First up it was an answer to a question at Steven Lowy’s coronation about the Wellington Phoenix situation saying it would be dealt with next year and now it is suggesting a change will be seen in the banning process and a solution should be due in February.
You are front page news, your senior staff have completely and totally made a hash of things so how you think a proposed solution in three months’ time would let this die down is mind-boggling. As Kevin Airs said Lowy might just about have got away with it if his statement and conference had been on Tuesday instead of the shambolic David Gallop disaster but that ship had well and truly sailed.
Lowy did at least acknowledge fans as stakeholders in the game and condemned the articles but it was all about a week (or even two days) too late.
Lowy himself is not immune from prevarication though. Delaying a decision on the Wellington situation seems baffling. You have the fans on strike, you have chairman coming at you from every angle, you have the media crucifying you and you have one of the best run clubs in the league dangling by a thread. Why would you not just resolve a PR problem, put aside a simple issue instead of letting it grow?
Obviously the primary concern for supporters across the Tasman is player contracts. Traditionally a player unsigned beyond the end of the year can be approached inside the last 6 months of their contract. With the Phoenix unable to offer new contracts as they have no licence do they have a team of players able to be poached. Would a deliberately weakened Phoenix even if they survive into next year be a competitive A-League force and if not how do they keep coaching staff?
Out of it all though it seems very hard to understand how David Gallop and Damian de Bohun remain in their roles with the organisation. Firstly de Bohun needs to be bailed out by Gallop then Gallop needs to be bailed out by Prince Steven. How does your role remain viable when you have to be bailed out by the chairman and you have alienated pretty much every stakeholders except for a few myopic members of the press?
The ‘fairer' sex
You can write off Wilson she’s long been a ghost writer for the Allan Jones’ of this world. A typical tabloid journalist, the print version of a shock jock or an internet commenter. She thrives on a reaction and if it can be manipulated to suit her (or the people telling her what to write’s) agenda then all the better. Wilson is also a heavily accented aussie battler type of character who’s general demeanour is more likely to register with a section of the public already threatened by football’s growth in the Australian market. She’s not going to resonate with Mrs lunchpail, mother of three little cherubs from Sydney’s northern suburbs.
Enter Susie O’Brien who has suddenly popped out of the woodwork with her comments. She’s a sports fan who normally comments on the gripping excitement that is reality television but more importantly she’s a mother. What could appeal more than a reality TV watching mother, blonde, perfect teeth to those that don’t identify with Wilson? O’Brien’s appearance is a perfect play on the ‘won’t somebody think of the children’ front.
The disappointing thing is seeing my fellow women being used as pawns by an industry dominated by aging white misogynists who are terrified that their bucolic memories of Australia no longer match the Australia that actually exists. It’s no longer as simple as the lower classes play league and the upper and middle classes play Rugby Union for the sydneyites and it scares Rupert and his scions.
A-League make my point:
So I see it's too hot at 16:00 tomorrow for an A-League game in Adelaide. Common sense has come to pass and they have pushed the game into the evening. Quite why this makes 16:00 still okay for the preceding W-League game instead I'm not sure. Yes they have moved that game from earlier in the day but how was it considered acceptable to schedule that timing at this time of year anyway? By the end of the W-League game at least the sun won't be baring down on the players but 16:00 in Adelaide is still likely to be dangerous conditions for a football game.
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