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World Cup bid too big a job for FFA

Roar Guru
27th December, 2009
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1663 Reads

I’ve suggested a few times of late that one of the fatal flaws of FFA’s 2018-2022 World Cup bid is that the FFA, as an organisation, cannot possibly be expected to manage this process alone.

This is due to two reasons. Firstly, they are yet to run the game overly well without Kevin Rudd’s $32 million cash injection into their operational expenses account. Secondly, for a bid so heavily dependent upon the acquiescence of BOTH the AFL and NRL, it is rather naive of our Federal Government to hope or expect the FFA to pull it all together.

Thus, Kate Ellis has all but taken over – announcing a new taskforce to attempt to rescue the bid from looking as much like a waste of Government funds as it seems to be thus far. Is this an attempt to give the bid a realistic chance or just to give the impression of the Government having taken reasonable steps?

In the Fairfax press, Dan Silkstone continued to push the anti-AFL agenda on this. However, between the comments of the AFL (let’s choose to believe even just half of them), and this move by Kate Ellis and co, it suggests: “The FFA says it has met 14 times with the AFL during the past year and a half and that it is mystified by the claims of poor communication and disorganisation coming from Demetriou. True or not, some of that communication will now come from Canberra rather than from soccer’s headquarters in Sydney’s Oxford Street.”

The obvious point is that even now the FFA is unwilling or unable to cover the subject of host city exemptions with FIFA. Perhaps Kate Ellis’ cronies will have better luck.

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