A-Leagues & Football Australia General Chat and News Thread

Jul 5, 2011
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FFA name panel for national teams review | The World Game

Football Federation Australia has named a three-person panel to review national team management after the controversial sacking of ex-Matildas coach Alen Stajcic in January.

Former Australia netball captain Liz Ellis will sit on the panel along with Sydney Olympics bid mastermind Rod McGeoch.
The panel will be chaired by businesswoman Diane Smith-Gander and investigate decision-making processes and the way in which items are reported to the FFA board within national teams.
It will not review Stajcic's termination but will use the decision as an example to shed light on processes within national team management structures.
“The decision of the Board to replace Alen Stajcic as the Matildas coach is not under review or subject to review," FFA chairman Chris Nikou said.
"However, the process raised questions for the board on the manner in which conduct, performance and information are addressed by FFA as an organisation.”
The panel's report is expected to be delivered to the FFA board by the end of October.

The body representing Australian football coaches wants to have a say in who will head an independent inquiry into the Matildas sacking of Alen Stajcic.

Updated Updated 25/06/2019

Football Coaches Australia (FCA) says with Australia's 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup campaign coming to an end in the round-of-16 penalty shootout defeat to Norway, the time was right to start a review of Stajcic's removal as national team coach in January.
FCA president Phil Moss believes his body and other stakeholders should be consulted before the person overseeing the review is appointed.
"The circumstances, timing and messaging around Alen's termination created ambiguity and untold hurt to Alen and his family," Moss said.
"It demands nothing less than an independent inquiry and we believe FCA, along with other key football stakeholders, must be front and centre to assist in the selection process of who drives that review."
Football Federation Australia (FFA) has already confirmed an independent look at their handling of the Stajcic sacking will be held along with an internal review of the Matildas' performance in France.
It has yet to set a timeframe for either review with reports resolving the impasse in the A-League's transition to an independent model is the FFA board's primary concern.

 

JezzasOnTheAsphalt

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May 14, 2018
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There is some kind of beauty though in the Sydney FC Facebook page posting a similar comment on the picture from A-League Memes. Surely can't be many leagues in the world where a club stuffs up as they did firstly, and then tries to rectify it with the social media team explaining themselves on a memes page.
 
Jul 5, 2011
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When Soccer Died’: New doco to lift the lid on Australian football | The World Game
By John Davidson

