A-Leagues & Football Australia General Chat and News Thread

[nobbyiscool]

A day after coming on as a sub for the Wanderers... then getting the shits when he was subbed back off... WSW have released Jumpei.

Ray Gatt has said that he's going back to Japan, but you'd have to think that Sydney & Victory would at least chat to him before he gets on the plane about being their Asian player for the ACL. In the case of Victory, if we left Barbarouses out of the ACL squad and replaced him with Jumpei as an Asian player, I don't think we'd lose anything.

 

[Colonial]

A day after coming on as a sub for the Wanderers... then getting the shits when he was subbed back off... WSW have released Jumpei.

Ray Gatt has said that he's going back to Japan, but you'd have to think that Sydney & Victory would at least chat to him before he gets on the plane about being their Asian player for the ACL. In the case of Victory, if we left Barbarouses out of the ACL squad and replaced him with Jumpei as an Asian player, I don't think we'd lose anything.

I agree that Victory and the Sky Blues would be having a quiet chat.

Bloody hell the Wanderers are a shambles.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Andonis1997]

City are playing at AAMI Park sat night

At 7, so probably no postponing.
Besides, Wellington didn't get postponed against Adelaide when it was over 35, so if that were the case, I'd be pissed.

In the case of Victory, if we left Barbarouses out of the ACL squad and replaced him with Jumpei as an Asian player, I don't think we'd lose anything.

You would gain way more than you have if you did that.

 

[nobbyiscool]

At 7, so probably no postponing.
Besides, Wellington didn't get postponed against Adelaide when it was over 35, so if that were the case, I'd be pissed.

Yeah, maybe. I don't know.

I do know that if it does actually get to 41 degrees on Saturday, it's still likely to be 38 degrees+ by 7pm. We had a couple of days like that last week, where it didn't even start to cool down til after 8pm when the sun was going down. Melbourne's climate is bloody different to what I thought it was before I moved here!

 

[Andonis1997]

I do know that if it does actually get to 41 degrees on Saturday, it's still likely to be 38 degrees+ by 7pm. We had a couple of days like that last week, where it didn't even start to cool down til after 8pm when the sun was going down. Melbourne's climate is bloody different to what I thought it was before I moved here!

Actually, that's a fair point. I was down in mid-December for the Muse concert and I died from the heat walking down Batman Avenue to Rod Laver, and that hit 34, I think..

 

[giggler99]

Really? I didn't even realise they were playing in Geelong & Melbourne back to back. That's strange... especially at this time of year when 40 degree+ days are a possibility. At 41 degrees, there's a chance they'd both have to be postponed.

When I wrote about the Victory game being rescheduled, I didn't mean for Saturday night. If the Geelong game is postponed, and if they don't just reschedule it for Sunday, I meant that it would likely be rescheduled at AAMI Park on a Tuesday or Wednesday night in a few weeks.

Can't reschedule it on the Sunday Mariners play Newcastle on the Tuesday night and Victory play Wellington in NZL on Wednesday night. Would be extremely unfair, then again FFA.. If the match is postponed it would be best to rescheduled it later in the season in Melbourne. Maybe during one of the split rounds.

Stupid scheduling this match at 5:30 down in Geelong in the middle of summer in the first place what where they thinking? Oh.. that’s right the FFA don’t think.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Can't reschedule it on the Sunday Mariners play Newcastle on the Tuesday night and Victory play Wellington in NZL on Wednesday night. Would be extremely unfair, then again FFA.. If the match is postponed it would be best to rescheduled it later in the season in Melbourne. Maybe during one of the split rounds.

Stupid scheduling this match at 5:30 down in Geelong in the middle of summer in the first place what where they thinking? Oh.. that’s right the FFA don’t think.

FFA: "What? It gets hot in Melbourne?"

I didn't realise the next games were so close - I checked the next round of matches and knew we were in NZ, I just didn't check the dates!

