It can only be hoped that Gianni Infantino is not paying close attention to Tasmania's Northern Championship results.
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At a time when our state needs to convince the president of soccer's world governing body that it is fit to host a tournament watched by a global audience of 750 million in 2019 and set to expand to 32 nations in 2023, the grass-roots game continues to stumble over its bootlaces.
Amid postponements, forfeits and 11th-hour roster changes come tales of teams having to change in shipping containers as I spend another Monday writing about fixture fiascos when I'd far rather be cataloguing St Kilda's above-average display of filthy mullets.
Drawing up rosters for any sporting competition is a thankless task, destined to disappoint and frustrate in equal measure, as evidenced by the annual stream of AFL clubs "welcoming" fixtures which see all bar Collingwood accumulating more air miles than the average albatross.
However, the roster created for both regional and statewide Tasmanian leagues appears to have sparked plenty of healthy debate.
Even before the season began it was apparent there were major concerns.
Requests for away fixtures from clubs including Northern Rangers and Ulverstone, who knew they had no ground access early in the season, had been ignored, prompting the former to hire a rival club's ground and the latter to have all five matches postponed.
Ulverstone president Sam Kingshott explained: "Football Tasmania rostered us for a home game in round one but we've never had the showgrounds this early because of softball and there has always been an agreement to roster us away. We realised the error when the first draft come out and let FT know, but it appears to have been overlooked unfortunately."
A closer examination of women's rosters revealed that the same team will face Launceston United and Devonport in the Northern Championship every time those clubs have a bye in the Women's Super League.
Suffice to say that team - Riverside - weren't best pleased. See back page.
Olympic president Stuart McCarron was a bit more to-the-point than his Ulverstone equivalent.
"The rostering is disastrous," he said.
Meanwhile as Devonport and United both stepped up to the WSL, they struggled to field 11 players in the Northern Championship, Strikers forfeiting their game and Launceston City collecting the points without even taking the field.
The season began on Saturday with clubs still waiting for confirmed kickoff times for the rest of the campaign, prompting more angst from frustrated committees attempting to plan ahead.
Adding to the general discontent came the dearth of relevant information about the sport from its state body.
Although all statewide games were live streamed - and appear to have been well viewed - attempting to get results out of Football Tasmania is like trying to get a straight answer from a politician.
The most recent result available on FT's "official Tasmanian football blog" was Devonport's 1-0 win over Riverside ... on September 19, 2020.
Meanwhile, the website FT uses for competition results, sportstg.com, still didn't have all the Saturday scores updated by Monday afternoon.
In their absence, the only place online where Tasmanian soccer results can be found is on the Facebook page Tassie Football Central run by a devoted fan.
All of this may sound relatively trivial but it comes at a time when soccer faces opportunity unprecedented in Tasmanian sporting history.
Along with Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Wellington, Launceston is among 12 cities bidding to host matches in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Next month it will double the number of A-League fixtures it has hosted, with new Victorian franchise Western United to face Central Coast Mariners and Wellington Phoenix at UTAS Stadium.
At a time when soccer boasts the largest participation of any sport in the state - a fact FT rightly trumpets at every available opportunity - it needs to be scoring big, not kicking own goals.
The 2023WWC is a deliciously orange carrot on the horizon.
The 2023WWC is a deliciously orange carrot
In terms of global reach, the tournament would dwarf previous men's rugby and cricket World Cups held in the state in 2003 and 2015 respectively.
To use a mixed metaphor, Launceston is already behind the eightball as one of just two proposed host cities without a rectangular stadium.
FIFA has already told Tasmania this in its bid evaluation report.
Such hurdles are not insurmountable and plans are in place for UTAS Stadium to become more soccer-friendly.
But the sport has to get its house in order, especially if Gianni starts getting spotted queuing for the free hot drinks at Birch Avenue.