Noted Gold Coast diver Robson has been booked for drink driving. Given Clive Palmer's comments after the Farina case and the rumoured role in Frank's dismissal, it will be interesting to see what the punishment will be. Click to continue reading...

Morning all, welcome to the blog.
By the time you read this, Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell will hold a testing session for his players and a "midseason" review with the good fellows of Perth's sports media.
What that means, FP doesn't know, but presumably it won't be any different than the usual Glory presser. Click to continue reading...

Alex Brosque's return to form this season has been a delight to watch, but this sudden move up the ranks comes as a surprise nonetheless. The timing is unfortunate, since Brosque was surprisingly ineffective against Gold Coast United this weekend, especially after the game-changing departure of Steve Corica. Click to continue reading...

Hmmm. At the start of the season this was supposed to be the blockbuster that Gold Coast would steal from the Roar. But with only 5,400 watching and quite a few of those in Sydney colours you would have to say Gold Coast have a long, long way to go build a fan base.
Shame really as this game was won by Jason Culina who was at his best. Click to continue reading...

Morning all, and greetings from one of the South West's nicest towns ... Dunsborough.
This and Busselton, used to be FP's old stomping ground when he used to be a foot-in-the-door journo for one of the local papers.
Not much has changed to be honest, which is something that doesn't surprise FP one bit. Click to continue reading...

Last week, we reported on exhibit A in how to alienate fans in Australia by A-League expansion team Gold Coast United's billionaire owner Clive Palmer. The club closed three sides of their stadium, Skilled Park, and capped capacity to just 5,000, forcing supporters out of their usual position in the stadium.

Click to continue reading...

Has there been a better team goal in this season's A-League than Wellington's second against Newcastle last night (about two and a half minutes into this)? If Paul Ifill's surging run down the left was typically impressive, Costa Barbarouses' nonchalant flick was sublime. And Chris Greenacre's finish was no less classy. Click to continue reading...

Brown's in the box dive for a penalty should lead to a suspension - despite the spot kick being missed. Referee Ben Williams should be ashamed of himself the number of times he has waved on legitimate penalties from the Roar, and give this one.
What has become obvious is the home ground advantage for Wellington. Click to continue reading...

Well we're back. National show is here.
Just like the Gold Coast fans. We'll tell ya Tando's real name, who the most exciting player of the weekend was, why the Phoenix will get six points in four days and why we're all pumped, pumped I tell ya for NZ to get to the World Cup and of course. Click to continue reading...

The FFA have taken over marketing and ticketing at Gold Coast. I think the owner will be pleased. Meanwhile over at the Roar FFA assistance seems to have been knocked back again. The messages from the top there are very confusing. Brisbane is the City with the opportunity. Meanwhile the coach is now saying that the team will grind out results until the need of the calendar year. Click to continue reading...

It is now up to the Gold Coast Fans to get off your bums, buy a ticket and come and support a really good football team. Our team has a real chance of actually winning this competition. I am not saying we will, but we have a great chance. Click to continue reading...

Well, no-one saw this coming: Ebbsfleet United, the "world's first web community owned club", has lost most of its community in its second year of operation and the club is spiralling towards disaster on and off the field.

It's hard to say just how unsurprising this is.

Click to continue reading...

Big Story
The future of Rafa Benitez dominates the British press this morning, as Liverpool slumped to their sixth defeat in seven games and fingers are being jabbed once again: former Liverpool star Ronnie Whelan suggests Rafa does not care about the Premier League; Sam Wallace concludes that Rafa is too clever for his own good; John Ley looks at the facts unnecessarily needed to prove Liverpool have had a poor start; and David Hytner looks at the club's growing injury crisis, the one mitigating factor that seems to be saving Rafa.

Click to continue reading...

In the (self-dubbed) newbie derby, Gold Coast have been defeated by a rampant North Queensland Fury side. Robbie Fowler lead the team from start to finish, getting on the scoresheet twice. The defeat has added to the horrible week that the Gold Coast have suffered, including a 6-0 whitewash by Wellington, and a huge condemnation by the public over club owner Clive Palmer's (right) decision to cap crowds at 5,000 to save money.

Click to continue reading...

Underlines Gold Coast performances. But it is Wellington away. Click to continue reading...

The good news was Robbie Fowler combining with Dave Williams, and a pen, to get to 8 goals this year.
The transport charges issue for the Gold Coast is a furphy. This type of direct cost - ie it is charged per ticket - is simply included in the ticket pricing model. At the start of the season Gold Coast's accountants - who worked out how to get the best squad in the A-League under the cap - would have assumed that crowds were going to be above 5,000 for every match and popped the $3. Click to continue reading...

Clive Palmer, owner of Gold Coast United

Gold Coast United, an expansion team in Australia's premier A-League, have already generated negative headlines it takes some teams decades to generate: "A-League may hit rock bottom thanks to the Coast," says Adrian Musolino in today's Roar, which also features another piece titled "Gold Coast "United" – How to lose fans and alienate people".

Click to continue reading...

HOWDY guys.
FP used to hate Saturday's when he was working at one of the major supermarkets (doesn't matter which one, they as bad as each other).
But now Saturday's are a day for a bit of R and R.
This has nothing to do with Glory, but sharing is caring, right?
Anywho, Glory take on Melbourne Victory tomorrow, and with game-day so close there's quite a bit going on. Click to continue reading...

