Billionaire eclipses Galaxy A-League bid
David Lewis
30 May 08

BILLIONAIRE Gold Coast mining magnate Clive Palmer, Queensland’s richest man, has dipped into his bulging wallet to all but guarantee himself the A-League soccer licence the Galaxy consortium thought was theirs for the taking.

In a stunning eleventh-hour coup, the larger-than-life Palmer, 54, who played soccer and rugby league on the Coast as a young man, has emerged from the shadows as Australia’s answer to Chelsea’s Russian oligarch owner Roman Abramovich.

Secret talks with Football Federation Australia have been going on for over a week — and the as-yet-unnamed franchise will be officially unveiled next Friday after already receiving the tacit approval of FFA kingpin Frank Lowy and his chief executive Ben Buckley.

Ironically, a long-awaited final decision on the destiny of the Fred Taplin-led Galaxy bid was due at an FFA board meeting on Tuesday — but the tectonic plates have shifted irrevocably with emergence of Palmer, who made his estimated $1.5 billion fortune from real estate and then mineral prospecting in the Pilbara.

Last night Palmer, who has a home near Labrador but spends much of the year traversing the globe in his 120-seat private jet, descended on rain-lashed Pizzey Park, Miami — home of Burleigh Heads soccer club — to catch a clash between the Queensland Roar and a Premier League XI.

He also took time out to unveil his vision for a club he sees as the likely A-League champions within three seasons.

“That’s the plan,” he said. “The Gold Coast deserves the best team in the land and that’s what they will get. They will receive all the financial support they need.

“I don’t like to lose at anything I do and down here there’s a chance to be winners.

“I’m from Surfers Paradise originally; I know the people and I am more than happy to be involved.

“I want to put something back into a community that supported me for many years.

“There are 40,000 people between here and NSW involved in soccer — the only game which truly represents us internationally.”

Palmer is convinced nothing can stop him leading a team into an expanded 10-team competition in 2009-2010.

“People who know what I do will know that things I’m involved in usually work out okay and I can support the club (financially) no matter what.”

The Taplin-led alliance of local property developers was granted a provisional licence back in February but have struggled to make headway with the FFA since.

The Gold Coast is set to be one of three Queensland teams in 2009, alongside the Roar and a Townsville franchise.

A startled Taplin would only say last night: “I am aware of Mr Palmer’s interest and things are moving fast.”

It’s believed that Miron Bleiberg, who had been aligned to the Galaxy bid, may be recruited.

The Galaxy moniker will be ditched, with Palmer adding: “The Galaxy name belongs to the LA Galaxy. We’ll eventually be playing in the Asian Champions League on an international level, so we don’t want any confusion.

“We’ll come up with a name that’s going to be regionally based.” Palmer ‘retired’ at 29 after striking it rich in property. He then switched his gaze to Western Australia with his company, Mineralogy, sitting on huge iron ore deposits. His fortune is estimated at $1.5 billion. He contends he’s worth nearly twice that.

Though he played soccer for Broadbeach in his teens, Palmer was a better league player who has just had a grandstand at his old club, the Southport Tigers, named after him.

Such is his largesse that, when approached recently by the Tigers, Palmer donated $50,000 in holidays for the club’s best-and-fairest awards. What he could achieve with an A-League franchise for the Coast is the stuff of wild imagination.

John O’Neil made an interesting comment prior to Hal 1, was off the ground, he said “I hope we can get close to a 10, 000 average to games”. He went on to say we need to grow a little each year it is no use being like Basketball have a big bang spalsh the first year and then go backwards, you loose credibility. But if you grown even a little each year and then before you know it you have 5 to 7 years of growth, then thats when people chase you and you command (not demand) respect.

IMO Basketball in its current format is doomed as was the model, very few juniors leagues, with not a lot of juniors, imported from an overseas country playing twice per week to fit into the US model, high gate prices. Needs to go broke and reinvent itself to have any future.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/basketball/kings-on-verge-of-collapse/2008/05/26/1211653942966.html
“Kings on verge of collapse

THE Sydney Kings could be days from extinction. The basketball team’s majority owner, the controversial Firepower boss Tim Johnston, has failed to pay his players this month and owes them tens of thousands of dollars, putting pressure on the National Basketball League to strip the club of its franchise…”

And

http://news.theage.com.au/sport/bullets-endangered-as-backer-withdraws-20080527-2ii7.html
“Bullets endangered as backer withdraws

Foundation NBL club Brisbane Bullets could be defunct by the end of the week.

