When did football become so difficult to like?

FFA makes the AFL appear like a group of good samaritans. Whoever runs Australian soccer seems to be always lousy at it except for the early Lowy era, then it went pear shaped chasing the World Cup. Just a shame we could not join the South American Football Confederation, we are just not compatible with Asia. The cultural differences are too great. Asia is rife with backhanders, greasing of palms and all manner of under hand activities.

I guess it became harder to like, when administrations at all levels told us both through their words and actions, that they don't care if we the fans don't like it. They WILL do it their way and we can like it or lump it! Its mind over matter, they don't mind and we don't matter!

North Korea may be a pathological state, but nuclear threats are hardly an issue for football. The bigger problem in terms of corrupting influence within the AFC and FIFA is the ludicrously rich oil countries. And your broader point is correct, we are naive to think that international football administrative decision making has any thing to do with what is fair or sensible; it's all about money, prestige and influence.

I had the Australian team in the late 70's. Few players ended up at their original height! Wish my mum had kept them all. We had Southampton, Liverpool, Norwich, a heap of them. Had the real pitch but had to replace the goals after they were broken. Never did play by anything like the rules though

Its easy for the Tiwi island to dominate the AFL skills wise, 18 a side games provide little skill development and their is hardly any youth development more looking for tall guys who are athletic from basketball so what they have on the Tiwi islands would be superior. So the provides the X factor, a better enviroment for skills development. NRL which has so many aboriginal and pacific island players you have parents now largely avoiding having their kids play the rugby sports with the exception of those two communities . Is it a discgrace for AFL to have less of those minorities than the NRL. Football does have famous aboriginal players, just not the level found in AFL let alone the bigger number in NRL. Above the level though found in some other sports though.

What makes you believe that they belong to a certain ethnicity or region? The most naturally gifted footballers could conceivably come from anywhere. A George Best, Stan Bowles or Tony Currie being found among them.

The AFC is home to Iran, China, North Korea and Syria - surely we should have been prepared for exactly what we're dealing with.

Punter - your observation re,positional set-ups is way,way, off beam. The long running 2-3-5 formation had disappeared on the "continent" long before English football discarded it in the early sixties,in fact, Alf Ramsey's liking for a "wingless team" almost got him the sack before his team won the WC in 1966. The "third back", (a withdrawn centre- half) was a favourite formation with Arsenal before the second World War. Russia sent a team to England in 1945 and for the first time football fans witnessed players moving all around the field taking up a position and staying there until space allowed them to move again. The Hungarian team of the early 1950's developed a formation that had first appeared in a pre - war Austrian team, where a play-maker,Sindelar,played a withdrawn role behind his two strikers. Hungary duplicated this system with Puskas and Kocsis filling the striking roles and Hidegkuti the play- maker lying behind them. They also developed their wingers into fast, fetch and carry, aggressive ball carriers whose jobs were to get the ball to those front men. As you are aware England still had not changed their system and conceded 13 goals to this Hungarian team in 2 internationals. If we care to move to Italy then we see a totally different development when a coach called Pozzo, who, while playing in Switzerland, had seen the national side use a system best described numerically as 1-3-3-3. Pozzo,and another Italian coach Rocco, took this idea to their homeland and set about proving organised defence was a good way to win against better teams. Result --- catenaccio,ultra defence. This abortion of a system was to be found in Italian football for another 10 years and it took a little known team,Glasgow Celtic, to show the world how the system can be sabotaged ,especially by speedy play. Now you told me the other day that your football education began in 1974 and by then the Australia national team was playing 4-3-3, a system developed in Brazil for the 1956 World Cup. So that left me wondering, where did you see 2-3-5 being played after 1974. I have been watching football in this country for more than 50 years and I doubt very much if I have ever seen 2-3-5 played anywhere in this country. Cheers jb.

It's always been difficult to like... Unless you like backyard squabbles between unlikeable nasty siblings...

