Australia’s Scott McDonald and Iraq’s Haidar Hussain during the Australian Socceroos v Iraq World Cup qualifier. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
You’ve got to hand it Tim Cahill. He might have acted like a plonker in his infamous interview with Melanie McLaughlin, but he’s kept football in the news for the past fortnight. Better than in the news, actually on the front pages.
In fact, the regularity with which the Everton and Australia midfielder makes news has probably made “Cahillgate” redundant as a cover-all.
With any given day you’re not sure what news Cahill is making: allegedly getting into dust-ups with bouncers, having a blue with News Limited, spruiking his kids cancer charity, being the guest of honour at the Johnny Warren Football Foundation dinner and turning up late, having his name linked with Manchester United.
Now he’s making news all over again by confirming to SBS’s The World Game that all is not well inside the Socceroos camp.
This topic has been the talk of football circles for some time now but got forgotten amid our country’s qualification for the 2010 World Cup. For good reasons various journos were too afraid to touch it.
However it was too radioactive to die altogether.
“It doesn’t take rocket scientists to work out what’s happened in the past couple of weeks,” he told Les Murray in an interview to be aired this Sunday, apropos of his own troubles with the press.
“There are players’ agents involved who are very bitter. It’s difficult to explain because you think that you can play football and nothing else matters but factors outside the game do affect the team.
“It’s one of those issues that will definitely be addressed with the FFA and players because it’s something that has made me angry. As a team, when we play we are unbelievable but outside, when it comes to other issues, it’s a little sad.”
Sad and clearly divisive, as evidenced by an email sent by “a big-name player” (or on behalf of that player, if rumours are to be believed) to News Limited last weekend when the fallout from the nightclub affair was still pitting news organisation against football federation with no signs of a ceasefire.
“You don’t go around abusing people and acting like a big-time Charlie,” part of the email read that was published in the Sunday Telegraph and the Herald Sun. “Ever since the World Cup it has just gotten worse and worse. Some of the boys have let the whole superstar thing go to their heads and they act like they are untouchable.
“What gets me is the guys that are doing this sort of thing the most are the ones running around the place and telling everyone how they do this and that for the kids and how they want to be role models.
“It’s a bloody disgrace and I’m glad that people are finally taking it a bit more seriously. If we don’t pull our heads out of the sand and be honest with ourselves, the World Cup will be a disaster.”
Whooah.
Ray Gatt, The Australian’s longtime “soccer” writer, wrote the next day that the email was a “punch that has the power to suck the breath out of the Socceroos and cause a rift in the camp with less than 12 months to the kick off of the World Cup finals in South Africa”.
He’s not too far wrong.
Something has to be done about it but Pim Verbeek, the Australia coach, is currently out of the country. The FFA likely won’t touch it. They’re acting and have been for some time like there’s no issue at all.
Nor can a rapprochement be expected to be brokered from within the playing group, given that elements in and around that group are allegedly the source of all the trouble in the first place.
It’s messy. Decidedly messy. And not good at all for a team going to the World Cup and needing every advantage it can get.
But one thing is clear. Cahill, for all that is said about him, good or bad, has done his country a big favour by publicly acknowledging there is a problem. That’s the first step in resolving it.
It’s now up to the rest of his team-mates to put their differences aside and find some real unity rather than just presenting a united front.
If they can’t do that, then God help us in South Africa.
Dave
Guest
They gave it to Jones over this in the SMH http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/silver-lining-to-fittler-fiasco/2009/06/26/1245961404519.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
GeneralAshnak
Roar Pro
Dave, not always. Also Deepthroat was able to produce corroborative evidence to support what was going on. So far 1 person who is not employed by the newspaper has said that there was an incident. Everyone else who was either there or investigated the ‘incident’ has said that nothing, zero, zilch, happened. Can’t really argue with multiple eye witness accounts can you?
jimbo
Guest
And it just keeps coming from the others . . . http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25702756-5001021,00.html
Midfielder
Guest
Jimbo Agree
jimbo
Guest
Tim Cahill's behaviour has been terrific through all this and I can't imagine many footballers of his age coming through what he has been through in the past few weeks looking much better. This is a real positive for football from many angles. The attention has been great and people like Alan Jones and the CEO of Sanitarium (who make Weet Bix) have stood alongside him and backed him 100%. It certainly hasn't diminished the reputation of Cahill, Verbeek, the Socceroos or the FFA in any way. I think that News Limited has gone over the top in their usual fashion and have not increased their readership or credibility by any degree at all.
Dave
Guest
Realfootball You blame this on a conspiracy theory "...an agenda at the Daily Telegraphy to discredit football..." How do you explain the SBS reporting then?
