Accountability missing from Football Federation Australia

Comment removed. Enough, thanks gents. Please don't attack each other on the basis of a (perceived or real) slight on the game. Roar Mods.

"Foster’s article was altered. Altered, not censored." Oh please----no difference... It was censored and his "Football" term was deleted.. This was to please the AFL nothing less. That is censoring the author's original writing and you can't see that... The Age have simply 'No Balls' to stand up to the AFL bullies ... As I have first stated the Melbourne Victory FC and Melbourne Hearts FC supporters are second class citizens.. “Soccer fans have every right to call soccer football, but just don’t expect fans of other football codes to stop calling their codes football.” And Sheedy and Demetriou were in discussion that is Proof.. But thank God Qantas told them to go and jump... And thank God Qantas stood by their positioning statement during the 2010 WC in South Africa "Qantas supports Australian Football"

"All we have to do is just concentrate on your statement.. So what happens next a Football Purist who writes a column for the SMH and the AGE and is not allowed to use the word Football addressing his own supporters of his form of football that should not concern the AFL because you have said; “Soccer fans have every right to call soccer football”.. Do you now get it…." Do I get what? Do you get it that the reason the word soccer was subsituted for football, and the Age has every right to do so, is because in Melbourne we consider Aussie Rules to be football? In the Age, soccer is referred to as soccer, so for consistency sake, Foster's article was altered. Altered, not censored. "Check this out—-Kevin Sheedy”s quote discussing with Andrew Demetriou a strategy to prevent the FFA and their supportive groups calling their form of football, Football … “Andrew,” Sheedy asked. “How do we stop Frank Lowy and Ben Buckley from calling soccer ‘football’, yet they still manage to call the national team the Socceroos?” Do you get it know amazonfan…" Oh please. I bet you believe the moon landing was faked as well. This may shock you, but Sheedy and the AFL aren't as powerful as you (or they) think they are. So, no, you haven't proven anything but that you believe in conspiracy theories. "The AGE feeds off the AFL and if you think that a directive did not come from the AFL to prevent any use of the word Football used by soccer then you need your head read.. " The only person who needs their head read is you. The AFL needs the Age about as much as the Age needs the AFL. But more importantly, the readership (which is what the Age bases its business on) do NOT consider soccer to be football. Do you really think that there are hundreds of thousands of Age readers who consider soccer to be football, but the Age is prevented from granting their wishes because of the bullies at the AFL? You're delusional! ""The proof is in Sheedy’s quote to Demetriou… That’s all the proof I need…" Sorry, but that's not proof. Proof is a directive to the Age, or confirmation by the Age that such a directive was given. Otherwise it's just a conspiracy theory based on your refusal to acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of Victorians do not consider soccer to be football.

As I said AF, it's an editorial decision. Fozzie could write a cookbook and they''ll change every reference of aubergine to eggplant :)

Art----that's not the point, Craig Foster has referred to the game he loves in his article as Football, that's the language he uses----why was it changed without his consent.? I'm sure you as a Football lover were not offended by his use of he word "Football" speaking to you as a Melb Heart's supporter (or Melb Victory FC?).. As we know it was placed in the "Soccer Tab of the AGE" for Football (Soccer) folk who are aware of the reference that football is our name to.. So why are the AFL so paranoia? It's a disgrace and a restriction of freedom of speech nothing less. Even the Telegraph in Sydney don't go through every word and change Football to Soccer in Bosnich and Slater's articles..

Calm down AF, things are different down in Melbourne. There was no pressure from the AFL. This is the editorial policy of the newspaper. Its their paper, they can call the sport whatever they like. The best thing to do is just have a bit of fun and not take things too seriously.

The Age may have felt they had an obligation to their readers. Its Australian Football that sells papers in Melbourne. its entirely possible they felt the need to clarify the issue. The AFL needs the media, theres no directive to the media to change anything. 4 codes calling themselves football is one of the reasons I believe association football suffers as a brand in Australia. By more or less popping up on the scene 100 years late and crying "oh by the way we're the only TRUE football, the rest of you are imposters", the association football community have caused their own identity crisis and widespread resentment - and thats when its supporters dont call us stupid and "football illiterate".

