It's out with the AFL and in with the NRL at FFA Headquarters, with David Gallop announced as the
incoming CEO to take over from Ben Buckley once the new TV deal is negotiated. The transfer
merry-go-round also continues, with Richard Garcia set to line up in central defence for Melbourne
Heart this season.
Phil Rothchild has/is up there with one of the least professional sports journalists in Australia -
lots of biased assessments of football over the years so nearly fell out of my chair at this
one.
Thing is many of these so-called journo's could have talked positively about football down the
years, him, FitzSimons, Birmingham, Bolt, Wilson and the rest but for some reason they choose not
to - small minds I guess - but here is our Phil doing his bit to spruik the game when clearly there
is no need to.
FFA came under a lot of fire over the last couple of years as they put all their attention and
resources into the World Cup Bid, at the expense of a still fragile national league sitting in an
over-subscribed professional sporting arena.
Now it seems things are improving.
We had the season changes, and like the AFL and NRL, some key planning has gone into making noise
at the right times.
I am missing the A-League more this off season than any other. I watched the European Cup final
because I wanted to see something like our A-League. And there was Barcelona, with their over
privileged squad copying Brisbane. And Manchester United copying Perth Glory, with less effect.
Soccer, basketball and union have paid a high price for helping Foxtel, via access to unique
content, to become a commercially viable alternative TV source.
ABC Offsiders discussed interesting views of the $1b AFL deal.
Foxtel's objective is to invest in AFL to increase its household coverage from 34% to over 50% and
to head towards 60%. There is a view that sports fans will not baulk at the $720 to $1,200 per year
for all AFL games each week. However, the current patchwork economy is likely to have had some
impact on paytv growth.
FFA have written to Canberra A-League Bid Leader (Friday last)stating if/when Canberra can raise
the $6 million start-up fund ($3.5 mill currently) and all other requirements being fulfilled the
FFA are very interested in a team from the Capital.
Up until November 2010 the Roar's brand was still in trouble. Perhaps a result other than the
incredible and unpredictable winning streak you we have seen would have seen the A-League in full
retreat across Queensland. Gold Coast's future is unclear, but we could have seen all Queensland
teams under FFA management.
The FFA might not want a team in the A-League from Canberra but Canberra will host up to seven
games in the 2015 Asia Cup.
Fantastic.
Now show us how the FFA, Capital Football, ACT Government has any plan to use this huge and
significant tournament to build the game either through a professional football team, a youth team
and a legacy for the kids who play the game in Canberra.
While the Aussies played a 0-0 draw with UAE last night as they start their Asian Cup 2011 bid on
the weekend it was announced by AFC President and Qatari Bin Hamman that Australia has won the
rights to host the 2015 Asia Cup.
Aussie media are reporting we were the only bidder!
So Eddie everywhere except Asia thinks the Asia Cup is a lemon as he told Sir Frank Lowy in his
recent Fox Sports interview on some AFL show.
Not a bad little interview, Frank was very impressive and you have to wonder if Frank had dropped
the ball on the A-League in recent years given the good news flowing after one meeting with Nathan
Tinkler this week.
There is no way the Federal Government could have staved off Peter FitzSimons, Roy "NRL need more
TV money" Masters, Rebecca Wilson and all the Melbourne cronies who love to boot the football
code.
The Feds couldn't have ponied it more money after that World Cup debacle, the A-League crowds
plummet and code woes in general - if we hadn't been handed, ney gifted the Asia Cup 2015
Now the sweet review will ensure more money for football - this will help this country party with
our Asian friends and be beamed into all those Asia homes - er just like AFL and NRL.
Rebecca Wilson didn't mention the Asia Cup once during the tournament, now she fires up all
passionate and concerned about the dire states of our A-League Club finances.
Peter FitzSimons is all over the Australian World Cup Bid, dead interested in football he is,
nearly filled his whole page with football (finances that is) fair enough perhaps but he hardly
gave 100 words of wisdom in the two years of the bid, not even in his boring repeated Xmas columns.
The word "football" in Australia may be interpreted in recent years as an oval shaped ball played
on a oval pitch with four large poles. This game called AFL has been an infatuation of Australians
everywhere. However, football — known ...
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There will be less money for the A-League. Fox Sports has upper the ante for the AFL and will show
every game, every week (except the Final), live.
