We won’t be second to World Cup, says Demetriou
By Roger Vaughan, 19 Mar 2010 Roger Vaughan is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- AFL, Andrew Demetriou, football, Football World Cup
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AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has warned that the league will not take a back step to soccer if Australia hosts the World Cup.
In a speech at Thursday night’s official season launch, Demetriou has made it clear that the AFL will not let soccer dictate terms if the bid to host the cup is successful.
Earlier this week, Demetriou told a meeting with Australia’s other football codes and the federal government that Etihad Stadium was off limits for the World Cup bid.
“Over the coming years we’ll also have to confront a changing sporting landscape in Australia, we have to be ready for the possibility of the World Cup,” he said.
“The AFL has always said we are happy to accommodate major sporting events, we have a track record to prove it.
“But we do not – and will not – accept second place for Australian football.
“We welcome other sports and major events, but we won’t allow seven million fans to be deprived of Australia’s indigenous game, nor put at risk the jobs of so many associated with our game.”
Demetriou also said the league was not obsessed with how much money it will earn from the upcoming television rights agreement, but was more concerned with what it can do with the expected financial bonanza.
The league will probably earn at least $1 billion from the next five-year agreement, which will start in 2012.
“This new agreement, when it’s finalised, will underpin the future of the competition and be invested back into the game and the generations to come,” Demetriou said.
“This is a critical point that sometimes gets overlooked by those fascinated by dollar signs.
“As a community organisation, the AFL is not driven by the money generated by broadcast rights.
“What drives us is the impact this revenue can have when re-invested in our clubs, supporters, facilities,volunteers and better career paths and opportunities to attract the best athletes.”
On Wednesday, Demetriou raised the possibility of a top-nine finals format once the league expands to an 18-team competition.
The top eight currently make the finals, but the league is conducting a wide-ranging review of the competition ahead of the entry of Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney by 2012.
“When we have 18 teams, are we going to have 22 rounds? Are we going to have 23 or 24?,” Demetriou told Channel Ten.
“What will the bye look like next year? Do we have a final eight or final nine? Are the finals four weeks or five weeks? We don’t know.
“We would be remiss if we were not looking at all options.
“We have a top eight with 16 teams and that’s 50 per cent of the teams – 18 teams, a top nine is 50 per cent of the teams, that’s one way of looking at it.”
Demetriou also defended his hefty $1.8 million salary, which the AFL revealed on Tuesday.
“It has a bonus component where I have to achieve certain requirements – if I don’t … I don’t earn that,” he said.
“I think that’s fair, ultimately I’m judged by the remuneration committee and I can’t ask for a fairer process than that.”
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Charles said | March 19th 2010 @ 6:42am | Report comment
Well this just gets more and more predictable. Andrew Demetriou makes a small but calculated comment regarding soccer and everyone associated with the AFL just picks it up and runs with it. I am sure it is a coincidence that it happens to be a day before the one of the biggest games of the year. I will go out on a limb here and say there will also be some comments from the AFL the day before the Socceroos farewell game, their opening game in the World Cup, and any other important soccer game ever played. It is good to see that AD is earning his large paypacket.
PS. Go Victory, Go Bombers.
Black Diamonds said | March 19th 2010 @ 8:37am | Report comment
Its the Official AFL Season Launch. What do you expect from a leader? Platitudes and nothingness?
Not much leadership in that sort of talk. I certainly wouldn’t vote for a leader who said the other guy has better leadership qualities and therefore he wishes him all the best.
See the analogy?
What exactly would you expect? (By the way – The VFL/AFL season has been started at this time of year for over 100 years – its the A-League Grand Final that’s new on the scene – not the other way around.
Aka said | March 19th 2010 @ 8:51am | Report comment
I would expect at the Season Launch he talks up the season he’s launching.
Charles said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:49am | Report comment
Black Diamonds, I would expect him to talk about the expansion into Western Sydney and the Gold Coast and a possible extension of the top 8 as well as the new TV rights deal. Maybe even his $1.8m annual salary.
