The A-League has really gone off the rails in the last two years. There are many causes for this, but the most central of all is the media.
The media’s perception that football is completely unimportant is a disgrace. You try telling that to the hundred’s of thousands of junior players and coaches in Australia. Football has always been the last highlights shown on the sport report on the news. It has always been on the innermost pages of the sport section. But why? Let’s look at The Australian, for example.
Every Saturday morning the previous evenings rugby league is the front page news. They even published the Roosters versus Titans game on the front page of the entire newspaper last Saturday.
Then you have to look forward four pages to find a postage stamp sized article about an A-League game the previous night. Pages two and three are comprised of AFL pre-game analysis and articles from the greatly disliked Patrick Smith, who was found to be hated by more than 80 per cent of AFL fans on a recent radio poll. How is pre-game analysis more important than an actual event?
A similar train of thought exists for the Socceroos.
The day that new coach Holger Osieck named his first ever squad there wasn’t even an article. The front page had Collingwood players at the beach and the next pages were AFL and NRL pre-game hype.
The odd golf tennis and motorsport article filled the rest of the space. I did find the squad eventually, under the ‘Soccer’ section of the results column. What a joke! Can you imagine if the same had have been done to Robbie Dean’s Wallabies squad?
The great problem for the A-League recently has been publicity. The FFA has very poorly chosen to scrap their A-League advertising campaign, resulting in virtually nobody knowing anything about the games, which has partly led to poor crowds. Well hasn’t that caused a fuss.
The only football writer in The Australian, Ray Gatt, has been nothing short of pathetic recently. Every single article he has written has been about the crowds and the financial issues with the A-League. If he wants to reduce the size of the problem he should write something positive about the league. The standard has increased greatly this year, so has the quality of goals, the quality of imports, and coaching. But has Gatt written about this at all? No.
This focus on the negatives is widespread across all media.
Do you remember how the media was all over the quote from Verbeek that the A-League is low standard? Where are the media now that Les Murray, Holger Osieck and Craig Foster have all praised the quality of the league? No where to be seen. They choose only to report the negatives about football.
The media has had a very large role in the recent struggles of the A-League.
Hopefully a successful Word Cup bid may silence them.
Ray Gatt
Guest
I'll try and answer a few of the comments and questions that have been posted. Someone asked if I have a solution for the A-League. I don't get paid the big money to fix up the A-League BUT if I was asked I would suggest (a) stop expansion plans NOW and get our rubbish-tip of a backyard fixed up first - even if we have to resort to an 8-team league again. (b) Harsh, but Fury and Gold Coast should be axed and maybe revisited another time. They are dragging down the League. (c) Intended expansion clubs must not be allowed in to the competition until they can show they have the money and are given three years minimum to get organised and in place before playing (d) Bring in an independent board for the A-League (e) Give the clubs more help. Don't tie them down by knocking back their sponsorship deals or strip deals because they don't fit in with the FFA. (f) Fix up the marquee player mess. Every club should be ordered to have an overseas marquee player...not a nobody, but someone of high standing who is well known to the football community not just here but aroudn the world....a la Dwight Yorke. If a club can't find a marquee then the FFA must help them. (g) more marketing and promotion. (h) stop trying to sanitise the competition and imposing restrictions on the media. The "you can't do this and you can't do that'' attitude has to stop. That will do for the time being....but I will try and revisit some of the other issues raised here
Dan
Guest
Is this conspiracy one that involves the Jews as well? Because I hear Jewish people are a prerequisite for a conspiracy theory.
DiCanio
Guest
jamesP you are super sensitive. I'm sure Gattman can handle it. Or maybe not, seeing as his flirts with the Roar comments section seem to ignore the pressing questions.
DiCanio
Guest
Missed the point. Its not about coverage amount, it is about the bias of the coverage and the lack of footballing knowledge that exists in mainstream sports journalism.
DiCanio
Guest
Missed the point JimC The point is not about coverage, its about fairness of existing coverage and the clear negative agendas of mainstream media outlets.
DiCanio
Guest
missed the point Voodoo. It's not about lack of coverage, its about the coverage being one sided and being made by people with less interest and knowledge in the game then my 4 year old nephew and clear negative agendas.
DiCanio
Guest
No dan, what it highlights is that there is an active agenda by people not interested in football to derail football.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
5. Alan Hudson Made his name with Chelsea in the late Sixties but won both his England caps while with Stoke City. Flamboyant, skilful and controversial in equal measure. 9. Peter Osgood Chelsea and Southampton legend who won the FA Cup with both clubs. Just four England caps because Alf Ramsey was wary of his playboy lifestyle. I saw these two players play at the old Stamford Bridge Stadium in 1972... I will never forget them..
