Modern football is about sportswashing and soft power, not sport

If he chooses to write another article along similar lines well good luck to him. But this isn't true. You are critical for him having written it and not about on pitch activities. You've been curt and dismissive of him before, as is your right. But he is allowed to return serve too.

I don't expect anything from anyone actually. He wrote an article, I commented about it not really being about football and for me its a continuation of Mikes contributions lately. If he chooses to write another article along similar lines well good luck to him. But to say I would rather read about football formations rather than kids being executed was a bit far fetched. But yeah - each to their own.

Not intended as a criticism but I'm unsure what the contention of this article is? I actually thought it ended prematurely or was missing a section as it doesn't really bring up anything new or provide a fresh food for thought to mull over. Yes, sportswashing is a thing and has existed for decades. Yes, there is a growing number of middle eastern backed money coming into the game and other sports. Yes, money is king in football as it is in most sports and forms of capitalism around the world. These aren't exactly secrets and these practices have been going on for many decades at this point

Yes, but nothing stops you writing articles yourself. Expecting others to write for your own interest and enjoyment, and then dismissing them when they don't meet your needs is fairly lazy stuff tbh I agree Mike can be pessimistic in his outlook of the A-League, but in this instance he's not writing a sky falling in article. He is writing about a genuinely disgraceful act by a nation-state that's involved quite deeply in modern football. Whatever your motives, you were dismissive, and thus it invited that kind of equal response from Mike.

I am sure the Uyghur people thank you for your defence of the government that is abusing them.

"I dont see them attracting Chinese here to their games why would they get any in China." Exactly. They can't even crack 10k watching on FTA here in Sydney, what makes them think the Chinese are interested?

Nick my comment was more to do with Mike seeming to not be interested in football anymore but more interested in doom and gloom stories. No doubt there are state sponsored atrocities being committed by Saudi and yes they must be called out. But would be good to get an article about actual football from Mike and not the next sky is falling in article which he writes every week.

But we'd need a more mobile midfielder than Brattan behind them.

Juan Mata is free - play him behind Mak as striker, with Lolley and Burgess on the wings and we'd fly.

there's some interesting scenarios around Australia. In Melbourne - Docklands (Marvel) is 100% owned by the AFL. It was built privately with discounted Govt land (as an effort to stimulate the Docklands urban renewal precinct). The other major venue - - the MCG - - 100% rebuilt in 2 main stages since 1990. All up around $576 million spent. How much Govt money? $77 million of state funds and that was it. The rest - - AFL revenue/funds and MCC debt based on locking the AFL in to the venue including the Grand Final for 40 odd years into the future. The sting in the tail - - is that the MCC (cricket club) manages the ground; and their members get the best seats in the house EVEN for the AFL finals and GF; and it's managed on behalf of the MCG Trust. the other sting in the tail is the then VFL back in the 70s/80s 100% built/owned VFL park Waverley and intended to complete it to over 160,000 capacity. They began advertising membership packages based on transferring the VFL Grand Final there; however - - the then state Govt refused planning approval for the extensions and refused to provide scoped PT connection and effectively forced the VFL to remain trapped at the MCG...........and yet no Govt money to improve facilities!?!? The contrast in Melbourne - - AAMI park soccer/rugby was 100% State Govt funded; then there's how much Govt money that goes into the Tennis centre to.......allow more huge prize money to tennis players.......even just for turning up!!! Then there's the example of Geelong (Kardinia Park) - - helps because it's a politically volatile region even if just for the growth zones. However the stadium with many stages of development has included Govt funding from the 3 tiers of Govt plus many millions directly from both the AFL and Geelong FC. And........it's ultimately owned and managed on behalf of the City of Greater Geelong. The taxpayer has done pretty well in Victoria out of the AFL. Outside of Victoria - - well Sydney/NSW very different. None of the rectangle codes are very big on investment in stadia that the others will utilise - - easier to extort the Govt. In South Australia - the Adelaide Oval redevelopment included a few interesting factors including providing incentive for the SANFL to effective knock down much of 'Football Park' - their equivalent of VFL Park - 100% built/owned. Like the VFL at Waverley - reduce to a training ground and sell off the carparking land for housing developments. The deal to get the SANFL and the SACA (Cricket association) - - mortal enemies - - to come together at the Adelaide oval took a bit of doing however I assert the Govt/State is pretty happy with the outcome. The EPL model is interesting - very different geographic/demographic scenario and......soccer is king by such a long way even over Union, certainly over League and cricket unless the Ashes is on.....but still bossing it.

