While we all engaged in our usual Friday afternoon planning for the weekend's football and how to get out of work early, an elderly gentleman escaped from whatever retirement village he is currently domiciled in and broke into FFA headquarters. While there he managed an impersonation of an interview from the TV series Grumpy Old Men. Oh how we laughed as he called out Graham Arnold and Scott Barlow and re-iterated the falsehoods the FFA keep maintaining about the Wellington Phoenix.
It reminded me of this:
Even by the increasingly erratic standards of behaviour from Frank Lowy. This was a cracker, the collective gasps could be heard all across Surrey Hills as Australia's finest spin merchants caught an earful.
Lowy strongly criticised the actions of Sydney FC (a club he owns 10% of) - and coach Graham Arnold who Lowy stated was involved in "a debate he knows nothing about."
Of Sydney FC Chairman Scott Barlow he stated "This is why there is no point in conducting an uninformed public debate, which simply creates confusion and unnecessary anxiety. I explained this to Scott directly which is why I am disappointed he has chosen to make an emotive public issue about it at this stage."
"As is stands, (the) Phoenix has four years to demonstrate that they are an asset to the competition and not a liability instead of simply asking for a 10-year extension to their licence. Ultimately, if (the) Phoenix is not part of the A-League then FFA is obliged to explore options to maintain a 10-club competition," blathered Frank.
What it has made clear though is that some of the irrational decisions attributed to David Gallop would appear to have come from the meandering mind of the FFA's head dictator. What is also pretty obvious is that Lowy still hasn't woken up to the fact that it's no longer 2003, and Oz football fans are no longer even residually concerned about clubs having undue influence on the decision-making process. They're a bit more concerned about the FFA treating the clubs like serfs.
Which brings up an interesting point. Am I right that my fees pay for Frank? Do my finals 'presented by the Football Federation of Frank' series tickets? I'm sure the breakdown of my registration as a player includes a national levy. So I pay for him to jet off to FIFA, I pay for him to hand Jack Warner $500k of my money, I pay for him to threaten the clubs and owners I support and to make idiotic decisions that threaten the existence of this league?
...and while I'm on the subject of our elected representatives, how does he get to annoint his son as the new leader? João Havelange to Sepp Blatter anyone? Although at least the FIFA democratic process (albeit corrupted) at it's base let's the stakeholders choose who they want.
As a footnote. Interesting to see the number of viewers for free to air A-League coverage collapsing week to week as well as the Pay TV figures. At this rate the $800k a year paid by Sky TV in New Zealand will be worth more to the FFA than the Australian coverage is when Fox calculate what that next new deal is worth.
First four rounds on SBS2: 78k, 68k, 58k, now 39kI can't help thinking the FFA have got some priorites wrong... or is it just that they think that the focus on Wellington and South Sydney will distract people for the touch of Warner's grubby little hands and the collapsing demand for A-League content?
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