 

[giggler99]

Jumpei apparently going back to Japan to sign for Shimizu S-Pulse Sydney and Victory need to swoop fast!

https://www.foxsports.com.au/footba...g/news-story/feb96bbb828fe2e8fd2e0084c74069e7

 

[giggler99]

FIFA slammed for delaying crisis mission to Australia
By Dave Lewis 2 Jan 2018 - 3:25 PM UPDATED 1 HOUR AGO
5-6 minutes
The world governing body signaled its intention to oversee last-ditch talks over reforms for the composition of FFA's Congress after its Member Associations committee met before Christmas.

The expectation was that a task force would jet to Australia in January to set up its Congress Review Working Group to resolve the bitter impasse between FFA and its rebellious stakeholders over the structural reforms demanded by FIFA.

Speaking on behalf of the Australian Professional Football Clubs Association, Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin revealed the clubs were penning a letter to FIFA seeking an update on their arrival dates in Australia.

"FIFA have made no contact with us since the decision (to come to Australia was announced), and even then it was not directly communicated to us," he explained.

"We are in the process of writing to FIFA seeking clarification."

The delay is a cause for concern, according to former Soccer Australia and Football NSW CEO Stefan Kamasz, who fears a cosy behind the scenes relationship between FIFA officials and the all powerful Lowy family may be muddying the waters.

In December former FFA chairman Frank Lowy flew to Switzerland to lobby high ranking FIFA officials over threats of imposing a normalization committee to run the game in Australia.

His son Steven, who was effectively bestowed the chairmanship by his father two years ago, has also personally lobbied FIFA president Gianni Infantino in recent months, with a view to staving off the sacking of the FFA board.

"I just hope there are no discussions going on on the side between FFA and FIFA to further delay things," said Kamasz, who was also part of the member of the implementation panel that made recommendations for the formation of the A-League.

"That possibility really does concern me. I hope it's not the case but nothing would surprise me with FIFA.

"This (the game's plight) needs to be sorted out fairly quickly.

"If FIFA are not coming down before February it's troubling because FIFA are not exactly the bastion of good governance themselves. They have had plenty of their own issues in the past.

"I am yet to be convinced they have turned a corner to become the organization they should be."

During his recent eight month stint as Football NSW CEO - which concluded last June - Kamasz sampled first hand what he described as the "inflexibility" of Steven Lowy in embracing the prospect of greater representation in the game's governance.

"I am disappointed in the apparent inflexibility of Steve and his board in all this," he said.

"I attended a meeting with Steven Lowy and some of his board members when they came out to see us.

"They made it quite clear he wasn't going to be flexible at that stage with their reform model.

"What surprised me was FFA did not appear to have a vision of where they eventually saw the voting rights of the various members of the Congress going.

"There was no long-term plan. They said it was the first stop on a journey while we wanted to know what the destination was.

"They had no answer to that, which I found astounding."

NSW and Victoria are the two state federations who have joined forces with the A-League clubs and the PFA to oppose Lowy's version of reform.

"It's difficult to support FFA when they don't have a long term plan that takes into consideration of all the special interest groups," said Kamasz.

The former administrator supports the clubs in their quest for autonomy from FFA in running the A-League, with certain provisos.

"If FFA had followed what was written in the Crawford Report much more than they did, then they would not be facing many of the issues they are today," he said.

"In my view the league should be managing its on day-to-day affairs under the auspices of FFA."

With A-League crowds and TV viewing figures tumbling and the vagaries of the VAR all burning issues as stagnation envelops the competition, Kamasz is also perturbed by what he describes as "the fun police" destroying the match-day experience for many fans.

In the light of recent examples of kids being told off for leaning against a fence, the Barmy Army and Brentford fans having flags and banners taken down by over-zealous security at A-League games, Kamasz said: "These sorts of things are ridiculous. Commonsense has to prevail.

