Better Times

ON a day of disappointment for both Melbourne and Adelaide fans, here's a reminder of some better times.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=qdVtCG1wFs0

Analysis of the Victory game to come...

AFL Fat Cats

IT is the richest game in Australia, and despite leeching money off the community through pokies, the AFL keeps getting handouts.

Today the Victorian Government announced a $10.5 million package for nine Victorian clubs to help improve their facilities.

That money is just a little helping hand to the clubs that already make do with a paltry share of a $196 million per year TV deal.

And you may have seen The Age’s revelation that AFL clubs are taking an estimated $110 million annually from punters and problem gamblers.

Giving a handout to rich clubs, who are taking money hand over fist from their loyal but gullible supporters is ridiculous.

Most of the venues that have been handed this cash were abandoned years ago and are now simply money pits to honour the bygone days of suburban football.

Meanwhile ask your local football (soccer) club about the facilities they’re making do with.

Reports abound of crowded, overused pitches… crappy changing rooms… and a lack of purpose built football grounds across the country.

That’s not to mention the lack of changing facilities for women’s teams.

Yes the State Government is funding the construction of a purpose built stadium, but that's a white elephant best discussed another time.

As Fat Cat AFL Administrators frantically build their levies as the tide of football support grows, expect more of these meaningless handouts from populist politicians.

Coming of Age

IS it too early? Bugger it, I'll say it.

Perhaps the best sign that the A-League is growing in stature came on Wednesday night.

The dual wins by the Victory and Adelaide were a solid sign about the League's improvement.

While we're only one game in, the performances by two of the lesser lights in last year's competition were an encouraging sign.

While I didn't see Adelaide's performance, they have managed to snag a convincing result in what must count as one their hardest group games.

At Docklands, the Victory may have had flaws in their win, but came out all guns blazing and were hungrier than Mark Viduka at a pie shop.

It was also a fantastic atmosphere at both ends of the stadium. The crowd were clearly grateful for the interuption in what would have otherwise been a seven-month off season.

Credit also to the small band of Chunnam supporters at the game, who banged their drums right through until the final whistle.

Now if only Melbourne could get that last pass right - and a decent full-back - they might just make it to the quarters.

A tale of two squads

THE squad of 21 announced for the Socceroos game against China highlights the strange nature of the Singapore friendly.

Pim Verbeek will now be casting an eye over 38 players in the space of four days - all the while trying to get Australia a step closer to South Africa 2010.

It smacks of trying to run before he's walking.

The match against China is of vital importance. A win would place Australia a minimum of five points ahead of third place and make them almost certainties to qulify for the second stage.

A loss... well, let's not think about that just yet.

Rather than trying to assess the maximum amount of players, Verbeek should be concentrating on developing the right strategy around the top players.

The second tier should then be groomed for filling spots that arise through injury and suspension

Good early results will give Verbeek the opportunity to look ahead, but at this stage, he simply cannot do everything.

Anyway, here is my pick for the match. Scott McDonald and David Carney are probably the unlucky ones to miss out of this selection.

The difficulty Australia faces is if Josh Kennedy does not recover from his ankle injury in time for the game.

Kennedy did not make it on to the bench for Karslruhe's weekend game against Eintracht Frankfurt.

His size against China could have been a great advantage, holding the ball and laying it off to the running, attacking midfielders.

With Troisi, McDonald and Holman all small players, Kennedy's absence would concede the height advantage.

---------------------Schwarzer------------------------

--Emerton--Beauchamp--Neill--Wilkshire-------

-------------Grella--------------Culina-------------

-----Bresciano-------Cahill---------Kewell-------

----------------------Kennedy---------------------

Subs: Federici, Carle, Kisnorbo, McDonald, Valeri, Carney and Holman

A Pointless Friendly

THE Socceroos’ upcoming friendly against Singapore seems strange at best in light of the 17-man squad announced today.

The side consists only of A-League players, and of those, all but three are Under-23 players.

Clearly the likes of Nigel Boogard and Nikita Rukavytsya stand no chance of playing in the World Cup qualifiers, so why choose them? Yet the side is without important names such as Joel Griffiths, Alex Brosque, Roddy Vargas or John Aloisi.
Also missing out are some of the European based players with more availability such as Michael Thwaite, James Troisi, Jacob Burns and Adrian Leijer.

It leaves the question, if you’re going to play an under-23s side, why play it as an international fixture under the senior coach’s guidance?

Either Pim Verbeek treats these warm up games seriously or risks a walloping in the heady heights of Kunming.

Australia should not be complacent about their progress to the next round just because of the easy win over Qatar. Once again they look set for little more than a 24-hour camp together, but this time against a far better prepared opponent.

I also wonder how happy Ernie Merrick and Aurelio Vidmar are about letting their players travel overseas between vital ACL games with a short turnaround.

The FFA also appear to have made a slip-up by inadvertently announcing Ruben Zadkovich’s departure from Sydney FC. The FFA has queried his club status, implying he could be the first casualty of the post-Aloisi salary cap squeeze in a media release issued today.

As one of the most under-rated youngsters in the comp, he may represent a bargain.

