Relegation, The Fastrack To Disaster

I go overseas for three days and a severe case of insanity breaks out.

With the release of the details for the revamp of the AFC Champions League and the assessment of the A-league’s position within the pecking order of Asian domestic competitions it was enviable that the FFA would comment on the promotion/relegation issue.

For all of the ‘B’ ratings we received all but one can be resolved with a introduction of a separate body to manage and control the A-league. I am sure the FFA will look to introduce something around this space within the next two to three years. The one issue that sticks out however is the requirement to have a promotion/relegation system for the domestic competition.

Frank Lowry has come out and stated that Australia must have a P/R system sooner than later. Really? Why have we not heard this before if it is so crucial? I find is fanciful to even consider a P/R system when we have only one team in the current eight team comp is making a profit. It is bordering on financial negligence to even think we could introduce a second tier at this stage.

Bearing this in mind, is Frank really just giving lip service to this idea for the benefit of the AFC ? It would seem so as I cannot imagine any sane person would think this would be possible within the next 20 years of the game here in Australia.

If though the FFA are serious about this it raises some serious concerns. Where would the money come from to run a second tier (it is not as if TV rights would be offered to broadcast the games) and I am sure the franchises that have paid 4-6 million to join the A-League couldn’t be too happy to hear that they may lose their spot through one bad year. A-league clubs are opnly in their infancy and to hit them that hard this early in the game would result in sponsors and fans could deserting the club in droves.

For the long term benefit of the game in this country I dearly hope that Frank is just giving the AFC Delegates what they want to hear and the FFA truly has no intention of implementing such a ridiculous scheme.

No Champions League For Australia ?

There is nothing more predictable that our media focussing on the negative.

Yesterday the Asian Football Confederation released their restructure of the AFC Champions League. The restructure itself is overdue, the format of the current competition is poor. Allowing only the top team of each group passage to the knockout rounds results in the situation we saw last night where the group winner has been decided before the final round and no one has anything to play for except pride.

The media of course has seized upon the fact that Australia has been awarded only two spots while Japan, China and Korea Republic have received four each. Combining this with the AFC ranking us as the seventh best domestic competition within the confederation and you have a very negative picture.

However when you dive into the detail there are valid reasons for our rating and allocations of two spots. More of a concern though is the point that the AFC have an expectation that all the areas that we have been given a less than A rating on will be resolved by 31/10/2008.

Currently the A-league has been rated a B on the following :

1. The league has a system for promotion/ relegation.
2. The league governing body is a legal entity governed by its football association.
3. The league governing body has a management structure which controls competition, marketing, media and finance.
4. Club representatives, representatives of the football association and representatives from the league’s top management are the members of the highest decision making body (executive committee) of the league.
5. The position of the CEO must be full-time.
6. The league has an audited Profit and Loss Statement and Balance Sheet.
7. The league has an auditor


Now the first point is not going to happen for at least 10-15 years (if ever) let alone by October of this year. The rest of the points are more to do with the desire to have the league stand outside the national association and I doubt that the FFA will be in a position to implement such a reform by October.

So what is going to happen? If you read text of the FFA announcement we will be thrown out on our ear. Now I seriously doubt that is going to happen, more likely is that Australia along with about 5 other nations will be granted exemption from this criteria.

In terms of the two teams for us vs four teams Japan, China and Korea this has more to do with the size of our league than our ranking. Quite rightly the AFC has capped the number of teams to 1/3 of your league size, thus Australia comes in at 2.67 and they have rounded down. I suspect we will see us on par with the others as soon as we can get our league up to 12 Teams. This will of course cause an additional issue of how to fit them in to the 16 teams, though I suspect that the AFC will introduce a qualifying round once the number of nations is sufficient to justify it. (ie Japan, Australia, China and Korea get three team each with the final four spots decided by a qualifying round)

To be ranked seventh in Asia after only three years is a big tick for the FFA, we should see a steady climb in those rankings as the technical quality of our league improves and more money flows into the sport.

