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Anti-football media take advantage of FFA

Nick S new author
Roar Rookie
28th November, 2015
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David Gallop (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)
Nick S new author
Roar Rookie
28th November, 2015
141
1971 Reads

What a week it has been. Rebecca Wilson’s article has not only set off a wave of emotions but impacted livelihoods, as well as raising serious questions regarding privacy and a fair appeals process.

But make no mistake, as much as football fans can see through the blatant lies and propaganda, the fact is it still impacts the perception of our sport, the ability to draw new fans, and paints us in an unfair and unwarranted light.

Ultimately, however, you cannot solve the problems we have and our portrayal in the media until you identify root causes. And these causes are many.

It comes from an agenda-driven media aligned with other codes and media sensationalism to corporate agendas and a fear of football’s growth. Yet another important cause of the mayhem is the FFA’s policy of appeasing this agenda-driven media.

Call it naivety, stupidity or just plain failure to see the bigger picture, the anti-football media has played the FFA like a puppet on a string. And the FFA has allowed itself to be played and manipulated causing significant damage to our game, the fans and the club.

The stupidity of it all is the FFA’s policy of appeasing an agenda-driven media. By its very nature, you cannot appease an institution that has an agenda against you. You can only feed it. And this could not have been better reflected then through David Gallop’s media announcement earlier this week.

Gallop talked about the FFA’s tough stand and zero tolerance towards trouble makers. No mention of the agenda-driven media. Why expose the very institution that is not only trying to hurt you, but whom you are trying to appease?

Worryingly he even try tried to downplay the leak of the confidential document which is potentially illegal and highly unethical, saying it was not important and we may never know who did it (how about investigating Wilson for your answer). Which makes you wonder what they are trying to hide.

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But ultimately Gallop and the FFA walked into the media’s trap. It is because the FFA is trying to show it is tough on ‘hooligans’ that it has banned (often unfairly) so many individuals. Many times more than the NRL or AFL. In an attempt naively limit the bad press, they played right into the media’s hands, resulting in the media exposé this week on the 198 banned fans.

It was the perfect set up. At the same time the FFA’s need to appease has led it to discard natural justice and a need for a fair trial, putting it at odds with its fans. The media successfully caused division among the football community, again playing the FFA splendidly.

Where was Gallop’s vigorous defence of the fans. Why did he not cite statistics that show that evictions in football games are on par or less than those of AFL and NRL in both real and percentage terms. Why not use facts to fight bias and defend your fans. Even yesterday the article of violent evictions from the SCG Trust showed football at the bottom of the list with the least evictions.

Some of you may have read my social media post about two days after Rebecca Wilson’s article. In it I said it is only a matter of time before she plays the victim card, claiming she is been harassed and hurt by the reaction out there. And like clockwork it happened.

This is the media plan. Write an explosive article, create blowback and then portray yourself as the victim, thus reinforcing the stereotype of the dreaded football hooligan, baying for blood and likening them to terrorists in this climate of fear.

So in the FFA’s quest to appease the unappeasable it has divided a football community, denied its own fans of natural justice, fed into the media fear campaign, helped reinforce unwarranted stereotypes about its own fans, helped ruin livelihoods and made it more difficult to attract new fans to our games, hurting the clubs and football in general. Not bad for a day’s work.

Some of you may have heard of the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who carried a lamp around his town seeking an honest man. Well replace the word town with FFA headquarters and honest man with an intelligent person and I am sure Diogenes would have his work cut out for him.

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