David V.
Guest
Gordon Hill on comparing yesterday's footballers with some of today's "footballers": http://qprreport.blogspot.com/2007/10/ex-qpr-snippetsnostalgia-ian.html
roarlover34
Roar Pro
Ray do you personally have solutions to the problems to voice in your newspaper. Or are you, in Danny Archer from Blood Diamond said, "Let's just write about it then." If you have any perceived solutions, voice them. Because at the moment it just seems like you are bashing the game. thanks for posting ray.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
If you can't comprehend what Fossie has written----I can't help you.
beaver fever
Guest
He calls for diversity, but what he really advocates is the opposite, luckily in a sporting sence we have diversity here.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Ray, if you and Rebbecca are struggling to know how it is done. Please read this Craig Foster Fluff story on Australian Football... If only we had more like him in the main stream media to help grow the awareness of the potential of the world game for all Australians. The code would be in far better shape. Craig Foster stands up to be countered. Pity that there not more like him who makes a living out football in the main stream media that can't do the same. http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/colourblind-code-shades-the-others-for-diversity-20101002-161yp.html Thankfully he is fairly young and will be joined by more of his ilk in the not too distant future. By those I mean who take on the negativity head on and don't take a backward step.
roarlover34
Roar Pro
Ray thankyou for commenting. Just two points of mine which you missed. 1. I am talking about front page coverage when the NRL and AFL is over. Not now. 2. You make no reference to my comment about your none existant praise of the increase in the quality of the football in the A-League. Can you please explain this. btw, i am not Aaron or whoever has been e-mailing you.
roarlover34
Roar Pro
agree with you there Cpaaa. The roar management last season was very poor. Bump up the during the GFC, smart move. As for A-League advertising, that is probably another article. This one was solely focused on the 'media'. thanks for posting!
roarlover34
Roar Pro
Tortion what you lack is national pride. If the national chess team won the world trophy would you be poo pooing their achievement just because you don't play or like chess. With the Soceroos this is about Australia not a code war. If you 'national pride' as restricted to a sport were the is no national team (AFL) then you need a reality check. I don't personally follow the NRL or Super 14 closely. But i support the Kangaroos and Wallabies.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Also Fussball, maybe Ray can give us an explanation why he was not given the opportunity to cover the Adelaide United's story in the ACL as Rebecca was able to do with a 3-4 day promotion of her pending Football revelation of the Adelaide United's final performance in the ACL. I remember clearly of News promoting this Rebecca Wilson story soon to be published in the News media in Adelaide and Sydney and I was able to read her piece living on the Gold Coast.. Total rubbish it turned out to be, with ill-informed information. Not one word of that the AU FC were forced to cover the most klms of all the other competing ACL Asian Teams. I'm not an AU FC supporter; however, they would know better than I, the distances that the AU FC lads had to face being enormous. Fraught with the quick turnaround of fixtures and the long distance flights compared to that, of the other J-League teams had to face. It turned out to be an amazing performance by AU FC, which she blatantly overlooked. Are News Limited print media out to destroy the HAL? Well if they aren’t they are certainly giving a very good impression they are...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
AF You are absolutely spot on with your assessment of Rebecca Wilson. Amongst a diverse group of football illiterates, who are employed by News Limited, Rebecca stands out as the "chief illiterate" ... and, she willingly admits she's an illiterate on the subject. Yet, News Limited allows Ms Wilson to continue to write about the subject of football. When illiterates on a subject are allowed to be published in the daily newspapers you know that "the lunatics have taken over the asylum"! Of course .... I'm sure it's purely coincidental that Ms Wilson is given "editorial privileges" at News Ltd whilst she is in a relationship with Chairman & CEO of News Ltd, John Hartigan? I know Eddie McGuire was alleged to have made comments about "boning" (sacking) former Channel 9 employee Jessica Rowe when he was CEO of Channel 9. I guess, in the print media, "boning" has a different definition?
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Sorry Ray you have lost me there, with respect that is wrong.. If we are referring to Cheerleaders.? Adelaide United made history; advancing to the ACL final against all the odds; against far superior funded Asian Football clubs and fell over at the final hurdle. So what happened next was Rebbecca Wilson jumps on board who has never written a word about football before---suddenly becomes an expert on the game---an encouraging word no. She proceeds to tear down what this Australian history making team had achieved in the name of Australian Football. Shame on her and the publishers she works for..
Ray Gatt
Guest
Don, no negative spin in that story. Just quoted the facts....People try to rfead too much in to things I write