The Indonesian based Bakrie group have taken ownership, 100%, of Brisbane Roar.
With Clive Palmer, Tony Sage, Nathan Tinkler and all the Billionaires in and around Sydney FC ownership it can't be too hard for the hard-nosed progressive Aussie businessmen to see how they might get an opportunity to meet and greet and get introduced to some very rich men.

Safee Sali has extended his deal with Pelita Jaya, reportedly making him the highest paid player in ASEAN in the process. There had been a feeling that Safee, under pressure from the Malaysian FA to play for a club in a recognised league, would return to Malaysia or even sign for a Thai team but I understand Muang Thong United baulked at his wage demands.

szólj hozzá: E1-0M

With about half an hour left to go in last night's game against Stoke, a roar came from the Stretford End, followed by a loud chorus of "the city is yours, the city is yours, 20,000 empty seats, are you fucking sure?"

It was clear that Everton had taken the lead.

Roaring Royal A few months late, this video has risen to prominence after being spotted by the Birmingham Mail. It shows Aston Villa fan Prince William appearing to let out a hysterical laugh when asked about Alex McLeish on the day the former Birmingham boss took charge at Villa Park last August. The Duke of [.

Sentenced to three days in a freezing pond, Besart Berisha (right, front) attempts to explain to his team mates exactly what he was hoping to achieve by 'offering out' Sydney defender Pascal Bosschaart. Image via couriermail.au

There were some ugly scenes that followed Brisbane Roar's 2-0 victory over Sydney FC in the Australian A-League recently, after Brisbane striker Besart Berisha scored his side's stoppage time-winning goal: he removed his shirt (not ugly) and gestured for Sydney FC's Pascal Bosschaart to follow him into the tunnel to 'sort things out' (where things proceeded to get ugly).

Central Coast Mariners showed the true qualities needed from a team capable of winning the league – the ability to win ugly. An Oliver Bozanic goal in the opening 10 minutes was enough to earn the league leader a narrow 1-0 victory against a lacklustre Sydney FC – who slumped to their third straight defeat in the process.

This will be a grown up post.

BR has had many years of intensive therapy following which has been able to overcome most of his childhood resentments. If he can come to terms with personal issues then surely it is possible to find it in his heart to cease a lifelong hatred of a Leeds team which went out of existence 40 years ago?

The Coach of Sydney FC is a very nice man...or so we're told over and over but after close to three years in charge the team from the biggest city in Australia flatters to deceive.....no-one.
Season 1: Won the Championship. Fantastic, but they were the most boring team ever to win the A-League under Vitaslav.

I'm not going to lie. I booed when Mehmet Durakovic's face came on the big screens at my first game of the season vs Brisbane at Etihad (as I did for all other home matches). I arrived in Melbourne with my unused membership in hand a week before the Roar game, having to sit through

I caught up with a buddy yesterday. Good dude. Hadn't seen him in a while. So we hit a local pub and swapped talk over a couple of pints, abetted by "Jules," a wickedly effective siren at the art of suggestive selling.

We started a little early. And when you do that, there might just be trouble ahead.

Stories of loud and obnoxious soccer parents are not hard to come by. We've all encountered them, though in my experience they're not as widespread as the media would lead you to believe. When you do encounter them, it's usually a couple of parents being loud and/or obnoxious while the other parents behave (and often try to get as far away from the loud ones as possible).

Rocky Visconte was the man of this match. Not because he was the best player, but because he played so much better than he has before. Ange starting him over Issy added new Broich like movement to the Roar on attack. For the first time in 5 games, Brisbane had a midfield that was always searching forward, looking to beat the first defender and so drawing the second across and creating space elsewhere.

Thomas Broich's importance to Brisbane Roar was always fairly clear but the club's recent losing streak has more than highlighted just how urgently they need the German back fit. Broich's absence from the team has coincided with a run of defeats – as predicted by numerous soccer betting tips that has the potential to undo all the hard work the club did on their way to a record 36-match unbeaten run.