The club’s white knight, Brisbane businessman David Kemp, has notified recently appointed general manager Brian Kerle that the sponsorship promised in a rescue takeover of Eddy Grove’s NBL licence is no longer available.

It’s placed the foundation club’s future in the NBL in grave doubt unless a new backer can be found by the end of the week.

A shocked and disappointed Kerle has called a press conference on Tuesday to outline emergency plans to try and avoid the collapse of the three-time NBL champions.”
”

Seems basketball has gone out of fashion slightly and seeing as the pie has been squeezed a bit more they are struggling

The first being a political theme (and I might add about time), and the second FL vision very impressive. But others will want to have there share.

As I said very very interesting especially if you look at the Adelaide United player off to Turkey and a Olyroo,

http://andrewbartlett.com/blog/?p=2031

Posted by Andrew Bartlett under Refugees & asylum seekers, Sport

After some of the public attacks on refugees from Africa which occurred in the lead up to last years election for allegedly ‘not integrating’, with the worst inferences being targeted at young males, it was good to see a story in today’s Australian newspaper highlighting the positive expectations for African refugees in the future of Australian soccer.

Four African refugees – from Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia and Liberia – are part of the Joeys, which is Australia’s under-17 side. The story also featured another black African player who migrated here from Zimbabwe, plus another from PNG. Football Federation Australia is trying to win the rights to stage the 2018 World Cup, and the chair of FFA is highlighting that players like these will be the future faces in our Socceroos team, alongside those from European countries that have traditionally made up the bulk of the team.

By coincidence, the same day this story appeared I attended a social soccer match in suburban Brisbane between teams made up of people from Liberia and Botswana – some migrants, some refugees, some students, some of them Australian citizens and most of the rest to become so in the future.

These young Australians do a lot more than play soccer of course, but that is just one area where their skills and energies will be able to help improve our nation’s future.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23749108-5013406,00.html

Lowy pins hopes on new faces of Australian soccer

Peter Kogoy | May 24, 2008

MEET the new face of Australian soccer – and its roots are African. Refugees from Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo and Sierra Leone have not only found a new home in this country, but are also fundamental to Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy’s plan to change Australia’s sporting landscape.

Mr Lowy’s vision is for the Joeys – the national under-17 side – to be the faces of 2018, the year the Westfield Group executive chairman hopes Australia can stage the World Cup.

Among the Joeys’ players are four African refugees: Tedros Yabio, who escaped drought and poverty in Sudan for a refugee camp in Ethiopia before emigrating to Australia; Million Butshiire from the Congo, Kamal Ibrahim from Ethiopia and Julius Davies from Liberia.

The Joeys have a fifth African-born player in Danai Gapare, who migrated from Zimbabwe, and a Papua New Guinean, Phillip Lamin. Butshiire, who has settled with his family of six brothers and two sisters in Perth, said: “My father was a political refugee and our family lived for nearly a year in a camp in Uganda before we were accepted to this country.

“Life in Africa was very difficult; I didn’t know when or where I was going to eat my next meal. One day I want to play for Australia at the World Cup.” Mr Lowy told The Weekend Australian that the Joeys were “our football future”. “These young men are the faces of 2018 who will be the core of the team that fills our field of dreams in our bid to host and play in the FIFA World Cup. “Dreams do come true if you’re prepared to work hard.

“For a long time now we’ve seen how both Australian-born and immmigrant sons can play together and are doing a good job. My message to FIFA delegates at the congress in Sydney this week is Australia can and will hold a successful World Cup.

“Football in this country is growing unbelievably and in 10 years’ time, God knows where we’ll be with our football.”
Mr Lowy said this year’s Joeys reflected the diversity of the Australian population.

Aside from the four refugees from Africa in the team, Serb-born Niko Stanojevic is seen as a potential striker in the mould of John Aloisi, whose penalty in the shootout against Uruguay earned the Socceroos a berth at the last World Cup.

Team manager Joe Freeme said: “All the kids get on really well. They are all very level-headed boys who … dream of one day playing for Australia at the highest level. What you are seeing today is the changing face of Australian soccer.”

This is an opinion site I can have all the nerve I can muster if it warrants.

Germany only has one code of football – no surprise it went well. Australia has four football codes and two of those are dominant in their respective patches. your damn right it is imperialist to run their big tournament at the same time as the existing premier football codes of AFL and NRL in Australia. What else would you like to call it?