This of course does mean that each Australia team next year will only have to finish second to progress to the knockout round. On the other hand the groups also just got harder with each group having a Japanese, Korean and Chinese team in them.

Newcastle and Central Coast have a big challenge ahead of them but it is certainly a more obtainable target than the previous years.

PS
Good luck to Adelaide tonight as they attempt to be the first Australian team to make it through to the knockout rounds.

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Rudd Sweet On Football

It is strange to read a newspaper and see a government official openly supporting football in this country. I am much more used to reading about how ethnic violence runs rampant in our sport. It seems though that football is suddenly becoming acceptable in the mainstream as Kevin Rudd appears to have adopted football as his sport of choice.

Of course throwing your support behind a popular sport is nothing new for our Prime Ministers. John Howard was a Rugby and Cricket tragic and both of these sports were in their hey day during his time in office. They benefited greatly from government support (especially rugby) during this period. The sight of our former Prime Minister power walking in his Australian tracksuit will be forever etched in my memories.

Then there was Bob Hawke, a true sport tragic. Perhaps his most famous moment was the euphoric "anyone who sacks a bloke because he doesn't turn up for work today is a bum" line after the 1983 America's Cup win. I was sitting there watching it all live on TV and although only in school at that time took the day off the next day as per my PMs instructions.

Kevin Rudd can obviously see a good thing when it pops up and spits in his eye and so has jumped aboard the good ship World Cup 2018 with enthusiasm. The government also recently handed the FFA 32 Million over four years to further develop the game within this country with special emphasis being placed on the participation in grassroots football and introduction of a national women’s competition.

All this government attention makes me dizzy with anticipation. The more we see the mainstream media promoting football the more likely that the media is to publish the next article and the next. Exposure in the media can sometimes be a self fulfilling prophecy, too long football has been relegated to a single paragraph hidden in the middle pages.

With the FFA also bidding for the World Club Cup these are exciting times.

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Uzbekistan : The Dark Horses

Another great article from SBS’s Scott McIntrye. I am really enjoying his Asian articles, he has really opened my eyes to aspects of our new federation I have never considered.

Uzbekistan is a case in point, I can’t say I really knew anything about this team before the Asian Cup last year and they surprised me by the quality of football they played. Scott’s article was a great read and provided some fantastic information I never knew. SBS take note, you have a great resource here, you should be making more use of him before Foxtel spirit him away.

Uzbekistan could be the dark horses in the run to the 2010 World Cup. After being knocked out at the same stage of the Asian Cup as Australia (losing 2 – 1 to Saudi Arabia) they have been very competitive in friendly matches against Korea, Thailand and even knocked Iraq over.

Since the World Cup Qualifiers kicked off they have enjoyed a dream run. Destroying Chinese Taipei to qualify for the next round they then followed up with an impressive away win against Lebanon. Then recently destroyed Saudi Arabia at home to make it two out of two.

13/10/2007 Uzbekistan 9 – 0 Chinese Taipei
28/10/2008 Chinese Taipei 0 - 2 Uzbekistan

06/02/2008 Lebanon 0 – 1 Uzbekistan
26/03/2008 Uzbekistan 3 – 0 Saudi Arabia

Uzbekistan is quickly shaping up to be the banana skin for many of the top ranked teams. With Iran, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia the favourites to the make the World Cup Finals, they appear to be the team most likely in the second ranked tier to cause an upset.

I believe Australia has never faced Uzbekistan let alone traveled to Tashkent and there will be I am sure a sign of relief at FFA headquarters if we can avoid this up and coming nation in our final group (assuming we make it of course).

The Beks could fast become my second favourite team !!

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Vargas Gets Reward

It has been a long time coming for Rodrigo “Roddy” Vargas but he now finds himself on the cusp of a national cap. 29 years old Vargas has been selected in Pim’s twenty-three man squad to take on Ghana on Friday 23rd of May in Sydney and it looks like he may get a start.

Vargas has been a standout performer for Victory in its recent AFC Champions League campaign. One of the few Victory players who could be justified in holding their heads high and it is a well deserved call up.

