The more things change…

Just when you thought the FFA had moved on from shooting themselves in the foot the Sydney Morning Herald pop up with another ghost written article from Kyle Patterson.   

Once again we see the Football Federation of Australia at their disingenuous best leaking parts of a story to the press and debating an issue in the public arena instead of using the ‘highest level of corporate governance’ and engaging in good faith.

We spotted it last week when the fan debacle came to a head in Sydney.  The FFA started surrounding themselves with their media luvvies until they had to come to the realisation that the media were the people making the gathering happen and forcing the FFA to come to the table.  I’m reliably informed that Kyle Patterson spent the whole period sitting in a corner fuming and mumbling under his breath while looking about as popular as Robbie Slater at a Fox staff party but this week he’s back in the saddle calling in his media favours.

Of course the article is as ever full of inaccuracies because the FFA don't need facts to manipulate the media story to their side and the journalists ghost writing for them can't even spell diligence let alone excecise it.

An FFA spokesman assures me that the FFA are NOT waiting for a proposal from the Wellington Phoenix.  The Phoenix have been waiting on responses from them FFA which have finally been delivered in recent days. The Phoenix wanted to know what the ‘metrics’ they are expected to deliver are and at long last the FFA have responded.

The clubs believe that negotiations with the Phoenix are going well but clearly the FFA feel the need to ratchet up the pressure and are once again looking to negotiate through the media as it's not like that has gone wrong for them every time they have tried it before.

Following the PFA fight which resulted in player strikes, the fan debacle which resulted in supporter strikes and the earlier Phoenix leak which resulted in the football federation being shot down by every group of Stakeholders they have you would have thought they might have learned but no here we go again with the mainstream media lapping up the half truths and outright lies fed to them by 'An FFA spokesman'

Never let it be said that the FFA learn from their mistakes.

- Once again the Mickey mouse club that runs the FFA have undermined a stakeholder.

- Once again the FFA have lied to the media. 

- Once again the panacea for the embarrassingly long list of A-League ills is another club in Sydney. 

- Once again the gang of three embarrass the game and remain employed.

- Once again the case for an independently run league to regain some integrity and credibility becomes clear.

South Sydney Heart

So it’s South Sydney again and best of all Tim Cahill wants to be involved.  Well that should guarantee success.  Much like Man City’s involvement in Melbourne has City playing in front on 20,000 every week and hauling in huge TV audiences.  It should be noticed that despite having the highest profile owners and the league’s best player City are averaging smaller crowds and less viewers than the New Zealand club that are squatting on a licence.

When you look at it this could well be the future of South Sydney.  Cahill’s face might give your club a profile but the football people in the Sydney region are already engaged with two clubs.  Like Melbourne Heart just adding another club in the same market is a move fraught with dangers and new owners are unlikely to have pockets as deep as those behind Heart.

Also, are the FFA over-estimating the Cahill factor?  The Socceroos aren’t the brand they once were and Cahill has hardly caused an explosion in Pacific Islanders moving from League or Union to play football.  He’s not coming back from the UK at the peak of his powers with his profile at its highest.  Is he actually that much of a saleable commodity any more?

Still, let’s be honest, does anyone actually have faith that those running the A-League have the best interests of the league and the game at heart?  Every chance a naïve and badly formed plan will nosedive again and they will be made to look foolish in the media but they will carry on employed and protected by their media lapdogs and incompetent board.

99 (well five) problems and the… 
Meanwhile as the FFA undermine the Phoenix once again doing their best to distract from the disaster they are over-seeing across the rest of the league the news sitting quietly that 5 of the 10 clubs have failed to make expected financial obligations on player payments.  CCM, Adelaide, Newcastle, Brisbane and Perth are all looking for a visit from Australian Debt Recoveries in the next few days while the team squatting on a license have paid up in full.

Of course one of those that hasn’t paid is Newcastle, the club owned and run by the FFA. A disgrace.

The power of patronising thinking

"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.