“Soccer fans have every right to call soccer football, but just don’t expect fans of other football codes to stop calling their codes football.” All we have to do is just concentrate on your statement.. So what happens next a Football Purist who writes a column for the SMH and the AGE and is not allowed to use the word Football addressing his own supporters of his form of football that should not concern the AFL because you have said; "Soccer fans have every right to call soccer football".. Do you now get it.... Check this out----Kevin Sheedy"s quote discussing with Andrew Demetriou a strategy to prevent the FFA and their supportive groups calling their form of football, Football ... "Andrew," Sheedy asked. "How do we stop Frank Lowy and Ben Buckley from calling soccer 'football', yet they still manage to call the national team the Socceroos?" Do you get it know amazonfan... http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/matthewhall/archives/2009/04/socceroos_versu.html The AGE feeds off the AFL and if you think that a directive did not come from the AFL to prevent any use of the word Football used by soccer then you need your head read.. The proof is in Sheedy's quote to Demetriou... That's all the proof I need...

"Shouldn’t you practice what you preach.? Your sentence above is outrageous." Outrageous? You need to stop with the hyperbole. We're talking about a sporting term, and nothing more. As for practising what I preach, how am I not? " Where has Froster demanded that you should not call your code Football. This article was Foster’s and the editor changed it without his permission I suspect." Yes, perhaps he did. However the editor has to determine what the target audience would like. That's the way the media works. If Foster doesn't like it, he should start his own paper, because all papers do similar things. " That is the freedom of speech I refer to." You truly have no idea what freedom of speech is. Calling this a freedom of speech issue is offensive to those who battle for real freedom of speech! If you think that this is about freedom of speech, you need to do some serious research! You also need to stop with this hyperbole. " It should have been published without the censorship that is clearly evident." Please. This isn't censorship. This is the Age appealing to its target audience. "The NRL as the most popular code in NSW does not demand or expect such censorship be placed on other codes." I've said multiple times that the AFL is not the exerting censorship over the Age, and that the Age did so because in Melbourne we call Aussie Rules football. So, rather than repeat myself until I'm blue in the face, I'm going to ask you to provide evidence. Provide evidence that the AFL is the one exerting the censorship, or stop with these conspiracy theories!

Evidence???? Did you read the two separate articles in the SMH link and the AGE link presented by Rusty0256 the first post on this article.. Do we have to spell it out for you..??? Craig Foster writes exclusively tor TWG and for the SMH. The AGE have taken up the story from the SMH and changed Football to Soccer.. That's the evidence..

Lol Brendan Schwab you can't be serious. The guy is a blight on football.

That's exactly my point and it doesn't take a football person to understand that. It appears that not too many people at the FFA understand that...at least they haven't shown us must evidence of it.

I like the cut of your jib themagnificent11. Once you sign up for under 7's you should feel like your a part of the pyramid that leads to the A elague and the Socceroos.

Yes, but how many others do?

I thought the Central Coast Mariners do this already?

I agree. However, not enough clubs have working relationships with the football associations in their area. I hear the Mariners do, not sure about the rest.

My only concern with that is that if clubs lose money I don't want juniors and levy's subsidising the A league as associations chase the dream. We already have that to a degree with the FFA levy but football has to be a lot more accountable with it's money. When it's a Palmer or such losing, making or spending money it's his own business.

'this tampering with the author’s original piece was due to the pressure put on the Melbourne AGE publisher by the AFL' Do you have any evidence for such an inflammatory claim?

"Soccer fans have every right to call soccer football, but just don’t expect fans of other football codes to stop calling their codes football." Shouldn't you practice what you preach.? Your sentence above is outrageous. Where has Froster demanded that you should not call your code Football. This article was Foster's and the editor changed it without his permission I suspect. That is the freedom of speech I refer to. It should have been published without the censorship that is clearly evident. The NRL as the most popular code in NSW does not demand or expect such censorship be placed on other codes.

Its patently obvious that there are not enough football people running the game. Accountability, there isn't any. How else can we explain the decline in refereeing standards this year in the A-League. I posted this comment below on another thread this morning but its very appropriate for this thread as it it more than highlights the current malaise with the way the A-League is run and also the laziness of the mainstream football media. *At the start of the season I penned a piece on Parson’s abject performance in the Victory v Glory game. http://www.theroar.com.au/2010/08/17/how-a-referee-can-help-put-players-in-hospital-2/ Four months later it seem as if nothing has changed. The most prescient comment I received for my piece was the following by “Confucius”. “The issue is the autocracy of Gary Power. He is the only person these days who can judge and appoint referees. Gerard Parsons may not be good enough for A-League, but Power likes him. Others may be consistently better, but do not get a chance. Unless Power is replaced and an independent panel of assessors replace him, nothing will change and the only way for referees to ever be appointed to A-League will be to get Power to like them.” 4 months later, the mainstream football media continues to ignore the universally accepted view of declining refereeing standards in the A-League. When will a mainstream football journalist set up an interview with Gary Power and ask him to explain himself and his methods? Is it that difficult?