Let’s be clear and this has already been mentioned, we are not talking about 2 weeks of disruption, but between 6 and 8 weeks.

It may shock you to know but most Australians who have other football codes as their passion are only interested in Australian socceroo games. The majority of World Cup games outside of Socceroo games or finals will be meaningless to the rest of us. Play the thing in summer during the soccer season.

The economic benefit is short lived and as far as AFl is concerned we dont need a cent of soccer money to build our stadiums – we have the MCG as our showpiece with adeqaute stadiums elsewhere.

Redb

“Also, I think you’ll find that the reason Football has become so popular world wide is not because it is imperialsitic, quite the opposite, it is because it is able to be adapted in line with the local culture so easily, this is witnessed through the diverse range of styles and support culture you see throughout the world, there is nothing imperialistic about that at all, rather it is an outlet for cultural diversity and expression”
Here here

Paul
Your views concerning football in general and the WC are extremely negative and from a biased perspective. The German Govt states the WC a massive success as does its industry and from what l gather the Germans themselves.
If WC is such a waste of money or a huge money losing venture why are countries queing up to bid, including AUSTRALIA???

The AFL doesen’t necassarily have to literally suspend its comp, it merely has to adjust it as it did for the Olympics in 2000, as midfielder says it is just a matter of adjusting the start and end, this is for the greater benefit of the Australian sports loving public, so that they can fully focus on enjoying both sports rather than having to choose as they would have to if the AFL were playing during World Cup, it is about accomodating both in the opimum manner, you don’t think staging world cup matches and AFL matches at the same time would impact on AFL braodcast ratings and match attendances? How is that in the AFL’s interest? They would lose heaps of manner and have a weaker bargaining position in sponsorship and TV braodcast negotiations

Also, a bit of a nerve talking about AFL fans defending their turf as if it is the Australian community up against a bunch of foreigners, the issue of the world cup is not one of foreigners imposing a game, but a matter of a Sports mad nation that prides itself on its sporting pedigreee finally getting the largest sporting event on earth and being able to enjoy it. I think you’ll find that the massive weight on public opinion would be on the AFL pulling its head out of its ass for one season and being willing to open itself to a compromising solutions, it is the AFL fans who are closed to the solutions.

This isn’t about “defending Australia” from some kind of foreign threat, it is more about AFL fans wanting to obstruct the flourishing of the Australian Football community and trying to pretend football is a foreign entity with no domestic presence or resonance to Australian society, it is about trying to deny football a place at the mainstream table because of fear. AFL is not the entire Australian community, it is only a segment of it, just as Rugby and Football communities are different segments of it, there are many people who are hardcores for the one code, but most people have a cross code interest and attend a range of different types, they share the same fans.

If lots of Australians have to miss out on tickets to world cup matches because they have to play in smaller stadiums because AFL is arrogantly playing in a half empty MCG, who is going to come looking badly from that?

You are wrong if you think that Australians will be hostile to FIFA World Cup and some kind of different kettle of fish, they will welcome it with open arms, just as they embraced Australias participation last year

Also, I think you’ll find that the reason Football has become so popular world wide is not because it is imperialsitic, quite the opposite, it is because it is able to be adapted in line with the local culture so easily, this is witnessed through the diverse range of styles and support culture you see throughout the world, there is nothing imperialistic about that at all, rather it is an outlet for cultural diversity and expression

And the even greater number of construction workers who have lost their jobs….?

Try telling that to someone who obtained one of the 50,000 new jobs.

3.7 billion euros expenses – 2 billion euros retail sales – 300 million euros tourist revenue = 1.7 billion euros loss.

Add to that, construction in Germany has almost come to a halt. I have friends that operate a saw mill here in Siberia. They just lost their major client- a German construction firm; because the German economy is really struggling.

Hmmm, perhaps not such a success story after all, and the article you read was a German politician trying to put a good spin on things.

Intersting your comment about unions own Crawford report. Should happen al least internally as I see rugby has for years put to many eggs into to only a few baskets and it is starting to hurt. It saddends me actually to see rugby in a position of almost watch and see were I can fit in.

Its like everything hangs on the S14 contract, if it falls over then what is plab “B”.

We have the my stick is bigger than your stick on the melbourne thread.