Vargas had a long and successful career in the Victorian Premier League and National Soccer League before joining Melbourne Victory. He began his senior career back in 1996 for Springvale City at the age of 17 and then moved onto the Port Melbourne Sharks the following year. After spending three seasons at the sharks he was recruited to the National Soccer League by the Melbourne Knights back in 1999 and spent the next five years there. Although the Knights were not overly successful in this period (the best finish for them was a fourth in 2001) Roddy was awarded the captaincy and was a fixture in the centre of the Knights defence for the entire five seasons.

When the old NSL came to an end in 2004 he moved to the Victorian Premier League with Green Gully and was part of the Championship winning team of 2005. In 2006 Ernie Merrick recruited him to the Melbourne Victory in a bid to strengthen the defence. The move proved extremely successful and Vargas developed a strong partnership with youngster and former Knights team mate Adrian Leijer that was a major contributing factor is the Victory’s double win of the Premiership and Championship in the 2006/7 season.

Although Melbourne’s defence of their title last season was less than impressive Vargas continued to shine with the end result a call up to the 36 man squad that new national coach, Pim Verbeek, named for the World Cup Qualifier against Qatar. Although we eventually missed out on a start for that game it appears that he has remained in Pim’s thoughts and may get his chance to represent his country against Ghana.

With Vargas, Michael Beauchamp, Adam Griffiths and Matthew Spiranovic (also looking for his first cap) all vying for the two (and maybe three) centre back positions a starting position is not assured but Roddy must like his chances.

Pim’s full 23 man squad can be here

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It Must Be The Ethnics Fault

I find it strange that professional sports journalists in my state feel the need to continually put down football and find fault at every opportunity. These are people who are paid to write for a living, yet they seem determined to alienate a significant portion of their readership with obviously personal bias towards one sport. Now you can understand this of ex-players who have fallen into a journalistic career after their time on the field of their chosen sport has come to an end but do we really have to put up with it from supposedly career journalists.

The most recent example, would be this opinion piece written by Greg Baum from the Age Newspaper. The article itself is presenting an important theme. Too often in sport these days the win at all costs attitude has soured the experience not just for the players involved but the spectators as well. The issue I have with the article is that Mr Baum felt it necessary to drag football as a sport into his argument as an example of poor sportsmanship.

”..Last Sunday, at Albert Park, I saw a spirited tussle in soccer's Provisional League. Near the end, a visiting player suddenly went to ground, writhing and clutching his stomach. He had been punched. Suddenly, a brawl erupted, involving players and spectators. One visiting player ripped up a corner flag, brandishing its spiked end as a weapon. Others made to attack with chairs. One produced a knife.

The referee abandoned the match, police arrived and outward calm was restored. No one was hurt, but, ever so slightly, sport was. Here was the opposite face to Ellensburg.

Yes, there was an ethnic element. I won't identify it here, for fear of escalating whatever prompted the violence. Suffice to say that it was not one of the groups that typically and historically feature in these type of incidents. But it is and remains soccer's cross to bear. When first called, police asked about ethnicity..”

Now that this incident occurred is unfortunate and I hope the FFV throw the book at the two teams involved. Nor do I find exception to Mr Baum using this incident to demonstrate poor sportsmanship as clearly the players on both teams should be ashamed that they allowed a sporting contest degenerate into nothing more than a street brawl.

However it is totally inappropriate for Mr Baum to take this incident and surmise that it is indicative of the sport as whole. I dug around a little on the Australian football forums and it appears that the match was actually amateur match, the two teams are based around ethnic backgrounds but the violence had nothing to do with the ethnic nature of the teams. It is laughable that Mr Baum feels the need use ethnic backgrounds to provide a reason for violence.

Further in his article Mr Baum provides an example of an AFL Match where thuggery also raised its ugly head. ”..But violence is not soccer's cross alone. Too often, AFL descends to this level, too. A workmate is nursing an arm badly broken in a practice match weeks ago, by a criminal act, also at Albert Park. To say so is not to contradict what I have previously argued in this column, that the proper court for Barry Hall's thuggery was the tribunal. This was at another level again..” Is this not indicative of the sport as well ? Why not call into question the ethnic nature of the contest here as well. Maybe the villain was of Irish descent and the victim of English, a clear case of ethnic conflict !