He did talk about these things however the stories that ran by the HS were “Aussie rules the roost” – Only in relation to comments regarding the WC bid. The Age: “We wont play second fiddle to Soccer:AFL” and ninemsn: “we wont be second to World Cup: AFL CEO”.
There is a fear campaign being run right now by these media outlets to make soccer into a big scary monster that will eat your children. I personally think it makes our game look petty.
As for the timing of the story there is nothing sus about this one. Cant say the same for the story just after the WC draw was held. I expect we will see more comments from AD in the future.
Michael C said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:43am | Report comment
Charles – that story around the time of the WC bid was keep simmering by the media – as, the comments Demetriou made had in large part already been made (whilst he was on paternity leave) by Mike Fitzpatrick and Gillon McLachlan.
Gallop had already made his comments as had NRL CEO’s.
It had to wait for Demetriou to return from Parental leave and get to meeting with the club presidents – - the comments were generated over in Perth with respect to asking Demetriou what he had been briefing the clubs about……..and suddenly the media was right and ready to jump all over it,
I suspect because they suddenly had the full set to work with, i.e. NRL AND AFL, Gallop AND Demetriou. Was the timing sus?? I don’t really think so. To me it seems like certain people would complain no matter what…….it’d be sus if it happened just before an event in the lead up,…..or just after in the wake, ….or during the week of….or…….for some people, you can’t win.
Brian said | March 19th 2010 @ 12:46pm | Report comment
1m a year contract or whatever he’s on and he gets parental leave? He’s good
Michael C said | March 19th 2010 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
they’ve already got young twins…….and it was the ‘off season’……i.e. October/NOvember,
so, well planned,
well executed,
yup – you’re right – - – he IS good!!!
Mr Real Australian it's called Football Man formerly known as Kurt said | March 19th 2010 @ 8:59am | Report comment
“Everyone associated with the AFL just picks it up and runs with it”. Hmmm, think it might be everyone associated with soccer getting all fired about this particular comment.
Charles said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:51am | Report comment
Kurt,
See the above reply to Blackdiamonds. I think people get sucked into these types of things by the media outlets that like these types of stories. It creates an invisible war.
AndrewMc said | March 19th 2010 @ 7:05am | Report comment
I hope he realises that a large portion of the “7 million followers” of AFL also follow other sports including football. And I, as one of them, am getting so disgruntled with AD that he is actually pushing me away from AFL. He is risking more than he realises, and Australia hasn’t even been awarded the WC yet
Allen said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:48am | Report comment
amen
Moonface said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:14pm | Report comment
Can we please stop spreading the AFL rumour that there are 7 million AFL followers in this country.
There are not 7 million Australians that attend AFL games – this is a cumulative figure for the whole year – the same punters counted 30 times over during a season.
The average figure is a better indication and there would be only about 350K AFL attendees to games on average every week, which is about 1.6% of the Australian population.
bever fever said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:20pm | Report comment
I have been to three AFL games in the last 10 years.
You are probably right, its just one punter ( probably Vlad himself ) has been to AFL games last year on 7 million occasions.
pH said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:35pm | Report comment
No Moonface – surveys show around that figure for supporters over age 14 – http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2006/473/
Actually Demetriou was understating it – the Morgan survey recorded 8.8million AFL club supporters in 2006 over the age of 14.
Justin said | March 19th 2010 @ 7:17am | Report comment
I think AD might get bonuses for having big matches scheduled. In essence the lop sided draw helps his lopsided wallet
Michael C said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:24am | Report comment
remember it was the FFA that came riding into town and poached O’Neill (ARU), Buckley (AFL) and Fraser (StKildaFC),
it’d be negligent for the AFL COmmission to UNDER pay it’s key executive especially at strategically such an important time in the landscape of Australian Football and the other football codes.
btw – the fans don’t mind having the big matches scheduled….given a choice I think most Essendon fans would rather take on COllingwood twice each year than Freo twice each year…….just hazarding a guess y’know.
Is it a crime to try to schedule the fixture from the perspective of providing the best result for attendees??? The FFA has it’s own issues now with scheduling, and the NRL has run it’s floating fixture to the whims of TV networks……..is what the AFL does all that bad??? (and yes, we’d all LOVE to see a fully balanced H&A season – but, that isn’t really possible – - the old days alas are just that).
