise the sport as soccer mate.

Hope you can post in our other threads...and not pop up and try to change the name of a sport that has no significance on the future of Australian Soccer.

ease up big fella......for those just joining us, they want to express their opinion...even if the outcome has already been decided

Well, it's official... Soccer is now Football on Austadiums.com

It's been a long time coming, but I initially decided to keep it as Soccer, but as many other media outlets change the official naming to Football, Austadiums.com was becoming left behind. Us qualifying for the World Cup capped it off. I didn't take this lightly, remember, my number one sport is "Aussie Rules" ("Footy" as I call it!!). But eventually, it had to change.

A populist decision.

But I respect it.

I only just accepted Victorian Rules becoming Aussie Rules.

NOW YOU SPRING THIS ON ME!!!!!

It isn't even aussie rules.

It's "AFL Football"

For all those who have got on a caimpaign for the site to change this name...i hope your happy. I expect you to volunteer your time with other issues affecting Australian Soccer now that you have successfully bidded your time towards this issue.

If not this name change is all in vein...

It was a matter of when, not if. The change had to happen. Nearly every media outlet has made the change, we were just being left behind. Not to mention the fact it's the 'Football Federation Australia' not the 'Australian Soccer Association' and they're all 'Football Clubs'. Lets respect Johnny Warren's wish eh!

'Aussie Rules' has always been referred to as 'AFL Football' on this site. FoxSports also used to refer to it as that until they change Soccer to Football, in which case they change it to simply 'AFL'. Sportal now also call it simply 'AFL'. However in my opinion it sounds like we're talking about a league, not a sport, if we just call it 'AFL'. Yeah you could say it in fact says 'Australian Football League Football', but....

And it would only be 'Aussie Rules' if this was a Sydney-based site.

No a few protesters that think that Australia's problems would be solved by a name change.

Rather then look logically at it...

we now have three codes called football in this country...Soccer would easily have distinguished all three...NSW and QLD could have continued to call NRL - footy, Southern States could have called Aussie Rules - football...now we have confusion with football meaning two different things...in all states of Australia...I can tell you now some people will get confused.

And really who cares if we stood alone in calling it soccer?

I sense an online petition is coming...

What, an online petition for Foxsports.com.au, Fox Sports TV, Sky News, Sportal.com.au, The Age, etc, etc, etc?

The fact is... Austadiums.com now refers to the sport by its OFFICIAL NAME.

Not an issue.

If you look through the thread, the people who have contributed most to this forum are for Soccer.

Those who just joined to protest are for Football.

I mean Cam you are catering for a small proportion of the audience of austadiums...most people on this site are broad-minded enough to not have to follow populist demand.

Do respect the decision you have the right to make.

But I am not exactly happy with a decision that caters for those who make next to nill contributions to this site...yet the voices of many who support the continued use of the word soccer and are the main users of this forum are ignored.

Its tad populist and I am a little peeved off...may be different by morning...sorry for any offence caused...

Trust me, the small minority of people who joined the forum just to support the name change didn't influence my decision. It was purely keeping the site up-to-date. The name is changing left, right & centre. You could argue most people sign up to Foxtel to watch AFL or NRL, yet they still changed Soccer to Football, confusing? Possibly, yet it's the way it is.

Your still appealing to that target market of protesters...rather then what the regular users of this site want...

I'm dissapointed that you caved in, this site stood as a beacon against populism and the so called ideals that soccer is a dirty word...now its just another site that looks at what other sites are doing and doesn't have the guts to stand on its own two feet and make a decision that the bulk of the regular members support...even if it's not a populist decision or what FoxSports are doing...why do we care if other sports websites are calling it football...if we still had 12 members the world wouldnt care what we called it...it seems we are only worried now because we are creeping up over the 300 members mark.

I mean these people who are all for the word football wern't barking up a tree about it years ago when it took 4 days sometime a week before someone replied to your post...now we just cater for the new users giving nothing but contempt to what this forum was based on - broadbased, getting behind the media bias and looking at things logically and with an open mind and not getting arked up about what somebody called the game.

Now the site just wants to go down a populists framework that appeals to the new-age fans and be like every other site.

What about those who kept this forum alive, what respect where we given in this decision...seems it was only done to get with the times and because others where doing it, for me that's a shocking reason for a website that is not like other sporting websites...or is it?

Like I said ignore the crap, angry tonight...probably be over it by morning.

Thanks Cam, glad to hear/read about the change