Except that it isn’t true.
None of the WSW fans were recruited by the immigration department. They follow a team and follow a game voluntarily because they love it and would rather watch WSW than GWS..

Unless you are a full blooded aborigine then we are all migrants or descendants of migrants.

He is singling out Australians who follow soccer as foreigners or wogs – that’s racist and untrue.

In another public comment, he also brilliantly claimed that soccer was only followed by boat people.

This person represents you as an AFL fan.

Most people are going to see Man U not the all stars.

The game was sold out before they even announced the All Stars coach let alone any players.

Like LA Galaxy, most people wouldn’t even remember the scores, they just remember David Beckham was here.

There’s no problem with making this a regular event if they get the right drawing cards as opponents.
Otherwise use a smaller venue.

Its a great idea and long may it last.

Since David Moyes has taken over Man United, what about Tim Cahill as a guest player for the All Stars?

They could all have a nice little drink after the game.

Most football fans, myself included, have no problem whatsoever with SM or any other former NSL giants joining the A-League.

The problem is the people who own and run the A-League don’t want clubs like SM in it. The FFA is also not in the mood for any expansion teams at the moment.

Put your team and plans together, get it all sorted, do well in the VPL and the FFA Cup and then come back in about 3 or 4 years with a bid to join the A-League. Its pointless going on about it right now.

Interesting article from Mike Cockerill out west and a test case for your theory
http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/cockerill-opinion-display/A-chance-for-sanity-to-prevail/66762

I think its more likely that there will be trouble again at A-League games and the FFA Cup next season, but its no reason to call the whole thing off.

I’m sure the FFA will continue to manage it and keep it rolling along.
The culprits are usually the big minority and they will be weeded out.

The vast majority will enjoy it and have a great time, especially if they go all the way to the final, one knockout game at a time.

I think Murphy will be the winner as he starts invoicing Singo, Johns and the Brothel owners for legal services rendered in defence of one’s honour.

There may even be a class action from everyone who bet on More Joyous that day. 🙂

Conflict of interest, insider trading and damage to professional standing for starters.

AS a westie in Sydney I’ve had a look at the AFL out of curiosity, but its not the game that struck me, it was the advertising and publicity.

The way they were going on, you’d think that Manchester United were moving into town and that Sheedy fella, boy can he talk up the game and the giants – I see why they made him the coach.

This is a good article and exemplifies the way the AFL will act.
I didn’t know they had over 100 people working in their media department, but I’m not surprised.

Some of the things coming out of this are quite unbelievable really and the AFL are keeping a good lid on things as they do.
I too suspect Demetriou is not telling us all what’s really going on.

Paul,
I don’t think SMH could buy an A-League club without the FFA’s knowledge, its more the way they are going about it trying to pick up a cheap Licence.

As far as I am aware SMH are the club who had discussions with CCM about relocating to Melbourne or Geelong and selling shares or control of the club and the A-League licence to SMH.

And SMH are also the club who had discussions with MH about selling 100% of the club and their A-League licence for 3.5M.

As far as I am aware they have not had any discussions with the FFA.

Don’t like the way South Melb Hellas are behaving and trying to do things on the cheap and behind FFA’s back.

They are circling clubs that they think are in financial difficulties like vultures and offering them a fraction of what they are worth to see how desperate they are to sell.

If they think they can run an A-League club with 3.5M then they have no real idea about the A-League financial model and what it takes to run an A-League club.

The FFA have already told them that they can’t have an A-League licence and CCM and MH have rejected their miserly offers twice already – lets move on and consolidate with the great competition that’s developing with the teams we have.

None of the current clubs are pulling out of the A-League and instead are looking forward to increased money from the FFA and more revenues.

thanks jb
an A-League licence fee is 5M – that’s what Tinkler had to pay when he took over the Jets
http://www.ausleisure.com.au/default.asp?PageID=2&ReleaseID=5770&Display=True

And that’s what the Rovers baulked at the 5M licence.

SMH’s 3.5M bid is to take over an established club and falls well short.
Its a bit of an insult to the hard work done by MH to get to the stage where they are making a profit with such a small budget and attendances.

SMH would need about 10M to start an A-League club when you add in licence fee, players wages, gear, advertising, marketing, W-League, Youth League, staff, training facilities, ground hire, travel expenses, steroids and performance enhancing drugs 🙂 etc etc.
Good luck if they can get in the A-League one day.

I’m not predicting any growth figures, I’m just saying if the A-League doesn’t continue to grow the FFA have said they will not add any more A-League teams till at least after 2015.

And despite a packed house there were no reports of crowd trouble or ethnic violence between the Marconi Italians and the Serbian Eagles.

