Where does all the money football generates actually go?

I'd imagine Torres would have a say in that, and he is probably going to insist on living in Sydney despite the many charms of Adelaide and Newcastle. For the league WSW would be best. A latent crowd dropping off, get that crowd back. Probably the biggest bang for bucks.

She has the 5 million from FIFA a year wrong, that would drive even FIFA broke with over 200 federatiions. The 80% of the Tv deal is fair enough So if thats 32 million of the 40 million uder the previous deal, how then do you arrive at the figure of 70 million in revenue from the A-league. She says the A-league gets half of the sponsorship, so what is that 38 million doubled is 74 million in sponsorship. Add that to the 40 million revenue deal and you have 114 million in revenue but the levy provides 14 million of that so already you know the figure is nonsense. FFa would be lucky to get 20 million from sponsorship, the other major source of revenue would be from Socceroos home matches.

Not sharing any horses, although I do prefer people on the outside than on the “in” so despite Bonita’s history (and yes, her agenda) it does not make the basis of this article incorrect. Sadly, it’s the best analysis we’ve received on the topic which needs way more scrutiny than it’s getting. Sounds like we both agree on that.

I suspect it would have to be a Sydney or Melbourne club, maybe a Brisbane club to make financial sense. It’s not fair to clubs like Newcastle, Mariners, Perth or Adelaide but that’s just reality at the moment and is what will be best for the league as a whole. If the FFA don’t get things right over the next 4 years and Fox/other broadcasters decide the product value hasn’t increased football will be in all sorts of trouble. If that means Victory or Sydney, whose boards have shown to be the most competent in the league in the last 5 years, getting help from the FFA financially is the difference between not signing Torres and signing Torres to boost viewing figures (with Fox hopefully kicking in $500k-$1 Mil) then it’s an evil I think we need to live with for the future health of the A-League.

I knew there was a more recent cricketer than the Waugh Brothers who were apparently very good at junior levels and I think even played for the NSW state team (with Steve still being better than Mark, poor Mark)

You now remind me that I once listened to a podcast featuring Ned Zelic talking about his junior footballing days in Canberra, and one of his biggest rivals at the time was Michael Bevan (the cricketer).

It will be interesting to see which club ends up being the beneficiary of the FFA's largesse.

But that's his job

How is this about a gotcha moment Mike? You haven’t responded to any of my points that other readers have pointed out are important questions that have been neglected in this conversation. Do you not believe that it is not relevant in respect to FFA finances, the last CBA that the PFA, Ange and senior Socceroos pushed for and whether they knew the CBA was detrimental to the rest of football? If so why didn’t you bring it up, surely it is more related to FFA finances than a Tasmania bid being rejected for expansion that we don’t know the details about. Why do you take such offence to someone holding you accountable?As a consumer do I not have the right to question your motivations, isn’t that part of being a journalist, having your views challenged? If you wrote for a website with a paywall I’d pay to read your articles just as I do for the Herald and Age publications to read their football writers. Why rather than actually responding to the points I have brought up do you want to run around going “oh don’t pick on me I’m not a real journalist” You continue to report unverified and unsourced information without giving the FFA an opportunity to respond and I will continue to call you out for poor journalism because that’s what it is. You’re the TMZ of Australian football Mike.

Waz, I’m not the person here purporting to be a journalist, my reputability isn’t at stake. All I have done is quoted the Garcia Report on Bonita Mersaides evidence so I don’t see how it goes to detriment my credibility, I didn’t make up the Garcia Report or Bonita’s responses that led to her being called an unreliable witness. Do you think it is unfair as a consumer of football media to question her character based on multiple examples within the Garcia report of her being caught telling half truths to fit her agenda? Personally I don’t and the many examples of her being caught out framing things in a light to make her look better cuts right at her credibility as a commentator on Australian football for me. I don’t see why you have taken such offence to me quoting the Garcia Report directly on BM, if she wasn’t such an unreliable witness, why has she never commented on the findings in the Garcia Report about herself? This has nothing to do with playing the woman, she fails to account for the last CBA and how the PFA, Ange and senior Socceroos pushed for the deal, threatening strike action, knowing full well that the deal was at the dertriment of the rest of Australian football, she fails to explain why at the last World Cup the players earned more on a per game basis than the German champions, she fails to ask questions of the roll of state federations in this mess and the profits they make from insurance, three of the biggest issues relating to this and like Mike she doesn’t mention them as it doesn’t suit the anti FFA agenda. I never said my opinion is more informed or even made my opinions fully known on this subject, all I asked was that this was reported fairly from both sides, nobody, not Mike, not Bonita and not Ray Gatt have asked the FFA the question directly before making these accusations, do you not think to be fair in their reporting they should have asked the FFA for comment first. Oh and I have asked Bonita to respond to the Garcia Report, in person and on Twitter and funnily enough she chooses to ignore the question like it is an insult for wanting clarification on the findings of the Garcia Report in relation to her evidence. I don’t work for the FFA or in media so have no idea why they haven’t responded to the article but agree that they should, but on the same token Bonita has never responded to the Garcia Report and the judgements on her personal character either. In other words it’s a long way down from the high horse you and Bonita seem to be sharing there Waz.

