FFA Failure: The Sunset Of David Gallop

[Carns]

Quote

The explosive relationship between A-League clubs and Football Federation Australia is set to take another turn for the worse after the clubs issued a warning to Steven Lowy not to “interfere with or disrupt” the proposed review process of the sport’s governance.

In an sternly worded letter sent yesterday to FFA chairman Lowy and seen by The Australian, the clubs declared they are prepared to boycott the review which was recently instigated by world governing body FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation.

If the review was to stall, FIFA could take control of a process which had been left to FFA, the A-League clubs and the state federations to reach compromise on.

The letter, written by Greg Griffin, chairman of the Australian Professional Football Clubs Association, accused Lowy and the FFA board of being “obstructive and interfering” in response to an FFA email yesterday detailing the process that will take place early next year.

“As to your email of December 12, having regard to the instructive and interfering role that the FFA board have consistently played in the process of governance reform, and the negative and destructive actions of you and the FFA board in front of the FIFA and AFC delegation at the last FIFA sponsored meeting, it beggars belief that you could believe that APFCA would participate in any future process in which you were materially involved,” Griffin wrote. “Your email is impossible to reconcile against your many offensive actions and words of the last 14 months.”

Based on the APFCA letter, it would appear the Congress Review Working Group could be doomed to failure.

The working group was established after FIFA opted not to go ahead with a normalisation committee, which would have seen Lowy and the FFA board removed from power over its failure to arrange a new FFA Congress.

FIFA had the option of kicking out the FFA board but instead decided to implement the working committee in a final bid to sort out the situation.

The decision was not met favourably by the A-League clubs, who have been looking for a greater representation at the FFA Congress. The clubs have now upped the stakes considerably.

“This is a matter that FIFA and AFC must naturally determine,” Griffin wrote. “Our position is, however, that if you (Lowy) purport to again chair and disrupt the well-intentioned process of FIFA and the AFC that APFCA will not participate in the proposed process.

“Unless we are assured by FIFA and the AFC that the objective composition, mandate and timeline of the suggested working group are designed in a way to prevent the farcical intervention in process that occurred at the last meetings, and other further negative interventions from the FFA board, APFCA will simply refuse to participate in the process.

“The effect of our refusal to attend will have consequences the clubs are well aware of and not perturbed by.”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/football/aleague-clubs-issue-boycott-warning-to-lowys-ffa-board/news-story/3172ed97509f6a87bace3692e3152913

 

[sonar]

People wonder why the game is stagnating. The infighting and politics of football is killing the game.

Just a personal opinion but the Lowys have to be gotten out of football administration.I don't know how others feel but i would like to see every paid up full club member have a vote for 1 position on the board so the fans have a voice as well.

Oh well, the farce goes on.

[Hughesy]

I’m still unsure whether this Griffin bloke is a help or hinderence. He makes a lot of good points but it always seems like he’s just looking to pick fights in the way he goes about delivering them. 

[Jukes75]

He says he speaks on behalf of the owners of the A-League clubs and is therefore the messenger. I wouldn't say they are just his words, he's certainly delivering them though

[Carns]

 

[Paul01]

21 hours ago, Jukes75 said:

He says he speaks on behalf of the owners of the A-League clubs and is therefore the messenger. I wouldn't say they are just his words, he's certainly delivering them though

He is a lawyer so can lue through his teeth with a straight face.

[Hughesy]

1 hour ago, Carns said:

 

Interesting discussion in the thread beneath it too.

Alot of people think that active supporters are an often self obsessed and entitled bunch but you cant ignore the correlation between the decline in active support health and the overall health of attendances and the league in general.

I love this club and would always watch it’s games but the thing that keeps me coming back to the stadium both home and away is the atmosphere and being a part of it. Take away the unique football atmosphere and the A-League is little more than a (comparatively) low quality, stale sporting competition with minimal commercial interest and funds. 

I remember the early years of WSW when active support boomed league wide (I’m talking numbers and noise wise - none of the illegal stuff). Most home ends would be buzzing each week. These days you’re left with hardly any and the ones that are still around aren’t a patch on what they were (RBB included imho despite us all still having a crack). It’s sad but I still turn up and I still sing my guts up each week cause I know (hope) it’ll get back to where it once was.

