Clive Palmer’s Football Australia has existed for a week and we still don’t know the true motivations behind this new body. If you believe the rhetoric, it represents the alternative to the current governing body, Football Federation Australia, and the kick-off to the reform the game needs.
Whether that’s as an independent body to keep the governing body accountable for running the game – “monitor and ensure good governance,” to quote Palmer – or by replacing Football Federation Australia to run the A-League or create another league, that remains to be seen.
Either way there seems to be a genuine belief amongst some that this will result in positive reforms for the game, irrespective of Palmer’s record in running Gold Coast United.
Craig Foster, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, says: “Looking back in a decade’s time, the demise of Gold Coast United may well prove to have been a tipping point at which football finally faced itself in the mirror.”
Others say similar things: Football Australia is making the right noises; making the Football Federation Australia accountable will only strengthen the game; this will lead to the reform needed for the A-League to survive and prosper; and so on. According to many, Palmer, irrespective of his brashness, is giving the governing body the kick up the backside it needs.
But no matter how many accurate points Palmer makes from his unique position as a former club owner, the manner in which he and Archie Fraser have gone about achieving reform, by threatening and contradicting themselves at every turn, will only make it harder and more unlikely that it’ll actually happen through their actions.
By threatening their very existence, Football Australia is forcing Football Federation Australia to bunker-down and take their own extreme position. And as any student of history will tell you, at a time of war, governments resort to extremes, rhetoric and propaganda, allowing Football Federation Australia to cast off any calls for reform as out of touch comments originating from the discredited “loony Clive” that don’t reflect other A-League club owners.
Case in point (one of many from the last week): Football Federation Australia Chief Executive Ben Buckley’s comments on SBS’s The World Game Monday night. “We don’t believe there’s anyone other than Clive calling for greater reform or greater transparency,” he says. “Those comments are throwaway lines and they should be treated with the sort of attitude from the person they came.”
By threatening breakaway leagues and other extreme moves and comments, Football Australia is forcing other club owners to distance themselves from the very group meant to be representing their concerns.
Cases in points: Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin calls Football Australia “a complete nonsense and a waste of everyone’s time” that will “fade as quickly as it has risen” and is a “stupid and mindless entity” that “even the dumbest of dumb would take this entity seriously”.
Melbourne Victory chairman Anthony di Pietro describes the body as “divisive and counter-productive to the growth, development and future of football in Australia”.
Even Perth Glory owner Tony Sage, who has publicly backed some of Palmer’s points and was said to be one of three club owners (Palmer, Sage and Nathan Tinkler) who has the financial pull and motivation to breakaway from Football Federation Australia, says, “What happens between the FFA and Mr Clive Palmer is not a priority for our club at this stage of the season.”
If Palmer’s motivation was to divide A-League clubs and Football Federation Australia – divide and conquer with his own body and then league – he doesn’t seem to be doing it.
If his motivation was to push and cause genuine reform, he is providing Football Federation Australia with the perfect excuse to avoid it.
Either way, Football Australia is a lose-lose for the game, not the first step in the process of much-needed reforms.
Rather, together with the public relations nightmare this is for the A-League at such a critical juncture, it sets the game back even further, with the real issues that face clubs and the league as a whole lost in the mire created by Palmer.
And if Palmer decides he’s had enough of the game he doesn’t seem to enjoy, having deflected enough blame on the moribund Gold Coast United’s failings at the feet of Football Federation Australia and walks away, what is left? A handful of disgruntled staff without their bankroller…
Football Australia’s “We Kick Harder” slogan couldn’t be more accurate. It sure is kicking the game harder.
Lachlan
Roar Guru
Clive Palmer suggested that in 2009, that the AFL's newest franchise, entered 2 years after, wouldn't last to 2015. GCU didn't finish three years in the league. 400 members compared to GC Suns 14,000 last year and exceeding 10,000 this year as of a week ago. GCU averaged 3,500, whereas GC Suns averaged 18,000+ and finished last. Football Australia and FFA could turn into the super league war of soccer, if their not careful.
