Inside the mind of a 10 year old.
SBS’s Phil Micallef put together this transcript of an interview with the News Ltd Editor responsible for the Tim Cahill beat-up.
It’s an interesting insight into the way the Tele journo’s think. In the middle of this passage, the News Ltd Editor comes across as quite frustrated:
Football people get a very good coverage from Fox Sports, SBS and Fairfax. Why would any football fan buy the Telegraph, whose coverage of the game is at best unsatisfactory? "I genuinely believe that we have the best soccer coverage of the main newspapers in Australia. Just because we don't publish what the FFA wants us to print all the time doesn't mean our coverage is unsatisfactory . The most passionate of fans might agree with what you're saying but I can assure you that the general public - and I'm not here just to put out a paper for soccer fans - gets a fair coverage of the game. Last year we had three soccer writers and you've done a bit of work for us too."
Yes, but for all the space you give football, one cadet journalist would have been enough, wouldn't it? "No, I disagree with that. By the way you keep referring to the game as 'football'. Why are the Socceroos not called 'Footballroos' then!"
Very simple, mate. The Socceroos are a brand and you don't change the names of brands. "But don't you think that for most people in Sydney going to the football means going to the rugby league!"
This guy truly comes across as a 10-year-old kid who can see his toys being taken away from him and cannot help but throw a tantrum...
The truth comes out a little later:
So can we expect a decent coverage of the World Cup next year?"Our coverage will be bigger and better than last time. Obviously the space we will throw at it will be determined by advertising support. Nobody supported the A-League when it started as we did. We had an eight-page liftout and had the full backing of the FFA. The Sydney Morning Herald throws a lot of space at rugby union because they get a lot of money from rugby advertising, we give rugby league plenty of space because we get a lot of money from rugby league advertising. If we get the same level of support during the World Cup we'll do the same with soccer...
And if you don’t, Mr News Ltd? I guess you’ll have to pay off a few more witnesses aye? Or how about a few faked emails?
Some Perspective..
In brief: "Tim's welcome anytime," claimed a guy called Mim Salvato, the owner of the bar where Cahill's shenanigans took place (or not).
And puts it all in perspective:
It's a jungle out there - as Cahill has discovered over the past few days. The saga is further complicated by News Ltd's financial interest in rugby league, a sport riddled at the professional level with so much controversy it should hold its own World Cup just for poor behaviour. Australia would be clear favourites but, on his worst night out, Cahill would struggle to qualify for that tournament.
It's clear the knives are still sharpened, even after all these years, ready to slash at any opportunity and despite the claims of 'support' of the FFA World Cup bid by rival codes. Australia faces a tough road to securing the hosting rights in either 2018 or 2022. Unfortunately, some of it's biggest battles will be within it's own borders, where our bid will be subject to deliberate thwarting through the jealousy, envy and fear of rival codes.
Batten down the hatches for another stab on the back page from the Sunday Tele tomorrow morning...
Jones Jumps to Cahill's Defence
Now normally, I am no fan of the Jones’ bulldozer style of interviewing...but...um...somehow, I found no sympathy for the dinosaur on the other end of the line. I am sure many Football fans around Australia and back in Everton would feel the same way.
Click the link below for the audio:
Alan Jones gets stuck in
Australia's World Cup Bid 2018-2022 Launched
The Blatant vested media interest trying to blemish Cahill & the World Cup Bid being launched today was thinner on hairs than a Pim comb over. Just another Dinosaur trying to divert attention away from yet another NRL scandal. The fact that the telegraph editors RANG Buckley to DEMAND an enquiry is absurd! "We demand you make this a story!". Let’s see the CCTV footage. Let us see the Police Investigation. At LEAST get Chk Chk Boom Girl to fake an eye-witness account!
If the dinosaurs at Murdoch Press don't understand the sport and cannot cover it, their job is threatened and they become irrelevant, so the next best thing they can do is to bring it down. Same old story. Meanwhile, a successful World Cup bid would bring in multiples more revenue to the country than most major sporting events combined.
Click below to watch the official film. Its a cracker.
That'll do Pim. That'll Do.
On the one hand, we breath a collective sigh of relief as we gain a point in Doha and qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
On the other hand we have that familiar empty feeling that comes with winning ugly. Maybe we were spoilt by Guus Hiddink.
The analysers will tell us all that we need to change our system drastically to play and be successful against the European powers. The knockers will say they were bored to tears. The bandwagoners will puff up their chests and parrot the morning papers. Those of us old enough to own scarves and jerseys that carry words like ‘Australian Soccer Association’ and ‘Soccer Australia’ will remember the ghosts of qualifications past - cue the drama of the 1994, 1998, and 2002 campaigns.