"There has to be a balance and the pendulum has swung too far the way of the fun police."

He would also like to see expansion back on the agenda, rather than FFA focusing its energies purely on perpetuating its own grip on absolute power.

"The Lowys need to understand that they don't own the sport," he said. "Frank Lowy has done tremendous good for football but he and Steven need to loosen the reins.

"Make no mistake, Frank may not be chairman any more but he is still exerting plenty of influence from the sidelines.

"The reality is that Australia has been ripe for expansion for a while and not enough effort has been put in by FFA.

"If we don't expand soon, stagnation will continue and people will be turned off.

"There needs to be a road map of where we want to be in 10 to 20 years time."

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2018/01/02/fifa-slammed-delaying-crisis-mission-australia

This is getting out of hand the Lowy's just don't want to loosen their grip on the game, I think it's gone beyond football now its all about power!

This part in particular just enforces the fact:

In December former FFA chairman Frank Lowy flew to Switzerland to lobby high ranking FIFA officials over threats of imposing a normalization committee to run the game in Australia.

Definitely a conflict of interests: disgraceful why hasn't this been shamed by the football journos if it is in fact true? I was hearing rumors that old man Frank was lobbying to FIFA some time ago why ain't the football journos investigating on it to find out if it is true? and if so what happened? or are they to afraid?

 

[giggler99]

couple of interesting articles I'd like to share.

Why A-League transfer fees must start - and the salary cap must finish
By Sebastian Hassett 1 Feb 2018 - 8:09 PM UPDATED YESTERDAY 8:09 PM
4-5 minutes
But while they both had good intentions, they are now badly outdated and now deeply counter-productive. Which means they must be removed as quickly as possible.

Let’s start with the salary cap, which was introduced as a deflationary measure, to keep players’ wages from spiralling out of control.

It was quickly broken by Sydney FC and then again by Perth Glory. One or two other clubs have gone over but that’s for another day. But the problem in time hasn’t been over-spending – it has been the opposite.

Owners realised they could garner all the kudos and status from owning and operating a club yet still remain competitive on NSL-like budgets. For some, it has been the cheapest ticket to the top end of town.

In the end, salary caps only hurt the clubs trying to raise the bar in Australian football, repeatedly having to sell top players – often prematurely and for less than their market worth.

It’s not like the salary cap has divided the spoils evenly in any case – the three biggest markets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have swallowed nine of 12 A-League titles between them.

If we removed the salary cap, would we see a gap between rich and poor?

Not really, because the best players will still go overseas, providing a natural equaliser. Mark Milligan is still making that move to Al Ahli, cap or no cap.

But it could, foreseeably, give Melbourne City better wiggle room to accommodate Ross McCormack – and to allow for the growth of Daniel Arzani.

Now they’ve lost one and will waste so much time trying to placate the salary of the other using a variation of the Duckworth-Lewis method.

This juggling act was briefly entertaining but it’s worn off now. If players’ salaries were disclosed – like in US sports and as World Players Association executive director Brendan Schwab has argued for – it would unleash a wave of interest in how a cap is managed and produce better outcomes for players.

The FFA toyed with a model back in 2015 and it would have triggered some great discussion and publicity. But Australian sport gets very awkward about salary disclosure, even though it has been a fantastic boost for the MLS (and players who now know their market worth).

Some may argue that a cap would assist in the transition to promotion and relegation, making it more affordable for second tier clubs to compete.

Again, this lowest-common denominator thinking is too short sighted. Squad-size limitation, rather than a cap, prevents warehousing and is a far superior way of spreading players without capping their earnings.

When it comes to banning transfer fees, the arguments don’t require too much nuance. The rule was plucked from thin air in a bid to stop players from small clubs losing players. Well-intentioned but utterly useless.

Not only did it have zero impact in this space, it prevented clubs from making money from selling their assets. And now we have the outrageous situation of players holding clubs to ransom for a release – which they grant to prevent a dressing room mutiny.