Oakleigh Cannons are also a Melbourne Greek club and are a breeding ground for A-League players and maybe they should merge with MH instead.
http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news-display/oakleigh-a-fertile-breeding-ground/66454

A-League draft system won’t work.

Discovering and developing new talent and the next Mark Viduka or Harry Kewell and selling them for a large profit keeps clubs like CCM and MH afloat, They wouldn’t be able to build their Youth Academy or Centre of Excellence if they didn’t.

Also the very best talent in the country aren’t going to stick around in the A-League long enough to reward the clubs that might draft them.

The very best ones will even bypass the A-League altogether and go straight to the Benfica Youth team or West Ham or Milan Youth Academy or some other overseas youth set up and never be drafted.

Also with no promotion or relegation, a salary cap with limited youth player payments and the explosion of gambling on football, it won’t be long before teams start losing on purpose to get better draft picks and make a bit of money on the side by throwing matches.

The system we have, with the occasional marquee players and volatile transfer market and players leaving to better themselves overseas, is what we are stuck with for a while yet and in the end it seems to work out OK.

And honestly can’t see the A-League ever making or paying enough money to keep our best young players in Australia.

Greeks aren’t violent people and being Greek is not the problem. There are violent people in all nationalities.

It’s the minority trouble making football fans that are the problem and all A-League clubs have them.
Gradually they are weeded out, banned and clubs live by the rules and get on with it.

South Melbourne didn’t offer enough money and I wouldn’t have sold to them either. 3.5M may seem a lot but it doesn’t even meet the FFA’s minimum 5M to start a new franchise. For an established franchise they would want a lot more. You are looking at 15-20M if you want to buy WSW.

There’s not enough room for another A-League club in Melbourne or the A-League so no chance of SMFC getting their own A-League franchise either.
FFA wants to consolidate the 10 teams for at least another 2 years. If we experience the same growth over the next couple of years then maybe we can afford 2 more teams in 2015.

With the FFA Cup coming in 2014, you are going to get a lot of ethnic match ups and you will see ethnic rivals playing each other with some wanting to cause trouble. Gallop and the FFA must have a plan of how to deal with it, otherwise it could be a PR disaster and cause some harm to football and the A-League.

The press are just waiting for some action, like they did following WSW fans around and filming them.

I hope it doesn’t sound like whingeing Fussball because I ‘m really excited about the upcoming season and the SBS coverage.

Just wondering how the Fri night games are going to be selected and what influence SBS or Foxtel have with FFA in the scheduling.

I’m sure we will be very interested when the fixture list comes out and I can start planning my social calendar for 2013-14.

I don’t know it its pointless Towser.

What if we get the situation like on Channel 9 when 18 of the 24 Broncos NRL games are shown live on a Friday night?

What if we have 20 of the 27 Friday night A-League games featuring MV or SFC and what about their fans that can’t go to games on a Friday night?

Because of time differences Mid, you won’t get any PG, WP or AU home games live on SBS.

Good points kellett and don’t get me wrong, I think its great that SBS are showing Friday night live games.

I’m excited and at the same time curious as to what Friday night games we will get.

I don’t think its an ethnic decision, I imagine its a business decision.

Why didn’t he mention football and the Wanderers?

Its not a battle with Penrith or the NRL that AFL need to win.

Thanks Fussball,
then why do Heart make a profit?

Exactly Fuss its a national broadcast and SBS are unlikely to cater for a local game and its impact on attendances.

But I suspect Fox and SBS will want the highest TV rating teams and markets to feature as often as possible.

Good point Michael,
who knows what will happen by the season’s end and if Wellington are playing Perth in Round 27 for the Premiership decider?

Anyway that’s the same for all competitions when the draw is set, because it won’t be changed.

WIll be very interested to see the fixture list when its released by FFA and what Friday night games we are getting.

If I’m not at the game, I’m certain to be at home watching on SBS.

Spot on.
Because of the time difference and that the Friday Live game will be shown at the same time every week, Perth, Wellington and Adelaide home games will not be shown live on SBS, so there will be no Friday night home games for these clubs, assuming Fox and FFA retain their only one game every Friday format.

It also means you won’t see PG v WP or PG v AU or AU v WP as the Friday night live game.

These clubs will only appear live on FTA in away games to the clubs on the Eastern seaboard of Australia, which in itself raises some interesting questions about interest, ratings potential etc..

Exactly,
Sydney has the biggest TV market by far and SFC were actually the highest rating team on Fox last season, especially with ADP signing on for another season.

Thanks Dave,
I’m hopeful that it doesn’t impact attendances either and that exposure on SBS will even increase the number of fans, especially when 4 of the 5 games are still only on Fox.

Maybe the SBS broadcasts will even increase Foxtel subscriptions if it whets their appetites and they want to see more A-League?

Its important though that the FTA games are of good quality and entertainment value.