More A-League supporter groups join boycott

Its a joke.

If the A-League dies, they'll know what the problem is and it will be of their own doing - both sides. Now is a perfect opportunity to get together and set things right, admit your mistake and win the fans back plus some more. Leadership begins with taking positive action to grow amid change. We don't need News Limited or Rebecca Wilson - they are never going to contribute as much to football as the fans are to the game.

Football and the Australian nanny state cannot coexist. I hope Football wins.

It's an interesting perspective, but the thing is the international game has been popular for a while now (85,000 were at the MCG to see Australia draw Iran 2-2 in 1997), and the WC is being followed by more Australians today than ever before. However, there is not necessarily a correlation between people following the game internationally and people following the A-League. So while the world cup may have provided a bit of an impetus for the local game, it's hard to tell whether it would have been a quick sugar hit or something more long term. Personally, I sort of doubt that anyone thought there was a realistic chance of getting it - I think it was all a bit of a ruse to funnel money into the game, to get more rectangular stadiums built, etc.

The fact is that the A league was created by Lowy and his billionaire mates as they were banking on bringing the world cup and cream this event through the Aleague. Problem they stumbled against richer and more powerful forces. The a league without the world cup coming to australia is always going to find problems to balance its books.

Funny article

Tbf this will probably stimulate the debate the game needs to have, FFA are stuck in 2005, at the time of the change in FFA Chairman + two board members, about where the game is at and where it needs to be going But the FFA have quietly just gone about wanting to say in a past mindset, but we need to go from 2005 to 2015 As an MV fans, we've gone through this sort of thing as recently as 2013, but once the changes have been maded in the fan scene and the clubs mindset the whole thing rebounded quite robsutly There's a floor on how far this can fall, ironically it is because of the admin of the big teams, eg MV and WS membership renewal was very robust, and reflects that the teams and so the HAL are well anchored in Melbour.ne and Sydney

What a shame that fool giving the camera the bird isn't going to the soccer this week. Bet he will miss it and want to go soon.

I'm so sorry Roy, I appreciate I might have a different viewpoint to yours but when you say "exactly why an article like this is needed" why don't you grow some balls and a backbone and explain why EXACTLY it is needed? My guess is you can't or won't because they objective of the mob mentality right now is "let us do what we want, how we want, when we want, and if your views differ to ours we will shout you down" ...

This post is EXACTLY why the article is necessary !

There are people external to our game that do want to kill our game Mahler, I wouldn't pretend to know why, and they are a small minority but they are there. All this is a victory for Rebecca Wilson and her kind, football has already lost the debate and even previously "neutral" media have mis-represented the arguments and reported death-threats and support for the banned 198 only. Wilsons initial position was preposterous and wrong, that though has been submerged by the hysterics that have followed with Wilsons very poor attempt at journalism now viewed sympathetically (without good reason imo) by people who previously would have been neutral to the sport. Football has lost big time and the only questions now are how much damage will be done and can professional football recover? That last question is not guaranteed to be answered in the positive - Jets remain unsold and may well do do for some time, Mariners will continue to lose more money and Charlesworth may just say enough is enough, City and SFC lose about $5m each season backed by billionaires - how long will that continue? And then we have a sponsorship deal for the Socceroos now in the balance, negotiations over the sponsorship of the HAL stalling until this is resolved (if it indeed can get resolved?), and worst of all negotiations over the new TV contract commencing next month. How much would you offer for soccers next TV contract if you were Fox? At best I would expect a $50m/year 1 year extension deal with a "come back and see us in 2 years if you've got your sh$t together and we'll talk some more" offer, why only 1 year - I recon Fox won't gamble on the HAL alone and will be plotting a swoop for the EPL in 3 years time and will want both, not just one, to mitigate risks. And if a new TV deal doesn't materialise bigger rewards how long will the Bakries hang around in Brisbane? Not long I recon! So all the dominos to failure in what has always been a fragile sport are now lined up, and active support have tipped the first one over and events may be out of control of those in the sport. Football is now in very dangerous waters, active support groups will tell you it's about "fairness" - and to a large extent their arguement is valid - but their militant actions are not fair, nor proportionate to the situation and are harming already weak clubs and the commercial aspirations of their sport. These are Dangerous times where a better response would have been to postpone the boycott and wait and see. And let's say we do navigate this current crisis successfully, what further stories have Rebecca Wilson and her kind got lined up? There's a new sport in town now - it's called "poke active support and they will overreact and make any situation worse". Game on. And I bet Rebecca Wilson will watch a full round of HAL games this weekend for the first time in her life, and every now and again she'll say "I did that" as Fox pan away to empty active support areas. And far from being close to the sack, she is now in demand in a headline hungry media world and I'd expect she'll be getting a big fat pay-rise some time soon. Her bosses will love her - she threw the poo and it only stuck to the FFA, not the newspaper, how good is that they'll be thinking. And when she looks at her bigger pay cheque she'll think of soccer and say "you did that" and smile :) And all the wanna-be famous hacks will say, game on - I want a piece of that action, let's go poke soccers active support and see what happens. We will get what we deserve in the next few weeks and months, and right now we deserve to fail.

Apologies - that should read Malcolm Knox.

Dumb, dumber and dumber...What do they want to do kill the A League?

Very amusing, well done, but sort helps encapsulate just how ridiculous it has all become. As Malcolm Kno says quite convincinlgy: "All sub-capacity crowds are in some ways a boycott against something." Michael Cockerill has just written one of his best articles ever: "instead of fighting the enemy without, it's become a fight between the enemy within. Again. " "Football's biggest wounds remain self-inflicted. If the intention of the media beat-up that sparked the conflagration was to divide and rule, mission accomplished. With spectacular ease. " wise words

Supporters need to concentrate on what they do best which is turning up at the game or watching it on tv and support their team. They are the ones who stuffed the old soccer league before the Frank Lowy days. Let s not go back to faction infighting and power play. Those who dont want to behave in a civil manner and boycott the games can stay home. Italian, French, Greek and Turkish leagues have been plagued by thugs who just want to keep doing what they have been doing for years and not change. We do not want this in Australia, we know what lies behind this. England Germany and of course the AFL and super rugby in Australia are the benchmarks for a healthy and safe crowd environmement. Let s raise to this level instead of boycotting games.

FFA CEO David Gallop responded quickly to the walk outs, saying, “We don’t know how to react. If I was a fan I’d be walking out too, the team hasn’t been the same since Josep Gombau left.” David, that is a most inappropriate comment. You should retract and apologize.

Story by val in the advertiser http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/a-league/adelaide-united-invites-red-army-protesters-to-have-a-beer-with-chairman-greg-griffin-and-ceo-grant-mayer/news-story/bbad0d43e5cda415c1e48eb6e5b0624f paints the red army as fools and victims....citing support for the 198. Then quoting " some of which for thuggery and concealed weapons.".... making the red army sympathetic to those banned. Another poor reflection on football supporters and a journalist who has decided to miss the point. I hope FFA call out this article for its angle and demand an apology from the advertiser.......