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.
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.
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!
ABC Offsiders
It's just as much what they do not say as what they do. I expect to only get a few minutes of A-League coverage - I am used to that - but to not even acknowledge the Olyroos achievements this week, nor give a breath of information about the socceroos kicking ass overseas, let alone preview some freakin HAL matches just beggars belief.
With Barry Cassidy no longer hosting this show to provide even a mild temper to the moronic droning of the afl inbred journos and the tokenistic presence of a nsw old guard rugby league man Roy 'slap me in the face in the dressing room while I am butt naked' Masters, the only reason I would continue to watch the show is to see them keep bickering amongst themselves as to which code is the greatest, whilst the true football grabs a larger and larger foothold in this country.
The only highlights they did show this morning were of Kevin Muscat kicking an ad board whilst the skinny AFL journo (Whattley, or whatever his name is, who, I am told, makes his living pushing the horse racing barrow in Victoria) made some comment about how the crowds have been segregated, then went on to with a sarcastic commentary on the Beckham money spinner as if to infer that his beloved code would never stoop so low.
Problem is they can't reach that high buddy.....Demetriou can only dream about doing what the FFA can do regularly; set up a full house international 'friendly' match that draws over 80k a pop and generates instant $$..........oh wait a minute, thats right, AFL do play the 'test' against the irish...thats no sports marketing gimmick is it? But it is international - pity it's not even the same GAME.
Why in Isaac Newtons name they call the show offsiders is beyond me as, seeing as there is no offside in afl, and as afl is all they seem to talk about they may as well change the name to something a bit more representative of the insular codes that pay their wages. Or at the very least call it the Melbourne Sports Show, so I can turn off on a Sunday morning and go for a walk outside or something.
Leaps of logic
Here is a piece from, where else, the Melbourne Herald Sun, in the 'Soccer' sports section:
Fans switch on for switched-off Socceroos
July 10, 2007 12:00am
AUSTRALIA'S wobbly draw against Oman in its first group game of the Asian Cup attracted an average audience of 345,000, making it one of the biggest sporting events in subscription television history.
The figures don't include those who watched it at pubs and clubs.
......OK thats a great story - a huge TV audience for a game against a relative unknown football nation, and an acknowledgment that many more are watching in clubs and pubs or at Conaldo's place.
This came on top of Seven's coverage of the Essendon-Geelong game which was the highest-rating Friday night home-and-away match in Melbourne (500,000) since Collingwood played Port Adelaide at Telstra Dome in Round 14, 2005 (572,000).
Ummm, what do you mean 'came on top of'...? That game was on free to air, accessible to every Aussie with a TV set...
Watching the soccer got us wondering
here we go.....
about those flares you sometimes see at games.
Noooo? really what a surprise - I wouldnt have expected such a train of thought from you!
Did you know the basic flare costs about $60 and prices can soar to as much as $120 for the rocket variety?
Did you have to look that up on google or ring around a few places to make this story take up an extra few cms on the web page?
So where do kids get the money to let them off at soccer matches? They don't. Most are stolen from boats.
Oh touche, touche - of course they are, and that means that the Pay TV television audience was so big (remember that train of thought?) because....ummmm......the kids who go to football matches steal flares from boats...
RIGHT!
But thats not enough to fill the 'soccer' story quota for our Herald Sun reporter.
A VIETNAMESE man was killed in an accident as he drove his motorbike through Hanoi to celebrate his country's Asian Cup victory against the United Arab Emirates.
The man died yesterday when he crashed into a traffic sign.
Be warned..watching 'soccer' and celebrating a victory can be hazardous to your health, and may cause you to swim in frigid Melbourne waters to steal fireworks out of boats, then drive erratically through the streets of Hanoi without a helmet on.