Media. Mis-managed.

Well.  That was a fun break.  I was tempted to get out of my bikini and off the gorgeous beaches of NSW to blather about the refereeing we have seen over the holiday break as Ben Williams hit new heights and Gosford got to witness a display that even in the A-League's pantheon of horrific refereeing displays set new lows but in the end was anyone shocked?

You can make referees professional but if the people doing the job are so devoted to the cult of refereeing that they don't see themselves making errors you still end up with the game remembered for their actions rather than the football played.


Today's missive though harks back to points made in previous posts and asking just what the hell the FFA and club media arms are thinking in the way they attempt to manipulate the media and the narrative and what is appropriate content for these sites.

Is it this?

Apart from the fact that the A-League website has no place in publishing an article that is almost completely conjecture surely this line should send warning bells:

"According to a story in the Daily Telegraph"

If you have to preface an article on the league website with 'according to a story' and then name the paper that has done more to attack this code than any other media in Australia this side of Allan Jones then you have a gross misunderstanding of what the role of social media is in this world.

The next question is, why is it still there?  Surely someone in the social media department have raised a protest at the piece?  It's petty point scoring at the expense of an organisation that represents a key stakeholder in the league.  How does publishing this help the league's relationship with it's players, with the product they are looking to promote?

It smacks of the sort of public airing of arguments and the lack of good faith that has become the FFA trademark in recent years as the media comes under the guardianship of Kyle Patterson.

This also extends to club social media.  In recent weeks we've seen some absolute crackers.  Whether it was the West Sydney Wanderers attack on the decisions of referee Jarred Gillett vs Melbourne City or the Central Coast Mariners account offering O'Donovan a soapbox to claim the player he headbutted was acting as if that somehow made his action okay.

Next up is the surprising leak that the Wellington Phoenix have signed a new 10 year agreement to particiapte in the A-League.  While I'm celebrating this as it's the right decision for the league if it's true the question has to be asked as to where this has suddenly appeared from.

The Phoenix have denied it and have shown no previous interest in completing negotiations in the media and it appears to have originated on our side of the Tasman not in New Zealand.  So once again it would appear the FFA has more holes than a FIFA corruption investigation.  It would seem that nothing can happen in Oxford street without the media having suspiciously detailed information.

Luckily the FFA have no previous history of this behaviour so I wonder if they have thought about checking the offices for bugs, or maybe there has been a hack of their internal systems?

Considering how regulated and what a tight reign the FFA keep on so much of this league it seems odd that they allow these sort of social media gaffes to continue.  Surely even they understand that these channels are how the league is presented externally to football and non-football people?

...and don't get me started on the Facebook pages.


A couple of other brief points:

• I'm lead to believe that despite assurances the transcript from the 9th December meeting between fans and the FFA has not yet made it into the hands of the supporters groups.  I'm hearing rumblings about how this is hardly an endorsement of the good faith originally being sold the following day and suspicions about the FFA's ability and willingness to meet the commitments from that meeting as we have used over half the time towards the February deadline.
• Finally.  Can anyone explain to me why Damien de Bohun still has a job at the Football Federation of Australia, let alone an expense account? No, really, I'm completely baffled.  He's disenfrachised the fans causing the league's biggest crisis, he has little to no respect from the clubs, he's handled the media poorly for years and he's overseen a collapse in crowds and viewers of epic proportions.  I wish my employers were that understanding.  I'd be able to spend the whole year on the beach wandering back to my Holiday House only to catch up on the latest FFA mess.