AFL has cemented its place with Gridiron, as the most profitable sport in the world. Built on a
solid monopoly that ensures clubs and players, ultimately, do as they are told.
According to a report in The Telegraph Fenway Sports Ground have made the long awaited decision
to build a new stadium on Stanley Park.
The report claims that the owners have decided to go with the original architects AFL, which
means the plans which former owner Tom Hicks had selected from Dallas architects HKS have now been
scrapped.
Liverpool has decided to proceed with their original, nine-year-old stadium plans once they have
secured the finance to start construction.
That means the alternative, futuristic stadium designs proposed by former owners Tom Hicks and
George Gillett Jnr have been ditched for good.
It also ensures there will be no fresh planning application required by the current American owners
to restart construction once a lucrative naming rights package is in place.
You know the competition is crap when you can pick most if not all of the winners every week.
The expanded AFL enables most fans to easily pick 6, 7 or sometimes 8 from 8. Don't believe me -
ask any AFL fan. Their problem. The EPL not so easy, but most fans know United, City, Chelsea,
Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs will be winners.
Liverpool will have to wait for another year before being given the green light for the
long-awaited £200m redevelopment of Anfield.
The earliest the Reds can reportedly look to complete the works at their ground will be the start
of the 2014-15 season, given that the refurbishment of the stadium will take at least two years.
Hi folks,
Welcome back to the blog, and it has been a long, long time. A lot has happened since this blog was
last active, most it being very, very bad. What the hell has gone wrong?
Too much, and hopefully with a basically new team, that will change this season.
More on that in later blogs, but for now lets get into more current news.
Cashed up and paranoid AFL have another wee problem to solve.
Delighted when they assisted to sabotage the World Cup bid, ecstatic when the recent growth of
professional football was halted; if A-League crowds and failing teams/owners is anything to go by;
the all powerful AFL must have thought they'd thwarted football expansion.
To find out which athletic organizations shell out the most dough, we surveyed 272 teams in 14
major pro leagues, covering seven sports, spanning 10 countries, comprising 7,802 athletes making a
combined $15.2 billion in salary. Our final numbers, below, were compiled by Nick Harris, editor of
sportingintelligence.
Newcastle Jets millionaire owner Nathan Tinkler is ready to offer Manchester
United striker Michael Owen a thoroughbred Horse and cash to join his AFL
side.
Owen who's contract run's out in the Summer could join the likes of Robbie Fowler and Dwight
Yorke in the Aussie League.
The other week I listed ten reasons why it is brilliant to be a Brisbane Roar fan right now. Here's
another one: the media about our team is endless, and pretty much all flattering. Here's just a few
of the headlines from the last few days:
Possession statistics compare A-League's Brisbane Roar to La Liga and European champions
Barcelona
Brisbane, That Was Football Porn
Who Can Stop Brisbane Roar
The Roar Effect
Brisbane Roar are a Gift for the A-League
That really is only a few, and they're not by Roar partisans.
Now that the AFL and NRL Grand Finals are out of the way, it's time for the real football to begin.
After probably the biggest off-season in the A-League's short history, the first round of matches
kickoff this weekend and aren't we all bloody excited? A quick glance on Twitter reveals the
huge levels of
Al Davis has died. The Oakland Raiders owner, who was one of the most influential people in the
history of football, was 82 years old. So far the Raiders haven't announced the cause of death,
however the team says they will give an update later in the day.
(Check out the Al Davis pictures below)
Davis has always been controversial mostly due to the fact that he was unafraid.
The winter season can be quiet on the media front. Not this year.
The news from the World Cup has been bad, particularly on corruption at FIFA. However, Ben Buckley
and the clubs have followed this up with a truck load of good, OK and other news. So soccer is
staying there on the sporting pages, reminding families that it is an entertainment option for next
season.
MELBOURNE, Australia The Melbourne Victory soccer club has angrily denied claims its fans are
violent, amid criticisms from police and the state government. A senior Victorian policeman on
Friday said members of the force were reluctant to volunteer to work at Melbourne Victory soccer
matches because of violence among the team's supporters.
The AFL in this town is an embarrassment. Brendan Fevola physically attacked a women journalist
before he arrived in Brisbane and still his photo made the front page. He may have had more column
inches than any other person in 2010.
The guy needs medical help. But attacking women is unacceptable.