Can we try to keep this one to management decisions effect, or close to anyway

The whole country does not live in Melbourne

“In fact it might be better for the AFL not to go head to head with the WC, just as it is wise for football to stay in summer and not go head to head with AFl & NRL, we know we cannot win ……….. interesting tho ………. would AFL want to go head to head with WC.”

Ask a Hawthorn or Collingwood supporter if they would be watch Australia v Ghana over Hawthorn v Collingwood. I think you will find a mixed response based on the success of your team in that season.

I have a favourite beleif and it is not new its called bandwagoning. For example, try and convert a Geelong supporter in 2007 to soccer, rugby league or rugby union. Not interested your worship.

Try and convince a Hawthorn supporter this year that AFL is crap and the world game is more important ! – only somone who is not an AFl fan would think an international buys support. If Australia is playing we all support Australia not the sport.

Redb

Please be more true to the truth.

First Frank Lowy is a Jedi master, and in Sydney next week there is a gathering of the Jedi masters, you called them the “imperialist soccer forces “. Must get terms right.

First our chance of getting the WC are slim, very slim, even if we did there are enough brains to work out how to play a few rounds different. What six rounds, smaller pre season by 3 weeks (pre season is a joke anyway) , extend season by three weeks, or play one week a mid round. In effect changes are small and together will get worked out.

In fact it might be better for the AFL not to go head to head with the WC, just as it is wise for football to stay in summer and not go head to head with AFl & NRL, we know we cannot win ……….. interesting tho ………. would AFL want to go head to head with WC.

BTW did Dave give the “imperialist soccer forces” tag if so shame on him for not giving you the true names.

You should be watching Essendon
“The so called long term benefits of hosting sporting events like the Soccer world cup are over rated. Sydney has actually gone backwards since the Olympics as far as tourism is concerned.”
Germans seemed to have done ok;

“Germany’s World Cup Report Hails Economic, Social Success
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Germany was laughing all the way to the bank after the World Cup
Germany may have not been crowned world champions in July, but the country as a whole came out of the 2006 World Cup as a winner, according to the German government’s report on this summer’s soccer tournament.

The World Cup had a very positive effect on the country’s economy and helped improve its image internationally, according to Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who attended the unveiling of the report in Berlin on Wednesday.
The four-week tournament earned Germany’s tourism industry an extra 300 million euros ($399 million) in revenue, added 2 billion euros to retail sales and yielded 50,000 new jobs, according to the final report on sports’ biggest event.
Ticket sales funneled a further 40 million euros into the treasury, while the World Cup Organizing Committee earned a net profit of 56.5 million euros, which will go to the German Soccer Federation (DFB) and German Soccer League (DFL).
The DFB announced that the organizing committee had total earnings of 140 million euros from the tournament — it turned over 40 million euros directly to soccer world governing body FIFA and paid 44 million euros in taxes.
And while the cost of holding the World Cup in terms of infrastructure racked up a bill of 3.7 billion euros, Germany welcomed 15 million more visitors — and their euros — to the tournament than original estimates suggested.”
Pretty substantial even if considered to be short term. Note WC unlike Olympics is for the whole country.

The AFl has every right to defend its turf against the imperialist soccer forces of Frank Lowy, Sepp Blatter and Co. Soccer of better described FIFA is use to steam rolling across various countries , they will find Australia a different kettle of fish.

i support the World Cup if it is played in the soccer season and disrupts the A League as this is fair. The olypmpic or Commonwealth games required a two week change to the schedule and the AFl either moved its competition forward or back without disruption mid season. Now its been debated fairly furiously already on other threads on the Roar, but the World Cup would require somwhere between 6 and 8 weeks right in the middle of the AFl season.

We all love Australia and want it to do well in a range of sports, soccer is not anymore special than rugby, hockey or swimming. They all must live with other sports so should soccer.

The so called long term benefits of hosting sporting events like the Soccer world cup are over rated. Sydney has actually gone backwards since the Olympics as far as tourism is concerned. There is an immediate but very much short term benefit from hosting world class sporting events.

Australia has a strong multi code football heritage, its football but not as FIFA knows it.

Redb

Now THAT is arrogance.

I agree with you. The Federal Government can build a moon shuttle launcher if they believe it will benefit our country. It is the only right thing to do, to build enough stadiums so as to not violate long held agreements and contracts. If this is the intention of the government and the FFA, I can’t complain if the majority are in agreement. But I do highly doubt that the majority of AFL fans in WA, SA and VIC would be in favour of suspending their AFL matches for 8 weeks.