Axelv
Guest
I did but didn't see it until now that you pointed it out, it's like 7 articles / 3 pages down :)
Kasey
Guest
To be fair to the Raw, they were naïve. They tried to go toe to toe with a technically superior opponent, something that doesn’t exist in the HAL. FC Tokyo, just ran rings around them. Roar tried hard to play ‘their style’ but seemed to get a bit of stage fright on the night and ended up giving the Japanese too much room to manoeuvre. The resultant 1-2 sucker punches from the Gasmen did them in. Adelaide played it much smarter. I imagine Kossie was drilling the Reds defence all week and it showed. For once the Reds had a solid game plan and a solid defence upon which to build. The players seemed to know exactly how to execute the plan of : Play high and tight at the back, be fluid in there middle and link up to the front-man on the counter in the space created by sucking the opposition towards your defensive setup as they vainly try to punch a hole in it. When the Reds had the ball they played smooth flowing counter attack football to put the Uzbeks on the back foot. They didn’t just park the bus. It was in plan and execution (except for the consolation goal to the Uzbeks) the perfect away game IMO. The onus will now be on United to play a more attacking brand of football at Hindmarsh when they host /Gamba on 20 March, although I can see Kossie using very similar tactics given Gamba were shock losers overnight and are likely to come out swinging in Adelaide.
Lucan
Did you check under the "Football" tab? ;)
Axelv
Guest
Will be honest that I'm over this drama ;) Would much prefer to talk about the football, the ACL last night was eye opening, what a performance from Adelaide and a reality check for Brisbane, pity the Roar don't have any news articles about it where we can discuss it.
Kasey
Guest
Has Palmer said anything publically yet regarding the FFA that hasn't already been mentioned adnauseum on numerous mesage boards such as his one? I thought it impossible to claim IP on such things, like trying to TM the word 'sneaker', vice ' Nike Air Max'
Simmo
Guest
Has anything happened with Football Oz since its first blaze of publicity? I wonder if Palmer is already bored with this new plaything and is off on another adventure...
Lucan
If they actually come up with something useful (somewhat doubtful, we all agree), I'm sure CP will probably try to slap the FFA with a breach of his intellectual property as soon as they attempt to take it onboaord. * conspiracy theorising here
Futbanous
Guest
Surely if we don't know the true motivations there is no debate until we do. Until then there is only wild speculation.
Kasey
Guest
I agree, I can't see smart businessmen like ADL’s Greg Griffin and MVCs Anthony di Pietro just letting FFA put things on the backburner. If FFA are smart (admittedly a huge leap) they’ll pooh-pooh Palmer in public and continue to build the discourse with the owners in private. Let Palmer blow off some steam and a little money. If the owners can see meaningful change is on the way, Clive will be the sad sack yelling “charge!” only to have the army stand still and watch him run off to face ‘the enemy!’ If Clive’s boondoggle actually comes up with a useful idea, then I guess FFA are free to attempt to implement it and could say, we were planning that all along if their ssaving of face demands it. Palmer's rants and attention seeking pressers will draw out the usual keyboard warriors who blame Lowy and Buckley for everything including global warming and cancer, but its what occurs behind closed doors between the owners and FFA that really matters.
Michael
Guest
I reckon FFA will try to continue the dialogue with owners to a) help distance those owners from Clive and b) to try to build on the growth of the A-League. If Clive does give Archie Fraser $100K to spend a year coming up with grievances against the FFA and they are legit, well that should be ok too.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Buckley was quoted as saying when this started to blow up that the FFA was working on a draft proposal with and for the owners to increase their input into the A-League. So if Palmer has caused FFA to start sandbagging HQ and stop this consultation process then he has done the game a great disservice as well as not allowing this proposal to come forward of it's own accord. The FFA seemed like they were starting to make inroads into listening to fans, consulting with owners more on their issues, and (you would hope) have a plan to take the league forward for the long term that isn't solely relying on the owners to cop another seasons loss until the new media deal comes in. Giving the FFA the oxygen to take these issues on board from it's stakeholders is needed. It is part of a (still young) FFA needing to learn and engage. If this 'Football Australia' is taking away some of that oxygen then it is best to ignore it and let it fade away.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
There's a bit of double counting going on there in some of the categories, but at the end of the day, you are probably overstating the effect of Clive's circus. It can only get a bit of traction if people keep talking about it. Unless he wants to go the whole hog and spend tens of millions of dollars per annum doing something that will amount to very little, I can't see how his action has the least bit of effect on anything. The minute people stop talking about it - it's gone, dead, buried, never to be revisited. He reckons players will come to this body to air their grievances? Really? This is the bloke who treated his players with a fair bit of contempt and disdain - who in their right mind would go to this body ahead of the PA?