On that basis, I'm looking forward to a mighty protest about the USA hosting the next World Cup. If ever a country needed a line drawn and a calling out it's the USA. For example: - around 29 countries bombed or invaded since WW2 - around 80 covert or overt attempts to overthrow foreign governments since WW2 - 800 military bases around the world - the world's leading supplier of weapons, including arming Saudi Arabia in its war on Yemen - ruthless use of economic sanctions against countries whose governments it dislikes - a justice system that imprisons non-whites at 10 times the rate of whites - etc etc etc And it's not 'whataboutism' to mention the USA's appalling record (and Australia's enthusiastic participation in it). If there is any 'whataboutism' going on it's from self-righteous Westerners diverting attention from their own countries' evildoings by focusing attention on the internal affairs of non-ally countries whose alien cultures and religions make them easy targets for our criticism. But...I expect staging the next World Cup in the USA will not draw a skerrick of protest on this tab.

Perhaps - - main thing that Demetriou did - was bring in 2 new clubs and guarantee the rest......18 team comp. Why? Ensure 9 games a round. Docklands wasn't owned yet but they knew they'd buy it out early - thus the resistance on the Lowey WC bid. 2018 and more so 2022 were so, so very far away. The oddity of the 'distribution' of clubs across Docklands vs the MCG; was that there were very good incentive deals to lure Essendon or Carlton there. Need decent value proposition to sell Medallion Club tickets!! For me following NMFC - - often scored a mates tickets because our games weren't very highly in demand!!!

My assertion is that arguably Australia is the most competitive domestic Football market (with 4 pro leagues in a country of the limited population but also the interesting geographic perculiarities......broad island continent nation). As far as over all domestic sports market - - contrast to the US and still - in the main even with the NBL, NHL, MLB, NFL.......there's rarely such a massive concentration of teams in individual markets that it's all that competitive. A population of over 330 million......takes a bit to crowd a market!! re AFL and India - - had grown to 11 states however Covid has been a massive interruption - - in some cases it's taken until relatively recently to get a resumption. The connection is actually via the cultural-sporting connection that exists (Australia-India) around cricket; the guy who got footy started in India was at school when Ricky Ponting ran a footy clinic while over coaching at the start of the IPL. No such thing as straight lines of logic!!!! However it DID illustrate the value of planting seeds...........not all will grow......maybe only one will......that may just be enough. And that's the sliding doors aspect to it.......what if a seed was planted. That said - - I don't see the NRL growing in the USofA......just no decent point of difference.

As I understand, the majority of football stadiums in Australia are built and owned by government entities. In other words, the taxpayer is subsidising the playgrounds utilised by millionaire players. Now, whatever the shortcomings of the EPL/EFL, and there are many, the majority of their stadiums are privately owned and not government sponsored. To keep it simple, I don't appreciate my taxes being utilised to provide playgrounds for millionaires. The NRL in particular have, in recent times, attempted to coerce and bully the NSW government into spending hundreds of millions of dollars in refurbishing Sydney suburban stadiums, whilst the same government was reeling from the devastation of incredible natural disasters. I know which model of stadium ownership I prefer.

LH - on a ferry heading north - most beautiful scenery as we motor along. Managed to catch the euro final last night between Spain and Croatia and watched Norway throw away their game against Scotland the night before - all on free to air here. also Cyprus v Georgia……only so much you can consume but it is so light here at night its crazy. even when its dark for a few hours, you can still see quite clearly. Football just as much a religion here as anywhere. After the defeat to Scotland, the TV company interviewed fans leaving the stadium and boy did they serve it up to the coach for making some bad substitutions - (I understood with the help of a translator friend I should add).

enjoy that fjord Buddy

Lifting 500 million people out of extreme poverty in the last 30 years would have to qualify as the greatest human rights achievement in my lifetime, and possibly ever. That would be the Chinese government doing that, aka the Chinese Communist Party. As Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani says, hundreds of millions of Chinese take trips out of China each year and they all go home again. That's called voting with your feet.

More power to you, Mike. It's a complex issue, there are no cleanskins when it comes to money and professional sport, and almost always, nothing good comes from people projecting their morals onto others. But on this issue, as with golf, there is a line that needs to be identified and called out.

Again, though, what we do in Nauru is shocking...but we've stopped doing it. And we never put children to the gallows. Even the immoral can claim the moral high ground at times.