Religion versus sport: explaining AFL games on Good Friday

The move to schedule football on Good Friday – saintly or sinful? Photo: Getty Images

â–  Why the fuss over the AFL and Good Friday? Are other public holidays similarly off limits? (Anzac Day isn’t? So is this about specifically Christian sensitivities rather than solemnity and national occasions themselves?)

With Christmas more of a multibillion-dollar festival of consumerism these days than a Christian celebration, Good Friday is arguably the most sacred of all religious holidays. Unlike other public holidays, such as Australia Day, the Queen’s Birthday or Labour Day, there is almost an absolute retail shutdown, lending weight to the sense of spiritual solemnity. Religious leaders have described the move to play footy as a triumph of commercialisation that would trash the cultural importance of a day they feel is the ”turning point of all human history”. Expressing his displeasure, Bishop Philip Huggins of the Anglican diocese of Melbourne said: ”No doubt if the marketers believed they could sell it, there would be AFL at 3am on Christmas Day in Madagascar.”

â–  Is the churches’ disapproval of footy on Good Friday a fear of keeping people from attending church, or more about economic activity on a solemn day?

Fewer Australians are going to church, and for some Victorians the blood and chanting of footy will replace the blood and chanting of holy services. No wonder the churches are put out. But their gripes are more than a cynical ploy for market share. For many churchgoers, the community encourages faith and charity, and overcomes loneliness.

â–  Has this historically been a special pass for Christians – so this is a win for other faiths?

The no-footy policy was a friendly nod to Christianity, so this change of policy is a ”loss” of sorts for the churches in Victoria. But what kind of ”win” is it for other religions? It’s not like the Good Friday ban on games has been replaced with a Hanukkah or Ramadan ban. This is chiefly a business decision. It has less to do with a weakening of the Christian churches, and more to do with the overall weakness of anything that gets in the way of a buck.

â–  What about the ”rights” of football fans – many of whom have a religious-like fervour about their team and the game. Should they be considered in the balance?

Fans can be devoted and deluded. This might seem like faith, but it doesn’t make footy religious. Football, like most sports, can prompt ethical reflection on issues like drug use, commercialisation, and virtues like courage and loyalty. But fandom has very few ethical guidelines, commands or customs. And it lacks the transcendence common to mainstream religions like Christianity. Aussie rules is ”religious” only in a metaphorical way.

The question of ”rights” makes it seem like a profound conflict of interests; like freedom of religion is up for grabs either way. The people of the book versus the people of the ball. This simply isn’t true. Victorians will still be at liberty to believe in Christ’s death and resurrection, and worship together in church. It just forces believers to reflect on their values. Those who need the service can, like some Jews on the Sabbath, stay away from the oval or screen. Others can watch the game and, like poet Emily Dickinson, keep the Sabbath at home.

â–  Does the linking of the Good Friday charity appeal with the newly scheduled game get around the theological/moral problem?

For some, perhaps. But church service and consumer charity are not the same thing. Participating in the common worship of God might include charity, but it is more about transcendent reverie, moral reflection and community than raising money.

The point is not that the Good Friday appeal is a bad thing, but that it is not what Good Friday services are chiefly for. Both might make participants feel good, but not for the same reasons. Put simply, the Good Friday Appeal is, for some traditional Christians, no ”get out of guilt free” card.

â–  How is this handled by other sporting codes?

One of the arguments for football on Good Friday is that it is nonsensical for the AFL to cling to a conservative tradition no longer observed by other sporting codes, both in Australia and overseas. Peter Gordon, president of the Western Bulldogs, argues there are deeply religious regions of Italy where soccer is played on the day, and that NFL games are even scheduled in America’s Bible belt. At home, the NRL held its first rugby league match on Good Friday in 1993, with three matches played this year. Soccer, arguably the AFL’s greatest competitor for the sports fan’s dollar, held a Good Friday A-League game between Melbourne Victory and Sydney this year. Perhaps the lack of controversy about that says more about the AFL’s historical position as a community leader on social issues than the religious persuasions of either code’s fans.

â–  So, when will we see the first game – and will it be between the Saints and the Demons?

The AFL Commission has agreed in principle to games being played on Good Friday, with AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan signalling two Good Friday matches, one outside Victoria, could be held as early as next season. With money-spinning blockbuster matches on Anzac Day and the Queen’s Birthday already a yearly fixture for powerhouse clubs such as Collingwood and Essendon, the smaller clubs have the most compelling argument to be given a guernsey. North Melbourne has lobbied the longest for the game, and is most likely to match up against the Western Bulldogs. Sydney and Gold Coast have also pushed their case in recent years.

Jill Stark is a senior reporter. Damon Young is a philosopher, and the author of How to Think About Exercise.