There’s been plenty of finger pointing in the wake of the Newcastle Jets-North Queensland Fury postponement debacle but still two days after a final decision was made nobody has accepted responsibility or took accountability.
The main issue was the final decision to postpone the game was made once the Fury players and officials were well on their way down to Newcastle.
It was a complete waste of time, money and energy for North Queensland – who we already know a struggling off the field financially – and pretty ordinary for the A-League.
All things aside, surely that’s the main issue: North Queensland getting screwed over through no fault of their own.
On Tuesday, North Queensland chief executive officer Rabieh Krayem labelled the situation an “absolute disgrace” before taking aim at NRL club Newcastle Knights who sub-let the venue to the Jets.
“Whoever is in charge at Newcastle Knights for hiring out the stadium should be held responsible for this and if they worked for me, they wouldn’t any more,” he said. “To host a motocross event less than two weeks before an A-League football match is just mind-boggling.”
Of course, hosting a motocross event on a football pitch 11 days before a football game seems absurd, but surely everybody involved knew that when the decision was made.
Okay, the decision was made by the Newcastle Knights for their own purposes and the Fury would have been in the dark worrying about their own affairs up in Townsville, but surely the Jets and the FFA must have been awake to the potential risks of the situation.
Surely then they would have thought to inspect the pitch following the event a little bit earlier.
Nevertheless, in a brief statement issued following the decision, A-League boss Lyall Gorman revealed their inspection occurred after being prompted by the Jets on Tuesday.
“Following an alert from Newcastle Jets management today, FFA dispatched senior staff to inspect the playing surface,” he said.
“The need for player safety and player welfare is paramount and a decision was made that the ground was not acceptable for competitive football.”
There’s no doubt about the second part, the game needed to be cancelled, but the first part is damning.
I’ll commend the FFA for acting quickly once they received their alert from the Jets, but why had they no clue about this earlier? Why was it coming from the Jets?
And most importantly why was it left to the Knights to contact the Jets to tell them the pitch was not up to scratch?
The conspiracy theorists will say NRL’s Knights were trying to sabotage the A-League on purpose by giving the FFA and the Jets late notice. That seems unlikely, but whatever the case, the FFA gave the Knights an opportunity to do so.
If football is going to be taken seriously, then surely the A-League has to look after itself a bit better, rather than relying on opposition codes for crucial information such as this.
Knights chief executive Steve Burraston said in Wednesday’s Newcastle Herald he took advice from industry experts prior to the event that the damage would not be as significant as it is, but there were no guarantees.
Speculation the pitch may not be up to standard for the November 27 Jets-LA Galaxy game makes the fact neither the Jets nor the FFA were awake to the reality of the situation all the more alarming.
A brief visit down to EnergyAustralia Stadium on Sunday or Monday by the FFA or the Jets, then an equally brief phonecall up to Fury HQ would have cleared up this issue, so questions need to be asked why was it not done?
Newcastle Jets coach Branko Culina was not willing to weigh into a ‘turf war’, but said: “There’s no point in blaming anyone because that’s not going to resolve anything.”
But that’s the wrong attitude. Sure, in the short-term, what’s done is done and the game has been postponed.
But in the long-term surely the FFA must take a look at its procedures and take some control of these situations.
Then again, all we heard from the FFA yesterday was a brief press release revealing their decision to re-locate Sunday’s Jets-Heart game to Port Macquarie.
Just when you hoped a valuable lesson might be learned by the FFA and some accountability accepted, it seems they’ve swept this one under the carpet.
Or should that be the EnergyAustralia dirt.
Sydney Ram
Guest
Macavity So they got 16,000 knights fans once. Hardly setting it alight in what is a traditional working class rugby league town. The point made earlier is that the knights sell out regularly without giving away free tickets which is quite clearly on true. By the way, I'm not a hater, I'm a Dragons fan and actually went to the GF this year.
macavity
Guest
Dragons had about 25%-30% of the crowd. Despite the haters, the Knights still draw a very good crowd with the right weather and draw.
DERBY COUNTY FC
Guest
Macavity Fair point that game was a sell out, Dragons supporters though watching their team clinch the minor Prem.
mahony
Guest
I appriciate your responce Ben. What I should have also said (without frustration) was that the Jets have a contract for the provision of a safe playing surface at EAS. The contract-bound stadium managers (the Knights) are surely culpable for not delivering the contracted service. While questions can be asked about who and when the Jets, NQF and FFA knew they had a problem - these are 2nd order issues in comparison with the conflict of interest this highly critisized stadium management contract represents. I am just dissapointed at the ability of the media in Australia to consistently find fault with the FFA (I am looking at you Fairfax in particular these days) where there is nothing more that rumour and hearsay. Then, a story like this breadks in the 'code wars' where the facts are that the Knights are clearly at fault - and guess what, it "soccer's" fault again. It gets somewhat tiresome to be frank! Having said all that - you could have taken an even harder line on Australian football (many have) - so for that I take your broader point. The FFA (a still very small organisation in relative terms) can definately impriove their performance in a range of areas - I just think that on this ocassion the critics are being a bit harsh on them.
