"Well done. You have
made your point now get back in the stands."
This seems to be the message du jour from some corners of the
media (well those that aren’t still claiming football matches are like a market
in downtown Aleppo) as Kyle Patterson and the FFA start calling in the favours
as per the usual modus operandi for an FFA conflict.
First it was the PFA, then Wellington and now the fans who
are left debating with the media who are acting as thinly veiled mouth pieces
for the FFA. The amusing bit is that I
suspect the FFA think people haven’t worked out it’s the way they operate but
of course the fans are well aware of this behaviour.
It’s not like disingenuous behaviour from the FFA and their
acolytes is a surprise, remember this is an organisation that couldn’t manage a
50% pass in an audit of openness and honesty of world football associations
from transparency.org even though the organisation set the bar so low that Enron
would probably have passed.
The key point that those writing the articles and the FFA
seem to miss is that nothing has changed.
Why would the fans return when there is absolutely no indication that
the FFA have any commitment to addressing the issues? The FFA have a long history of prevarication,
they seem to believe that if you ignore something long enough it will go
away. The supporters of the A-League
clubs have been around long enough to know who they are dealing with.
I also notice a subtle re-message to suggest that the fans
are demanding pardons for the 198 fans currently banned. Craig Foster leading the charge (I still have
no idea how he is still employed years after the infamous Ange Postecoglou
interview) in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Again, the fans have made it clear that this is not the point they are
trying to make but the FFA lapdogs subtly work to move the public perception.
The basic facts are that there has been no significant
change from the FFA on any of the issues the supporters have a challenge with
and in fact the behaviour in the last 10 days has actually made it worse. If you want the fans back, if you want the noise
back, if you want the passion back put pressure on the FFA, not the fans. Expose the disastrous mismanagement of the
A-League and the game in this country and force them to become the guardians of
the game they are supposed to be.
The fans need to stay out until they have a binding
agreement from the Snake Oil merchants that run our national body.
Shorts:
- There is a growing clamour among the A-League clubs for an independent management group to run the A-League (as was recommended in the Crawford report) with a new CEO reporting to that group rather than the current systems. I suspect i see the next campaign for what will hopefully become an aligned voice from supporter groups.
- Seeing as the source was so dubious I’m going to ignore the allegation
that the details of those banned were leaked by the FFAs own media team but boy
oh boy you’ll be wanting to fetch some popcorn if the lawyers get involved or
even bigger if it is in fact true.
- I notice the Herald Sun have been reading my blog so I'm just going to leave this here but will point out they
have missed a few.
FFA Full of Shirt
Finally today the latest on field mess from the FFA, the
shirt clash on Saturday across the Tasman.
My sources tell me it ran something like
this:
After the referee realised there was going to be an issue Melbourne
were instructed to wear their Blue home colours but had an issue because they
have different away sponsors and would have lost revenue from the shirt
sponsor. The A-League Rules are they are meant to have home and away strips
with both sponsors but they did not have the away sponsor on a blue kit in Auckland.
The referee correctly said ‘tough, deal with it’.
Instead of copping their error on the chin though the
commercial team of Melbourne Victory quickly got on the phone to Damien de
Bohun to complain that their precious sponsors were being wronged in the name
of making the game watchable from the stands, on TV and able to be officiated by
the refereeing team. Of course the FFA
being the guardians of the game put a shirt sponsorship arrangement ahead of
the needs of the audience and the officials and over-ruled the referee.
Now, I notice the FFA have admitted culpability for the
situation but I also notice they have been somewhat frugal with the full story.
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