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Rival football codes create much of the negativity about football in Australia because they feel threatened, Adelaide United coach John Kosmina says.
Kosmina dismissed concerns for the future of football, but called for the A-League to consolidate after losing their Gold Coast club and Nathan Tinkler returning his ownership licence of Newcastle Jets.
“Nathan Tinkler might find out that you don’t dirty your own nest – which is what he has done,” Kosmina said on Friday.
“It’s great for him to be a proud Novacastrian but you back it up with actions, not just talk about it.
“And he has certainly really done the wrong thing by the local football community.”
Kosmina said football was healthy in Australia despite the current controversies.
“A lot of the negativity comes from the rival codes,” he said.
“And people that generally throw knives at other people feel threatened by those people.
“And I’d say certainly in this case, the AFL never miss a chance to have a dig – the NRL are probably a bit more subtle about it.
“… And I’ll be blunt – you guys in the media probably jump on the bandwagon of the other sports because they have got a bit more clout than we have.”
Kosmina said A-League clubs needed to rein in spending.
“If you throw money at things, generally you just have to throw more at it,” he said.
“And it doesn’t get better – it gets worse and you create more problems that you need to solve.
“So consolidate – maybe everyone should just look at how they go about their business.”
Kosmina believed professional sport worldwide wasn’t viable.
“How much money did the (AFL club) Gold Coast Suns lose last season? – I heard a number of $23 million touted around,” he said.
“Gold Coast Titans in the NRL – $27 million in the red … Manchester United – half a billion pounds in the red.
“So is professional sport viable?
“No it’s not. It relies on benevolent billionaires. That is how it survives all around the world.”
But he cautioned about giving the billionaires too much power.
“How far do you bend over?” Kosmina said.
“You have got to give people respect. But that doesn’t mean they’re allowed to disrespect you back.”
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April 14th 2012 @ 7:24am
Crashy said | April 14th 2012 @ 7:24am | Report comment
Agree somewhat but the gc suns can lose money as long as the af turns over 300 million a year. The FFA gets about 70 mil so are worlds apart- its al relative.
April 14th 2012 @ 8:07am
Brian said | April 14th 2012 @ 8:07am | Report comment
Paranoid much……..
April 14th 2012 @ 8:25am
The Cattery said | April 14th 2012 @ 8:25am | Report comment
Just because we’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get us!!
April 14th 2012 @ 10:29am
BigAl said | April 14th 2012 @ 10:29am | Report comment
I think Kossie wants all the kiddies to start playing Simon Smells again
April 14th 2012 @ 8:30am
Titus said | April 14th 2012 @ 8:30am | Report comment
Well there certainly seemed to be a celebratory mood in the world of AFL/NRL/Rugby with the troubles at the Jets.
Even moved some of their media arms to take an interest in Football.
April 14th 2012 @ 2:44pm
BigAl said | April 14th 2012 @ 2:44pm | Report comment
Titus . . . would you be able to help stam with his query, which I repeat here . . .
“stam said | April 14th 2012 @ 11:59am | Report comment
Does anyone have a link where the afl has even commented on the recent aleague woes?
Reply”
?
I also would be interested in what you can present.
April 14th 2012 @ 7:14pm
ManInBlack said | April 14th 2012 @ 7:14pm | Report comment
exactly right – the last time any AFL folk cast an eye towards soccer in Australia was the WC bid and prior to that fixturing clashes as Etihad stadium – - which put the HAL at a similar level to the AFL’s concerns over AC/DC at Etihad too. Ironic that given AC/DC are now the theme of the AFL.
April 14th 2012 @ 8:04pm
Titus said | April 14th 2012 @ 8:04pm | Report comment
I have no idea BigAl, I was going mostly by the mood of AFL/NRL/Rugby commentors on various sites, that and the fact that all of a sudden Football was all over the media, and it wasn’t because it was finals time.
April 14th 2012 @ 8:09pm
BigAl said | April 14th 2012 @ 8:09pm | Report comment
. . . well – there you go then.
April 14th 2012 @ 9:05pm
ManInBlack said | April 14th 2012 @ 9:05pm | Report comment
mainstream media thrives on train wrecks.
April 14th 2012 @ 8:33am
stevo said | April 14th 2012 @ 8:33am | Report comment
If you want to strip away the spin and get down to tin tacks, Saint Kossie is your go to man. Keep punching man!
April 14th 2012 @ 8:48am
seanmaguire said | April 14th 2012 @ 8:48am | Report comment
How can he say it’s healthy when two clubs have closed down in the last year and Tinkler wants to close down Newcastle as well? The game won’t go extinct, but it’s definately the worst point in the history of the A League and tilting at windmills won’t change that. You’d hope that the next tv rights deal includes some free to air coverage so they can get some more exposure.
He’s right about the billionaires though they all seem a little crazy. Maybe they should impose a weight limit on them, the bigger they are the madder they seem.
