Billy McClure's Roar Profile

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Football

2009

Billy McClure

Roar Rookie

Which football league reigns supreme?

Football

2009

The world cup is bigger than the olympics. Football is the greatest game. It’s great to see the government recognise this, I hope the media will also jump on board and start backing the game in this country. Football offers more than any other sport – it just needs the backing that it has been starting to get. The money that can be made is huge. Wake up Australia – Football in this country is a potential gold mine – so start the Gold Rush!

PM eyes $5B revenue windfall in World Cup bid launch

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I don’t think England will win 2018, it does nothing for FIFA. I think Aus 2018 and USA 2022 or the other way round. Two emerging regions which need the World Cup to boost the game. Europe has Euro championships already and champions league etc, the rest of the world needs the World Cup.

Our World Cup bid launched, now let's back it

The sporting landscape has been changing since Lowey has taken over the FFA. Football is emerging fast and the next decade it seems will see Football out grow the other codes. Will be intersting to see what media deals the different codes will get in the future. League would be struggling now I think if they did not have such a good media deal in place. AFL rely on their massive crowds in VIC so its important for them to keep them crowdsd up – expand nation wide may cause problems. But they too are lucky to have such a great broadcasting deal (I think brokered by Ben Buckley now at FFA).

AFL crowds will be down 348K this season

AFL

Get SBW in as Goalkeeper

An open letter to Sonny Bill Williams

Rugby

SBS TWG is by far the best football program. I was once a obsessed RL fan and player back in the day untill I discovered SBS and Johnny Warren on ‘On the Ball’ (I think it was called that now TWG). I first hated JW for being so critical but soon became addicted to the program and understand the importance of the critisism. JW and Les converted me and Fozz now keeps the fire burning. The whole TWG team keeps the game real and there ideology is rarely ever wrong. I only wish SBS had the cash to own rights to Socceroos and A-League highlights show for free to air coverage as no one does it better than them (award winning coverage of AUS v URG). Simon Hill and Andy Harper from Fox (former TWG players) are the only other crediable TV commentators.

The media will always treat football second rate untill the day Football is paid more than the other codes from a broadcaster which may happen unless we win the World Cup bid in 2018-2022. Its hard to take journalist serious when they back another code as there is a conflict of interest.

Also I hope the Japan game is an attacking spectacle and no more of this same boring football – the socceroos need more than one tactical approach to take to the world cup. Pim tested his bench warmers with his usual system against Bahrain and we won the same usual way so its time to see what else the roos can do – if we lose but score 3 goals and play great attacking football than at least we know we can attack. However I think Pim will look to go for the win and the clean sheet so the record books show him as the coach who got through qualifiers undefeated with no goals against.

What's really holding "soccer" back?

Now the pressure is off I hope Pim and the Socceroos go back to the style of play when they beat the Netherlands.

Verbeek proves he was right man for job

I have liked the idea of the salary cap but I would prefer a 3 tier marquee system. 1. Foreign Marquee 2. Australian Marquee 3. Youth Marquee.

This way we can keep attracting international names as well as Socceroos from Euroupe. While Roar have Moore they could then try and get a foreign marquee. Melbourne with Archie and Newcastle with Griffiths, and Sydney with Aloisi could all get another star player

The future of the A-League salary cap

I agree. The hardest part of finding a striker for MU is getting a player that is not only world class but has the charisma and personality to match the club. MU need and want a forward as big as Ronaldo, Rooney, Cantona, Yorke, Ruud, Best and Law. These players are hard to find and cost big dollars. If this type of player is not found thand the cosistent, reliable type is needed, such as Ole Gunnar, Andy Cole, Mark Hughes. The likes of Berbatov and Saha have failed because they are neither although I had thought Berbatov would have performed bettter. I wish Viduka was the man to replace Ruud instead of going to Newcastle. The V-bomber was the perfect fit. If injury free Viduka guarantees 20+ goals plus special silky skills that would compliment Ronaldo, Rooney, Giggs, Teves etc.

Manchester United must invest in a great striker

My point is that I didn’t just choose my personal favourite players, sorry for the confusion. As a Man U fan I could have picked more Man U players but instead tried to pick a squad that would be picked if such rep squad existed

Thanks for all the comment so far.

In response I would like to say that the squads I choose were not all my personal picks. I tried to mix it up by choosing players based on who would be chosen to play if such tournamant existed and who I thought deserved to be there based on their season performance. To get bums on seats I would think FIFA would demand each league to chooses its biggest names to get media attention and support. For example Beckham and Ronaldinho would be a must even though they are no long the form players in their positions. Anelka was EPL top goalscorer so I thought I should add him, personally I would prefer Teves but he played as a sub for most of the year or Drogbar who only featured when Guus came in. I would of loved to have added more Wolfsburg players in particular Grafite and Misimovic but I think through media pressure stars like Klose and Toni would be selected instead and cause the usual unjustice we see in rep selections in all sports.

I only included a 4 league tournament because FIFA would not likely allow anything bigger. An event like this could be done in week fitting into the FIFA calendar. Also the idea was to pitt the best of the best against each other to see which league has the strongest competition in Europe, if Portugal for example had more success than German teams they would get the nod to join instead of the other. I thought about adding the rule that each club must have at least one player selected. If such an event existed squad would be bigger with at least 5 subs and the formation would be up to the manager. The article is for us fans to have fun discussing and debating about the best leagues, players, managers. Iwould like to know what squads, managers or formations would readers chose and why?

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