Jimmy Drama
Guest
After looking at the Motocross course it seemed obvious that a significant amount of damage would result!!! Poor planning only concerned with the $$$$
albatross
Guest
The plural of "fez" is "fezzes" or "fezes"
macavity
Guest
The Knights sold out the game vs St George on 28 August 2010. There has always been a lot of anti-Knights sentiment in this town. Haters gunna hate. There hasn't been any upswing - the only difference is the haters have latched on to the Jets to justify their hatred of the Knights. Dunno what they are going to latch on to when the two clubs are under one banner - Northstars maybe?
Titus
Guest
WTF.....Who collects the rent money? Who is responsible for managing the stadium? The Knights, yeah? You're saying the Knights are blaming some MP for not stopping them from organising a completley inappropriate event. Ok, the Jets should have said something about this as soon as they heard about it, because that surface was never going to be ready, but please can someone, anyone, who is managing that stadium just put their hand up. Then we can all learn from this and move on.
Midfielder
Guest
Fez Name and date the last 10 Knights sell outs... and on the they give away no free tickets ... so funny ... they give away heaps ...
Midfielder
Guest
Fez Sorry it was the Knights that signed the first lease... and you actually think the money paid by the Jets to the Knights and the profit made from sale of pies and chips does not help the Knights... please mate there is a difference between common sense and wild statements.... That the Jets costs the Knights money is well so silly so so silly...
Midfielder
Guest
Ben Thanks for the reply... well on the Europe thing it is a one in a thousand time event and I imagine has / does take a lot of management time... I will concede having a something in place would have been better... However my guess is it would normally be the responsibility of the club... the Jets over the last three weeks have had a total change in management ... maybe thats how it got missed... Be that as it may FFA & the Jets at this point in time with the hand over and the WC bid missed it... OK they made a mistake... what about the Knights ....
Midfielder
Guest
Fez It is just the Jets signed the first lease... it was built with NSW taxpayer dollars... how about stop screwing a new club...
DERBY COUNTY FC
Guest
Mowbray I'm only going on what my FIL tells me, he lives in Newcastle and when he says there is anti Knights sentiment it's all relative isn't it. Knights supporters still rule that town and will for a long, long time but right now according to George there is anti-Knights sentiment. It's not just his opinion it's what he reads, what he talks to with his mates at work, what he hears on the radio etc but it's a minority, his and my point is that there is more anti Knights sentiment than there was this time last week for example... but it's not going to bring the club or town down and it's not going to see a massive upturn in Jets gate receipts.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
GB----Didn't the Knights sell the Bridge to Con along with his sub-lease and over priced at that..?
Mowbray's Red and White army
Guest
Derby, Your facts are the opinion of one man, who may or may not even live in newcastle currently. I'm not sure where this anti-Knights sentiment is being shown, and if it also means there is some great wave of support behind the Jets why the hell are they needing to give away 10,000 tickets?!!
Gob Bluth
Guest
Yes, NSW State Labor has a tremendous record of always telling the truth. I'm selling the Harbour Bridge, any interest AF?
The Special One
Guest
They held this event in canberra as well. I remember last year that the stadium management said they wouldnt consider it if Canberra had an a-league team.
NY
Guest
The Newcastle Knights are an old school rugby league club. That is why they don't sell out rugby league games anymore. If both the Jets and Knights worked together they could both benefit of eachother. Newcastle needs a professional approach. Get rid of the deadwood and start again. Newcastle has both a proud rugby league and football history and this is something all Novocastrians should recognise, even if they prefer one sport to another.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Fez's are cool - Perhaps, you should get your facts right about stadium ownership? The Newcastle International Sports Centre (commercially known as Energy Australia Stadium) is owned by the State Government of NSW. So Football is as entitled to the stadium as any other sporting team in NSW. In Victoria: * The MCG is owned by the Government of Victoria * The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (commercially known as AAMI Park) is owned by the Government of Victoria * Kardinia Park (commercially known as Skilled Stadium) is owned by the City of Greater Geelong * Etihad Stadium is owned by James Fielding Funds Management, which is a mutual fund and part of the Leighton Holdings Group
Joe FC
Guest
Ben in your reply to Midfielder you said "I’m pointing out a clear failure by the FFA and/or the Jets to act on a foreseeable issue".With all due respect I don’t think you have, at least not as far as the FFA are concerned. When did you first know about the motocross? At the beginning of the season did you think to ask any of the clubs whether the grounds they hire were going to be used for such an event? How reasonable is it to expect the FFA to know in advance that the landlord of a ground used by one of its clubs is staging a “pitch destructive” extravaganza? What notice, if any, did FFA receive? What, if anything, were they told as to its nature and effect? What obligations concerning notice do the Knights have under the terms of the sub-lease? Perhaps if you’d provided answers to these questions you might very well have illustrated your point. But you didn’t and haven’t. Being wise after the event is easy. The lessons in this affair are not just for the FFA.