Local filmmakers Michael Cain and Oscar Vieira are behind the project that will tackle topics such as the national curriculum, the waning youth production line, the state of the A-League, expansion, the Socceroos and women’s football.
With the working title of ‘When Soccer Died’, the duo have interviewed many powerful figures in football, from ex-Socceroos to broadcasters, coaches, administrators, former Matildas and officials, to explore how the sport in Australia has lost its way.
Vieira, a freelance cameraman, and Cain, a Channel 10 journalist, are both passionate football advocates who came up with the idea to make a film.
“I’ve been concerned for a long time in terms of the direction that Australian football is heading, sort of going away from what made us a unique footballing country,” Vieira told The World Game.
“I went to Cainey and said we should do a story on this. For years me and Cainey have talked about the issues, the continuous themes in the game. We want to shine a light on what’s going on.
“We thought we'd go and speak to people involved day-to-day in football and see what they think, both positive and negatives, in the current environment of Australian football.”
A virtual who’s who of Australian football has been interviewed for the documentary including SBS chief football analyst and former Socceroo Craig Foster, SBS presenter Lucy Zelic, journalist Ray Gatt, commentator Simon Hill, veteran coach Ron Smith, former FIFA and FFA whistleblower Bonita Mersiades, former Socceroos Peter Katholos, Craig Moore, Ned Zelic, Luke Wilkshire and Les Scheinflug, among many others.\
The film will touch on the controversial introduction of the national curriculum, the closure of the Australian Institute of Sport’s (AIS) successful football program and the influence of Dutch tactics.
“My issue with the Dutch curriculum is its sort of a square peg in a round hole,” Vieira said.
“You’ve got to have your own identity. And if we were going to follow someone the Dutch system probably wasn’t the one to go with.
“I think everyone fell in love with Guus at the time, and we fell into the Dutch system and the Dutch are having to reinvent themselves at the moment in a way.
“We’ve gone down a path that was perhaps outdated. Football has evolved a lot in the past 10 years.
“It seems like what the AIS were doing in the 1990s a lot of the top academies are honing in on in the last 10 years. We’ve gone away from a system where we took the best of what they were doing all over the world but also kept it very Australian.
“Football’s all about identity and I feel we’re very lost at the moment to be honest. The people we’ve spoken to have reinforced what we thought – we’re kind of in no-mans land.”
The film also unearths the fallout from the end of the National Soccer League (NSL) and emergence of the A-League in 2005, as well as the stagnation of the new competition and how it has tried to expand.
“Everyone we’ve spoken to so far have been very concerned about the domestic game, the A-League, from the AIS being closed in 2017, to youth development,” Cain admits.
“The national curriculum was a good structure to have, but it’s almost like we’re in a box. We need to have a Plan A, B, C and D when it comes to playing the national sides and we’ve only got Plan A at the moment.
“The A-League, a lot of people are saying the A-League’s boring now. We need to have that competitiveness.
“We’re in a country where there’s four different football codes and it’s a big pie, and it’s precarious because it has to be entertaining, but it has to be a good product as well.”
According to Vieira, many of the subjects they have spoken to for the documentary believe that in the past 14 years Australian football has lost its individuality and become corporatised.
“Just put one football team in Sydney, one football team in Melbourne, one in Brisbane, sort of like Super Rugby,” he said.
“And it lost the beauty of that unique sort of individual character and it tried to turn into what the formula of the other mainstream sports is. Whether its youth football, whether it’s the A-League, or whether it’s the Socceroos or the Matildas, it’s just all very vanilla.
“And it’s not what the system the Vinnie Grellas, the Mark Vidukas and the Harry Kewell’s came through. It was very unique, individual, different, quirky and you see when the FFA Cup comes around, you see that passion sort of creep back in.
“You sometimes see the potential when you go to a Sydney derby, you see the house rocking and you see it going nuts and you go this is football at its best. But then every other week, unfortunately, it reverts back to this really corporate thing.”
Viera and Cain insist their film is not about being negative, but about spreading awareness and pushing for change. The pair hope to have the documentary ready for screening before the end of this year.
“We’re trying to get as many of the voices people respect and understand into one space from a verity of different fields and get their opinion and find some common themes,” Vieira said.
“So people can see that it is really an issue, and if we can get enough people in that space we want to reinforce it and we want to make people aware, and we definitely want change.
“We want the people who make football in this country to be recognised, because in some ways since Lowy’s revolution after the Crawford report there has been positives, there’s definitely been positives. But we sort of threw the baby out with the bathwater and didn’t coalesce all the things that make football great in this country with the new regime.
“What we want is for football to be run by football people who understand its uniqueness, and bring awareness to what the current issues are with as many voices that are respected in the game as possible.
“There’s always hope. Football people are always hopeful. But I think people are well aware of the challenges going ahead.”
Vieira and Cain are speaking to distributors and are hoping to land a deal for it to be shown on Australian television.
“We haven’t got a platform for it yet,” Cain said.
“We’re looking to pitch it to a few different places. We’re still got a few people to speak who we want to include in the documentary – Joey Peters, Remo Nogarotto, Rale Rasic.
“It just shows everybody cares about the game. They’re so passionate and worried about the game – that’s something that stood out, everyone’s worried about the game.
“It’s almost like the FFA is saying nothing to see here, everything’s fine. There’s a lot of criticism towards the FFA but it’s not about that. We want to try and get answers.
“It feels like we’re back at square one again with Australian football. Like we’re a rat on the wheel… where have we gone wrong?
“It’s not about let’s bash it but let’s try and find a way to get back on the right track again.”

 
Apr 12, 2012
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When Soccer Died’: New doco to lift the lid on Australian football | The World Game
By John Davidson

