I am not sure SESA should be encouraging others to risk their money, but if you have the entrepreneurial spirit and you want to have a flutter in May, my suggestion is you buy up a number of Socceroo shirts and an equal number of blue Greek soccer tops. Cut them down the middle and sew them together, one half of each. When I asked George Kalimeris and Jim Argyros, former players with Geelong Olympic, who now run a fish shop in Bay City Plaza in Geelong the other day who they would be barracking for when the Socceroos take on Greece in May, in the last home game before the World Cup, they replied, ‘We can’t lose mate’.
I suspect that in that sell-out crowd at the MCG there will be thousands of people who will be barracking for both sides, reflecting the kind of society Australia’s football-loving community has become. The idea of the half and half shirt is not new. When Argentina and Maradona took on the Socceroos in Sydney in a World Cup qualifier in 1993, I saw a young female supporter wearing just such a top. Then at the game against Iran at the MCG in 1997 I saw another with her toe nails painted in Iran colours, but she was in tears when Australia lost on that occasion. The World Game invites people to celebrate more than one loyalty and culture and Australia is one of the best places to recognise that.