Socceroos to play Norway in March

Waz, last year I engaged in email correspondence with the QG Premier's Department regarding the exposure to Asian TV audiences created by Roar's involvement in the ACL. I explained that these audiences would be several times larger than State of Origin or Bronco matches, and asked if they planned to to take advantage of Roar's involvement in the ACL. After all, we are supposedly targeting the Asian tourist market! I received a reply one month later, stating, in Public Servant language (I know how to read this language, because I used it at a reasonably high level when I was a CPS), that, "uh, we missed that, but we are now in contact with Brisbane Roar to discuss future opportunities". This is the domain of Queensland Events and Tourism, who also oversee the standard of our stadium playing surfaces via their subsidiary, Stadiums Queensland. The detail is on this forum Waz, and if you missed it, I am sorry. But the Qld Govt is an under-performing and inept organization. They should be putting their hand up, and trying to beat all other states for any worthwhile events. They should be doing the hard yards, not the event organizers. Unfortunately, the responsible Govt departments appear to be staffed by NRL fans who are, as such, completely ignorant of the relative international insignificance of their favourite sport. I am not a fan of FFA, but for an international match to be held in Brisbane, the Qld Govt need to make the hard yards, not FFA. Does the Qld Govt want a football international in Brisbane, or don't they? My guess? They couldn't care less, but don't blame FFA for that!

Arnold will replace the bloke who cut and run - we have no choice - new coach needs to have a handle on whos who in the zoo - don't expect him to take it after the cup - maybe Popa - Arnold will probably seek a position on Holland.

lol

Mark You make a sweeping statement and present it as fact, when it is not. The current commercial arrangements the FFA has when it sells Socceroos games are not known so you can not State with certainty that it gets to keep all the revenues as well as gaining from the sale of games. In fact that stance makes no sense, if I was buying the game on behalf of the council I would expect to keep all revenues in return - that’s what happens when EPL teams visit these shores and it seems likely that’s what would happen here. However, there is no clarity on this point from the FFA and it’s not obvious on their financial reports so it will all vary depending on the deal done. So you make a sweeping statement that can not be proven but your statement is at odds with industry practice - and therefore highly likely to be incorrect - any council that buys a game for a significant fee would rightly face the wrath of local constituents if it gave away all revenues. As an example, when tourism QLD bought the hosting rights to LFC they paid the FFA millions for the rights and then kept all the revenues making a tidy seven figure profit. So be careful what assumptions you draw on this. It’s entirely possible the ffa is making less profit by selling the games than if it did not. However, the FFA is not their to maximise its revenue over and above the development of the game nationally. It has a duty to develop the game in all states and territories and the fact it could do that in QLD and make good profit is a fact. While the ffa have refused to bring the national teams here for 4 years now AFL, NRL, Basketball, Netball, Athletics, Boxing, Rugby Union and a host of other sports have invested with events in this state. That is the mistake the FFA are making - it is NOT the Queensland governments job to invest in football in the State, it is the FFAs

Laughable. You say the FFA would not be losing money, but then go and disprove your own point. Under current arrangements, the FFA takes all the revenues you mention, plus doesn’t pay venue hiring fees, plus takes a couple of mil for the privilege of playing the match. This is as weak as your argument that the Socceroos should play more friendly matches, despite you then not being able to provide any suitable dates for matches or suitable opponents.

#FFA Appologist

Mid, Mark, Fadida, We have national teams, they should all play nationally. Socceroos included. Games should not be “sold” to the highest bidder because then we don’t have a national team, we have a team of prostitutes. And the FFA would not be losing money by doing that, that is a lie spread by FFA Apologists. The FFA can hire a stadium, market the game, sell the tickets, sell advertising, sell corporate boxes, get a cut in the F&B and make a profit. The Suncorp average for Socceroos games is 37,000 which at $40/ticket would be sufficient to generate a profit of well over $1m/game even before advertising, corporate and F&B come in to play. So why not come to QLD occasionally, make over $1m profit, and boost the game in an NRL state but the state with the second highest participation rates in the country. The FFAs job is to foster and develop the game nationally, they are failing in their duty to do that and it should be possible to make a profit on games and distribute games around the nation including non capital city venues. Only our own FFA can make an issue out of this.

lol

All goes to show the absurdity of some of the anti-FFA mob. They have a shopping list of things they want the FFA to spend money on, but not only do they have no ideas on how to raise additional revenue to pay for them, but they want to cut existing revenue sources. Ridiculous.

Waz blames FFA. Check Queensland complain about a lack of NT matches. Check Where is a Roar fan threatening to boycott the A-league because of a lack of NT games?

OK FFA give up 3 or 4 million .... sounds like a good plan ...

No it doesn’t. The blame lies with the FFA they are charged with managing a national team not prostituting the brand to the highest bidder. If the QLD Government aren’t cooperating then find a way; Gallop talks about fishing where the fish are - well, they’re up here !!

Ernie Merrick for Socceroos coach and prime minister too.

Mate talk to your government .... thats were the blame lies...

Take Jason Hoffman He is versatile and can play wing back full back and striker

"send-off match in late May is being planned for either Sydney, Melbourne or Perth" - Brisbane not in the mix here once again? Would've thought after being overlooked for hosting about 12 wc qualifiers FFA could've at least thrown us a friendly

Go Socceroos!

Whenever we feel like it TBH.

I believe we have every right to start our complaints prior to that.

When will they decide on the coach selection?