April 14th 2012 @ 9:07am
pete4 said | April 14th 2012 @ 9:07am | Report comment
I stopped caring what the other codes thought a long time ago. I think the other codes have envy for our game because the number of participants is more than all 3 put together and down the track their worry is they’ll end up suffering because of it . More often than not that’s why you’ll only ever see negative press concerning soccer.
April 14th 2012 @ 10:08am
Bearfax said | April 14th 2012 @ 10:08am | Report comment
If soccer fails again in this country, it will be because of its own problems, not because other codes are competing with it. Saying other codes have it in for soccer (football sorry) is just saying the bleeding obvious of an yfootball code competing against another. League and Oz Rules have much more animosity between them than either would for Football, which of course is played in a different season and therefore not competing so much for supporters.I dont think that League, Union or Oz Rules ‘envy’ Football anywhere near the envy they feel regarding each other.
No. A League is a top competition and I for one hope it succeeds and thrives because I happen to like League, Union and So….sorry Football, and I hope some day the latter sport comes close to performing like many an English first division side, or top European or South American side. I certainly have no envy regarding Football here in Oz because it still has a long way to go before it threatens to become the top football code in Oz (despite the large number of kids that play it here).
If it fails, it will have absolutely nothing to do with other codes. It will be because of problems within. Its first big test is how to control the attempted interference of the money people, who offer much financially, but little in sensible criticism. How it handles that will determine if A League fails or moves to a next level of strength and respect in this country.
April 14th 2012 @ 11:37am
jbinnie said | April 14th 2012 @ 11:37am | Report comment
Bearfax Congratulations on a fine offering that crosses all the T’s and dots the I’s. Well done. jb
April 14th 2012 @ 12:23pm
stu said | April 14th 2012 @ 12:23pm | Report comment
Bearfax…do we really need to continue the ‘soccer’ v ‘football’ thing. I really don’t care either way but i am also sure we (except for the very small minority) are over it. naturally this does mean we should be free to call it football as NRL/AFL and ARU are free to call their codes ‘football’. Time to move on.
April 14th 2012 @ 1:12pm
Bearfax said | April 14th 2012 @ 1:12pm | Report comment
You missed my intent. It was no criticsim, it was expressing my own uncetainty as to what to call the colde without upsetting people sensibilities. I’ll call it Fredball if you wish, but that was not the real focus of what I was saying. I’m happy to call the sport whatever is preferred rather than getting nto this obvious political correctness dilemma.
April 14th 2012 @ 7:18pm
ManInBlack said | April 14th 2012 @ 7:18pm | Report comment
when engaged in a multi code discussion – disambiguation surely is called for –
so, using the ‘football’ term in respect to anyone code can variously been seen as needlessly ambiguous, unclear, uncertain verging on disrespectful, ignorant or arrogant.
Certain websites sit somewhere along that scale.
April 15th 2012 @ 12:19am
Titus said | April 15th 2012 @ 12:19am | Report comment
If you use a capital “F” when talking about Football, as it is the name of the game, then it is quite easy to seperate it from the generic term of football which includes the various codes of football.
It really shouldn’t be that difficult.
April 15th 2012 @ 12:29am
Nanjinger said | April 15th 2012 @ 12:29am | Report comment
..except when they also have as much historical right to a captial ‘F’. Call it whatever you want, just don’t deny others the right to do so with their own code.
April 15th 2012 @ 1:48pm
Whites said | April 15th 2012 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
You can’t take away someone’s long standing right to use a capital “F”.
April 16th 2012 @ 6:41am
Bearfax said | April 16th 2012 @ 6:41am | Report comment
I’ll have to watch my Ps and Fs then will I?
April 15th 2012 @ 7:50pm
apaway said | April 15th 2012 @ 7:50pm | Report comment
Great summary Bearfax. The challenge for the round ball game is, and always has been, how to harness the huge numbers of participants and turn even a small percentage of them into rusted on fans of the A-League.
April 14th 2012 @ 10:13am
Commo said | April 14th 2012 @ 10:13am | Report comment
The Gold Coast Suns made a profit due to the deal that Andrew Demetriou made for them with Metricon Stadium. This bloke should get his facts straight when trying to sell European Football to Australians. By the way, I think Andrew Demetriou’s Trojan horse (Ben Buckley) is doing a great job.
April 14th 2012 @ 11:11am
seanmaguire said | April 14th 2012 @ 11:11am | Report comment
I don’t know about that Commo, the Suns may have made a “profit” but the AFL lost $30+ million or so setting them up and supporting them. I’d imagine a fair bit of that loss was from the Suns startup costs.
April 14th 2012 @ 7:27pm
ManInBlack said | April 14th 2012 @ 7:27pm | Report comment
cost benefit analysis for the AFL re the Suns includes such cost as the ‘promotional’ component of Karmichael Hunt’s salary. The benefit in ‘promotion’ has well exceeded the cost – however, perhaps not measurable on the balance sheet.