Lucan
I know you're tongue in cheek, but this is actually a real problem. People can't be so easily pigeonholed. Team Palmer and Team FFA are expecting stakeholders and supporters to pick a side. These clowns, and the commentators, need to realise there's plenty in our football community who don't fit neatly into one camp or the other.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Can't argue with that.
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Congrats to Adelaide United, btw, played brilliantly and fearlessly, Kosmina and the lads should be very proud!
Nathan of Perth
Guest
The only good football left in this country is the WA State Premier League!!!!! :)
Midfielder
Guest
Football is now divided even further than it was before.... New football lovers.... New football haters... NSL lovers NSL haters... Eurosnobs Champion League only all else is garbage. Now to our list we have FFA lovers FFA haters Frank lovers Frank Haters Clive lovers Cliver haters As a dear departed friend of mind use to say ... For the Love of Mary will yas's F.... grow up... Micky I fullu endorse your statement .... For the love of Mary will ya's F.... grow up...
Lucan
For Ben Buckley to flippantly suggest CP is the only person asking for transparency and reform dispalys massive ignorance (or worse, arrogance). Agree, currently there's no debate. This needs to happen, but unfortunately it seem the CEO lumps any sort of dissident in the Palmer camp. FFA needs to engage all the stakeholders. They're the representative body, but they act as an overlord. Crawford did a damn fine job of identifying the ills and making smart recommendations to set the ship straight. I just wish Crawford was followed through on, rather than Lowy and O'Neil picking and choosing the bits they liked and discarding the bits they didn't. Crawford, on paper, was a much more harmonious result for everyone involved in the game.
Kasey
Guest
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, starting out a new football league in a country that has other sports as its #1 priority isn’t easy and there are bound to be mis-steps along the way. Both MLS and the J.League restructured multiple times in their start-up phases, with both set-ups losing teams until they created a set-up that was successful in their particular set of circumstances. Look at both MLS and the J.League now, they are strong and stable. Believe it or not there was a period of 2 years in MLS history where the total 10 franchises were operated by only 3 billionaires (Lamar Hunt, Fred Anschutz(AEG) and Stan Kronke), many doomsayers predicted the league would fold within 2 years. It didn’t and look at them now! There is no one-size-fits-all method for creating a new football league. Yes the FFA have made mistakes in their 7 year tenure, but overall they seem to be making less mistakes as the years trundle on. Unfortunately I predict more mistakes in the future until the FFA get their governance model correct. Until the time when we can look back from a position of stability and say ”geez, remember when some thought it was all about to go belly-up?” arrives, we should just do our best to support our teams and enjoy the football on show. Every year the league suffers raids on its playing stocks by cashed up Asian teams, but the trend line for playing standard continues to rise. Just last night my oddly dysfunctional and seemingly defensively inept team, horrible all year in the HAL pulled off a stunning surprise away win in the Asian Champions League, God I love my club – its night’s like that that make me proud to be an Aussie football fan, taking it up to the big boys and getting the bikkies! Strangely crap in the HAL with so many leaksin defence I thought we were sponsored by Julian Assange at one stage, yet defensively solid in Asia! What a great win for the Reds that goes towards laying down the foundations for a vibrant history that the club will be proud of one day and we will use to regale the newer fans with tales of why they should support their local side, not some random conurbation in England or continental Europe.