Right now, if you were looking for leadership and where the power lies in the round ball game in Australia, you’d be hard pressed to go past the Melbourne Victory and Australia’s football fans.
Administrators and broadcasters come and go, and with neither the FFA nor the broadcasters having covered themselves in glory over the past few years, there has been a vacuum of leadership.
Even the players’ association has earnt a reputation, whether real or perceived, for playing games, invariably agitating for more money.
Look around at the state federations and you see progress in some parts, stalling in others, but it’s not like any are standing out as beacons of light.
Whether any of these organisations have been able to show the type leadership and collaboration expected of them might indeed come down to their fractured relationship with the governing body.
Make no mistake, the FFA doesn’t appear to have made too many friends of late, whether here or overseas.
The past couple of weeks it’s all fallen apart for an organisation that’s been too wound up in the political games around the failed World Cup bid and the ludicrous transition of chairmanship from one Lowy to another, and has subsequently lost the dressing room.
Their inability to come out into bat for their main stakeholder, the fans, in the past fortnight has been nothing short of a public relations disaster, with an initial silence followed by one lame statement or press conference after another.
Instead, it’s been left to the fans to organise themselves and get Australia’s football media onside, defending the game, and bringing some long simmering issues to light.
Over the past few years, the one organisation showing the way forward has been Melbourne Victory.
Think the Victory and you think about a properly run football club, balancing football excellence with stability in the boardroom and office, and growth on and off the pitch.
It’s been reflected in the continuing growth in membership numbers, which is now circa 27,000, a record annual profit of $1.5 million in the last financial year, and A-League and FFA Cup titles in the past six months.
Leading the way has been its chairman Anthony di Pietro, who after initially struggling to win over the Victory’s members has been nothing short of a sensation, going from one great decision to another.
In fact, over the past six to 12 months it’s become clear di Pietro is arguable the most influential and respected leader in the game, and might one day make a great FFA leader himself.
How head office could do with the type of stable and environment di Pietro has been able to create at a club which at one point had a reputation for being arrogant, fractured and out of touch. Sound familiar?
To these eyes di Pietro’s success has been to sit down at the table with his various stakeholders and talk. It’s not rocket science, but it’s appears to have been done in a genuine way, and a culture of collaboration and credibility has been created around him.
Again yesterday, at the Victory’s business luncheon at Crown, where there were 1200 guests, he delivered a very authoritative speech, touching upon the growth at his club, but equally delivering a strong message about the challenges that lie ahead for FFA and how they can address them.
His measured attack on the “peanut gallery”, the non-football media attacking football’s fans as “suburban terrorists” and the like, was the stuff of Australian football legend.
Di Pietro even managed to mount a convincing argument about how extending a deal with the often-unpopular Etihad Stadium for a further 10 years was a good thing, reflecting, rightly, that the club’s growth over the past four years meant that big games had to be played at a larger venue than AAMI Park.
Watching di Pietro, it was impossible not to ponder why football’s leaders couldn’t deliver such conviction.
Earlier in the day his CEO Ian Robson, on Melbourne radio station SEN, delivered an equally impressive performance on the Hungry for Sport show with former AFL player Kevin Bartlett.
Bartlett did everything he could to try and trip Robson up and drive a wedge between the Victory and FFA, but the Victory CEO remained cool under a barrage of some of the most ignorant statements and questions.
Again, it showed there are leaders in the game who are knowledgeable, passionate and articulate enough to defend and advocate for it.
Coupled with the fans and football media, the latter of which have found their voice the past fortnight after seemingly being too afraid to question the FFA for years, it highlights the strength of leadership across the game.
Indeed, any talk of a crisis in football or the game being on its knees is so far from the truth.
