Football flexes its new found confidence

Yes, I did comment on the one sentence because it struck me as being utterly ridiculous, and given as it is the same thing that you are prone to doing on countless other threads I felt you needed a dose of reality. I firmly believe that you have no realistic grasp of English football whatsoever, and it irks me to see you attempting to pontificate, as it appears to irk others. Regardless, I admitted that I misread the initial comment, however that is now irrelevant seeing as you admitted that what you had written lent intself to what I had thought it had. In short, your weak grasp of the language and grammar meant that you hadn't actually written what you meant to which leads you with a rather large hole to drag yourself out of. -- 'That’s all you bothered to comment, you had no idea that I was talking about the A-League.' That's guesswork on your part. It strikes me as rather bizarre to think that somebody would merely read only a handful of words. -- 'As you always do, you don’t bother to see what anyone’s point is, you just shoot your mouth off and then when I explain myself and found my argument (I pretty conclusively showed that there are a lot of SPL fans in England with facts, something you haven’t ever done) and I explained this one single line of my comment over 5 comments.' You didn't conclusively show anything at all. I suggest you re-read some of the verbs you used when attempting to 'conclusively prove' your point. I have never used facts? When have I needed to? I don't make broad statements that require empirical evidence. Do you mean facts like where you lived in England, where you sat at Old Trafford, what sport you were professional at, what papers you have written and all other questions that you conveniently avoid. You don't have a pet grasshopper that sits on your shoulder do you? -- 'You are obviously too thick to understand anything without having it spelled out for you which is why I have to explain the correlation between Germans & Scottish ex-pats, just for you because you are simply too thick to see that wasn’t at all my point, go back and READ what I wrote, don’t ask ridiculous questions and wonder why I call you a troll when you’re contribution consists of “absolute droll”.' Right... (Btw, it's very poor sentence structure to use thick twice, and in the manner that you do.) I didn't ever type the words 'absolute droll'. (Btw, not " but '. You see?) Now, let's compare: 'The Bundesliga is the main league for the main sport in Germany, people here aren’t interested in foreign leagues (in England there are a lot of SPL fans for example) and people follow teams from birth more-or-less.' The correlation is what exactly? Is English your first language? I don't recall any of the below being mentioned in the rant that began with the above paragraph: 'In Germany, football is the main sport and the Bundesliga is the only league ANYONE cares about. In England, there are still a lot of SPL fans because of the large migrant Scottish population who do not give up their affiliation with Rangers & Celtic as it has as much to do with religion as it does football. Germany too has a huge migrant population but the Turkish kids here aren’t all Gala or Besiktas supporters, they support German teams and that was my point, in Germany, no-one cares about any other league, the Turkish and Eastern European migrants adopt local German teams, it’s all about the Bundesliga or even the Second and third tiers…' It's surely a coincidence that you didn't actually write any of that, because to the trained eye what you said is that Germans don't follow non-German football, but English people follow the SPL, but then I suppose you've already admitted that. 'The Bundesliga is the main league for the main sport in Germany, people here aren’t interested in foreign leagues (in England there are a lot of SPL fans for example) and people follow teams from birth more-or-less.' Anyway, beside all that silliness you're attempting to contrast Scottish immigrants to Turkish immigrants. On what basis and why?

No, as usual you simply didn't read what I wrote. It's obvious and don't claim you did anything but, you saw what I wrote in the recent comments and saw one sentence and commented on it: "(in England there are a lot of SPL fans for example) Absolute dross." That's all you bothered to comment, you had no idea that I was talking about the A-League. As you always do, you don't bother to see what anyone's point is, you just shoot your mouth off and then when I explain myself and found my argument (I pretty conclusively showed that there are a lot of SPL fans in England with facts, something you haven't ever done) and I explained this one single line of my comment over 5 comments. You are obviously too thick to understand anything without having it spelled out for you which is why I have to explain the correlation between Germans & Scottish ex-pats, just for you because you are simply too thick to see that wasn't at all my point, go back and READ what I wrote, don't ask ridiculous questions and wonder why I call you a troll when you're contribution consists of "absolute droll". One last time, just for you because everybody else understood apart from you. In Germany, football is the main sport and the Bundesliga is the only league ANYONE cares about. In England, there are still a lot of SPL fans because of the large migrant Scottish population who do not give up their affiliation with Rangers & Celtic as it has as much to do with religion as it does football. Germany too has a huge migrant population but the Turkish kids here aren't all Gala or Besiktas supporters, they support German teams and that was my point, in Germany, no-one cares about any other league, the Turkish and Eastern European migrants adopt local German teams, it's all about the Bundesliga or even the Second and third tiers... Now getting back to the original point... Hence for Mike Tuckerman to compare the Bundesliga and the A-League is pointless. Australian's care more about other codes than the A-League and more about other football leagues than the A-League. Germans only care about the Bundesliga and as such, how can one compare the two? Is that simple enough?

yes, there has been some positive movement recently between the mfc/mcc. thank god. mfc now offers two tiers of joint mfc/mcc membership (basically a glorified donation to the club, starting from the princely sum of $50pa). this has played a major role in the drastic increase in membership for the club over the past couple of years. the mfc is also, i believe, once again being considered a division of the mcc (as it originally was in 1858 or whenever it was formed), albeit in a much more autonomous role. through these and other measures, the jim stynes-led board has surely secured the survival of the mfc for at least the next dozen years or so. god bless him, and here's hoping for a full recovery.

Excuse me, can you stop being so glibly rude. The fact of the matter is that I misread something you wrote, however your utterly appalling comprehension of the English language was deeply misleading which means that technically I was correct. You have some outstanding nerve to suggest that I come trolling when you appear to spend your rather conflicted Roar life writing churlish rubbish on other people articles, something that quite a few people have picked up on. I asked you a basic question and the reason you haven't given me a decent answer beyond your usual witless juvenile sarcasm is because you have written a load of rubbish. What on earth does a collection of Scottish ex pats living in England have to do with the lack of willingness of German people to accept foreign sport? Absolutely nothing. The usual.