Joe FC
Guest
Jesse There's no such thing as the perfect marriage, family or club. Despite their differences spouses, families and teams endure & so will the Socceroos.
StiflersMom
Guest
When Guss was in charge the one thing that was obvious is he instilled discipline, nothing was more clear it was his was or the highway. Is it too late for Pim to change tactic and become that rock for the team?
Robbos
Guest
Berbatov was recently criticise by the head of the Buglarian football for not putting in during a recent NT appearance, not something you could ever say about our Timmy.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Guest
No problems, Onside. I'm just more interested in the merits of the article's content, which I disagreed with, than the style (there being a difference). You probably just need to articulate your point of view as you make no specific reference to the content. I apologise for being pedantic however I enjoy the Roar for those moments of insight that posters offer rather than broad comments that reflect points of view that only the poster has insights to. I'd rather learn why posters have a view point than learn that they have them, after all there are interesting people engaging here.
onside
Guest
Ben O'PP My comments neither attack the author ,nor shoot the messenger ,but rather address the style. It is not a contradiction of terms to say,'on the one hand I acknowledge a contrived format that people obviously like as it is very successful ,but on the other hand , I cannot take it seriously.
Luke W
Guest
Dan, That is a good point. I have not been witness to the English media, but I understand they can be very harsh. Although I have to ask the question of would Tim Cahill actually be a news story in England? Over here is a household name, but in the EPL he plays for a mid-tier team (not even one with a glamorous or controversial culture or history) and I can't imagine him being subject to personal attacks. However I agree completely with your comment about not responding would have been the best course of action. P.S. Great analogy of the fighting drunk, by the way.
Dave
Guest
GeneralAshnak Being unable to name sources leads to classic examples of investigative journalism like the ‘Watergate’ affair, and we all have seen how much truth there was to that. thanks to the anonymous source deep throat.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Guest
I'm not sure on that one, Onside. It seems that there a few posters with slightly disconcerting "Fink" fetishes that always comment on the author as opposed to the topic on hand.
onside
Guest
Jesse,The Roar has hit the jackpot with you mate.Pure tabloid. 1.'Who 's derailling the Soccerros express' ,has 42 posts and it is still in pole position 2.'Whats really holding soccer back' , managed a staggering 304 posts 3.'FFA should sanction Cahill for belittling McLaughlin' ,racked up very commendable 184 posts Here is an idea for the next one, 4. 'When did Cahill stop beating his wife'. Cant critisise a writer who has so far racked up over 530 posts via three articles.Ka'ching.Ka'ching. The fans love it. But this formula is not for me.
Viscount Crouchback
Guest
Dan, Good post. I think the EPL Socceroos expect to be worshipped when they arrive back in Australia. The big man returns - that kind of thing. It's a common theme with EPL stars when they return to their home country to play alongside their less heralded international team-mates - e.g. Benni McCarthy and SA, Berbatov and Bulgaria, Roy Keane and Ireland, etc I get the impression that many of them expect a medal for deigning to turn out for their nations.
Dan
Guest
Luke, I'm sure Tim's a nice bloke and all in person, but surely being an English Premier League star he'd have been the subject of false allegations before... I guess personally, I'd have expected someone like him to be thicker skinned and think that his reaction achieved the opposite of what he'd have intended. The Telegraph is like a drunk looking for a fight, it's sometimes just best not to react to them...
Luke W
Guest
Dan- "On Cahill, I think the point was how he reacted rather than whether or not his side of the story was right or not… He really should have just copped it on the chin and gotten on with it, there was no need to insult the reporter in the post match interview (a reporter who had nothing to do with the entire affair)." For anyone who knows Tim Cahill and the way he normally acts with the media and the public, straight away it was obvious this was a beat up. I have met Tim Cahill, and there is not a more down to earth, caring individual in Australian sport. I am sure that if the Daily Telegraph's version of events were true, Tim would be the first to put his hand up and say he had done wrong. No doubt in my mind. But the way Tim responded, as an individual who gives his all to the Socceroos and their fans, showed a man who was made to look completely humiliated by a newspaper that has always had questionable agendas and he took matters into his own hands. I for one applaud Cahill. If he did nothing wrong, which he, the establishment, the police and the FFA all believe, he has no right to apologise, or interact with the media who beat up a nothing story to sell some more papers. As for the interview with Mel McLaughlin, I hope Tim has contacted her to apologise. While she was representing the media who beat up the story, many people watching at home wouldn't have realised this, and thought it was a personal attack. I know it wasn't but Tim should apologise to her for the people that might have.
Robbos
Guest
Touche!!!!!
Dan
Guest
To clarify the above, I was by no means claiming that the Tele's sport was actually balanced, but rather that the "news" sections are so unbelievably unbalanced that the sports section almost looks decent by comparison.