Ho, ho, ho Argentine midfielder Jonatan Germano thought he had the perfect seasonal celebration when he scored for Melbourne Heart against Brisbane Roar: he put on a Santa hat and did a happy dance over near the corner flag. Scrooge McReferee was having none of it though and booked Germano for his exuberance in the [.

A failed 'double header' promotion of the youth team game before the main event backfired badly for Brisbane. Not only was the crowd only 10,006 and only a few hundred at best turned up early, but Theo's goal mouth was drenched before the kick off. This water led to Theo's miss kick which gifted Central Coast the game and the Roar 4th straight loss.

The Salary Cap has struck again.
Brisbane Roar have lost Thomas Broich, Henrique, Matt Smith and other key players in recent weeks and as a result despite continuing to boss possession, key goals have been conceded and a lack of attacking penetration has seem the team suffer three defeats in a row.

Most A-League teams have now demonstrated that they can play the Roar system. If Brisbane wants to grow its fan base it now has to:
1. Take its system to another level.
2. Buy better players that will play the current system better and more consistently.
3. Ensure the squad has a majority of local players (there are about 2 or 3 in there now and sometimes they start with none).

To build a football brand in Brisbane, the Roar had to win last night. While the crowd had already halved from 20,000 to 10,000, Roy Morgan found this week that Brisbane is the most watched (TV) soccer team in the A-League. A shock for Melbourne Victory perhaps.
That was one disappointment from last night.

Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates has declared that he cannot wait to run onto the pitch at Anfield and hear the loyal supporters roar the team on.
The Uruguay international signed for the Reds in August and has made four appearances so far which have all been away from home.
The young centre-back has watched many games from the bench this season and he has expressed his desire to play in front of the Kop fans at home.

At some point in the not too distant future the seemingly never ending round of discussions on the ifs, buts and polls are going to turn into the real thing.
The SNP government in Scotland will unleash the referendum campaign proper.
The Scottish Football Blog has its own views on Scottish independence.

Hopes are high that Syamsir Alam will be Indonesia's next great thing. As part of the SAD project in Uruguay he impressed enough to secure a loan deal at Penarol, one of the biggest clubs in South America.
Now he has signed for Belgian side CS Vise who play in the second division there. He will be among friends as fellow Indonesians Yericho Christiantoko, Alfin Tuasalamony and Yandi Munawar at the club owned by the same people who own Pelita Jaya and Brisbane Roar.

Great weekend for the believers in young Australian football players, attacking players.
Bernie Ibini, Mustafa Amini, Demi Petratos, Mate Dugandzic just some of the young Aussies hitting the net - and three of them are Under 20.
Laugh: Robbie Slater in his column on Sunday discussed how to beat the Roar - and he mentioned how Sydney would miss THE PACE of Mark Bridge.

Hyundai A-League champions Brisbane Roar finally lost their unbeaten record this season when going down to a 2-0 reverse at the hands of Sydney FC today.

Two goals in the opening twenty minutes of the match put paid to Brisbane's chances of victory today but the Roar still top the standings with a three point margin separating them from nearest challengers Central Coast Mariners.

"Get ready to get closer. Closer to legends. Closer to history and closer to the unseen magic of matchday. Get ready to take your seat in the players changing room. Get ready to run down the players tunnel and to imagine the roar of 60,000 fans. " – Bob Wilson

Those are the words of Arsenal legend Wilson in the video that introduced me to the new Arsenal ‘Self-guided' Stadium Tour.

Juan Carlos Solarzano, Melbourne Victory now ex-Brisbane Roar.
He came he played he scored. And how frustrating is it to see him not even on the Victory bench.
Could he be loaned out?
A-League teams are crying out for strikers and to think one of last years best isn't even getting a game.

Now Craig Foster and the like can ooze over Harry's nice touch, his nice pass - so can I - but come on Australia - how many has there been?
Is the Emperor wearing any clothes?
We all want Harry to do Harry stuff - but Carlos is outperforming him. If you want skill, touch and goals look to Carlos Hernandez.

