Sydney FC out of Asian Champions League

Don't mind me Sydneysider :lol: just responding to sydsters denial of some of the differences ;) which I note he's now admitting to down below more or less. I don't envy you guys one bit for having to deal with the trust. And in the end a strong sfc is the best thing for the city.

"in a letter sent to members not long ago" I've been a member since day one in 2005. I've seen the letter and been to members forums. The stuff that Barlow wrote in that letter hasn't eventuated in terms of buying some land and establishing a training base that we own and call our own. We merely rent space at Mac Uni (now finished) and whatever place they will base SFC at next. Don't get me wrong, the SFC board have done some good things in terms of setting up an academy, getting a technical director from the AIS to steer the academy, community engagement etc... But the club fails in regards to establishing a long term home for the club in the Sydney area. They had their chance at Tempe Reserve but decided against it because they wanted exclusive access and didn't want to share with schools (Newington College) and other sporting clubs. The details I've seen of the Tempe Reserve project look great and Sydney Olympic FC have partnered up with Marrickville Council and Newington College to set up a sporting facility with football pitches, offices and gym. SFC have nothing of the sort. I know you won't agree with me but I'm at a point that the stuff fed to us members from the board is basically not worth the paper it is written on. I don't believe them anymore. They'll need to do a lot more to convince me otherwise. SS

Sydneysider , SFC covers the whole of Sydney except the west , their support for the many areas they cover are a different beast to Wests. Regions such as the Shire , St George and Northern Beaches are all distinctly versatile and have their own cultures , the other side of town can simply claim their geographical reference to their name and capture most and sundry. Put simply it is the nature of the beast in an expansive city like Sydney.We are now with population growths 2 cities as such - references such as East Sydney are simply stated to create class variances and cultural differences that Wests fans thrive and hunger for.Sydney FC is doing a whole range of things on and off the field - refer to Barlow's future plans in a letter sent to members not long ago should you be one.To claim we are a basket case is more than harsh , like Wests fans tantrums towards us , it's water off a ducks back

Marron I'm a Sydney FC fan and agree with a lot of what you say. Same for Josh. The only issue I bring up is that SFC does do a lot of work with schools via Paul Reid (ex-ALeague player) and they do have a lot of goodwill with futbol fans in this city who don't want to support the Wanderers or identify with Western Sydney (and yes these people do exist... even in Western Sydney). The problem is that SFC (the board and Tony Pignata) are too scared to embed roots down in one area in fear of losing another area of Sydney eg. Sutherland Shire, St.George area. Example: Training base at Macquarie University in North Ryde (now finished so need to find another training base). Youth Academy based at Valentine Park in North west sydney. NYL and W-League teams home games played at Lambert Park Leichhardt. Playing pre-season games at Kogarah (and an A-League game) and Leichhardt Oval. Paul Reid (Community Football Officer) who also plays for Rockdale City Suns in the state league. SFC offices based at Moore Park. SFC postal address at Bondi Junction. Graham Arnold and Tony Pignata saying that Sutherland Shire is a core area of SFC's support so they are against a Sutherland A-League team. Compare that to the Wanderers: Play at Parra Stadium. Train at Blacktown (Building facilities at Blacktown) "that section of Sydney where multimillionaires give their son in laws jobs" and that son in law can't get his father in law to invest in some facilities and a training base because the father in law doesn't trust his son in law to spend the money right. They get treated like 2nd class citizens by the SCG Trust as evidenced by the state of the SFS pitch on Wednesday night once again. 11 years of existence and nothing tangible to show for it off the field in terms of investment. SFC is a basket case. The only way to fix them is to find new owners who will invest some money into the club and embed some roots in this city, not their current nomadic existence off the pitch.

Wests fans you clearly show there are hang ups with the other side of Sydney...as for not engaging with other parts of Sydney , you must be basing this looking at your back yard only , never mind what we do , there will be no acknowledgement , I'm sure we can live with this...Valentine Park is a commercial decision only , soon the Sydney academy will be the envy of all clubs....you may have a star on your jumper (should be an Asian Confederation Referees badge) , pity the gf record is 0 and 3...Sydney is sky blue...unbeaten in 7 derbies tells the story...