I was genuinely excited when the FFA announced that one of the new clubs to join the A-league this year was to be Gold Coast United. Here was a team to be based in the fastest growing area of Australia, was backed by one of Australia's richest men and would have one of the more interesting (if slightly insane) characters of the game here in Australia guiding them in Miron Beilberg. Click to continue reading...

Given all the glowing publicity surrounding the new Gold Coast United franchise early in the season, including a cloying puff piece on Channel 9's 60 Minutes, this makes particularly depressing reading.
Yes, stadium deals are tricky things. Sydney FC, for one, suffered from an onerous deal with the SFS (Aussie Stadium, as it then was) in the first A-League season, one which was largely responsible for the loss the club made in 2005/06. Click to continue reading...

Clive Palmer, The owner of new Australian A-League club Gold Coast United, is sick and tired of people not coming (they have the smallest average attendance in the league at 4,500) to see his team play in the 27,400 seat Robina Stadium that he's overpaying to rent for home matches, so he's opted to go with perhaps the dumbest PR move a club owner has ever attempted by closing all but one side of the stadium and only allowing a maximum of 5,000 people in for each game.

Click to continue reading...

Oh and Gold Coast played so well too.
Foxtel has been having outages (Sydney and Brisbane and other parts of Australia) all week so I saw little of this game and less of the Sydney v Brisbane game. However, something happened.
It was amazing to see former Roar 2nd keeper Scott Higgins letting them go through his legs and all sorts. Click to continue reading...

Perth have a good team that don't play that well. Fury went 1 down again. But a great quickly taken free kick from Fowler just outside the box and a spectacular turn and shoot from Daal won the game. They deserved too. Not because they play great football but because Perth's game was really lacking.
It was the Fury's first win at home. Click to continue reading...

SO Perth Glory are about a day away from taking on Fowler's Fury. With the jam-packed nature of the league, it's a game they really need to win - just to keep them up there.
FP knows it's very premature, but just to prove a point this is what the first week of the finals would look like if the regular season had already ended. Click to continue reading...

John: Watching the roar wasn't much fun Saturday
Informed Source: I'll bet. They seem to be in a big low.
John: Bob Malcolm caused 2 goals and looked like he wasn't even playing, so did Moore in the 1st 20 mins.
Informed Source: Malcolm may well know that he's unlikely to be part of the main mix from here on in. Click to continue reading...

SO Perth Glory take on North Queensland Fury this weekend - is it FP or didn't we just play them a few weeks ago?
Seriously the fixtures are extremely screwed up and FP doesn't buy the crap about "venue availability" which is seriously just . . . crap.
Anyway onto the latest Glory news and views. Click to continue reading...

1. can Brisbane be competitive this year (competitive = top 4)?
2. if they aren't, how big will the crowd be by year's end?
(note that Brisbane had the 2nd biggest crowd last week and Gold Coast with Culina and Smeltz only had 4,500).
3. Where will they play next year? Click to continue reading...

MORNING all. With Perth going down to Gold Coast United 2-1 yesterday, the Glory slip to fourth on the A-League ladder on 17 points.
The boys in purple put on a better performance in the game, especially in the second-half but, one defensive error, or communication blunder, cost Glory some points. Click to continue reading...

The Board and the FFA made the decisions that impacted the Roar's crowds. The ill disciple against Melbourne had nothing to do with it! How could it? The poor crowds had already happened.
Why did the crowds fall:
1. Gold Coast - split the Roar crowd and have no fans of their own (FFA have admitted this with typical club fisted approach ). Click to continue reading...

Its been just over a month since I last put fingers to keyboard and tapped out a paragraph or two for this blog and a lot has happened in that time. Crowds continue to be a major talking point and I was very pleased to see Gold Coast and Brisbane take steps to reduce their ticket prices and make them more affordable for the general fan. Click to continue reading...

I watched the replay. The ref waved play on 5 times when Brisbane players were brought down in the box. At least 2 were no argument penalties. Even the Fox commentators who were going on and on about how bad Brisbane were admitted this.
There were Gold Coast and Brisbane fans on my bus on the way home and the only conversation was how bad the ref was. Click to continue reading...

IT's a pretty quiet Thursday in terms of Perth Glory news.
The club decided, wisely, not to challenge Andy Todd's suspension, but since then it's been a bit of a lull.
However, there's a bit going on here and there, so let's get into it:
- SO most people who follow football regularly will already know this - Gold Coast United Miron Bleiberg is a media man. Click to continue reading...

Nationally download Who are the last seven teams to qualify for the last SIX world Cups (not England) and we tell you why Paddy Bordier thinks Nicky over Holman and Eamonn says no way.
Russ Gibbs W-League wrap, did they count the Gold Coast Ambo's who attended to Clive Palmer in the crowd numbers at the Roar game on the weekend. Click to continue reading...

An interesting article in the Courier Mail on Monday. The story was that some Roar directors regretted not accepting FFA help at the beginning of the season. The reason given for the regret was that the FFA would have been able to control Frank Farina via a director of football - and stopped poor player behaviour. Click to continue reading...

The new Ivory Coast ( Côte d'Ivoire) home and away football shirts for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 season have been released by kit maker Puma. They will be worn by Ivory Coast during the 2010 African Cup of Nations tournament. The home shirt is primarily orange in colour. The ends of the sleeves are green in [. Click to continue reading...