Is Ben Buckley even up to the job?

BEN BUCKLY does not know what football is ,he never played it watched it or loved it ,so he is the wrong man for ffa this is why every thing is going wrong in ffa. Football now is a joke in the media. The national football team is still called the socceroos? If football is to top them all then a football lover and expert must run the ffa, such as FOSTER, or ROBBI SLATER. The name of the league must be changed from A-LEAGUE to AFL ,and socceroos to AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM. Ben Buckly wants to make a spot for some hand stuffs like rugby and gailic hand stuff (which is called afl), which is basicly simillat to rugby comes from gailic cultuer. Replace Ben Buckly today not tomorrow.

A fairly good read. I won't comment to much, as like the rest of us time will tell. I do think a lot will come down to the next TV deal. If the FFA and Buckley can get a deal that will give all A-League a nice cash injection then things will go from strength-to-strength. As for the "Moreover, on his watch, crowds in Hal 4 and 5 have been in decline" - You have to take into consideration that the A-League is a new league/set-up. Have a look over the leagues which where revamped/replaced old leagues etc (MLS, J-League etc) and you will see a pattern. Around the 5th year crowds all/mostly dipped. But then seem to have a nice solid growth from the 7th or 8th season onwards. I can't see why there is any reason why the A-League can't follow suit. Finally, as for "Right now FFA are looking anything but professional" - I agree, the FFA needs a lot of improvement, but in saying that, they have also come a long way.

Lowy is a relic...thats the best laugh Ive had in ages. Lowy has turned a delivery van into a multi billion dollar empire. What has Ben Buckley achieved. Your entire argument seems to be based on the fact that Buckley has an AFL background and therefore has to be the good guy. If Lowy has erred it has been in trusting those lower down the foodchain to deliver and not being hands on enough. But people working in his capacity deal in broad strategic matters. He is the Chairman..detail is dealt with at the level below. I was completely alarmed to hear Buckley talk about surveying potential support and investment on the Gold Coast. The idea that they hadnt done this before allocating the license is beyond belief. MRS..I dont understand your point? 20k stadium as originally planned had no future proofing.Its average percentage capacity will be probably 65/70 % for most games ...better than most venues. Constant Growth? Do you really think a man like Lowy who has operated thru probably 10 boom/bust cycles doesnt understand how business works. My general take on affairs is that all concerned have just stretched themselves too thinly this year. A-league,World Cup, Asian Cup, WC Bid , Youth League, Womens League, New curriculum, new national coach strategy. 7 different national teams. They have a lot on their plate to start with Throw in a lot of unexpected resources , both time and money, taken up sorting out the various club issues and Ithey appear to have been swamped. Making Lowy the bad guy just doesnt make sense. and giving Buckley the white hat for no other reason than because you are an AFL fan makes even less sense.

Agree, it is ultimately not in the clubs interests to be "carried" but if the FFA are going to insist on a franchise model where they are an overbearing franchisor who meddle in the clubs and tell them what the "can't" do and stifle their revenue generating opportunities with the A League clubs as meek Franchisees where the FFA heavily scrutinise their "Business Plans", then you have to lump much of the responsibility with the FFA hierarchy quite frankly. Although we have just been in a startup phase where heavy centralisation is a good idea in order to minimise startup costs, we now need to move beyond that slightly, give the clubs more autonomy and they will have to bear the brunt of responsibility. There has been some reluctance to do this given the perceived "amateurism" of some of the club owners eg FFA taking over Gold Coasts marketing activities, but in some respects the FFA aren't much better in some areas, they obviously couldn't foresee that the pricing structure wasn't going to cut it for A league fans/spectators Having said that, in terms of some negotiations it is good to have the FFA's authority...

Thats why you need to get a rich person who is also a passionate football person. Clive Palmer would never have got involved on a 49% ownership deal. Easier to find in Germany a football country with 80 million population than here though. Thats why the FFA needs to broaden its horizons & look in Asia for investors. One wonders if the GCU deal with a Chinese consortium goes through where Clive fits in. If its 51% to community,nowhere unless hes in partnership under the 49% with the Chinese mob. Will watch the outcome of that if it eventuates with interest.