The AFL had obvious start up costs which includes investment in stadia in both Gold Coast (and Blacktown for the Giants) and other facilities and set up.
We know that each club gets a distribution that pretty well covers the total player payment under the salary cap. So, the operational costs for the off-field running of the club is revenue needing to be generated.
The BIIIIIGGG advantage they have is the management of Metricon. They will make money on relatively low crowds. Contrast to North Melb who lose money on 26,000 at Etihad (even if only a few thousand loss) compared to Geelong who clear over half a mill on a similar size crowd at Kardinia park.
Point of this is – economic viability varies vastly depending on circumstances. The HAL has a challenge to improve it’s business model. For the AFL, the Etihad business model kinda sucks – but, ultimately, the AFL assumes 100% ownership and then the ability to print it’s own money. For now, it’s not so much the great deal for Metricon. it’s that for too long the 2 most expensive AFL venues to play at were the MCG and Etihad. (contrast to the better deals offered by the 100% Govt funded AAMI stadium across the tracks from the ‘G).
April 15th 2012 @ 8:36pm
Nathan of Perth said | April 15th 2012 @ 8:36pm | Report comment
This is an important concept; West Coast Eagles FC with their clean stadium arrangement earn more from their game day attendance than any other sporting team in the country, even Collingwood despite the latter’s larger call.
Not all attendance is equal because the efficacy of the stadium arrangements are all different.
April 14th 2012 @ 11:34am
jbinnie said | April 14th 2012 @ 11:34am | Report comment
Commo- back to the Steppes for you pal & then you may find,if you go via South America,Central America,North America, North Africa and Asia you will find it is not “European Football” it is “WORLD football. Get the message loud and clear. jb
April 15th 2012 @ 12:37am
Nanjinger said | April 15th 2012 @ 12:37am | Report comment
No one would argue its not the biggest game in the world, but you sound more desperate than convincing when you ‘shout’ jbinnie.
April 15th 2012 @ 9:45am
jbinnie said | April 15th 2012 @ 9:45am | Report comment
Nanjinger = Your observation is just slightly ambiguous,you say it is the biggest game in the world then accuse me of being desperate when I ‘shout” I take it you mean my use of capitals to stress the word “world”. (a recognised way of stressing a word in print). I wanted to emphasise that word for Commo obviously thinks it is a game only played in Europe.Agree?
On another vein I wrote in these columns a few weeks ago that the greatest “foe” facing AFL and NRL in this country is not the game itself (the top teams play at different times in the year) but the attraction that is growing on the electronic media from all across the world,in other words the two major codes are being repeated over and over when there is an almost endless supply of “fresh” football matches coming in to the country from all around the world and what you must never forget is that Australia,with it’s multi -cultural population policy has a ready made audience for much of this product.
Desperate?,I think not, but someone who can face the facts, a definite yes. Cheers jb
April 15th 2012 @ 11:57pm
Queensland's Game is Rugby League said | April 15th 2012 @ 11:57pm | Report comment
“football matches coming in to the country from all around the world and what you must never forget is that Australia,with it’s multi -cultural population policy has a ready made audience for much of this product.”
So how come SBS isn’t outrating Seven, Nine and Ten?
Because less than 15% of Australians are from mainland Europe, Asia, Africa, South America. That’s why Nine, Seven and Ten will never pay big bucks for the EPL, Spanish La Liga, French League, Bundesliga, etc.
April 16th 2012 @ 5:35am
j binnie said | April 16th 2012 @ 5:35am | Report comment
QGiRL -I’ll try and answer your questions in a comprehensive manner. You ask about SBS.? Most football (soccer in your mind) is contracted to FOX,hence SBS does not,or cannot, compete with 7.9.or 10.
Like many others I do have paid TV and at the press of a button can watch “soccer” games from a multitude of countries if I choose, just like you could source RL games from the Northern counties of England if you so choose.
Now your second point,the breakdown of Australia’s population, is an extremely debatable point.I was of course referring to today’s multi -cultural government policy of growth,allowing people into the country to live for various reasons. You have chosen to ignore this and cited a figure no doubt from a population analysis. Might I ask you to cite the figures on what are commonly known as “first”, “second” or even “third” generation Aussies. I could go back even further but I think you will get my drift. jb
April 14th 2012 @ 11:49am
Evan Askew said | April 14th 2012 @ 11:49am | Report comment
While I agree that their are interests out there who have it in for football it is not a good move to come out and blame other football codes for our present problems in the A league. I do believe that John Kosmina is the greates Polish Australian though and should be declared king of Australians of Polish descent, and he can have Magda Subanzki as his cleaning maid and a harem with Natalie Gruzlewski, Wanda Waziliwska and the blonde chick from Chuck. Though I feel Mrs Kosmina may have a problem with the latter suggestion!