The crisis is in the management of a football headquarters in clear need of cultural change, but the examples from fans and Melbourne Victory’s office shows the future remains bright once headquarters catches up.
jbinnie
Guest
Careful Philip. The "bans ruling" only came into effect halfway through that 10 year period so your math is misleading also. A better calculation is that in those 5 years over 5,000,000 people have attended HAL "league matches only" so that it would be correct to say that in those 5,000,000 "visitations" by fans there has been 198 instances of "bad behaviour. Put a % figure on that if you will-------it's around 0.004 % almost too hard to imagine. jb
Qantas & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
AR "Maybe he has used ‘soccer’ for the round ball game for all of his 70 odd years." Ha... So isn't that what I said.. KB is still stuck in the 19th century, an old dinosaur babbling along on 21st century digital radio with rhetoric of a past gone era... AR, maybe you should replace him, at least your blogger name is "Aussie Rules" (AR) or am I mistaken..? "De Pietro the new exciting young face of Australian Football". AR, I assume you have a problem with that 21st century statement as well...?
fiddlesticks
Guest
and you guys make such a stink about Bartlett and what he calls a game. an you stereotype him as a dinosuar, you guys are hilarious thinking you are so new wave and progressive and any one who dares to like something else is seen as a donosaur
fiddlesticks
Guest
excellent stereotype
fiddlesticks
Guest
so actually despite all of your claims that police are heavy handed with football fans, the stats you give mean that the police are extremely easy on the football squads.is it because they hang in large groups and intimidate police unlike cricket supporters?
Punter
Guest
You're right Bondy, why would someone care much what another blogger demands a radio interviewer calls a game.
jbinnie
Guest
NUFC - Just as a matter of interest I was instrumental in bringing Archie Fraser to Australia as a football player where he firstly trialled with Brisbane Lions for the NSL, and then settled him in with the Ipswich team that at that time was playing in the then Queensland State League. Archie has done well but being a pretty straight shooter I was not surprised when he did not last at the FFA or for that matter neither did Jack Reilly ,who knew his football, with experience with the 1974 Socceroos that went to the World Cup. Gorman also did a lot of the spadework in setting up the FFA Cup, my only criticism being the length of time it took from "idea to fruition" based as it was roughly on an English FA Cup model. Cheers jb.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Gorman's perspective http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/ex-western-sydney-wanderers-ceo-lyall-gorman-speaks-out-about-fan-appeals-issue/story-e6frf4gl-1227631465704
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
I don't think this resolved anything, deal with it in February? What should have been a one-week issue has turned into a two week issue and possibly longer For mine I've been really surprised at how it's snowballed Been in a few season long standoffs that were a little wearisome at times because end of the day they were necassary but at the same time they were the best seasons because of how everyone closed ranks, became closer and it led to change and ultimately it is character building Tbh I'm not wearied by this at all because of the way the media are attacking them in a way I've never seen before This is actually larger than the FFA and fans, it's dredged up a lot of simmering tensions between the FFA and all stakeholders which have been brewing for a while and is playing out around this issue and just have to let it takes its course I think it's a good thing in the grand scheme of things as we may finally now have the climate for real change that needs to occur, eg move the FFA out of 2005 but more importantly the structure needs to be adjusted to suit 2015 There's nothing to worry about, there may be talk of "crisis" at times as things play out but really everything is fundamentally fine as we have MV with 27k members and WS have held onto 15k members despite a poor season so the core of the league in Melbourne and Sydney is fine Ultimately the shackles need to be thrown off to allow football to move forward, FFA's obsolete mindset has got to the point where they are holding the A-League back instead of guiding it forward
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
lol yeah poaching Ange would have left a lot of bad blood as it undermined their plans at the time significantly. Thankfull it's turned out OK given the way Kev has stepped up. Think it was tricky getting Kewell in Melbourne finalised too First impression when I saw the SBS headline was for how sweet it would have been for him to be able hammer the FFA with the "mediocrity" line