Thanks for your reply Matt. The written word can be interpreted every which way. I sometimes think if people who disagreed with each other on this site had a chance to talk about the subject over a glass of something, there would be much more understanding of the other persons opinion. Sometimes people like to 'shoot the messenger' when a journalist is not actually offering a point of view, but instead asking readers for their ideas and opinions on a subject. and as any lawyer would say, 'but on the other hand'

Matt You actually have no reputability. We don’t know who you are, who you work for, and what your motives are? So you’re questioning reputability??? You are publishing anonymously without offering any facts yourself, you can have no credibility on the topic because of this - you can’t simply rip into a published article, under someone’s own name, and attack them without factually basis and expect to be taken seriously. She has put this up on Twitter it would be enlightening if you, under your own name, would go there and make these same allegations. Will you? I got one would like to see the debate that follows ... Now I checked with a couple of sources that would know whether these numbers were “in the right ball park” and they recon they are stating that the only addition they would make is the FFA don’t pay for all travel, they only pay for air fares. Clubs pick up transport, hotels and food. So rather than play the woman in this debate, what is it in her article that you disagree with, why do you disagree with it, and why should your opinion be anything more informed than hers?? Finally, if the ffa disagree with Bonita’s article then they need to come out and clarify the situation. They are the only organisation that can end this endless debate over where money is going - if they were more transparent we’d all know then debates like this would be better informed right?

While AW provided some useful information regarding possible issues for the Investigatory Chamber to examine, the evidence—including evidence she provided—often did not support her specific recollections and allegations. That’s Benita’s credibility summed up by the Garcia Report.

While AW provided some useful information regarding possible issues for the Investigatory Chamber to examine, the evidence—including evidence she provided—often did not support her specific recollections and allegations. Bonita Mersaides credibility ladies and gentleman.

Coincidentally anything Bonita writes should come with the Garcia report section highlighting her as one of the most untrustworthy individuals interviewed in his investigation.

Bonita Mersaides isn’t trustworthy and this article isn’t a proper analysis at all. Bonita was singles out in the Garcia report on corruption as being more unreliable than the actually corrupt officials in interviews, contradicting herself so often Garcia needed to single her out in his report as being agenda driven, a liar and self serving. She hasn’t looked into the proportion of funds to the Socceroos vs junior vs women’s football, hasn’t looked into what portion goes to state federations, absolved her friends without confronting any of their actions that lead to the disparity. She doesn’t break down what percentage of revenue comes from Youth Development programs vs amateur football, she doesn’t investigate how funding is allocated. All she hasn’t done is copy pasted numbers around her normal anti FFA rhetoric driven by the fact she was let go from the organisation.

So what if he is 34? He was playing Champions League last season with Athletico Madrid, he is one of the biggest names in world football in the last 10 years and proper marquees are proven to work in Australia (Yorke and ADP being the only two proper marquees we have had) $2 million would be chump change compared to the corporate, main stream and TV interest he would bring to the game.

The most famous ones would be Andrew Johns who was a highly rated in football in the late 80’s and early 90’s and Adam Goodes (who to be fair could have played any sport he wanted as a kid and been the best at it given his talent) but there are a few professional NRL/Union back line players and AFL players and cricketers who were talented junior footballers that we couldn’t retain. A couple of lesser known player off the top of my head would be Joel Reddy, Liam’s brother who was a speedy and talented winger but gave the game up for NRL and Preston Campbell who is football obsessed. Also believe Anthony Minnichello was quite the footballer and a big fan and he now attends Sydney FC games quite regularly.

I won’t shy away from the fact I’m harsh on football journalists in Australia but from my point of view people like Mike are hurting the game more than helping it and after 25 years of reading articles like this about football (and sports in general in Australia) I for one am sick of playing nice. If Mike wants to deal in facts, I wouldn’t be so harsh on him but the fact he didn’t even put these questions to the FFA prior to posting this article, to get some balance from both sides of the argument, makes me irrationally angry. Regarding Mike’s articles, that is part of what really gets to me, is that he has an anti FFA agenda bias. He doesn’t offer the FFA perspective or even try to, all Mike is doing in my opinion is trying to rule up the Sokkah Twitter crowd and get clicks. To me that is the most disappointing thing about this because financial accountability of the FFA is imperative in the growth of the game but articles like this don’t put any pressure on the right people and are eastbound for the FFA to fob off as they have done to Mike by pointing to the 2016/7 accounts.