For me, for the first time in a long time - actually, the first time ever - I found myself agreeing with ABC pundit Gerard Whateley’s comments on Offsiders this morning:
I do think that's why it's so important that we don't take this morning for granted. Because in all likelihood we won't make the next World Cup is the risk. I know it's not the celebration of kicking the penalty goal and having the signature moment, but I agree with you, I turned the radio news on this morning and it was the third item in sport and I think it should be the lead item in the news full stop.
We need World Cup qualification to get into the Nation’s sporting psyche. Let’s not take a World Cup qualification lightly. We ARE there, one year early, undefeated and with zero against on the group table. We may not be there next time around because next time we simply might not be good enough, lucky enough, smart enough.
As for South Africa 2010, yes, we have plenty of work to do. Verbeek has already given hints in his post match interview that the defensive and conservative approach is an important platform from which he can build. But, to build a team is one thing. To build a footballing nation though, we need World Cups under our belt, and that is the point.
We may be a Football Nation torn, but every time we qualify for a World Cup, we get closer to becoming a Football Nation.
Socceroos record TV audience..again
An average viewership of 431,000 tuned in to watch Pim Verbeek's men move to within touching distance of next year's World Cup, with a peak half-hour audience of 508,000 viewers...Nearly one million viewers tuned in at some point during the match, although the final figure does not include those who watched the game at Foxtel-enabled venues.
That’s a record audience for Australian Pay TV. I guess Fox will still be interested in renewing those television rights in a few years time.
Asian adventure pays off for the Socceroos
During and after our first Asian Championship we also experienced the more difficult aspects of the move to the Asian Football Confederation. The broad scope of its membership meant that the National Team would be playing in hot, energy sapping conditions one round, then playing a freezing China the next. Pim’s lads would face relentless distractions in between, ranging from flightless chickens on the playing pitch to monotonic and mesmerizing drones over stadium loudspeakers, to fly in fly out 48 hour jaunts to who knows where.
However, this week’s victory against Uzbekistan at a stormy Sydney Football Stadium brought the acute importance of our move to Asia to bear in no uncertain terms. We have all but qualified for the World Cup 2010 a full year before the event even starts. Even though the hapless Qataris have left us with a little more work to do, our qualification is all but secured and we have the best part of a year to prepare for our second successive World Cup campaign.
It’s a far cry from the painstaking playoffs that plagued us in the 80s and 90s and the emotion charged qualification path in late 2005. We now have a year of preparation that will include yet another potential windfall for the FFA as we draw the attention of other top flight national teams. Talk of a match against the Dutch in Sydney or Melbourne has already started, and no doubt many a savvy promoter has pondered an Australia vs England matchup to build the excitement up towards South Africa 2010. The side will have time to consolidate combinations and experiment with variations in formation and approach (two up front, anyone?). In the mean time, there is still the Asian Cup qualification to keep the edge on and remind us all that football is a funny game and there are never any certainties no matter who you are or who you play.
However it pans out, the team that runs out for Australia at World Cup 2010 will have a solid preparation under its belt. We won’t be left wondering just what these Socceroos are capable of achieving. We’ll be watching in South Africa.
Anzac Day Football
Despite the cries of protest that you will hear from dinosaurs attached to the other codes over the coming days, weeks and on the weekend itself, you have to admit, it’s a pretty legitimate event and a masterstroke by the FFA- and not just financially.
This football calendar year, the Turkish Super Lig clubs poached players from around the football world, including names such as Roberto Carlos, Milan Baros and our own Harry Kewell, and spent upwards of 50 million pounds stirling in the process. The Aussie roll call extends to Bruce Djite, Mile Jedinak, Michael Petkovic and James Troisi
The Turkish version of Foxtel, Digiturk, bought the television rights to the league in 2004 for 135.85 million New Turkish lira (US$99 million). Did I mention the Turks are football MAD? No doubt there will be a decent attendance when games between the flagship teams are eventually played each year, and no doubt the FFA will earn some extra dough from the deal.
The big rub, however, is the geo-political advantage of having a mate (pardon the Anzac Day pun) on the border between Europe and Asia. As the SMH reports:
Yes, Rebecca, we have bigger fish to fry than out-doing Rugby League, AFL and Union on a public holiday weekend. This is where the big boys play. It is the World Game after all ;-)With Australia lobbying for the 2018 World Cup, this could prove vital given Turkey's influence on Eurasian football and the Islamic world.
FFA using viral video to promote the Sydney WCQ?
Ad Agency Lowe, based in Sydney, has made this viral video to promote the April 1 Uzbekistan vs Socceroos World Cup Qualifier in Sydney. Looks like it is soaring across the interwebs. According to twitter sources, it is in the top 100 You Tube clips this week.
Help the cause by clicking play below....