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Yeah it's all rather finely balanced, eg having all HE's on song, having active fans on song with passive fans etc I was thinking people were being a bit OTT in calling for heads initially, then someone pointed out Gallop is friends with Wilson and Hartigan (whoever that is?) from the NRL days and didn't mention her by name in the first presser and perhaps they have a point I wasn't surprised at Wilsons article, or the FFA's weak response, disapointed but not shocked and I've already got a while ago FFA don't have a lot of time for fans (or other stakeholders like owner investors) Best article I've read through this though was Lucy Zelic in which she called for heads, because she went into the pattern of their mistakes and she has a point, they've really been off the ball on a few things recently, PFA negotiations, they screwed the FFA Cup Final through the substantial markups in price. Maybe Steven Lowy is fine for the job but the whole unchallenged nepotism thing isn't a good look. This type of thing happens to a Govt that's been in power too long For my part I'm not so bothered about calling for heads, as it's pointless if the replacements are in keeping with the same organisational culture of thinking Rather it might be good to look at the difference between FFA and A-League chairmen who have their ears closer to the ground on the issue, Think it might be better to start debating the merits of the 2003 Crawford report recommendation about an independent HAL instead of calling for heads to roll
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
For mine I don't trust it at all, this February talk just designed to buy time so they can figure out how to window dress things and still carry on the same way Worth saying I don't trust them after NT negotiated a way to work the Home End after a season long standoff in 2008 which we used for our first ACL campaign to great effect, only for FFA to override it based on a "review" by the newly appointed Hatamoto so for mine I don't like the words FFA and review in the same sentence and I have a tricky time trusting their motives Appeals process is just a symptom of a greater process which has flawed assumptions as I've stated elsewhere, so re-jigging that won't fundamentally resolve things tbh This isn't just about the fans though, they are a bit funny to everyone, eg clubs, media, players, coaches even
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Haha @ RBB Anon, any links to the Fraser and Gorman perspectives? I like Archie Fraser, might be the only A-League chief I have liked Gorman did well at WSW and CCM
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Not really, the FFA's approach of ever more intensive bannings is what is diminishing attendances, I should know I'm an inaugural member and seen first hand how the overzealous crackdown does more to harm attendances then the occasional rowdiness ever did Nothing juvenile about a gross violation of civil liberties
Bondy
Guest
AR Do you follow the NBL ?. Apparently its great you should check it out and get into it, instead of coming here on this tab and really doing nothing more than annoying yourself ...
AR
Guest
Seriously? You're main beef is that Kevin Bartlett calls it 'soccer' instead of 'football'..???" That's it..?? Maybe KB calls it what he wants to call it. Maybe he's a living legend (actually officially) of Aust Rules Football, and calls that game 'football'. Maybe he has used 'soccer' for the round ball game for all of his 70 odd years. Maybe he hosts a radio show in a city where millions of people follow 10 footy clubs and they have also referred to AFL 'football' for 150+ years. Maybe it's habit or preference. Whatever his reason, who are you to demand what someone like KB, who is a friend of Ian Robson, and a friend to the ALeague, use a particular word that you decide want him to use, because it somehow offends your vernacular sensitivities. Crikey, this 'soccer/football' nonsense is so juvenile. Even ADP referred to the game as 'soccer'. Grow up kid.
marron
Roar Guru
Well that's good, as they're not trying to get all the bans overturned or disempower security in order to "run amok". On security though the more people read up on hatamoto the better. http://outside90.com/ugly-truth-behind-a-league-policing-812/ http://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/2015/12/02/ffa-security-spy-fans-mistakenly-ban-innocent-supporters/ We certainly don't want anyone running amok now do we.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
Also Lyall Gorman weighed in on the debate as did Archie Fraser. Two ex A-league bosses ie Damian DeBohun's position. Not exactly flattering when they spoke about what is going on right now.
Qantas & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
So why is it that KB had no problem calling Association Football "Soccer" but has a problem using the word "Rules" in Australian Rules Football in this interview..? Surly you realise this interview was going to be keenly listened to by MV supporters and the Australian Football community---not one for AFL listeners. I think the ignorance lies with Bartlett who just couldn't help himself making an out dated arrogant 19th century point. Ignorance is not a virtue AR (Mr Aussie Rules)
Justin Mahon
Guest
The Adelaide and Perth owners are playing an entirely different game to ADP. The club has simply put its head down, copped all the FFA 'milking' of its success and poaching of its staff and built a business. A big one. ADP has been waiting for this announcement. The fringe clubs can snipe about an A-League commission from the sidelines, but ADP speaks with authority and will deliver it. The approach he has taken has been to speak rarely, but loudly.