Adelaide should have played hard ball on Ben Warland and demanded a transfer fee from Sydney FC. But there’s nothing to gain from their end, so they just end up ceding to the player’s wishes.

This has facilitated a culture which means players can effectively walk out if another club makes an approach, the legality of which is questionable. Ultimately, this just helps the biggest clubs acquire players for nothing.

And if you’ve ever been on social media, you’ll know the decades-long anger around NPL clubs earning just a few thousand dollars when their players are snapped up by A-League clubs. Yes, this rule has to go, too.

I don’t blame the FFA for setting this initial framework, because their purpose was for a different time and space. But when something is broken and malfunctioning – as badly and as obviously as this – you need to fix it.

Like so many things in Australian football, the sooner these things change, the better.

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/blo...er-fees-must-start-and-salary-cap-must-finish

As they say the A-league was a good idea at time for the novelty of it all but ware out quickly and frankly these type of rules and regulations among others should have changed years ago.

 

[giggler99]

Details of Australia's 2022 World Cup bid shed light on the game's current woes - Sport
By Offsiders columnist Richard Hinds
6-7 minutes
Updated February 02, 2018 09:38:45

When you occupy a sports market where the competition is fiercer than at the $5 undies table at the Boxing Day sales, a mid-season dip in media visibility, crowds and TV ratings is understandable, perhaps even inevitable.

But to vanish completely from the sporting radar as the A-League has done for long periods is a cause for deep concern.

Particularly when the lack of headlines and sound bites is reflected in the grandstands, where average A-League attendances have dropped to 11,101 — a decline of about 1,500 from last season and 2,400 from three years ago.

Cristiano Ronaldo has not spent as much time in front of the bathroom mirror as Australian football fans have spent attempting to solve the great dilemma: Why has a game with such healthy grass roots participation, passionate local club support and, since the 2006 World Cup, consistent global representation, struggled to build a stronger and more profitable national league?

Especially when the standard of the A-League, and drama of the games themselves, has steadily improved — as anyone following the epic recent performances of Sydney FC will attest.

Significant clues are contained in the long awaited book Whatever It Takes: The Inside Story of the FIFA Way by former Football Federation Australia head of corporate and public affairs, Bonita Mersiades.

Those who have tracked Mersiades' path from World Cup bid insider to passionate anti-corruption campaign will anticipate a compelling and intricately detailed account of Australia's deeply flawed attempt to host the 2022 World Cup and FIFA's dark machinations.

Mersiades has not disappointed. Her personal story of expert engagement with the bid team, gradual disillusionment and, upon her sacking, relentless attempts to expose corruption across FIFA is an entertaining, enlightening and also somewhat depressing tale.

In Mersiades' case, it also exposes the lengths both FIFA and the FFA took to discredit and ostracise those who dared expose their murkiest dealings, and the hefty price a whistleblower can pay.

In the seven years since Australia's tainted bid gained just one vote, many of the details explored have been laid bare by Mersiades and others.

The millions spent on shady foreign consultants with dubious connections and unknown motives; the expensive trinkets given to FIFA officials; the enormous "development grants" awarded to influence voting; the two sets of bid accounts keep secretly by the FFA — one for internal use, the other to justify the $45 million of taxpayer money to government officials.

And so it went.

The most remarkable part of Mersiades' account is the personal dealings between those in the FFA's chain of command from then chairman Frank Lowy through to his three handpicked foreign consultants, FFA chief executive Ben Buckley and, until her sacking in late 2009, Mersiades and those whose votes or influence they sought.

There is arrogance, hubris, double-dealing and an addiction to privilege and wealth — encapsulated by the red-faced rage of FFA consultant Peter Hargitay when he is dropped at the rear entrance of a five star hotel and deprived of a glad-handing stroll through the swish lobby.

Mersiades details the full engagement of Lowy in every element of the bid.

