Blog

When the Hyundai A-League first launched, fans chastised the FFA for the shortsightedness of setting squad sizes at just a paltry 20 players within the salary cap. What was lauded however was the U-23 rule, in which three players under the age of 23 in the squad had to be signed on to a professional contract.

When you consider that with a starting line-up of 11 on the field and 4 on the bench, that left you with 5 possible replacements for any injured players. If none of your U-23′s were in the matchday squad, you had three out of five of your possible replacements being young players champing at the bit to be given a start.

But with the implementation of the National Youth League, extended 23 man squads and rules that allow for injury replacement players to come in from both Australia and overseas, unless your manager has a youth-oriented policy, the U-23 requirement becomes irrelevant in … Continue Reading

To the mainstream media: Quit the bigotry, it’s getting old.

I woke up Thursday morning to the article entitled ‘Soccer Shocker: Del Piero refuses to call it football’ on my Facebook news feed, and thought “Wow… really? Another stab at the football fraternity?” I guess the fact that it was published on a mainstream news site didn’t exactly fill me with enthusiasm.

It was also no surprise that Anthony Sharwood, deputy editor on website ‘The Punch’ and the scribe behind this article, is in fact a writer who predominantly writes about ‘fair-dinkum aussie sports’ such as Cricket, Rugby and AFL, as well as the odd political or general interest story.

The article itself is a sensationalist piece that loosely ties the fact that Alessandro Del Piero uses the term ‘soccer’ instead of ‘football’ – a common colloquialism for the game, perhaps popularised by it’s use in United States to diferrentiate the sport from American Football – and pigeonhole all football … Continue Reading

Monday’s announcement of an A-League All-Stars vs Manchester United game in July 2013 was launched to much fanfare, and rightfully so. Former Sydney FC championship winner and Manchester United player Dwight Yorke was brought in to announce a fixture that will bring one of the world’s best performing and most successful clubs to our shores, to play against the best our local league has to offer.

And I like the idea.

In fact, I really like it. Not because an All-Star game directly appeals to me, because to be honest, it doesn’t actually thrill me as much as I thought it would. No, the reason I like this concept is because it targets those who aren’t me – the theatre-goers, the so-called ‘eurosnobs’, and the casual football fans. It targets those who aren’t part of the core A-League fan base. And going on the fact that the first batch of tickets sold out in just 40 minutes on … Continue Reading

Well it was bound to happen, wasn’t it – and they did give us fair warning.

With the nod of a few heads, Australia has been downgraded from a country with two-and-a-half places (two group stage, one qualifier) in the Asian Champions League to just one-and-a-half places.

But it seems that the FFA, despite sending a crack team of diplomats headed by new CEO David Gallop to Kuala Lumpur, are more focused on matters at home, as mentioned last night by Hyundai A-League head Damian De Bohun:

“Our real focus and that of our clubs this year is the Hyundai A-League, the consolidation of the 10 team competition and continuing to build on the exciting start to this season.”

Sure, you look after your own backyard, but if you know that a bulldozer is coming to take nearly half of your backyard away unless you make improvements to your property, you would do so post-haste, right?

Apparently not the FFA, and … Continue Reading

Yesterday, the Football Federation of Australia announced a $160 million television broadcast deal over four years that will not only help stabilise the financial future of the game, but will give millions of Australians who don’t have access to pay television the opportunity to see how far our national competition has progressed over the last few years.

Before there was Bozza, Slater and Adam Peacock we received our football fix from two guys (the vault of knowledge that is Les Murray and his passionate offsider the late Johnny Warren) on the least watched channel in the land, SBS. For many years, I watched these two cover football from all over the world through my poor quality country reception. Like so many people of my generation this was my only window of opportunity to see ‘The World Game’.

While I think the new television deal is great, and may appeal to the masses, I don’t think it has gone far enough. We look at our two major … Continue Reading

If the A-League was the mainstream media market, Jarred Gillett right now would be the Charlie Sheen of the A-League – in the news for all the wrong reasons.

But it puts a glaring spotlight on the A-League.

Where Charlie Sheen’s drug-induced binges place scrutiny on the Hollywood scene, and make people question the integrity of it, poor match refereeing puts scrutiny on the A-League. Whether he’s innocent of the claims that are made against him, is beside the point – the fact is, you do something controversial, it’ll come back to bite you.

Gillett’s crucial decision in the 2012 Grand Final has been hotly debated, perhaps fervently debated, and has drawn opinion from around the football hemisphere. And whilst many believe he made the right decision in the Adelaide vs Wellington match last weekend, it raises the magnifying glass on the practices of those around him.

On the same weekend, Rhyan Grant escaped the ire of the referee in the 92nd … Continue Reading

Andrew Durante’s comments post-match against Adelaide United may land him in hot water, but he can take solace from the fact that he’s right.

Too often are players, coaches and the media cautious to attach the unmentionable label of ‘cheat’ to their analyses of players. The word is, apparently, that one step too far in the cut-throat, highly competitive environment of modern professional football in which incidents of cheating are rife.

And it seems this caution has flowed through to the A-League’s match review panel and their treatment of the incident to which Durante was referring – Jeronimo Neumann’s second half dive that earned Durante’s teammate Ben Sigmund a red card, and the Reds a huge advantage.

Durante’s words weren’t too far off the mark. Diving is cheating. Plain and simple. It’s not necessarily a condemnation of Jeronimo’s character; we’ve seen enough of the Argentine in the first month of the season to know that his contribution to the … Continue Reading

Season 8, Season 2012/13 – call it what you want, I’m not too fussed really. It’s like the football/soccer argument. For years I have tried to point out that if it’s ok for millions of fans around the world to call the game ‘football’, then why can’t we. The counter argument normally mentions something about the Socceroos as our national nickname, but I’m getting off track; much like those who are running the great game in this country.

This season coming up for football in this country (and New Zealand) represents the most significant season of domestic football ever. Yes, that’s right, even more important that the relaunch of the domestic competition almost 10 years ago.  For years I have seen administrators, clubs and supporters making crucial errors of judgement in various facets of the game and not learn from previous mistakes. 2012/13 could very well make or break the A-League, and we need to excel on … Continue Reading

When the Hyundai A-League was launched back in 2005, eight professional football clubs were charged with the responsibility of bringing a game that had long lingered in the shadows of the Australian sporting landscape out into the mainstream. Their mandate was to take on and confront the existing and well-established idea that football in Australia was only a secondary sport, a game that would only ever be played and supported by those on the periphery of local sporting culture. The aim of the A-League was to challenge and change the make-up of the Australian sporting psyche, to help plant football in the hearts and minds of the Australian public.

Some of the clubs granted licences were newly created ‘franchises’, entities created for the sole purpose of Australia’s new professional football league, whilst others were re-branded or re-jigged versions of existing entities. With the majority of entrants having no established fan base and no footballing history, a key … Continue Reading

Top flight domestic football seems destined to return to SBS, the television station many claim as Australian football’s historical home. The long time flag-bearer for football appears to have won out in the race for hosting rights to the A-League’s free-to-air component under a new deal rumoured to be close to being finalised by Football Federation Australia. The deal will reportably see SBS air one game a week, and the possibility of a weekly highlights package is also being mooted. Fox Sports will reportedly also retain the rights to televise every A-League match live.

Since the launch of the A-League back in 2005, Fox Sports have been the sole owner of televised matches in Australia, and their belief in the competition early on helped establish the A-League in the domestic sporting market. Their coverage of the game, showing every match live as well as extensive pre and post-match analysis was a huge step forward for the sport … Continue Reading