The game was over by half time. And all Ferguson had to do then was protect his career. Before the game he had said the pressure was all on Brisbane. That did not ring true. The week before he had admitted his job was on the line, and 8-0 would have done that.
The combination of half time changes in Andrezinho and Steve McGarry plus Brisbane switching down a gear in the humidity saved coach Ferguson's career.

Early in the first half Brisbane had crazy misses. Besart found himself clear twice. The first time he fell over. The second he took too long. Then Issey failed to take his chance.
Then Newcastle settled into their 3-4-3 formation with Ruben Zadkovich outpacing Erik Paaratlu, Broich having his quietest half of football ever with a few well timed elbows in the head from Kasey Wehrman, and Newcastle playmaker Ryan Griffiths occasionally looking dangerous.

Brisbane Roar will be hoping to not loose to Newcastle so that they get the payoff at the game for their next home game - 26 November - next Saturday night.
16,400 for Wellington will look minor if they can get to Brisbane to battle for the record.

Well I must say I was a little surprised when Ben Buckley called last night to offer me the job of Socceroos' Head Coach, starting immediately.
Of course I know when the time for my national duty has come, and I accepted. But not before I had a long talk with Buckley in which I said I would be making a number of changes, some of them which will shock some people and many fans, and he guaranteed that I would have complete freedom and control over the roster.

Wellington Phoenix ended their three game losing streak with a dramatic draw on the road against A-League power Brisbane Roar.

One of the charities I'm hoping to benefit from next weekend's blogathon is Alzheimer Scotland.
There are a number of reasons for that choice but one of them is their excellent Football Reminiscence Project.
Simply it's a project that put volunteers in touch with football fans who suffer from dementia.

At 16,400 the crowd was best on ground.
The Roar were a mile better than Wellington in the first 20 minutes. Then some really crap referring
changed the game to favour Wellington. How could the ref make rulings that were opposite to ben Williams last week?
Issey was found out badly in this game.

Check out the video and you'll know how to stop the Roar!
If you watched the recent Wellington Roar game you'll have seen Ivan Franjic played in time and time again a la the above video training drill. Four men in the box, the ball played back or across to a Roar player.
In the drill there were only defenders - against Wellington and Victory there were 7 or 8!

When I began this blog over five years ago I honestly thought there were no active A-League blogs. I soon discovered I was wrong and wrote a reasonably comprehensive review of the amateur blogs which focused on the A-League at that time.
One of the things I was hungry for from the beginning was high quality, football-knowledgeable analysis of the games.

Pay TV Audience for Melbourne Victory v Brisbane Roar was a record for a regular season A-League game. 155k.
Presumably if it was on FTA we'd triple the audience, (plus nursing homes where the TV's are always on) given Fox has a penetration rate of around 30%.
We just won't go away will we!

Melbourne Victory Football Club released a statement today saying that they have appealed the red card given to Matthew Foschini in the 37th minute during the Brisbane Roar match on Saturday night. The statement read: The club's opinion is that there was an obvious error in the issue of a red card and that Matthew's

Hand up all those who know Archie Thompson is a proven top goalscorer in the A-League? Good that's 21 million or so Aussie's with their hands up; but there are a couple of Aussie hands not up...
Okay and hands up who didn't know - don't be shy Mehmet and Kev. We see your hands and it's okay because you are newbies to the job.

OK so there was a lot of action in the first 30 minutes or so. But by the 2nd half the game had flatlined. Everyone was exhausted including the referee.
Someone wrote of one of my blogs, probably in season 1, 'don't read this if your name is Ben Williams.' Now I can see a bit more of what Williams is trying to achieve as a ref.

The above quote is lifted from the Rangers fan forum and is not referring to Matty actually but to Thomas Broich and Mitch Nichols, who they merrily discuss their club's prospects of poaching, given what they see as the bargain purchase of Matty.
The page about Matty, which begins when the first talk of the transfer emerged, goes for 50 pages.