SOCCEROOS SQUAD TO PLAY SINGAPORE

Nigel Boogard (Central Coast Mariners), Leigh Broxham (Melbourne Victory), Nathan Burns (Adelaide United), Billy Celeski (Melbourne Victory), Ante Covic (Newcastle Jets), Bruce Djite (Adelaide United), Tarek Elrich (Newcastle Jets), Adam Griffiths (Newcastle Jets), James Holland (Newcastle Jets), Mile Jedinak (Central Coast Mariners), Jade North (Newcastle Jets), Nikita Rukavytsya (Perth Glory), Archie Thompson (Melbourne Victory), Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Perth Glory), Tando Velaphi (Perth Glory), Ruben Zadkovich (TBC), Michael Zullo (Queensland Roar)

No to league expansion

FFA Announcement



After meetings late this afternoon, Football Federation Australia (FFA) today confirmed that the entry of Townsville and Gold Coast clubs to the Hyundai A-League has been delayed in the best interests of the competition.

“Expansion of the Hyundai A-League is a critical issue to the continuing evolution and growth of football,” said FFA CEO, Ben Buckley.

“We stated last month that our approach to expansion has to be both prudent and planned - and it is.”

Buckley said that both teams would benefit from the additional lead time to finalise some critical arrangements such as long term stadium agreements.

Buckley reiterated the FFA’s earlier view that, ultimately, the Hyundai A-League has the capacity to be at least a 12 team competition.

“We will be continuing discussions with the consortia on the basis of a successful entry in to the Hyundai A-League in season 5.”

Youth League

THE FFA are set to announce the details of the youth league that is set to kick of next season.

Rob Baan and Ben Buckley will make the announcement at 1pm in Sydney tomorrow afternoon.

It is still unclear what links the competition will have with the A-League and critically whether the competition will act as a reserves. This addition would allow A-League squad players and those returning from injury to get match practice.

It is also unknown whether imports would be allowed to play in the competition.

It is a big few days for the FFA as they effectively try to create nine new teams within five months, with the two new Queensland franchises and at least seven youth league teams.

Potential new franchises in Queensland, Wollongong and Melbourne will also be interested to see whether they will be required to have a youth league operating within their first year.

Expansion or implosion?

THE FFA is set to decide this weekend whether the Townsville and Gold Coast franchises will be confirmed as starters for the 2008/09 season.

But already the wheels are starting to fall off one of the Townsville bid.

One of the primary backers for the franchise, backer Millissa Fischer-Massa has already signalled she will remove her capital after founders James Gage and Allen St James were unable to secure their end of funding.

The result leaves the FFA with a difficult decision. Do they try to push the North Queensland bid over the line, and risk the franchise struggling and possibly folding?

Or do they bite the bullet, say they’re not ready and proceed with an awkward 9-team competition.

There has been little word from the FFA on how they are planning to facilitate the new move, or whether criteria for the new clubs differ from those of the competition’s foundation members.

There are two clear obstacles facing the FFA and owners of the Gold Coast and Townsville clubs: Where are they going to find 44 players of the same quality as the other A-League clubs? With the youth league competition set to kick off, and restrictions on the number of imports, the prospect of finding the necessary talent will be a huge struggle.

The second, and probably more serious problem is attracting funds after the start-up. The Queensland Roar only managed to secure a long-term shirt sponsorship deal in November last year while Central Coast played the Grand Final without one, showing how difficult it is for the regional clubs to prosper.

Perth Glory are still struggling, both financially and on the park.

The addition of more clubs while welcome in time is going to put strain not only on the new clubs, but also on the existing yet still fledgling rivals.

There is no question the popularity of the A-League is building, but the FFA need to show extreme caution in proceeding or risk jeopardizing the competition.

The Forgetten Continent

THE Africa Cup of Nations showed some of the best, most exciting football on the planet, but will any of the players be coming to the A-League?

With a host of transfers already completed, most of the action has been shuffling players among the current eight clubs.

Yet despite the varied success of last season’s imports, there seems no willingness to venture to new shores.

Already teams have tried there hand in bringing in Brazilians, Colombians, Costa Ricans, Americans, Europeans and a smattering of Asian talent, but no team has been brave enough to head for Africa.

Last month’s African cup was a feast of exciting football, and despite limited coverage here, it should have given a bolt for scouts at all eight clubs here.

Ghana’s Junior Agogo was one of a host of lesser known players to impress on the big stage, a welcome relief from the trials of League one football with Nottingham Forest.

Remember that’s the same Junior Agogo that equalised against the Socceroos in a friendly last year – you would think Australian coaches would be familiar with him.

While there were too many sterling points to highlight, (particularly by the emerging Angola and obvious over-achieving Pharoahs) A-League coaches need to be wise to what’s on offer.

It might not quite yield a Michael Essien or Samuel E’too, but we could help bring to the next level the next batch of African talent.

The French league in particular has forged a strong relationship with the continent, that has seen some of the world’s best emerge in Ligue 1.

Instead, the idea that our clubs should be focused on retaining fading former international stars is just ridiculous.

The only possible benefit of persisting with players like Juninho are limited. At best they will prop up a squad for a year, before moving on to the their next short-term pay cheque.

The prospect of younger exciting talents entering the league, who might actually bring a transfer windfall down the track is surely the way to go.