''The World Game'' was an Australian

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

television show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed b ...

broadcast on the SBS network, as well as a dedicated associated

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

. The show debuted in 2001 and was the only Australian TV programme dedicated to both football news and issues within Australia as well as around the world. Its popularity led to the launch of an associated website the following year. The TV show was dropped in 2019, whilst the website closed in 2021, and merged with the core SBS Sport website.

Presenters and panelists

Main presenters

* Les Murray (2001–2014, deceased) * Lucy Zeli ć (2015–2019)

Chief analyst

* Johnny Warren (2001–2004, deceased) *

Craig Foster use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , nationality = , other_names = , siglum = , citizenship = , education = , ...

(2004–2019)

Analysts and panelists

* Scott McIntyre (sacked from SBS after controversial ANZAC Day tweets) *

Andrew Orsatti Andrew Orsatti (born 23 April 1975 in Sydney, Australia) is the Communications Director and Spokesman for football's international players' union FIFPro. Before his present role, Orsatti worked as a sports journalist and football commentator for ...

(later on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, now Communications Director and Spokesman at FIFPro) *

Simon Hill Simon Hill (born 1 November 1967) is an English football commentator based in Australia. British-based work After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 1990, Hill began his work in the field of journalism, initially writing for newsp ...

(later on

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

, Optus Sport, now at 10 Sport) * Tim Vickery *Liz Deep-Jones *

Mieke Buchan Mieke Buchan (pronounced ''me-ka'') is an Australian television and radio presenter, writer and producer, born in Brisbane (Australia). She has covered major events including: The Olympics, the US Open Tennis, 5 Super Bowls, Formula One, the Re ...

* Stephanie Brantz *

Francis Awaritefe Francis Edgar Awaritefe (born 18 April 1964 in London, England) is an Australian former football (soccer) player, and was Director of Football at Melbourne Victory. Biography On 21 June 2011, Awaritefe was signed by Melbourne Victory as their n ...

Anthony Peridis Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anto ...

*Tony Palumbo *

Rale Rasic Zvonimir "Rale" Rasic OAM (/Zvonimir Rale Rašić; born 26 December 1935) is an Australian former association football player, coach and media personality. Playing career Club Born in Dole, Littoral Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Bosni ...

Branko Culina Branko Culina (; born 1 October 1957 in Zadar, Socialist Republic of Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a football (soccer) coach and former player. He previously managed Sydney FC and the Newcastle Jets in the A-League. Club career Culina was born in ...

* Paul Okon * Željko Kalac * Ned Zelić * David Zdrilic

Guest appearances

Michael Bridges Michael Bridges (born 5 August 1978) is an English professional football manager and retired former player. As a player, he was a striker who notably played in the Premier League for Sunderland, Leeds United and Newcastle United, as well as ...

Patrick Zwaanswijk Patrick Zwaanswijk (born 17 January 1975) is a Dutch ex-professional who is retired from professional football. A product of the Ajax Youth Academy, Zwaanswijk retired from professional football in 2013 following a successful career with Ajax ...

* David Basheer

History

The show first aired in 2001, succeeding the long-running On the Ball, and started out as a live 6-hour show, airing on Sunday afternoons. It was then shortened to a 3-hour show a few years later. Its popularity caused the brand to later grow to comprise a popular website as well as other digital content. Its original presenter was the late Les Murray, which was already the face of SBS' popular

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

coverage, and did so for over 30 years before his retirement in 2014. The show's chief football analyst was the late Johnny Warren until his death in 2004. Murray and Warren were Australia's pre-eminent soccer commentary team, becoming very famous being the hosts of On the Ball, and well known to soccer fans as "Mr and Mrs Soccer"; as a result, they were held over as presenters of the new show. After Warren's death, ex-Socceroo

took over as the chief football analyst. From 2 August 2010, the show was moved to Monday nights, on SBS Two live at 9.30pm AEST, and is repeated soon after on

SBS One SBS is a national public television network in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally. In 2018, SBS had a 7.7% audience share. As of 2022, SBS is the lowe ...

at 11.00pm AEST. This allowed for wider coverage of the football events from the weekend prior. The show was also shortened to one-hour episodes. At the same time, they show added a new number of contributors: Tony Palumbo, a seasoned journalist with the Italian migrant press in Australia, assists in providing some insights on major European leagues, primarily the English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

and Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

. Some footage is provided from Spain's

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Banco Santander, Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaL ...