With the state of support for this league right now, it does make you wonder whether somewhere, deep down, any of the administrators at clubs and the FFA think, **** what have we done? Were we a bit over the top? 

[mack]

6 hours ago, hughsey said:

With the state of support for this league right now, it does make you wonder whether somewhere, deep down, any of the administrators at clubs and the FFA think, **** what have we done? Were we a bit over the top? 

I doubt they care. FFA have their own power to maintain & replacing Ange, those two things are taking all their attention right now.

Also there's a reason why the active support boycott was the start of the FFA/Club lead harsh crackdown on active support. FFA was embarrassed, clubs were given a whack on the nose by the active supporters. The waited, reground and struck back.

FFA are actively hostile towards supporter groups they don't control. Melbourne Victory got rid of the North Terrace to replace them with club owned collaborators. WSW's non-football administration spent most of this preseason trying to start a coup in the RBB at the behest of the owners. Newcastles active support group has been kicked around all over the place so they can't get a foothold anywhere in the stadium, the Mariners replaced theirs with a paid brass band, CFG consider their fans irrelevant, AU think their active support is a pest.

[btron3000]

1 hour ago, mack said:

 WSW's non-football administration spent most of this preseason trying to start a coup in the RBB at the behest of the owners.

Say what? Any more details?

[mack]

Just now, btron3000 said:

Say what? Any more details?

That's what the pre-season "letter to Wanderers members" was about.

Quote

We will be holding a Members Forum on 25 July at Club Marconi and look forward to hearing from those who are interested and would like to take a role in the leadership of the active support area.

 

[btron3000]

Oh I thought you meant some other type of recruiting. Tapping people on the shoulder etc.

Yesh they changed their tune quick when they realised no-one was gonna do it. 

I think that’s the one thing we’ve still got over the other clubs. Regardless of how annoyed people say they are at the RBB, when push comes to shove very few westies are gonna support the suits over the fans.

[mack]

I wouldn't be surprised if they talked to certain people who they thought might want to "be involved" in a club run group but I've got no proof of that.

[Carns]

Quote

Last weekend's Star Wars round is being seen as a success at FFA headquarters despite derision from hardcore fans.

The A-League and blockbuster series combined for a cross-promotional effort last week, tying in with the latest film in the franchise - The Last Jedi - released in Australia on Thursday.

Stormtroopers led teams at each game onto the pitch for the coin toss.

Characters from the movies wielded lightsabers around the grounds.

Various pieces of advertising featuring well-known A-League faces were given the Star Wars treatment.

It was certainly innovative, but the backlash from traditionalists was savage as they accused FFA of making a mockery of the code.

A-League chief Greg O'Rourke has a different view.

"We think it worked," he told AAP.

O'Rourke said head office expected a degree of push-back from no-nonsense fans but they were not the target audience.

"The Star Wars round was received by the purists as trying to create a sugar hit," he said.

"What the Star Wars round was really doing was trying to appeal to the segment of our audience in our strategy, young families and children, attracting a new audience by communicating to them about something that's not football."

The unique promotion didn't get turnstiles spinning.

All clubs saw disappointing crowds on the weekend, headlined by just 17,000 at Melbourne Victory's home clash with Adelaide United.

But O'Rourke said it wasn't necessarily about putting bums on seats.

"Our digital reach was significant over that period and we felt the A-League improved its visibility," he said.

"We were on commercial TV, breakfast programs and all those sort of things which we don't usually do."

O'Rourke has foreshadowed a number of initiatives over summer to grow waning interest in the competition, which must contend with the popular Big Bash cricket league for attention between next week and February.

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2017/12/15/league-boss-ticks-star-wars-round-0

 

[Prydzopolis]

16 hours ago, Carns said:

The unique promotion didn't get turnstiles spinning.

Yep, that was obvious  

16 hours ago, Carns said:

Our digital reach was significant over that period and we felt the A-League improved its visibility," he said.

"We were on commercial TV, breakfast programs and all those sort of things which we don't usually do."

Where is the proof? We got a spot on a breakfast program, fantastic..

16 hours ago, Carns said:

The Star Wars round was received by the purists as trying to create a sugar hit," he said.

This is the exact problem with the FFA’s strategy, they’ve spent so much time trying to hold on to power via the congress issue they resort to sugar hits to market the A-League.

