The World Game is an Australian footballmedia outlet, operated bySBS Australia. Initially it was a television based production, but has now grown to comprise a popular website as well as other digital content. The media outlet focuses on both football news and issues within Australia as well as around the world. Lucy Zelic is the most prominent presenter on The World Game, while ex-Socceroo Craig Foster is the chief football analyst. Les Murray was the face of The World Game for over 30 years, before his retirement in 2014.
Current presenters and panelists
Currently presented by Lucy Zelic, with regular Craig Foster.
Guest appearances
Michael Bridges
Patrick Zwaanswijk
David Basheer
Former presenters and panelists
Scott McIntyre
Andrew Orsatti
Simon Hill
Tim Vickery
Liz Deep-Jones
Mieke Buchan
Stephanie Brantz
Francis Awaritefe
Anthony Peridis
Tony Palumbo
Rale Rasic
Branko Culina
Paul Okon
Željko Kalac
Ned Zelić
Les Murray
Format
From August 2013, a half-hour weekly Monday night show has been aired on SBS One. The show focuses on a wide coverage of Australian and international football events from the week prior.
History
The show first aired in 2001, 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. 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 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. 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 and Italian Serie A. Some footage is provided from Spain's La Liga, France's Ligue 1, Scotland's Scottish Premier League, South America's Copa Libertadores and Germany's Bundesliga. UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, other cup games and internationals also get game footage; mainly the Champions League. Former Sydney FC coach Branko Culina is a regular contributor on discussion relating to Australian football. On 1 November 2012 SBS bought the rights to show one live A-League 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. After a brief hiatus in 2014–15, the show was revived for the 2015–16 season as a one-hour talk show edition on Sunday afternoon at 1pm. Guests on the program have included Ledley King, Scott Jamieson, Shane Smeltz, Kevin Muscat, Corey Gameiro, Nick Montgomery, Marcos Flores, Vítor Saba, Luke Casserly and Archie Thompson.
The World Game website is a popular football news website run as an adjunct to the TV program. 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. It was first established in July 2002.
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, was SBS’s first mobile application. It received more than 25,000 downloads in its first week of release. The app provides 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.