This makes a mockery of Lowy's attempted legacy restoration in the ABC documentary Played in which he cast himself as the naive bidder blindsided by nasty FIFA politics.

Beyond the dirtiest FIFA deal-making, Mersiades explains her greatest source of disillusionment: "It's because we (Australia) played the game the FIFA way. We were diminished. My country, and the game I love."

No doubt, those eager to forget the failed bid will wonder what good even the most detailed account can have now.

The obvious answer for a country bidding for the 2023 Women's World Cup: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

As significantly, football in Australia was not just diminished spiritually by the World Cup bid.

As Mersiades reveals, the amount of money, government goodwill and executive hours concentrated on a task she and others were told by FIFA insiders was futile long before the vote took place left the local game neglected.

Even after losing so abjectly, Lowy devoted time and resources to "Project Platinum" in which he hired spooks and various international men of mystery to gather dirt on the Qatar bidders in the hope of having the 2022 World Cup removed from them.

Such intrigue might appeal to fans of James Bond movies. But not so much to fans of Gold Coast United or Northern Fury who were going belly-up while Lowy was again being outwitted by FIFA, whose report on the bid process shovelled dirt on Australia while clearing Qatar and Russia.

As well as Australian football's stagnation, Whatever It Takes helps explain, indirectly, the resignation of national coach Ange Postecoglou.

The constant distractions, Machiavellian politics and subsequent failure to drive growth in Australian football left an environment unsuitable for someone hoping to use the Socceroos to elevate the game as a whole.

Coincidentally — or possibly not — the FFA announced the appointment of Postecoglou's replacement Bert van Marwijk on the same day Whatever It Takes had its international launch in London.

Lowy and a few others will hope this damning book doesn't fly off shelves in the malls he recently sold for $32 billion.

No doubt FFA's eager cheerleaders will view Mersiades' attempt to shine a light on the game as more "football bashing" and "negativity".

It is this failure to learn from the past and to go forward with wisdom and passion that helps explain why Australian football is still struggling to fulfil its vast potential.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-...-the-games-current-woes/9384964?section=sport

Can't wait to get my hands on this book all the dirt will be exposed on the Lowy's and not only on the poorly run world Cup bid, but how they and the FFA neglected the A-league in which it has never recovered from. Stagnation is an understatement!

 

[Andonis1997]

Calling for an Independent A-League. Posted on the MVFC official facebook page.

 

[hey shorty]

Don't agree with the salary cap, IMO it is required but needs tweaking

 

[chazwazza]

The point of having players salaries being transparent is also a good one, poorly needed in the AFL also.

 

[Colonial]

Calling for an Independent A-League. Posted on the MVFC official facebook page.

Needs to happen.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Colonial]

Damn.

FFA this is all on you.
Zero promotion & zero planning

Killling your own comp.
How pathetic can you be.

If you only want to look after the Socceroos then let the clubs run it before you guys run it into the ground.


Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[MrPremiership]

Muscat out

 

[Colonial]

Muscat in.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[gaskin]

Muscat campaigner

 

[peternorth]

always

 

[hey shorty]

No one said he couldn't take a penalty......

Well not quite always

 

[Colonial]

No one said he couldn't take a penalty......

Well not quite always

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[peternorth]

the A league has stagnated this year. With zero promotion pre season, this instalment seems dull and lifeless.

 

[craigos]

Is there an Asian Champions League thread on here? Unfortunate that it's not marketed at all here (not surprising considering the FFA), the population of people from Asian countries in Melbourne is massive and is something the Victory should be tapping into.

 

[Colonial]

Is there an Asian Champions League thread on here? Unfortunate that it's not marketed at all here (not surprising considering the FFA), the population of people from Asian countries in Melbourne is massive and is something the Victory should be tapping into.

Ridiculous how the FFA treats Asia.

Ill hate it but will understand if the AFC ever get jack of it and boot us.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk