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Cultural change is always difficult in any organisation, especially so if the leaders want to resist it. When change is demanded or commanded, many people wish to defend the old ways. Often they were part of the old ways and believe it was people not the system that was wrong.
They will grab at even the slightest failure and scream at the top of their lungs at mistakes. However they never apply the same tests to their old ways. It’s part of human nature and not unexpected.
Within this context I have examined SBS, and their football analysis.
First, and to their huge credit SBS, continue to support football and are the only free-to-air TV network to do so. Without SBS and their determination to show the World Cup, football in this country would be nowhere near where it is today.
However anyone holding a unique position with little competition (just look at Telstra) can become opinionated and look down on newcomers.
SBS has been a constant critic of football for as long as I can remember. But to be more correct they have shifted the way they criticise.
In pre A-League days it was often the mismanagement of football and how poor the old Soccer Australia was.
They rarely attacked a coach or a team for the way they played and hardly ever questioned the ethnic management practices of the time.
They bemoaned that we were not in Asia and that Socceroo teams were not getting regular meaningful games. These were all valid points.
Every analysis is judgmental and subjective, further a writer can at times surprise you and write something brilliant and then ten bits of rubbish.
Also an article can have some truth to it, but by leaving out other facts can create a false impression. Hopefully I have been fair to those I have looked at.
SBS’s main opinion writers and commentators are Les Murry, Craig Foster, Tony Palumbo, David Zdrilic, Phillip Micallef, Jessie Fink (recently resigned), and sometimes Francis Awaritefe, and Ned Zelic.
I left out many others as they in the main commentate on overseas football.
What I found is there is a similar pattern between the first few writers, while Francis Awaritefe and Ned Zelic were not in the same mould.
Craig Foster, Jessie Fink, Phillip Micallef and recently David Zdrilic, continually point to the same or similar problems. Rarely do they put forward positive articles, often their issue is reinvented in a new guise in a new article.
I studied Craig Foster both on the SBS web site and SMH site. In just over 30 articles I found two positive, four mixed and the rest negative.
Jessie Fink was almost purely negative. Phillip Micallef mainly negative and David Zdrilic mainly negative
Les Murry writes wishy-washy articles often but not always being critical, and he does change themes every now and then.
Tony Palumbo writes about Italian football and in one of his few A-League pieces said the A-League was about to go broke.
Meaning I guess SBS write and have written mainly negative articles about the FFA and the A-League in particular. It is the culture of SBS to be critical and look for problems.
Its not that SBS does not support football, it’s the tough love approach that I struggle with, especially when compared to the pre-A-League analysis SBS undertook.
Also I doubt if saying the same thing dozens of times actually has any effect, as people become almost conditioned to the issues.
I also wonder are they right, and this is a major concern. Take the arguments that football folk should run football.
First this ignores the many management positions that already have football people in them, and second, was not the NSL run by football folk? Was Con at the Jets not football to his bootstraps?
My conclusion given the recent events with the release of Les Murray’s comments on Lucas Neil is that SBS have no competition and have become opinionated.
They are in need of a top-to-bottom shake up. I for one would love to have Ned Zelic put in charge and allow Les to retire with grace.
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