Gold Coast hasn’t reinvented the A-League wheel – yet

Roar Pro

By Jesse Fink, 16 Jan 2009 Jesse Fink is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: Anthony Mundine, Boxing, football, Football Federation Australia, Gold Coast United, press conference, Socceroos

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There’s never anything wrong with a bit of chutzpah. But there’s good chutzpah and then there’s Anthony Mundine-style chutzpah, and I don’t know about you but for me a lot of what is coming out of Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer’s mouth of late has been Choc cringeworthy: not only is the club going to win everything in sight next season, it’s going to do it undefeated.

“We’ve got a unique opportunity at this time to remain undefeated in winning the A-League. We really think we can do that. That’s what our new goal is now. On paper, our team is so much more experienced than anyone in the A-League,” he said at the press conference/stage production on Wednesday to announce the signing of Holland-based Socceroos stalwart Jason Culina as the club’s marquee player.

Experienced maybe, but experienced isn’t a guarantee of managing expectations – and it’s expectations that are getting out of control with Gold Coast; an eerie echo of the same expectations that have effectively cruelled Sydney FC from its inception.

He might be (according to some) Australia’s richest man, but with his helicopter and golf cart act, Palmer looks more Rodney Dangerfield than Roman Abramovich.

The club needs to put a rein on his ego because even though the theatrics and hubris are entertaining it’s becoming a distraction from what will be the club’s most difficult task: engaging with the local community and being a club for the people of the Gold Coast.

However I do think there is something in Palmer’s idea for a $10,000 salary-cap credit for every game a recruited Socceroo has played for his country.

“When some of these guys have played more than 20 games or more, it gives them over $200,000 – not to pay the salaries they earn in Europe but certainly somewhere in between.”

It sounds unwieldy, it perhaps is, but at least the big unit is putting back on the agenda the whole idea of the “returning Socceroo fund” that former Football Federation Australia chief executive John O’Neill first mooted back in 2004 or 2005 but then disappeared into the too-hard basket on his departure for rugby.

The FFA really dropped the ball on that concept and it’s an indictment on the game’s administration that it’s been left to mavericks such as Palmer to resuscitate it, if only in spirit.

He’s done very, very well to recruit Culina and, like Sydney with Dwight Yorke in “Version 1.0″, given every other team in the league a gift they must exploit to their own benefit.

Hopefully some of the other teams might repay the compliment.

Not with Tiattos and Aloisis and Agostinos and other past-it former Socceroos but with Carneys and Beauchamps and Grellas – players currently in and around the current Socceroos set-up and with plenty still left to give, on and off the park.

But to date, even with Culina on board, Gold Coast really hasn’t reinvented the A-League wheel.

That will happen when an A-League club makes a major investment in the Asian football scene and brings a headline Japanese, Korean, West or South-East Asian star to our league for a full season or more.

Bleiberg himself made a convincing argument for more Asian players in our league in September last year to counter the predations of the J-League (and now the K-League) on our dwindling player ranks. He warned if nothing was done the consequences would be “catastrophic”.

What – other than the situation becoming more critical – has changed in the interim?

Apropos of the Australia–Indonesia Asian Cup qualifier on January 28 in Jakarta, it’s telling of the local game’s myopia that young Indonesians are getting picked up by Brazilian clubs but can’t even get a trial in the A-League.

To paraphrase an old quote from Lee Kuan Yew, it’s high time we started adjusting to our neighbourhood.

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The Crowd Says (21) | Page 1 of Comments

Scott B said | January 16th 2009 @ 5:41am | Report comment

I agree.
If the A-league is smart, they should have Roar vs GCU at Suncorp in the first round next season. This could at least reinvent the A-League in SE Qld. The hype could be massive, let alone the coaches slagging each other off. The A-League has a chance to create something big. Why not even play Sydney 2nd round at home.

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Pippinu said | January 16th 2009 @ 6:52am | Report comment

Palmer does make for entertaining reading, but honestly, some of the things he says are absolutely ridiculous.

