I predict a big shake-up in soccer

[Pessimistic]

Apparently soccer australia has seen fit to get rid of canberra and brisbane yet keep seven of its twelve clubs in NSW. Only two remain in victoria.

The national team is becoming very competitive. they have shown they can draw HUGE crowds in melbourne if the 'product' is right. Mark Viduka is cutting up the premier league with a very australian style yet they are giving up on two major cities.

I predict someone will see an opening (perhaps channel seven) and cash in on the untapped demand out there.

Perhaps SA is totally out of control but if we can read anything into their actions you would have to say that with seven teams in NSW they aim to go head to head with rugby rather than AFL.

And with only two remaining teams in melbourn you would have to think that south have the best chance of being 'melbourne's team and they could be a power for several years to come.

 

[sbagman]

This decision is the biggest load of crap. We have two regional teams being booted out, with Sydney having five teams and NSW in total has 7. Australia's third largest city is now without a team. What crap. Then you have the two Melbourne teams, both of whom are ethnically based, one of whom plays on a dung heap in Sunshine and attacks opposition players and supporters. Meanwhile, we had Wollongong having to play their "home" GF in Sydney, no TV coverage, almost no coverage of Australia beating Mexico and France recently... and now, for the second time in my life, I lose a club I support. Well that's it. I've had enough. I will never go to another NSL game again. I don't care if another Brisbane team comes in, I refuse to support a team which may not exist in a few years. I refuse to support yet another team who reinvents itself with a new name, new colours, blah blah blah every few years. You want me to show loyalty? Give me something to show loyalty to. Now there's one less thing to do in this crappy city... thanks SocAus. You can all go to hell.

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

You tell 'em sbagman

I used to follow West Adelaide (some of my in-laws are Greek Cypriots) so I kinda know where you are coming from.

I reckon they should do what they did in the USA a few years ago.

Completely scrap ALL teams from the League, Sack ALL the current administrators, throw out the constitution and articles of Soccer Australia

... and completely rebuild the whole damn thing from scratch, from the ground up.

The ex-clubs of course would be most welcome to bid for a licence to play in the new league, but all references to the old ethnically based system should be completely avoided.

cheers

 

[QT]

Originally posted by Bloodstained Angel
You tell 'em sbagman

I used to follow West Adelaide (some of my in-laws are Greek Cypriots) so I kinda know where you are coming from.


cheers

Same , I was a dedicated West Adelaide/Adelaide sharks supporter all my life, and then all of the sudden we collapsed! At the moment I have no interest in the NSL, and i think with all these clubs being axed, soccer is collapsing, not gettin stronger in this country.

Northern Spirit and Sydney Utd should have got the ASS!

 

[Magpie-Fletch]

I'd like to see some Australian teams compete against clubs from Korea/Japan etc There could be two team from both Melbourne and Sydney, while the other teams could be from Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. Add in a team from New Zealand and a dozen or so teams from South-East Asia and you have a very competitive and high standard competition which would attract the interests of the fans.

What does everyone think?

Surely the current system cannot continue to go on for much longer, we need change.

 

[sbagman]

BSA, I agree. I think the USA example is a good one because they learned from the old NASL that you can't expand willy-nilly, and the MLS is now VERY cautious about adding new teams. Yet the NSL regularly has new teams coming and going without thinking how these teams are going to survive more than a couple of years. So yeah, I think scrap EVERY team that isn't financially viable, even if that leaves us with only two teams, then introduce new teams, without ethnic alliegances, on the premise that they will be around in the long term. I don't think its so much of an ethnic thing, to be honest... I mean, the clubs that are going belly-up have no ethnic ties! So why aren't people turning up?

Simple. You can turn up to an AFL match, knowing you are watching the best AFL available. Same with NRL. But turn up to a soccer match, and you are looking at a very weak league in world standards, stripped of its best 100 players, who play overseas (imagine the AFL without its top 100 players). Why go and watch such a poor league when you can watch the Premier League on PayTV?