Soccer (sic) threatens cousins sellout Part 2
Attendance: 53,273 (a sellout).
Ben Cousins vs Collingwood Men’s Netball Team @ the very same ground two nights earlier....
Attendance: 37,121 (not a sellout).
I know....one was a Grand Final (Football) and one was a pre-season cup match (AFL)....and that’s exactly why there should never have been any debate.
Thank you and goodnight.
Mission Ugly
Australian players raising there hands in the air in celebration at the fulltime whistle was a tell-tale sign. They had a mission to come away with a result at Yokohama, and as ugly as it looked, it was mission accomplished. For 90 minutes there was surge after surge of Japanese attacking play that could just not find the final pass, or moment of brilliance to strike a killer blow. It seemed like the dam would break and the goals would come flooding, particularly in the last quarter of an hour where we continually lost the ball in midfield.
Tim Cahill was visibly upset at being replaced towards the final whistle. Understandable for a top flight competitive athlete. But it is a manager's job to marshall the talent and keep the eye on the prize. Keeping Cahill and Kennedy on the pitch, together, may have been the most obvious choice, indeed the Japanese probably expected the move. However, sticking with the lone striker paid dividends for Verbeek in terms of our chances of qualification to South Africa. Granted, not so much for the purists who despise the one striker solution.
Schwarzer once again pulled off routine yet solid saves to keep Australia in the match. Craig Moores experience in top flight football helped put the lock on the chain. Lady luck slipped the key into her breast pocket, and we survived. A deflected shot spraying wide when a Japanese goal seemed certain provided an elegant synopsis. Japan, after making this match the focus of a 5 week training camp, and in front of a fantastic but expectant home crowd, was under too much pressure to get a win, and they simply could not step up. For the Aussies to come away from the game with a draw is one thing. To keep Japan scoreless at home with just a couple of days in camp, a weakened midfield and a raft of injuries is another. Although we are not mathematically there yet, we have one big fat green and gold toe in South Africa.
Fowler a coup for Fury
Despite his indiscretions, this guy is the fourth-highest goalscorer in the history of the Premier League (120 goals) - Scowsers still refer to him simply as ‘God’, and still at the relatively young (as far as marquee imports go) age of 33, he has the potential to deliver big time.
With crowd averages dropping back to season two levels in this fourth season, the FFA has been banking on the addition of the Fury and the Gold Coast to inject some more variety into the fledgeling competition. They will be over the moon with this signing, following on the heels of Gold Coast’s Jason Culina signing a few weeks ago.
It’s easy to see why. If you are a Liverpool fan over the age of 20....hell, if you are a football fan period, you’ll put your backside on a seat when the North Queensland Fury rolls into your town. Players like Fowler are the guys we grew up, or grew old watching, and they are coming to a town near you.
I’ve written about the tremendous advantage that football, as a truly world game, has over and above all the other domestic competitions in this country. This is yet another example of what a global talent pool can offer the Australian sporting market.
Season 4 is barely over, yet the buzz for season 5 is well and truly building.
Soccer (sic) threatens cousins sellout
So what is Mr Denham’s point? That Football is denying AFL fans a chance to see poster boy Cousin’s return?
Although thats implied in the headline, reading a few lines further reveals all:
The (AFL) league yesterday said it would be more profitable to play it at Subiaco Oval, based on a similar attendance figure. In Perth the AFL pays a lower ground rental than at Telstra Dome and has better stadium rights. It has less access to revenue streams at Telstra Dome...
Don’t let a ‘soccer’ bashing headline to grab a readers attention detract from the truth, aye Greg? And what about the inevitable sellout of the Dome by Melbourne Victory fans if they make the football final?
Eee-owwww!
Will you two goons just get a friggin' room.....
Mr. and Mrs Old Soccer, Frank Farina and John Kosmina, have been at it again this week, with the jibes and comments coming thick and fast. Once again, rather than focusing on his failure to extract a win for the club that should NEVER miss an A-League Finals series, Kosmina grabbed the pressroom headlines with a bizarre tirade against his ‘mate’ Farina after another sideline incident.
Frank will no doubt keep his job next year at the Roar with what potentially could be a top two finish after next week’s final round. With Craig Moore doing his best impression of Ronald Koeman slotting pinpoint passes from 40 m, Charlie Miller back on the pitch and looking sharp, and the dutchman Van Dijk finally taking opportunities in front of goal, they may give the Reds and Melbourne a rattle at the top.
Kosmina, on the other hand, has to go, and the sooner the better for Sydney FC. See you next year Sky Blues.
A-League's plumbing will see it through
Many have written about the fact that losing our best is just a fact of A-League life.
The way I see it, however, it is also the key to the Leagues success, and the point of difference between it and other codes. Let me explain by taking the drain analogy a little bit further...... Read More...