It is time the media gets past the idea that ethnic conflict is an issue within football. Of course it is in some instances but these are in the minority and getting smaller every year. Focusing on the few occasions where it does result in violence is not good journalism. I enjoyed reading Mr Baum’s article it was just a pity he soured it by a personal attack on a sport.

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Putting The Ducks In A Row

Ben Buckley continues to impress. Unlike his predecessor, John O’Neill, Ben seems to prefer to work outside the limelight though this has not made him any less effective. Over the past two weeks we have seen just how valuable his guidance has become as the FFA have released details of the coming season and the new collective bargaining agreement with the players.

First there was the announcement of Hyundai extending their sponsorship of the A-League for another four years. And now we have the announcement of the players and clubs signing the collective agreement which runs for 5 years.

What impresses me about this, is that the FFA is thinking strategically about the future of our game and is lining up their ducks to ensure that the next round of TV Rights falls perfectly to dovetail into both Sponsorship Rights and Player Payments/Salary Cap.

A story ran around the traps about a month ago where well know media buyer and analyst Harold Mitchell was quoted as saying that the next football rights deal could surpass the $500 million mark. At the time I admit I thought this highly unlikely but the FFA are certainly making the right decisions to ensure they receive the best possible price. I have got to admit I am starting to believe it is not only possible but it might even be probable.

These are exciting times for football lovers in this country. The national youth competition starts in the coming season, there are rumours that Foxtel has a dedicated football channel in the pipeline and we can look forward to a further four teams being introduce to the A-League over the next 1-2 years.

We don’t aknowledge enough the great work the FFA has been doing over the last 4 yours. So here it is….Well done Ben and Frank !!! Keep up the great work.


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Season Four

Release of the draw this week, and other announcements concerning season four. The most significant of which was the resigning of Hyundai for another four year years as the naming rights sponsor for the A-League (apparently on much improved terms). This will take the partnership between the FFA and Hyundai to the end of the 2011-2012 season and it is no coincidence that this will coincide with the new TV rights deal at around that time as well. It seems the FFA are lining up their ducks for a tilt at some big money come the end of 2012.

Speaking from a Melbourne fans point of view the draw itself was a little disappointing. If you include the preseason, Victory fans will need to wait 6 weeks for their first home game (Melbourne have no preseason games in Victoria). There is also the poor scheduling in the middle of the draw where Melbourne travels to Wellington one week and then plays across to Perth the next. This really should never happen in a well constructed draw.

Not sure why all the fuss about the Saturday Night final. Sure, it is a good idea (I am sure the winner’s fans will appreciate the ability to party with the team on the Sunday but groundbreaking it isn’t). It was good to see that the official FIFA dates are now break weeks, as this was an issue last season.

Most of the other announcements had already been released previously (Marquee Under 23 Player, Salary Cap Increase to 1.9 Million, Squad size increase to 30 - 35 Players) but it was good to see the loophole around Injury Players closed. No longer will teams be allowed to sign injury players to salaries that fall outside the cap, teams will only be able to sign players for cover on salaries the same of lower than the player being replaced. This was the loophole that Central Coast made use of last year to sign John Aloisi. With the closure of this loophole and the introduction of the youth league it will be interesting to see how clubs deal with injuries this season.

Was very surprised that more was not made of the introduction of the youth league in the announcement, with the delay to the expansion of the comp to next year (hopefully) easily the most exciting development this year will be the introduction of youth/reserve teams and it is a pity that the league didn’t use the official release of the draw to also provide more details of the NYL Comp. Of course this may be due to the fact that most teams might not have worked out the details of grounds, time etc yet and hopefully we will see more details in a month or so.

All in all though this is the start of the three month build up to the new season and I for one am eagerly awaiting Season Four. Bring it on !

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