Pressure mounts on FFA to take over Roar

Yep. No surprises here.

stu - The figures you quote are near the truth but what you must remember was that in 1984 the forecast from the athletics side of the Games was that "no-one in the USA followed 'soccer" and it would be a good time to try out that age old question,could the Games exist without "soccer".? As the figures showed the fact finding exercise, which was paid for and conducted by Adidas, was to prove the opposite was true. However it was not until 10 years later that the World Cup was granted to the States,and once again the doom preachers came to the fore with their forecasts,it would prove to be a failure for the world's top sports competition.Once again they were proved wrong and the big money men in the States began to sit up and take notice. Could I say we in Australia have yet to reach that threshold though IMO one of the big things we have to conquer is how to get the Socceroos playing more home games against quality opposition giving us an edge none of the code's "competitors" can hope to ever achieve.with their lack of worldwide acceptance. It was somewhat sad to hear one of Australia's richest men on TV tonight saying they were injecting money into a sport in order to make that sport the "game of choice" in this country.Was there ever more evidence needed to prove the "head in the sand" approach to sport by men of influence in this country.? jb ps It has just been reported that the QRU have been paid the $60,000 debt,a small ray of hope indeed. jb

The QRU said that? I find that interesting, apparently they also reappointed their losing coach today. Sounds likes our man, ex Roar CEO, now their man, QRU finance officer, is doing a great job.

The matter between the Qld Rugby an The Bakrie Group has been resolved. A QRU spokesman said: “The details are confidential between the parties ... We wish the Roar and the Bakrie Group the very best for the coming season." ------------- From my observations, it's a pretty normal day in the commercial world when a debtor doesn't send a cheque until he's almost at the court door.

QRU were paid at 5PM tonight. Now that is news.

I understand that on average some 30% of Olympic tickets are for football! the conclusion is that the Olympics needs football more than football needs the Olympics. I feel confident in saying that countries who do not have football as part of their culture will not adopt the sport as such. Money/media in this age determines what the populace follow, makes the populace sound 'used' and perhaps manipulated, but true.

Buy disfunctional clubs? It's a very good question plus also, for a code short on cash why don't we have sponsors for the Socceroos et al?

Towser -30 years ago I walked out of football administration,not because I was "sacked" but I had come to realise,after 20 years playing coaching & administrating the code the future looked bleak for it was obvious to anyone with a modicum of how to run a business that change to what could be termed a business style management from the hugely popular "committee system" was going to be very difficult to implement.There is a vast difference. Around that time my knowledge of American football was almost nil until we,in the commitee of the QSF were given a fact finding report on how the football tournament in the Los Angeles Olympic tournament had fared.That was a huge surprise for there was little doubt the "fact finding" had been commissioned by those who wished to "ban" the code from the Olympics.It may surprise you to know that the early rounds ,played all over the USA, attracted 5 figure crowds to every match.Remember the year 1984.However it was not until the finals that the real potential came out and 6 figure crowds were attracted to Pasadena where the Rosebowl had the capacity to handle such crowds. The summation to come out of the fact finding was that had the Games taken place without the football they would have been a financial disaster.The omission of the football tournament was never again mentioned. Then we move on 10 years to '94 when the World Cup was held in the States with the usual doomsday forecasts coming from everywhere.What came out of that tournament???? The average crowd attending all matches came in at 69,000 and it may also surprise you that no other World Cup comp. has come anywhere near that average.,before or since That brings us back to the MSL.From those 2 experiences it becam obvious that there was a huge potential market for "soccer" in the USA and America,having more than it's fair share of entrepeneurs soon found itself on the "soccer bandwagon" and,as yu say they have tried and tested many ways but could be said to have conquered the doubts and misgivings since that World Cup 20 years ago. Can we emulate what they have done?As I said before we can only wait and see for with the huge differential in space,population ,and available investment capital,we may find we need subtle changes in what we try to "copy". Cheers mate jb

Currently the FFA take 14.5 mill of the 40 mill pa from Fox. They keep any sponsorship money from other sources so it beholds us to ask what they do with the money?