But so far, all we have heard from Frank Lowy and Kevin Rudd is that “other codes will have to take a back seat for a while.” Not THAT is arrogance.

Could you please tell me how you think a discussion surrounding use of stadiums and a hyopthetical 8 week suspension of the AFL season is not relevant to the thread “The rise of football, who has it hurt?”

Kevin Rudd may be in favour of a world cup, and I am not against a world cup, in so much as respect is required to hold it in such a way as to not violate long held agreements between football leagues and privately held stadiums.

Also, Aussie Rules is the most popular sport in WA, NT, SA, TAS, VIC and southern NSW. This is hardly a minority in Australia, unless of course you think that Sydney IS Australia.

The thing I consider arrogant is that you as a soccer fan think it is ok to just demand that we AFL supporters suspend our season for 8 weeks (preparation time needed- longer than just the tournament- for all stadiums). Stadium sharing will not work, as FIFA demand full access for 8 weeks.

I haven’t heard any mention from soccer fans of wanting there to be a solution, other than comments like, “that’s ok, you can play your games in Bendigo or something…” Tell me how this kind of attitude is not rude or arrogant? How am I arrogant by wanting the AFL season to be played when it always has for over 130 years?

on the issue of sports being forced to give up stadiums for the World Cup, what is your opinion on the GAA banning soccer from their hallowed grounds throughout Ireland (until recently with Croke Park being opened)?

I have never been to Ireland but there seems to be a real rivalry between the GAA and the Irish soccer association – interestingly Irish soccer does not have its own ground in the Republic – it used Lansdowne Road, owned by the Irish Rugby Union. – this rivalry does not seem to exist betweeb the GAA and the IRFU, even though historically the rivalry was initiallly between these two organisations.

I don’t believe the AFL should give up their game for the World Cup – the government should build more rectangular fields around Australia for this event (although I doubt Australia is anywhere near getting the World Cup anyway). As a rugby fan, I couldn’t be happier with the decision to build a whole heap of stadiums, as it would give us proper fields to play on in Melbourne and Perth, and not Subiaco or the MCG/Telstra Dome.

the problem with the management of rugby is, as you put it, the clash between the schools and the clubs. Personally, I think the solution would be, as you say, that the schools should play during the week, on an afternoon, leaving the weekend free for kids to play rugby, league, soccer, AFL, tennis, whatever they like. I didn’t go to a rugby school, but I played footy with a heaps of guys from my school.

Furthermore, I think the whole GPS/CAS/ISA crap needs to be dissolved, with private schools playing footy with public schools. The comp would be based on a regional basis. Im aware the various school associations compete in many other sports other than rugby and they may not agree to this, but it would go a long way to removing the elitistist tag directed at rugby.

Maybe a Crawford Report for rugby would help our game out? I don’t think the government would fund it like it did for soccer though. There are a heap of issues plaguing rugby now (the Super 14, clubs influence, poor management, losing players overseas) – as an amateur game rugby will always be there (my subbies club never struggles to fill four teams, sometimes we have enough for five teams, and a heap of young blokes from all walks of life), but the professional game is in far worse health.

The world cup stadium issue is simply one of realising that the wolrd cup is in a position to bring quite a lot to a country, it’s arrogance on the part of AFL to think that they don’t have to budge because of their historical contempt and prejudice towards soccer/football, they did it for the Olympics and they can do it for the FIFA World Cup, which would bring more to the country in terms of sporting pedigree than anything else

The situation regarding the apparent AFL bid for Homebush is very interesting though, Rugby won’t like it, also illuminates a tactic where they try to buy up all the Sporting space and stadia to squeeze out competitors and no doubt charge high rates to others, there are more options open to the others though. Is quite bizarre when you consider they are willing to splash out $200 million (with Westpac), along with having to develop Carrarra,

To the Tah fan, I am thinking it is mostly about Rugby’s poor managment that is letting RU down, which I think is a bit of a pity as it is them who have generally been a bit more positively inclined towards football. Rugby League (and to a degree Union) though now needs football to help stave off the AFL’s imperialistic initiatives due to issues of dual use of facilities (rectangular stadiums), a lot will depend on the next cycle of broadcasting rights deals

The MCG is owned by the MCC, not by a government. Likewise the SCG by the SCC, and Football Park in Adelaide by the SANFL etc, etc.

I’m a tax payer too, so maybe the issue should go to referendum if we really want to be fair and democratic about this.

Paul.