, France's

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

, Scotland's

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

, South America's

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

and Germany's

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

, other cup games and internationals ( European Championship) also get game footage; mainly the Champions League. Former

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was f ...

coach

is a regular contributor on discussion relating to Australian football. On 1 November 2012 SBS bought the rights to show one live

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

game per week, with the remainder going to pay TV provider Fox Sports. They will also broadcast the Socceroos' World Cup qualifiers on one-hour delay with Fox Sports showing them live. From August 2013, the show was retooled as a half-hour weekly Monday night show airing on

. The new format now offers a wide coverage of Australian and international football events from the week prior, augmented with analysis and reaction from the show's experts.. After a brief hiatus in 2014–15, the show was once again retooled for the 2015–16 season, as a one-hour talk show edition on Sunday afternoon at 1pm. Due to Murray's retirement,

Lucy Zelic Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Luci ...

took over as the programme's new presenter, with Foster remaining as chief analyst. In 2019, after 17 seasons, the TV show was quietly dropped, and the brand was transitioned to focus on their digital platforms, but the show's podcast remained, broadcast through The World Game website. In 2021, as part of a streamlining of their digital operations, SBS announced that it was shutting down The World Game website, merging all soccer content within the SBS Sport website. As the site was the only soccer website which catered to Australian fans, the move received heavy backlash. SBS would still provide soccer coverage using The World Game brand, including the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wor ...

, on the SBS TV channel and through the SBS On Demand streaming platform. Guests on the program have included

Ledley King Ledley Brenton King (born 12 October 1980) is a former player who was a one-club man, spending his entire career at Tottenham Hotspur and playing 323 competitive matches for the club from 1999 to 2012. He is currently a club ambassador for Tot ...

Scott Jamieson Scott Alexander Jamieson (born 13 October 1988) is an Australian soccer player who plays as a left back and captains for Melbourne City in the A-League. Club career Blacktown City Jamieson was born in Auburn, Sydney. He has previously pla ...

Shane Smeltz Shane Edward Smeltz (born 29 September 1981) is a New Zealand Australian footballer. He plays as a striker for Guiseley AFC in the Northern Premier League, the 7th tier of English football. Smeltz had spent much of his early career playing in ...

Kevin Muscat Kevin Vincent Muscat (born 7 August 1973) is an Australian former association football player and the current manager of Yokohama F. Marinos. As a player, he represented the Australia national team at international level winning 46 caps and sco ...

Corey Gameiro Corey James Gameiro (born 7 February 1993) is an Australian football player of Portuguese ancestry who most recently played as a forward for A-League club Central Coast Mariners. Club career Fulham Gameiro signed a professional contract with ...

, Nick Montgomery,

Marcos Flores Marcos Abel Flores Benard (; born 23 October 1985) is a retired Argentine professional footballer who last played for, and captained, Adelaide City. Biography Unión de Santa Fe On 17 April 2004, Flores made his senior debut for Argentine club ...

, Vítor Saba, Luke Casserly and

Archie Thompson Archie Gerald Thompson (born 23 October 1978) is an Australian former professional footballer. He also is serving as a club ambassador for Melbourne Victory FC. Born in New Zealand, Thompson played youth football at the New South Wales Institu ...

Special editions

The World Game team responsible for the weekly regular show, also present major football events including the

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is an international beach soccer competition contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament was preceded by the ''Beach Soccer World Champions ...

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

and major European Cup finals including The FA Cup, DFB Pokal and

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

. A pre-match preview, half time and post-match review is typically given by the various presenters.

In other media

Website

The World Game website was a popular football news website run as an adjunct to the TV program. At one point, it used to include a forum called The World Game Forum, which has since ceased activity. Commonly referred to by the abbreviation TWGF, the forum was one of the more popular football forums in Australia. It had over 18,000 members, who have contributed to over 800,000 articles. The website was first established in July 2002, and closed in April 2021 as part of SBS's streamlining of their digital operations. It was then merged within the SBS Sport website.

Podcast

The World Game Podcast started 6 June 2011. The podcast sees a variety of guests talk the week in Australian and international football.

App

The World Game app, available from the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

, was SBS’s first mobile application. It received more than 25,000 downloads in its first week of release. The app provided a live score and result service with the addition of video highlights, news and content from The World Game team.

Awards

In 2008, the program was nominated for a Logie Award in the 'Most Popular Sports Program' award category. It lost out to The AFL Footy Show.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:World Game, The Special Broadcasting Service original programming Association football television series 2001 Australian television series debuts 2019 Australian television series endings 2010s Australian television series English-language television shows Australian sports television series SBS Sport A-League Men on television Premier League on television Soccer mass media in Australia