Vince Rugari, I promise if you ever get the opportunity to speak to someone directly involved with the administration, or ownership, of the Brisbane Roar club in relation to this issue ... you'll shoot to the top of my list of "favourite football journalists"! Or, perhaps, you've tried and they won't talk to the media? I'm stunned by how rare it is to read journalists who have actually spoken to someone who is making decisions that impact AUS football - at club level, State Federation level & National Federation level.

hey, you were the one with the "What about that don’t you understand?" quip - But if pay was due on Saturday then it should have been in the bank accounts Saturday. Go and ask workcover! Seems the FFA extended the deadline to Monday for some reason

Good points. FFA should do more themselves to promote the game. NRL and AFL advertise all the time in Brisbane but we never hear a word from FFA. The media largely ignore Roar in Brisbane, articles come out of Mel/Sid, whereas they own the Broncos. It's a complex issue, not just an ownership issue, and FFA needs to show some leadership.

Due on Saturday, meaning in bank accounts by Monday. oops

I don't want comments, but The Roar are free to publish my AAP stories as they like. This is a news piece I have produced for our wire service, not The Roar regulars. Sorry if you can't find the newsworthiness in it. For record pay is due on 15th of every month, but money was supposed to be in bank accounts yesterday, seeing as the 15th is a Saturday.

By and large there will always be 2 teams with some kind of issue Think we need to reconsider the ownership model + make it more enclosed, eg share the league wide sponsorship money around the HAL clubs, even the finals money instead of the FFA pocketing it - or at least most of it

Is that how they do it with the Mariners? Think it as raised at a fan forum Sounds like the FFA should just pay them directly

The problem is mostly that a lot of owners do not see themselves as a part of a much larger plan than just owning a club. The owners have to immerse themselves in the community, and plan for what they see as a long term commitment to not just the football club, but also the community that represents them. They have to be as much a part of the area they represent as the supporters are. I didn't see that in the Bakkries Group. They were an Indonesian company who were distanced and removed from the local Brisbane football scene. It's the same problem with Melb.City, except that we don't know yet what the long term plan is with them. Teams where I see that the owner has a good local knowledge and wears their heart on their sleeve (in relation to feeling pride in the area) are Tony Sage with Perth Glory, Paul Lederer with WSW and the Wellington owner (forgot his name). There might be a few others but I am not too sure about them. I'd hate to say this, but I think Clive Palmer would be a good fit for Brisbane (I know it won't happen). He is a proud Queenslander who would want everything for his club and a Queensland team to succeed. To me he is not the same as Tinkler, as the guy actually regularly turned up to Gold Coast games to watch his team play. He seemed to have a decent enough knowledge of the sport. Too bad he is the way he is.

Totally agree, something needs to change. And let's keep a perspective on this, 8 (out of 18?) AFL sides will lose money this year and will be in need of support, a similar amount in NRL, and the QRU had to be bailed out themselves not that long ago. Some of these organisations have challenges by design eg you can argue GWS is a strategic investment .. so yes things need to change but at the same time we need to look beyond our code and learn lessons from others else we risk repeating not our own mistakes but potentially some of theirs.

Fact is A-League keeps ending up with clubs struggling to pay bills and owners either selling up or handing back their licenses. Something has to change or this will just keep happening. Last year it was Mariners. It's Roar and Jets this year. Who will it be next year? Each time it happens, the reputation of the A-League suffers which may lead to erosion future investments/interest. To see a 3-time winning club (in the past 5 years) in crisis (again) - does not speak well for the league at all.

Dundee Utd are not buying the Jets licence - Thompson may well be. FFA are keeping negotiations and player signings under a very tight leash. Meanwhile, the Jets are doing a hell of a lot to engage the broader Newcastle/Hunter region to repair the significant damage caused from Stubbins/Tinkler. Good to see.