The reason, as most soccer fans would know, is that it doesn't matter what standard the game is... the atmosphere in the stands, the singing, the chanting... soccer can provide this atmosphere better than AFL or NRL. I've been to games in Australia, England, and Italy, and even at Brisbane Strikers games, with a very small crowd, if you sit with the right people, you can get a fantastic atmosphere going. The NSL can't compete with the other codes in that it is a substandard league, so I believe it should focus on the things that soccer has going for it... passion and atmosphere.

There are two major problems with this I believe. The first is that you cannot have passion for a team which has only existed a couple of years, a team which may not be around in a few years, or a team which continually changes its colours, name, etc etc. The colours and the name thing are emotional connections to a club, regardless of the code, and after all it is emotion and passion and loyalty which bring people to the games when your team is losing. This passion, emotion, and loyalty can't be created from thin air. The ethnic clubs survive because they have that passion... the passion in their heritage and their culture and their homelands. You can knock the ethnic clubs all you like, they keep surviving, while these corporate inventions flourish for a few years then disappear without a trace. Why? Corporate inventions don't elicit passion, emotion, or loyalty. Once you reduce sport to mere entertainment, people come on the basis of what's on the park, and soccer doesn't have that luxury. So the solution to this is to have maybe 10 strong clubs, and KEEP THEM THERE. Give them a sense of history, tradition... and maybe people will form emotional connections to them. It is these emotional connections which will sustain the clubs in the lean years and promote stability and growth.

The second problem, which I don't have an answer for, is that of the perception of said atmosphere in soccer. The media, and the general populace, believe soccer atmosphere equals riots. Exactly how we go about changing these perceptions is something I would have to give more thought, but I know that I was going to Brisbane Strikers games not because they were a great team (they weren't) or they were winning (they weren't) but because I wanted to be part of the atmosphere that it provided.

I await my invitation to take up the presidency of SocAus.

Cheers,
Sbagman.

 

[CDFCLad]

Originally posted by QT


Same , I was a dedicated West Adelaide/Adelaide sharks supporter all my life, and then all of the sudden we collapsed! At the moment I have no interest in the NSL, and i think with all these clubs being axed, soccer is collapsing, not gettin stronger in this country.

Northern Spirit and Sydney Utd should have got the ASS!

I wouldn't say that West Adelaide died all of a sudden. It was only the transfer of Stan Lazaridis and the money West got for him that stopped them dying earlier.

Personally I preferred West A to Adelaide City anyday but neither club served, or ever could serve, the mainstream soccer community of Adelaide to any major respect. The worst ever decision by SA was to keep West A in the league when P Emery wanted to get Adelaide United into the League. Here we were, finally about to get a Perth Glory style broad based team........and they voted to keep West Adelaide in, who then proceeded to die about, oh, 5 days later therby leaving us with only one team.

And if Adelaide City are the third or fourth most stable club in Australia (as the rankings stated) I'd hate to see the others :-(

 

[QT]

Problem with West Adelaide was.....we spent money we didnt have, LOL

I remember us yr after yr buying duds from clubs like Gippsland, Syd Utd, Canberra etc.

The thing is , West Adelaide "had" an amazingly youth set up, yet they never used any of the players.

The worst decision made by West Adelaide though was giving the club to that crook son fo a bitch Makris!. Bastard finished us over, and on purpose.
This is what i think........

Makris bought the club for nothing basically, bankrupt them so their would be that 2nd license available in SA so he could put hes own NSL team in. Last yr he bought Birkalla (SA State League team). He said all this bull******** bout how he will guarentee they will be in the NSL next season etc etc. Bought ex West Adelaide and City Rejects, and then....hahahahahah BACKFIRE!

Soccer Australia gave him no NSL license last week

so now the dickhead is paying big wages for a team that is in the South Australian State league!

Ahhh well im very tired, so if that doesnt make much sens....you know!

R.I.P Adelaide Hellas Soccer Club

AND........R.I.S (REST IN ********) CON MAKRIS (Next time i see you bastard!)

 

[CDFCLad]

I agree with you about Makris. South Coast Eagles were not the side I think we needed. Adelaide United and Adelaide Fire were the two..........but I suspect the SASF has no real interest in getting a decent team in here.

Westies aren't exactly dead are they? They merged with Olympians last year and are now Adelaide Olympic FC. However mergers suck!! I'm a born and bred Fitzroy supporter, and I used to play for Central District Apac and we merged with Salisbury United (ie. taken over) a week after we won the State League Championship.