AndyRoo said | March 19th 2010 @ 11:34am | Report comment
MC, just letting you know it’s spelt Collingwoood now
Michael C said | March 19th 2010 @ 12:14pm | Report comment
they can niether spell nor count,
‘cos all the talk this morning was about 3 ‘O’s in Collingwood as being wrong……..I thought it was 4 ‘o’s in Collingwoood that was wrong.
Kinda sums them up really……
Al said | March 19th 2010 @ 8:59am | Report comment
Obviously just a coincedence that he made these commands on the eve of the A-League Grand Final!
More than 7 million Aussies will be following the world cup, AD and his anti-sokkah brigade will have to step aside whether they like it or not.
I’m also so sick of the AFL spruking their game (deliberately injecting a nasty streak of nationalism into their argument) called the “indigenous” game, it was a merely tweaked version of english and irish versions of football, not a game that had been played for tens of thousands of years and created by the indigenous people of Australia. I guess since the offpsring of convicts are now known as “Australians” and have evolved a somewhat distinct culture to Britain, they must be indigenous aswell using the AFL’s perverted logic.
Black Diamonds said | March 19th 2010 @ 11:28am | Report comment
Using the AFL’s perverted logic?
Go and tell the Brazilians they’re just blow-ins from Europe and a derivative culture of Portugal. You’ll be given short shrift and rightly so.
What a bizarre argument you make.
Ken said | March 19th 2010 @ 5:27pm | Report comment
I get your point and not directly backing Al but as a league supporter this gets up my nose a little too – mostly because it feels like it’s being constantly stuffed up there. Rugby League by the way is effectively an Aussie game too – the original game was introduced here more than 100 years ago and it has then been modified extensively here. Scoring changes, limited tackle rules (4 then 6), 40-20′s, 10 metre rule and a myriad of other rules were changed here and then propogated back out to other countries.
Al, I do have to take you up on the ‘convicts’ calling themselves Australians line though. While I’m not descendant of convicts (as far as I know) I’m a white person born here, my family goes back many generations in this great land. Am I not Australian? As far as I’m concerned anyone who genuinely considers themselves an Aussie is OK by me regardless of background or even being a fan of strange foreign sports like soccer…
Al said | March 21st 2010 @ 6:39pm | Report comment
How about being a fan of other strange foreign sports like rugby union and cricket?
keeper11 said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:08am | Report comment
AD and his media acolytes playing the oldest game in Australia…..
To prove my #### is bigger than yours…..
but what do you expect from a insecure village administrator like AD and his clueless village media cheersquad…
time for another backpage with a squashed sockah ball to rally ‘the troops’ me thinks…
JamesP said | March 19th 2010 @ 2:17pm | Report comment
“insecure village administrator like AD and his clueless village media cheersquad…”
Of course – the AFL are amateurish and the FFA and the A-league are soooooprofessional and well run.
Couldn’t even get 4000 people to a final on the gold coast, or 8,000 people to an ACL for the so called best supported team in the Victory.
Just wait until Ben Buckley has a gutfull of all the politics, and crap of running the soccer league and comes back to his true love..
Michael C said | March 19th 2010 @ 2:23pm | Report comment
Buckley’s a Tasmanian,
what are you suggesting…..he’s heading back home to marry his 1st cousin???
MV Dave said | March 19th 2010 @ 3:34pm | Report comment
“Just wait until Ben Buckley has a gutfull of all the politics, and crap of running the soccer league and comes back to his true love..
Ohh yeh swap travelling around the world, dealing with the most powerful people in world sport and being involved in the biggest game on the planet to… travelling between Melbourne and Adelaide, listening to AD or JK whinging and whining about other sports…bet thats really weighing on Buckley’s mind. What a larf!
DB said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:23am | Report comment
Lets see what AD actually is quoted as saying WRT the WC.
“Over the coming years we’ll also have to confront a changing sporting landscape in Australia, we have to be ready for the possibility of the World Cup,”
The AFL has always said we are happy to accommodate major sporting events, we have a track record to prove it.
