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Dustin Martin of Richmond looks to clear the ball during the AFL Round 01 match between the Richmond Tigers and the Carlton Blues at the MCG, Melbourne. Slattery Images
Paranoia? Or position vindicated? In late 2009, the whole issue of Australia’s Football World Cup bid hit the headlines, like it hadn’t before.
It had simmered for a little while. However, reports surfaced in October suggesting that rival codes would have to shut down for up to eight weeks and vacate host cities.
There were some headlines about NRL club revolts and David Gallop regarding the propositions as “not workable”.
The AFL held firm with their line of “support in principle, need to see the detail”. But, by early December, the detail was becoming clear.
The FFA had been promoting Docklands (Etihad) stadium to the world, and the AFL had come across plans to rectangularise the MCG and put it out of action for at least 16 weeks.
And so the AFL made its public move.
Fair enough. After all, the FFA had been heralding its plans to the entire world.
That’s pretty public!
Alas, the media got it a bit wrong at the time, with unhelpful headlines like Win World Cup bid and lose AFL for season: Demetriou.
The reality was not a win World Cup bid and lose AFL proposition, per se. There was a particular issue of concern for the AFL, which related to the MCG.
The AFL was willing to give it up for up to 10 weeks. Ideally, we thought the FFA needed no more than eight weeks and claimed the 16 week reconfiguration wasn’t an option that the FFA was actively pursuing.
So apparently it was paranoia for Demetriou to go public with this concern.
We have since seen further argy-bargy over Docklands, and the Victorian Government put Geelong (Kardinia Park) on the table to placate the FFA, who were still adamant they wanted Docklands, despite the AFL’s position.
We thought the MCG was a closed case.
That was until this week, and reports such as MCG still not locked in to bid.
And we scratch our collective head. There are two main sticking points.
One, to gain a guarantee from FFA/FIFA that the AFL will not be deemed a “major sport’” regarding host cities. And the other, an assurance that the MCG will not be out of action for more than the ten weeks.
The first point may be tricky. That would mean the FFA getting a concession of sorts from FIFA. So what’s the point of the AFL dealing with the FFA in the first place?
This sheds light on the second point: why is this still a concern now?
We thought this element of the MCG was a closed case. It gives the impression that the AFL has found that the FFA is less in control of this than FIFA. Such that, the spoken word of Ben Buckley is hardly assurance enough.
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