I thought I read a few weeks back that the $300 mill for TV rights was a done deal??

Good article Mid. I think expansion was done too quickly with the two new Qld teams. The FFA should be concentrating on Consolidating the existing teams. Sydney FC has the biggest catchment yet they were not able to capitalize. In a business sense syd and the roar needed to be doing what MV have done and IMO this was more important than a perhaps panicked / over excited expansion. The whole of the A League is an expansion that is a Huge task to capture the hearts and minds whilst keeping the bean counters happy.

Good post Andrewm - the break even scenario is not far fetched. Football clubs around the world are kept financially viable from TV rights distibution deals. It must be priority for the FFA to get this mooted $300 million - 5 year deal signed asap. Thats $60 million a year. They must give half of that ($30m) to the competing A-League clubs. $2.5 million a year would pay off the salary cap and the clubs could then spend there energies on marketing and running the clubs properly. What are we waiting for Ben??

best part of Midfielders "War and peace"? .. "When reality hits home that the bogan west is still as fickle as the rest of Sydney.." so true it hurts lol.. but seriously.. totally agree with the marketing spend.. $1M would be better spent giving away free tickets to local juniors and families.. Not saying thats the answer.. but it sure beats $1m worth of 30second tv commercials..

Last sentence is what to me is important. Just the luck of the draw. NZ Knights owners Dr Watson, Terry Serepisos, Sherlock Holmes

Thanks Andyroo Good news regarding ticket prices. Regarding the franchise model. Have heard this before. Too much FFA control therefore little flexibility for clubs to use their initiative to improve things.

Re your proposal of a 51/49 split. I can imagine a wealthy person may not mind losing $2 million per annum on something is he controls himself, but he may not be as pleased to lose $1 million per annum on something he has zero control over.

There are obvious issues at the FFA. I don't think the model is right, and this needs to be addressed ASAP.. If I buy a franchise from Macca's I am sure the head office is going to give me everything I need in order to get started... from what I understand the FFA is not giving the teams enough. The model must change to provide clubs more of what they need, less of what the FFA needs. It needs to be established like the bundesliga. Which is a 51% community / 49% private split ownership model. The FFA have made many many positive moves, but I think their lack of direction in terms of "how to run a club" is sorely lacking, and clearly causing issues. It is not just the WC bid which is keeping them busy, they also manage ALL the national teams from juniors through to seniors, men and women, new grass root level changes with small sided games, new coaching guidelines.. seriously the list goes on and on.. They have done some very good things and we shouldnt lose sight of this.. Ben has done a very good job, but he now has to deliever and FIX this issue, and quickly. Just on QLD, I watched fox sports FC last night, and for those who missed it they were talking to one of the new roar owners.. He basically said that ticket pricing was one thing they were fixing for next season as well as more community involvement durign pre season.. Interestingly he said whilst most clubs are losing money, bums on seats, new media deals and club driving sponsorship instead of FFA driven sponsorship would solve the cash flow problems. So break even is a few years away but on the horizon at least.

I’m with MVdave with his point that the HAL has the best footprint of any code in Australia which reflects the over all 30% growth in football attendances and I too support BB he has been good for the FFA. However, I believe the appointment of Archie Fraser has been the negative with his poor decision making and match scheduling or better described as disastrous scheduling––to think we have finished the season short in the most important WC year when we should be finishing the season to assist the National Roo Team Players for South Africa. Then to blame BB for no direction from above, from top is laughable. Sorry Archie I don’t believe you. Also the decision Archie made at the start of the season––after the draw had been made––to shift the draw of Gold Coast’s inaugural first home match to Suncorp to assist the Bris Roar was a slap in the face to the Gold Coast football community, which ignited the highly infamous relationship between the FFA and GCU FC, which Clive Palmer saw as being discriminatory to the GC franchise. Now that Archie Fraser has been pushed sideways we may start to get back on track but the Fury will have to deal with his poor decision making with the first blow being not to retaining Robbie Fowler as player/manager, which is nothing out of the ordinary, but for some obscure reason of Archie’s is not desirable, even when Robbie has agreed to a pay cut. PS, MVDave Chelsea won this morning.. and go 4pt clear at the top of the EPL a double coming up :) ______ AF