Local filmmakers Michael Cain and Oscar Vieira are behind the project that will tackle topics such as the national curriculum, the waning youth production line, the state of the A-League, expansion, the Socceroos and women’s football.
With the working title of ‘When Soccer Died’, the duo have interviewed many powerful figures in football, from ex-Socceroos to broadcasters, coaches, administrators, former Matildas and officials, to explore how the sport in Australia has lost its way.
Vieira, a freelance cameraman, and Cain, a Channel 10 journalist, are both passionate football advocates who came up with the idea to make a film.
“I’ve been concerned for a long time in terms of the direction that Australian football is heading, sort of going away from what made us a unique footballing country,” Vieira told The World Game.
“I went to Cainey and said we should do a story on this. For years me and Cainey have talked about the issues, the continuous themes in the game. We want to shine a light on what’s going on.
“We thought we'd go and speak to people involved day-to-day in football and see what they think, both positive and negatives, in the current environment of Australian football.”
A virtual who’s who of Australian football has been interviewed for the documentary including SBS chief football analyst and former Socceroo Craig Foster, SBS presenter Lucy Zelic, journalist Ray Gatt, commentator Simon Hill, veteran coach Ron Smith, former FIFA and FFA whistleblower Bonita Mersiades, former Socceroos Peter Katholos, Craig Moore, Ned Zelic, Luke Wilkshire and Les Scheinflug, among many others.\
The film will touch on the controversial introduction of the national curriculum, the closure of the Australian Institute of Sport’s (AIS) successful football program and the influence of Dutch tactics.
“My issue with the Dutch curriculum is its sort of a square peg in a round hole,” Vieira said.
“You’ve got to have your own identity. And if we were going to follow someone the Dutch system probably wasn’t the one to go with.
“I think everyone fell in love with Guus at the time, and we fell into the Dutch system and the Dutch are having to reinvent themselves at the moment in a way.
“We’ve gone down a path that was perhaps outdated. Football has evolved a lot in the past 10 years.
“It seems like what the AIS were doing in the 1990s a lot of the top academies are honing in on in the last 10 years. We’ve gone away from a system where we took the best of what they were doing all over the world but also kept it very Australian.
“Football’s all about identity and I feel we’re very lost at the moment to be honest. The people we’ve spoken to have reinforced what we thought – we’re kind of in no-mans land.”
The film also unearths the fallout from the end of the National Soccer League (NSL) and emergence of the A-League in 2005, as well as the stagnation of the new competition and how it has tried to expand.
“Everyone we’ve spoken to so far have been very concerned about the domestic game, the A-League, from the AIS being closed in 2017, to youth development,” Cain admits.
“The national curriculum was a good structure to have, but it’s almost like we’re in a box. We need to have a Plan A, B, C and D when it comes to playing the national sides and we’ve only got Plan A at the moment.
“The A-League, a lot of people are saying the A-League’s boring now. We need to have that competitiveness.
“We’re in a country where there’s four different football codes and it’s a big pie, and it’s precarious because it has to be entertaining, but it has to be a good product as well.”
According to Vieira, many of the subjects they have spoken to for the documentary believe that in the past 14 years Australian football has lost its individuality and become corporatised.
“Just put one football team in Sydney, one football team in Melbourne, one in Brisbane, sort of like Super Rugby,” he said.
“And it lost the beauty of that unique sort of individual character and it tried to turn into what the formula of the other mainstream sports is. Whether its youth football, whether it’s the A-League, or whether it’s the Socceroos or the Matildas, it’s just all very vanilla.
“And it’s not what the system the Vinnie Grellas, the Mark Vidukas and the Harry Kewell’s came through. It was very unique, individual, different, quirky and you see when the FFA Cup comes around, you see that passion sort of creep back in.
“You sometimes see the potential when you go to a Sydney derby, you see the house rocking and you see it going nuts and you go this is football at its best. But then every other week, unfortunately, it reverts back to this really corporate thing.”
Viera and Cain insist their film is not about being negative, but about spreading awareness and pushing for change. The pair hope to have the documentary ready for screening before the end of this year.
“We’re trying to get as many of the voices people respect and understand into one space from a verity of different fields and get their opinion and find some common themes,” Vieira said.
“So people can see that it is really an issue, and if we can get enough people in that space we want to reinforce it and we want to make people aware, and we definitely want change.
“We want the people who make football in this country to be recognised, because in some ways since Lowy’s revolution after the Crawford report there has been positives, there’s definitely been positives. But we sort of threw the baby out with the bathwater and didn’t coalesce all the things that make football great in this country with the new regime.
“What we want is for football to be run by football people who understand its uniqueness, and bring awareness to what the current issues are with as many voices that are respected in the game as possible.
“There’s always hope. Football people are always hopeful. But I think people are well aware of the challenges going ahead.”
Vieira and Cain are speaking to distributors and are hoping to land a deal for it to be shown on Australian television.
“We haven’t got a platform for it yet,” Cain said.
“We’re looking to pitch it to a few different places. We’re still got a few people to speak who we want to include in the documentary – Joey Peters, Remo Nogarotto, Rale Rasic.
“It just shows everybody cares about the game. They’re so passionate and worried about the game – that’s something that stood out, everyone’s worried about the game.
“It’s almost like the FFA is saying nothing to see here, everything’s fine. There’s a lot of criticism towards the FFA but it’s not about that. We want to try and get answers.
“It feels like we’re back at square one again with Australian football. Like we’re a rat on the wheel… where have we gone wrong?
“It’s not about let’s bash it but let’s try and find a way to get back on the right track again.”