Actually, I thought the two tier stand went in 1999. But I will stand corrected (partially) on the cost. When asked in parliament who paid for the upgrade of Subiaco Oval and its facilities, the Minister for Sport and Recreation said "The cost of this facility has been met by the WAFC with the assistance of the State Government, which has committed to contributing $1.5 million p.a. for each of 20 years." So while the cost to the WAFC would depend on how quickly they could return the principal, some cost there would have to have been (I'll keep my cynical nature in check wrt to how much it sounds like an interest free loan, and how easily a balloon payment could be vanished into the cost of future upgrades).

I mean mate, if you're going to throw stones, you got be squeaky clean. This is the 'Australian' game, you don't want the rest of the world to think you got to the top via funding from the national government stomping on the lesser lights like ARU, the NRL or the FFA. This is Un-Australian.

No sources on the 8 week stoppage of AFl didn't stop you slandering our WC bid. No source on how the FFA was going to spend the $46M for the WC bid, didn't stop you talking about the funding FFA gets. Hey I'm not incorrect, I don't know, I'm just going on what I read in the newspaper. $450m unbelievable considering the ridicule you gave football for it's funding. As AndyRoo said as least Redb admitted it & thinks AFL deserves it, but this holier than thou crap (another AndyRoo comment)...WOW.

They might be able to, and perhaps it is different at other grounds, but in the case of Subi the crowds definitely haven't, don't and won't pay for the structure even if they could. The ground was built entirely by the government and then basically gifted to the WAFC. Everyone who then uses the ground; AFL teams, RU teams, Andre Rieu, etc; all pay a ground rent of various sizes for the use of the facility. Other than the ground maintenance budget, all rents and concession revenues etc then wind up in the WAFC coffers and are used for funding the WAFL and amateur game etc. As I interpret it, things were set up that way to separate the amateur Rules game (controlled by the WAFC) from the two professional teams (both owned by the WAFC). Last thing they wanted to do was confuse the money made by the Eagles/Dockers with the WAFC status as a "not for profit sports association". It might make it hard to justify their ground rents if they were clearly rolling in it - their own numbers put the contribution of RU to grassroots Aussie Rules at $3.5M a year. Much better to be able to cry poor and ask the government for money for ground upgrades. Certainly much better than moving to a better facility, but one that they might not get for free.

Sources or facts have never stopped you running with it before. I clearly remember you being up in arms about the $46M the government gave to FFA for the WC bid, not a handout to football in this country, but to bid for an int'l event, without doubt the biggest sporting event in the world. But this didn't stop you from proclaiming that football gets all this funding etc & AFL gets nothing. You ran with FIFA wanting an 8 weeks stoppage of AFL on the wimps of a newspaper article, no facts, no sources, why do you need sources now. It clearly states in the article $450m have been given to AFL through 3 tiers of government, yet during this time a sport that really needed funding & the sport that you criticise so much on the funding it recieves, only $77m of which $46M is for an int'l event. A sport that has many levels of National sporting teams that needed funding as they represent their country. How does AFL get any funding when they have no national team Pip, I ask you? How is the tax payer money justified when they don't repesent this country? What does the NRL fans think of this? No wonder AFL has taken over the NRL as the most popular sport in Australia!!! I would be up in arms if I was a NRL fan, the legup the government gave AFL in it's fight with AFL, at least the NRL has a national team. As a football fan, I'm not too happy too..

given Cockerill was whinging about Fed funds going to the SANFL for community facilities, I wonder - I just checked the (Association) Football Fed Vic and see things like: "THE State Government has today announced funding of $5.7 million for new and upgraded football facilities and pitches through the new Strengthening of the World Game program. The news comes on the back of $7million of state funding for a new football/basketball facility in Wantirna South, and almost $3 million of federal funding towards a multi-million upgrade of the Kingston Heath Soccer Complex in Cheltenham. " or, doesn't funding to FFV count, but funding to the SANFL does?? COckerill must have a sore arm from stretching such a long bow......

I don't object to the money being spent, it was only the holier than thou attitude that bothered me. Unless we follow the English model of own and build your own then everyone has their snout in the trough to some degree. I wouldn't blink twice if the lions were filling the gabba and the state government decided to add 20k seats. I have no problem with the money being spent to cater for sport. The Carrara redevelopment should bring in a few holiday goers from Victoria, we have seen that with skilled stadium even the A league team has helped the states ecconomy. Developing Carrara stadium is for the benefit of AFL no doubt about it. On a cost benefit basis it's probably worth it for QLD too though.

I thought the point was that Cockerill is fudging figures and getting them entirely wrong. Are you willing to admit that his assertion that the Fed Govt gave the AFL $77 million for the MCG is wrong. (i.e. on both the facts that it was State and NOT federal, and that the money went to the MCC - and on any logic then should be attributed to Cricket and not AFL).

I cannot believe my eyes, for years Pip has told me that the AFL never received a cent from the government & now the truth comes out. He was full of criticism, as expected, about football recieving funding, for a WC bid an int'l event that would benefit all of Australia, & claiming that Football gets funded & AFL is truly self funded. I am totally devasted, all these years I believe you Pip. 450M wow.. and there is no national team to cater for all Australians, just this pretense that it's the 'Australian' game. I want my taxes back now!!!!!!

I agree with you AndyRoo, I much rather Redb's response. They can't have it both ways, they can take an article from Michael Lynch & run with it as gospel because it suits them & now discredit another journalist quoting the truth.