JB, Di Stefano & Puskas would need to lose a lot of weight to be non-pricable today. They scored 50 goals a year in an era where the formations were 5 forwards, 3 midfielders & 2 defenders, Ronaldo & Messi are doing it today.

Punter- Once again your "slip" is showing. Kocsis &Puskas, Di Stefano & Puskas, two pairings that today would probably be "non -priceable". For the younger readers the first pairing played with a Hungarian team ,1950-54, who for 4 years never lost an international match,their first loss was in the World Cup Final. The other pair set a record that probably won't be surpassed when between them they scored 7 goals in a European Cup Final to give Real their 5th win of the trophy in a row. I could go on with Pele and Vava, Leidholm and Simonssen who graced the highest scoring ever World Cup final in 1958 and of course Cruyff and Neeskens were a useful pairing. Cheers jb.

All these players I read about in my youth JB & was starry eyed about them JB. My football education started about 1974.

Waz - While agreeing wholeheartedly with the latter part of this comment it was the opening part that had me confused. Sure no one is going to complain when 45 places in the World Cup become available but a look at past performances will show that it will be mostly identities from that "original 16" that will battle out the final games. There has always been one exception of course,usually the host nation has performed above themselves , but if you look at the original aim of the World Cup,that is to bring the best nations of the world together in competition, then it doesn't matter whether it is 16, 46 or 200 participants,like milk ,the cream will always rise to the top. So can expansion of the comp numerically be put down to anything other than a huge "dollar grab"????. Cheers jb.

Punter - Pity you are not a bit older, then you could have watched Garrincha,Hamrin,Skoglund, Matthews,Finney, Johnstone and Henderson,tear defences apart with their inherent ball skills. Many will say they were players from "yesteryear", but who is to say what they would have been with today's financial rewards, not to mention the other physical benefits. Tom Finney actually worked full time as a plumber while performing on the world stage with England. Cheers jb.

Waz - Hard to follow your logic here. You start by mentioning a time when Roar were at their "worst" when in fact it is debatable that they are now showing a position in the competition as being in totally new ground, with only the non -functioning CCM below them in the scheme of things. There is no doubt you see things that are pleasing you but these must surely be in the administrative side of the business for there is absolutely nothing happening on the playing side of the club, and the fans are voting with their feet.After opening the season with 15,000 loyal fans showing up the gates have now steadied at around the 8000 mark and if that is not a call for action,even in administration,then I don't know what is. I recently watched a final on TV where the Roar beat another youth team and IMO the best player on the park was a kid called Brady who, when I looked up his CV had played 15 games with the first 11 under Aloisi. That kid has now departed the scene. Some of the signings in recent seasons have been questionable and yet it took 3 seasons for the admin. to take action. According to your letter we are should soon be about to see improvements emanating from "behind the scenes" but I sure wish they would hurry up before that attendance figure drops below the 5.500 now being experienced by CCM, a financial fact of life that cannot possibly be maintained. Cheers jb.

100% corrrect. AG.

Shoulda picked you for a Messi scycophant, Mike. Twice as good as CR7? Fool.

All our Messis are in the Tiwi Islands kicking Sherrins instead of soccer balls. Soccer Australia needs to find a way to engage with our Aboriginals. The lack of Aboriginals represented in Australian soccer is a disgrace.

Just because there’s more money in it or back room politics involved doesn’t make the decision wrong. Japan, as an example, has benefitted greatly from WC participation and now more of east Asia is set to benefit from increased participation which could really fire up soccer in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and India. That in turn could supercharge the ACL which in turn could supercharge many Asian countries, including Australia. Increased participation is a good thing. It’s proven and that alone bakes this the right decision (despite reservations over the 3 team groups) If you want a quality tournament just invite Europe and South America and forget Asia and the rest.

I think Ronaldo is a great player & in the elite company amongst the best ever, just not maybe as good as Messi, who maybe the greatest ever, but there is not a huge difference between them.