I didn't see it only heard about it on 442. Hopefully I will manage to catch the replay at lunch. Apparently Admited pricing increase was a mistake Next season will be back to season 3 prices or lower Want's the ffa to change the franchise model. Basically want's the right to arrange a kit deal with addidas.

mebbe he was an AFL plant all along..........KB??? ;-)

Speaking of the Roar did anyone see Emmanuel Drivas interviewed last night. I didnt, but wondered what he said & how he came across?

NUFCMVFC Dont agree with you at all about the Roar. Or any other club for that matter. The FFA cant be expected to hold the hand of every wayward child. If you continually hold the hand it never lets go,never grows up. Thats why I'm pleased the Coffee club & Luxury paint owners have committed to the Roar. Their responsibility their fault if the Roar goes belly up. Frank Farina ,Craig Moore leaving. Once again their own actions determined their fate. Seems to me following this line of thinking that nobody is responsible for their own actions. If you set fire to the rubbish bin at school blame the teacher,he wasnt watching me at the time. Perhaps the FFA need to sit down & do personality checks on every owner. Big Clive wouldnt have made it personality wise,but had loads of cash so would have business wise. Don Matheson had limited cash another partner initially(pulled out),but great bloke. The only part I agree with is the lack of football nous involved. In theory I would ensure that every owner or consortiium of local businesses had somebody with a deep football background. In practice in this country it aint going to happen. So you make the best of what youve got. Dont see any direct stigmatising going on of the old guard only a game evolving,changing. Believe me Frank Lowy is not sitting there sticking pins in a Les doll . He is fathoming how to get the best outcome for football under his guidance.

I have to agree with a point made by Michael C above, about the interference that is likely to be coming from Lowy. Buckley is an A-grade sports administrator, what's more, he knows the AFL model inside out. That being the case, he would have known all about the peculiarities of Etihad, its contracts, the Medallion club members, the fact that is used for a vast array of ancillary activities (including being the AFL's head quarters) - in other words, Etihad was never a realistic chance of being part of the WC bid. So how on Earth did Buckley get caught out here getting the AFL offside? Clearly he was being pushed from above to do stuff that he would not have done of his own accord - because he is much smarter than that.

The QLD clubs all look bad but that’s with the benefit of hindsight. Private ownership/capital was the accepted model before Buckley came on board and given what’s happened everyone’s making the right noises now about a broader base of investors. I can’t see their being anymore expansion teams based on the one rich guy model (Though it’s worked for WP and Perth). Buckley’s background is from a league where private ownership has a sketchy past and tellingly it’s Oneil’s ARU that were very big on private ownership for the Melbourne Rebels. I thought that was really risky giving what is a very important expansion less funds than the existing teams. However it all seems to have worked out at this stage for them with grabbing Mcqueen (great signing). They rolled the dice and won, football rolled the dice and lost…for now. But I think it would have been a very very big call to say no to Palmer offering to fund expansion into the Gold Coast a couple of years before the AFL arrive (and Palmer had discussions with Lowy). In Nth QLD it didn’t go well but Matheson at least left behind something worth saving. He has half funded the leagues set up of an expansion team into an area that has produced plenty of Socceroos and you could argue the league probably should have paid for Fowler anyway. Certainly you would hope lessons are learnt though. Very positive signs from the Roar recently who unfortunately they really damaged themselves last year. They won’t recover in just one off season but at least they should be moving forwards again now. I am not sure if the price increase was mandated from the FFA, certainly if I was a part of Roar Management I wouldn’t be hiding whose idea that was because it killed their season. Whoever’s idea that was made a really bad call.