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Dave said | January 16th 2009 @ 7:07am | Report comment

Pip

Since when is it necessary to make total sense when publicizing a club/code or talking about games. Kevin Sheedy – Martians???
l think it is great to have someone talking up his club and setting the challenge for others to try and match. Cant wait to watch GCU at the new rectangular stadium v MV and give them an earful!

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Scott B said | January 16th 2009 @ 7:30am | Report comment

Dave
It is good for him to be talking up his club.
If GCU do win the league, you won’t be able to shut Palmer up. If they dont Palmer doesnt seem the type to give up easily.
Which ever way it goes, GCU are sure to be a team fans either love or hate, not in between.

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Dave said | January 16th 2009 @ 7:42am | Report comment

Scott B

All new professional sporting clubs need to establish knowledge of their existence and what they are on about. Palmer is ensuring GCU will not only have a footprint on the GC sporting scene but they will be known (and despised?move over SFC ) throughout the Oz footballing fraternity…even non footballing fans will get to know about GCU, Palmer and his ambitions and why not?
It is a crowded sporting market and important to make a mark early…as l said earlier l will be there to boo them in their first game in Melb (also look forward to seeing Culina play).

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Scott B said | January 16th 2009 @ 7:52am | Report comment

Dave,
I agree,
I like it.
I think he will introduce a new angle to the league.
Hopefully he will be at all GCU home games. Therefore he will be on everyones tv, showing his satisfaction or frustration at the games. Not like Abramovich, but more like Moratti of Inter does. This will add a new dimention to the games, fuelling the hatred.

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Kazama said | January 16th 2009 @ 8:04am | Report comment

I think that the statements of Palmer and Bielberg have done a very good job so far of upsetting the rest of us and generating a jealously of their team that will encourage crowds to turn up an boo them. They’ve sold themselves well as a villain, but it will be interesting to see how many Gold Coast fans will stay with them if they finish the first season in the bottom half of the table.

For a first year club I think that a mid-table finish would be ok, perhaps even a success, but with the massive expectation they have placed on themselves they really have to come up with the goods or it could all go pear-shaped very quickly.

I am really surprised to learn that Indonesian players are being taken over to Brazil. The article mentions an exchange program – why don’t we have one? A-League clubs have partnerships with clubs around the globe, yet as far as I’m aware the only ‘exchanges’ have been Romario and Diego coming to Adelaide from Miami FC.

The fact that we’ve only got two Asian players (apart from all of the Aussies, of course) in the league is baffling to me given the amount of quality players we’ve been exposed to through the Asian Cup and AFC Champions League. I have the feeling it is because clubs have this fear that the fans won’t be as excited as they would be about signing a Brazilian player – the word Brazilian immediately summons the fantasies we all have of jogo bonito. As we’ve seen, not every Brazilian player is exactly like Pele.

To suggest also that an Asian player wouldn’t draw a crowd I think has already been proven untrue. Shengqing Qu was a cult hero here in Adelaide; the fans loved him, and a few people went to their first A-League game with me because they wanted to see Qu play. I doubt any one had heard of Qu before he pulled on a Reds shirt but that didn’t stop him from being popular here. Regardless of where you are from, if you are a good player you will draw fans. There are plenty of talented footballers in Asia who have the ability to excite the crowd like Qu did, so why aren’t A-League clubs open to signing them?

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Pippinu said | January 16th 2009 @ 8:10am | Report comment

I’d be happy to see GCU do an SFC.

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Koala Bear said | January 16th 2009 @ 8:14am | Report comment

Clive Palmer is exactly what the HAL needs … Loads self belief.. One thing about this man, he has so far backed up what he his intentions were.. Bringing back current Roos to play in the HAL ..

The club is on track with a well thought out exciting squad .. accomplished strikers an exciting midfield led by Culina and it seems a more than adequate defence playing in a new state-of-the-art Stadium .. But the question still remains has the GCU reinvented the HAL .?. well if it hasn’t yet, by the end of the 09-2010 season it may have well done …

~~~~~~~~
KB

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Simmo said | January 16th 2009 @ 9:01am | Report comment

Palmer is like Bleiberg. But without the implied in everything he says

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