 

[QT]

Yea Adelaide Olympic,
I think their overall plan is to one day (possibly 5-10 yrs), apply to go into the national league.

Not bad side, went unbeaten last year in the state league, but have only won 1 in their first 9 in the premier league (mind you they draw practically every bloody game!)

 

[Eagle_Fan]

Sounds like that Makris guy could give the delightful Nick Mr-Chickren-Treat Tana a run for his money? The guy is single handedly trying to ruin the one Perth team that's playing any well...

 

[GoEagles]

They should bring back the Brisbane Strikers - Qld should have at least one team in the competition.

Plus they should introduce another team from WA - there is enough market wanting for a second team in the state, so they should go ahead with it (Maybe Stange will be their coach?)

 

[Eagle_Fan]

I don't agree.... Glory is successful and financially secure (an NSL rarity?), why jepardise that? I'd leave just the one WA team in the comp....

 

[QT]

Has Stange got the axe yet?

If so thats a big mistake. Hes the only decent coach in the league! hes experience is second to none, and if the glory get rid of him, their just plain stupid!

 

[Ms.Storm]

Soccer in Aust. needs a COMPLETE OVERHAUL IN AUST.

It needs a completely independent body to overhaul the whole set up and start afresh...2 teams in the larger states, Vic. and NSW etc.and 1 team for every other state..possibly a franchise for Tassie...supported by the league.
I was saddened when Carlton got the boot, because they were headed in the right direction, aimed at all cultures ..but unfortunately their mistake was calling themselves Carlton...should have been something like Melb. United..if you get my drift.
Something has to be done to restructure the game here, it has so much potential and there are more kids playying soccer than any other footy code..

 

[Eagle_Fan]

QT- nah, not yet, not officially.... Tana wants him GAWN though, supposedly because he's too popular, and has a higher profile that the chicken man

Hopefully the fans will protest like last time Bernd got the flick...

 

[CDFCLad]

I agree with you M Storm!! We should completely overhaul the league, but we all know the chances of that happening are nil.

My family comes from Newcastle (an absolute hotbed of soccer with two of the most fanatically supported teams in the UK from that area; Newcastle United and Sunderland) in England and I took my rellies to an NSL match when they came here for a holi and they just laughed at what was served up. Not even non-league standard was the comment I heard.........guess what? They were not referring to the players, whom they thought were quite good. It was the atmosphere, plain and simple.

I lived in England for a few years and attended some utterly crap matches. Most of them involving my beloved Sunderland, who used to be quite useless but aren't a half-bad team now But the atmosphere was unbelievable, and thats what gets people hooked. Playing in front of less than 2,000 bored fans does nothing for anyone. Without broad based teams Soccer is destined to be nothing more than a bit part sport in Australia.

 

[Bouvet_Island]

You tell 'em sbagman

I used to follow West Adelaide (some of my in-laws are Greek Cypriots) so I kinda know where you are coming from.

I reckon they should do what they did in the USA a few years ago.

Completely scrap ALL teams from the League, Sack ALL the current administrators, throw out the constitution and articles of Soccer Australia

... and completely rebuild the whole damn thing from scratch, from the ground up.

The ex-clubs of course would be most welcome to bid for a licence to play in the new league, but all references to the old ethnically based system should be completely avoided.

cheers

Wow! What a very prophetic post!

 

[TheStinger]

Wow! What a very prophetic post!

Wow! What a massive bump!

 

[B_GLassi]

this site was around in 2001? amazing. I would have wasted less time on msn chatrooms and more on here.

 

[Hard Ball Get]

THat is one hell of a bump.

 

[LIONOFZION]

Be careful, a bump like this from 2001 will get you weeks these days!

 

[Bouvet_Island]

Be careful, a bump like this from 2001 will get you weeks these days!

Sometimes its fun/amusing/interesting to have a browse thru the older posts in a forum.

For instance, take a look around;
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/forum...ort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=-1&page=556
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/forum...ort=lastpost&order=desc&daysprune=-1&page=555

to see what was posted here on September 11/12, 2001.