The wider significance of soccer

While Australia is one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world, it is rare that its disparate ethnic and religious groups feel united for a common cause or movement.

There are exceptions, such as our protests against the Iraqi invasion, but we are usually content to be tolerant and respectful, a worthy achievement in itself.

Nowhere is this more apparent that in the realm of sport, the arena of human endeavour upon which so much of the Australian narrative is built.

From Bradman to Phar Lap to the America's Cup, there are few other nations whose story is built so much upon sporting triumph.

While some may see this as a negative or deride it as anti-intellectual, it reflects our egalitarian spirit and sense of ourselves as a small nation that achieves well above its station on the world stage. Sport is merely the most accessible form but it is also a symbol for our achievements in science, business, academia or culture.

However, our societal divisions are also most apparent in the realms of sport, with few uniting all social groups. Rugby, league and Australian rules have their own distinct tribes.

If you go to a rugby game, you can be sure that the dominant audience in the crowd will be derived from the professional and managerial classes, sipping wine, peering occasionally towards the electronic scoreboard while casually discussing the performance of their share portfolio.

Go to a rugby league game, the dominant groups will be working class. More beer will be drunk, there will be more swearing and there will be more mullet haircuts.

Never mind that Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court have bought into the game. This has more to with Crowe's misguided grandiosity about becoming a working-class hero.

Australian rules does unite social groups in Victoria and some other states, where everyone from the street sweeper to the premier has an opinion on team selection or refereeing.

But its presence in the most populous state is negligible and therefore its overall significance dimmed.

Furthermore, on an international level, nobody else plays it and attempts at forging an international flavour are limited to a rather pathetic game against the Irish.

Australian rules is ultimately parochial and cannot be linked to our feelings of nationhood on an international scale.

Cricket is our one national sport, but even that is too slow, too British and too inaccessible to be attractive to many ethnic groups, as well as most women.

And the national team does not reflect the demographics of modern Australia.

For the same reason, the Bradman story does not cross cultures to connect with newer arrivals from backgrounds distant from the Anglo-Saxon tradition.

Therein lies the wider significance of soccer and our current success in the World Cup.

Even after the controversial loss to Italy, it's safe to say that one sport has never before crossed social groups and ethnic communities, uniting the elderly immigrant man from Asia to the toddler from Alice Springs.

Its stretch connects the banker in Martin Place to the farmer in north Queensland.

Its rise on our continent mirrors a similar trend with our neighbours in the Asia-Pacific.

If forging greater links in trade and commerce with our Asian neighbours is the key to our country's prosperity, then soccer can be the cloak by which we demystify our cultural ties and build greater trust with the peoples of those nations.

At the same time, soccer does not alienate our Anglo-Saxon colonial past, for it is utterly tied with Old England, even though the English are not really that good at it.

While national debate has touched on what we think of as Australian values, there must be a sense that the Australian story is very much a work in progress and new myths and symbols will undoubtedly be formed to carry a new generation of Australians through to the next century.

If sport is to remain at the forefront of our narrative, the significance of Australia's success in the World Cup cannot be underestimated.

While some sporting commentators have suggested the America's Cup win may have been a greater achievement, on a social and cultural scale, the yachting win does not even come close.

The majority of Australians, and especially those from immigrant backgrounds, could not care less about a sailboat in the ocean.

It is soccer that can cross ethnic groups and social classes, sprouting a nationalism not felt by many.

If its wave continues, it can be the symbol that reflects best Australia's multicultural success and its confident presence on the world stage across all human endeavour.

Perhaps we will even begin to call it football.