It's time for soccer officials to stop the whingeing Adelaide United playing Melbourne Victory in a pre-season friendly earlier this week. THE AFL season has been played out. We have only the SANFL grand final to prolong our football interest. It is staggering that the AFL season was so successful, given the controversies, real or contrived, that impacted on the game in 2013. The Essendon supplements saga, whether WADA protocols were breached or not, gave football's opponents plenty of ammunition with which to bombard Australia's premier football code. Strange that it didn't seem to impact on attendances, club memberships and revenue. Essendon's suspension from the finals series, an over-reaction if ever there was one, at least gave renewed interest to the finals race, particularly when Carlton, who grabbed the vacant eighth position, defeated a cocky, posturing Richmond in the first week of the finals. Crows disappointment aside, it was a great year. The same can't be said for the rugby codes. The Wallabies disappointed us all, and rugby league suffered in all the important key performance indicators. A new broadcasting rights windfall will save the game, but it seems to have serious problems attracting new supporters and keeping its traditional ones. It's a tough game played by tough men, but it seems to lack appeal to an increasingly sensitive new-age audience. So now it's time for the soccer season. Smart strategy it was indeed, to move the A-League competition to a summer season. It can stand alone without the competition from football that would surely undermine the impact and importance of the "world game." But what a whingeing mob they are. All we have heard over winter is how poor the conditions and facilities for young soccer players and suburban clubs are. It seems almost an orchestrated campaign to highlight how little government money is spent on emerging young soccer players. New Adelaide United coach Josep Gombau wasted no time in savaging the facilities and training grounds of his new club. "We are training on facilities that are more a park than a football facility," he complained, just weeks after taking charge of the Reds. Josep - shut up and stop whingeing. This is Adelaide, Australia, not Barcelona. We all train on parks in our off-season. The finely manicured turf is for the premier competitions and the famous football grounds and even then it's a fair bet that most of the soccer pitches in the A-League have better surfaces that our AFL grounds. We don't need a recently appointed little-known coach becoming an instant critic of our culture and conditions. Besides, soccer has always been a game for the masses. It can be played by anyone at any time, in the most interesting of conditions. How many kids grew up playing the game in the streets, on the beach or at the local park? If the Australian soccer community is gearing up for a campaign to embarrass governments about the funding they provide for the game, they would be best to remember one key point. If the game is good enough, popular enough and supported well enough, it should be able to provide for itself. But that's not the case in Australia. The A-League clubs are struggling financially, and ratings for anything but the Socceroos world Cup matches do not generate revenue like the AFL or NRL. Besides, what has happened to the millions that have been generated by successive World Cup appearances? Oh, and how well was that $50-odd million that we wasted on a ridiculous world cup bid spent? That would have improved a few pitches around the country. Soccer fanatics, and there are plenty who let their emotions get in the way of common sense, point to the half a billion dollars spent at Adelaide Oval. They conveniently forget that the Reds play at a great, tax-payer funded stadium at Hindmarsh. Further, if they ever get of their backsides and attract the high-profile matches to Adelaide, I'm sure they will be able to use Adelaide Oval. We won't mind sharing. Instead of complaining about what you don't have, be grateful for what you have. A great, global game, played by more kids than ever in the best country in the world.