“But we do not – and will not – accept second place for Australian football.
“We welcome other sports and major events, but we won’t allow seven million fans to be deprived of Australia’s indigenous game, nor put at risk the jobs of so many associated with our game.”
Please tell me what’s so offensive with any thing he said?
Michael C said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:27am | Report comment
DB
look, no idea – - there’s just some whingers who want to attack AD no matter what. It’s a bit boring really.
punter said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:57am | Report comment
Maybe it’s his impeccable timing. His first comment came after the world cup draw & caused a anti-soccer campaign in Melbourne & now on the eve of the football Grand final in Melbourne (between the first sport to have a Sydney v Melbourne rivalry).
Yes lets accomodate other sports, but don’t let them have their day in the sun.
Michael C said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:10am | Report comment
but don’t let them have their day in the sun.
what?? is the Etihad roof going to be closed????
JamesP said | March 19th 2010 @ 2:13pm | Report comment
“on the eve of the soccer grand final” (my edit)
Its the season launch FFS!!
It happens at the same time every year!
deal with it!!
Lu said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:42am | Report comment
He’s just protecting his cash cow..
What other sport in the world does the Administrator get more money than the star player? (yes stole this line off SEN, but sooo true).
Imagine David stern making more money than Lebron James? The Chairman of the FA making more money than Rooney?
Ablett should be making double the money Demetriou is on.. instead he has to seriously contemplate moving north to get a decent pay packet and even then it’s not even close to Demetriou’s figures..
Something NQR right there..
P.S. Go Victory, Go Lions!!!
Dogz R Barkn said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:51am | Report comment
I dunno – I reckon you could come up with a zillion examples where the CEO of a particular sport or League gets more than the highest paid athlete, especially when one considers that for most of the World’s sporting competitions, the athletes involved are lucky to seen any money at all.
Michael C said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:09am | Report comment
and what is too easy to forget, is that most comparisons are simply the head of a league. i.e. Demetriou is both CEO of the AFL league, and also CEO of Australian Football.
Sepp Blatter for example just runs FIFA.
David Gallop for example just runs the NRL.
However – it is a more reasonable point to illustrate that 15 years ago, mid 90s and North Melb were working ways to be able to pay Wayne Carey $1 million, as were Carlton with Kouta etc,
and 15 years later – we speculate that the top couple of players are still only near that $1 million mark.
There has been discussion of a marquee style arrangement or the like – - – and that perhaps needs to be seen in this context rather than disputing Demetriou’s pay packet, because, at the end of the day, Demetriou as AFL/VFL footballer with 103 games had limited skills transferability, but, Demetriou as CEO of the AFL has massive skills transferability. The AFL can’t afford to lose him, or his 2IC……….Ben Buckley getting poached will have burned them.
BigAl said | March 19th 2010 @ 11:02am | Report comment
Uninformed comment
JamesP said | March 19th 2010 @ 2:19pm | Report comment
“What other sport in the world does the Administrator get more money than the star player?”
Its called having a salry cap you dimwit.
If there were no restrictions, Judd, Brown, Ablett, Buddy Frankin etc would be on 2 plus mil a year
AFL need to pay the big bucks to stop their execs being poached
Dogz R Barkn said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:48am | Report comment
At the risk of stating the obvious, isn’t Demetriou just stating the obvious?
Rod said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:56am | Report comment
Would this be the fair and accommodating AD that whinged and Whined and demanded the ARL take down banners across the road from AFL house in Melbourne when the RLWC was on?
StormGal said | March 20th 2010 @ 1:15am | Report comment
That’s true. Arrogant and overpaid imo.
True Tah said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:04am | Report comment
Demetriou’s arguments will fizzle out, he wont be the CEO when the FIFA WC comes to Australia, whenever it may be. At the end of the day, the Federal Govt has chosen futbol, and it will probably pass laws that make it compulsory for the AFL to hand over Etihad to FFA, cancel its season. At the end of the day, I guess FIFA rules Australia!
Beast-A-Tron said | March 19th 2010 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
Are you being facetious?