Agreed Jupiter. There was luck involved without doubt. Even more than you could reasonably expect, in the 2nd leg of the final. But previous to that the side had beaten Al hilal at home, and beaten previous champions and premiership sides to get to that point, some involving extenuating circumstances, penalties given against,..... even bad luck!

Oh yes. You truly represent the whole of Sydney don't you. At least, that section of Sydney where multimillionaires give their son in laws jobs; where chairmen ignore the advice of their underlings on personal whims; where "glamour" is important; where a famous name is enough to sell thousands of products; where the idea of temporarily leaving a difficult to get to eastern enclave is enough to make you sweat; where it's normal to make disparaging remarks about people from parts of the town you'll supposedly die for, even when they're not present; when you're solution to how to colourfully support your team is to employ someone else to do it and then neglect to pay them; where the idea of any uncouth people from the other end of town coming to watch one of your sides causes you to blanket ban the general public from watching.... Oh yes. That's recognizably "Sydney" alright. It's just not my Sydney and it never will be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--iFDcYG1dk&ab_channel=A-LeagueHighlightsAlmanac Enjoy. I know I do every time I see it :)

Add the fact that Eastern Suburbs Football Club have rented Valentine Park from Football NSW near Blacktown, rather than somewhere near Moore Park or Southern Sydney shows how desperate they are. The few ESFC fans I come across in Nepean are those who followed the blue team from the beginning. To quote the Minister for Football, "...since 2012, Sydney has not been sky blue... but has been red and black." No need to quote the results.

Then you should be absolutely appalled at the failure of your club to garner any sort of discernible support in the city's true west, north west and south west. What is the club doing to improve it's support in these areas? What goals has it set in terms of presence in this half of the city? At the moment there are probably 100 WSW fans for every SFC in the west. How can the current administration continue to run the club when it's struggling so badly in half of it's catchment area?

Josh , the rubbish talk of Sydney FC being East Sydney or Easties , etc, was started by Wests fans....Sydney FC represent the whole city not just a geographical region...GET OVER IT...there's no need to even attempt to narrow our identity...WE ARE AND ALWAYS WILL BE SYDNEY....

I'm enjoying the salty bitterness. We didn't beat also-rans to get to the final we beat the best teams from each region. When your team gets 2 gold stars you can comment.

I was impressed with Shandong. The foreigners were obvious standouts, particularly Tardelli and Montillo, but I thought some of the Chinese players were extremely good as well [unlike Guangzhou]. While SFC did play very well in patches, there was a lack of quality with the final ball, and lack of cutting edge, and a continuing sense of vulnerability in defence. At no time at the game did it ever feel that 2 goals were going to be enough, although as the clock ticked down it seemed that we might get away with it. However in view of some of the bile being expressed on the other thread about Arnie, and Sydney's squad I thought I might run a counter-factual. Imagine that Brosque had recovered from injury, and that Gersbach had decided to wait before going overseas. Gersbach would have been much more effective coming forward than Woodcock, and no worse in defence. Brosque is a much better finisher, and much better at making chances for other players than either Simon or poor old Smelz. I can reasonably imagine with this stronger attack and no weaker defence, we might have got another goal, and got through, making Arnie a genius.

Bring on ACL 2017! Massive off season ahead for Adelaide and WSW (and maybe Brisbane) as we try and put together a squad good enough to challenge in Asia. Would like to see us bring in some ACL only players. Qualifying for knock out stages should be the minimum requirement.

Sydney fan who will not have a bar of this rubbish about the Wanderers AFC win being just due to luck. Sure, you don't get to win any major competition without some luck on the way - but this was luck based on remarkable defensive concentration and consistency game after game. I will treat the opinions of those who say otherwise with the respect they deserve.

I can honestly say I have never before or since seen anything like the way Wanderers rode a wave of extraordinary good fortune on the way to that title.

Lol. I agree!

I have never see a luckier team in any final should have lost by at least 2goals and the worst refereeing I have ever seen including Ben Williams

There's that comment again 'Western Suburbs' - we are Western Sydney. You are Eastern Sydney. We can quite easily call you Eastern Suburbs.

IWestern Suburbs FC fans simply won't accept the fact the star on their shirt should be a referee's badge Won't happen again , that ref has flown the coup