16 hours ago, Carns said:

What the Star Wars round was really doing was trying to appeal to the segment of our audience in our strategy, young families and children, attracting a new audience by communicating to them about something that's not football

If you had a football person doing this, I’d guarantee you’d have a different result.

Spanish round run by Fox Sports which I think was unfairly criticised, actually included football related things Spanish commentary, Spanish interviews, La Liga trophy and a Spanish focus with Spanish players featured, interviews and guests. We didn’t have Spanish dancers leading the players on to the field or players doing interviews with tomatoes or chorizos FFS!

Personally I think it got swept up in the negativity of the Star Wars round, many of the positives were drowned out

[Prydzopolis]

They do what they want, don’t like it?

We don’t care. Shut up, sit down, pay your money & support the game.

[btron3000]

Well I’m not sure any organisations would allow someone to publicly state something that could be interpreted as them being corrupt (or at least one incompetent).

But it is another example of signs the FFA guys should realise they have to go for football to move forward.

[mack]

19 hours ago, Carns said:

"We were on commercial TV, breakfast programs and all those sort of things which we don't usually do."

Well **** mate it's your job to get some of the players onto these things right?

[Hughesy]

The “Family friendly” movement is a scourge on modern day sport. It’s nothing more than a big **** you to the purists and die hards that sustain each code and is now being used as a convenient excuse to commercialise the **** out of competitions and eridicate any genuine elements of them that are left. 

Some of the quotes in that article are laughable. They’re ultimately labelling it a success cause they got a few more likes on social media. Wow 

[SBW]

FFA don't listen to the fans. They never have. They were too reactive when we protested over Bourbon Becky's article 2 years ago. 

Another round of boycotts will get their attention. Maybe they will start listening otherwise, this could backfire on the clubs and FFA do nothing.

[luisenrique]

5 hours ago, hughsey said:

The “Family friendly” movement is a scourge on modern day sport.

This. "Family friendly" is a synonym for stale. The worst tv shows are family friendly, the worst music is family friendly, etc.

[Flytox]

6 hours ago, hughsey said:

The “Family friendly” movement is a scourge on modern day sport. It’s nothing more than a big **** you to the purists and die hards that sustain each code and is now being used as a convenient excuse to commercialise the **** out of competitions and eridicate any genuine elements of them that are left. 

Some of the quotes in that article are laughable. They’re ultimately labelling it a success cause they got a few more likes on social media. Wow 

The average STV  rating for the round of 69k was the highest for Round 10 in the 6 years Wanderers has been in the competition.  Maybe Star Wars was the reason that the ratings averaged 0.4k per game higher than ADP, Heskey and Ono in Round 10 of their first season.

[Carns]

10 hours ago, Flytox said:

Maybe Star Wars was the reason that the ratings averaged 0.4k per game higher than ADP, Heskey and Ono in Round 10 of their first season.

Please don't encourage them...

[Prydzopolis]

This is why we need football people in charge of our game.

You can replace club with FFA & see why it whats wrong.

[Unlimited]

Also it wasn't "cross promotion", it was one way promotion

Was the A-League featured at all at any Star Wars events? I don't think so

[Davo]

Pretty sure Brandan made a cameo appearance as an alien in the new movie.

[mack]

35 minutes ago, Prydzopolis said:

This is why we need football people in charge of our game.

You can replace club with FFA & see why it whats wrong.

I'm not sure if he's a "football person", he ran three AFL clubs before becoming the CEO of the major AFL stadium before going to Swimming Australia then the Glory.

[Zelinsky]

5 minutes ago, mack said:

I'm not sure if he's a "football person", he ran three AFL clubs before becoming the CEO of the major AFL stadium before going to Swimming Australia then the Glory.

A background in swimming. Hmmm. 

Should make him a prime candidate to have a leading role within FFA. All we need is someone from netball, tennis and lawn bowls, and then most sports in this country will have had a crack at football administration. 

[Jukes75]

2 hours ago, mack said:

I'm not sure if he's a "football person", he ran three AFL clubs before becoming the CEO of the major AFL stadium before going to Swimming Australia then the Glory.

He was CEO of the South Melbourne Football Club from 1992 - 1999 so he does have pedigree in the sport at least.

[mack]

I might have confused that with an AFL club.

[Prydzopolis]