And yet even when the NSL was in its prime it wasn't getting the crowds, sponsors and ratings that the A-league at its worse is getting.

Some rose coloured glasses being used by some.
 
Jul 5, 2011
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And yet even when the NSL was in its prime it wasn't getting the crowds, sponsors and ratings that the A-league at its worse is getting.

Some rose coloured glasses being used by some.

You should read the comments on the facebook page for a laugh, some people just can't let go of the NSL era.
 
Oct 8, 2004
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The ABC has struck a landmark deal to become the free-to-air broadcast partner of the A-League, W-League, Socceroos and Matildas.


The two-year deal will see one A-League and one W-League match per round broadcast live on ABC TV and iview around the country throughout the entirety of the 2019/20 season.

Every match of the W-League finals will also be available live, and a selection of A-League finals on delay, including the grand final.

It will also mean the Socceroos' next two rounds of World Cup qualifiers will be broadcast live and free across the ABC and SBS, as well as all of the Matildas' upcoming international friendlies and Olympic qualifiers.

 
Jul 5, 2011
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Not sure about this, the 5pm time slot isn’t ideal would prefer the 7:30pm Saturday night for free to air, through I guess any free to air is better than none I suppose, but delayed telecast for finals? And only some finals? Come on it’s the 2020’s coming up not the 1990’s who watches delayed telecasts anymore?
 
Last edited:
Jun 24, 2011
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ΠΓΣΣ LFC Sturt Steelers Nix
The ABC has struck a landmark deal to become the free-to-air broadcast partner of the A-League, W-League, Socceroos and Matildas.


The two-year deal will see one A-League and one W-League match per round broadcast live on ABC TV and iview around the country throughout the entirety of the 2019/20 season.

Every match of the W-League finals will also be available live, and a selection of A-League finals on delay, including the grand final.

It will also mean the Socceroos' next two rounds of World Cup qualifiers will be broadcast live and free across the ABC and SBS, as well as all of the Matildas' upcoming international friendlies and Olympic qualifiers.

Hehehe. Yay, Wellington's on FTA every week.
FIXTURES SET TO CHANGE FOR TV DEAL
By Kevin Airs Sep 25 2019 1:46PM

This season's A-League fixtures are set to be tweaked if the free to air TV deal with ABC gets over the line, Football Federation Australia has admitted.

TV and football bosses are hoping to finalise a deal which will see every Saturday night's 5.15pm match (Sydney time) shown live on the national broadcaster as well as Fox Sports.

But a quirk of the scheduling already announced by Football Federation Australia means the timeslot is heavily loaded with Wellington Phoenix matches.

In total, a third of the games would feature Phoenix, including six home games for the New Zealand-based side and three more away games.
Eight of those happen on consecutive weekends over December and January. Now Football Federation Australia has confirmed it will revisit the fixture list to vary things up for the timeslot if the TV deal goes ahead to give Aussie teams a bigger showcase.


A final decision has yet to be made, but it could see 7.30pm games brought forward, while the New Zealand- based Phoenix games may move from 5.15 Sydney-time time to an earlier 3pm Sydney time slot. The FFA is keen to avoid more drastic changes to the fixture list to avoid causing too much disruption for any fans who have already booked travel arrangements.

"We are more likely to tweak times rather than match fixtures," said a spokesman. "It's too early to say though exactly how that will be finalised."
Talks with the ABC are still said to be underway, but doubts have been raised about the ABC taking Fox Sports content without breaching its charter on commercial advertising, but also lacking the resources to produce its own coverage. Meanwhile the FFA has told fans to wait and see what it has prepared for its pre-season marketing campaign. Although radio ads have been booked for upcoming Matildas and Socceroos, it's understood there have been no bookings so far for the A-League season launch.

The governing body says it is keeping its powder dry until the AFL and NRL Grand Finals are over before launching its advertising blitz.
Fox Sports have this month been filming night shoots with each club at their stadiums as part of their promo campaign for the season, and the FFA cited that as an example of the marketing ahead.
 
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