One rule for some

Another day, another FFA bungle to make the league a laughing stock as their attitude towards anything proposed by Melbourne City and the Abu Dhabi United Group gets an instant thumbs up despite the impact on the league.

This time it is gaping hole in the transfer rules that supposedly stop players moving between A-League clubs but is easily circumvented by utilising a middle club elsewhere.

There is no one in this league including even the most deluded Mariners fan who thinks Anthony Caceras is Manchester City quality yet he is on their books.  Of course the financially bereft Central Coast get some money for a player and magically he is loaned to another A-League club.

It's a farce, a fix worthy of a FIFA ethics committee and most of all it is negligent of the FFA to have rules allowing this and to approve the transfer.  Terrified of the signs coming out of Gosford that the club is a day to day proposition they have come up with a scheme to effectively bail out the Mariners, to allow their pet owners to try and buy some success in Melbourne and once again undermined the level playing field that this league is meant to be.

As the crowds for the second Melbourne team continue to make the 'all derbies' attitude of the FFA look like the folly it always was they have found a way to let them strengthen their side to attempt to buy success.

Already the chairmen of other clubs are expressing their concern for this action with Tony Pignata again the voice of reason.  Tony sees the potential risks here, sees that this league is still in it's infancy, sees that this needs to be as close to a level playing field as possible.  It's about time the FFA did.

It's about time the FFA separated this league from their organisation and gave the clubs the right to control their destiny and to put some rules in place for the collective viability of the A-League.  Despite what the marketing men in Oxford Street think this league will survive on a level playing field and diversity, not manufactured rivalries and backroom financial dealings.

Unless something is done soon I fear five years tops might be an optimistic estimate for the life of the A-League.



Can anyone explain to me how Andy Harper still has a job?  His sycophantic fawning over anything related to Sydney FC is an embarrassment to Fox Sports.  Even when Sydney are struggling his commentary on games that do not even feature them would have a neutral believing they are a giant who dominate this league.

I quite like Sydney FC.  I think they go about things the right way and I think the Cove do an excellent job but Harper's blinkered prattle turns me off them completely.  He and Slater really add nothing to the Fox Sports product apart from inane platitudes, ill-informed opinions and thinly veiled bias.

Why does this league continue to provide a living for the incompetent?