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mack

By mack
in Western Sydney Wanderers

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Paul01

Paul01

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, Edinburgh said:

Reading that was a waste of time.

Well, its a non-football journo writing about football.

Its been so good having the NRL and AFL play second-fiddle to Football (World Cup variety) in the News shows.

AFL will now be plotting how to invade Optus Oval before and during the Chelsea v Perth Glory game. Hope Popa yells at them to f*** o**

Edited by Paul01
Correction
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btron3000

btron3000

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, beatsurrender said:

Can the HAL take advantage of the WC success? Richard Hinds.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-13/richard-hinds-ffa-needs-to-captalise-on-world-cup/9987828

Someone writes this article every 4 years. The answer is "no".

In fact, I'd say the World Cups have had a detrimental effect on the A-league/NSL etc, the only exception being the 06 World Cup as we were great and it coincided with the A-league's early years.

World Cups fool the FFA into thinking they can recruit AFL and NRL fans. It takes them about 3 years to realise that is a dumb idea, then the next World Cup spurs them on to try again.

The A-league needs to succeed on its own two feet, regardless of the national team, big tournaments or what is happening in other sports.

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Wobblies

Wobblies

Posted
Posted

Interesting article by Malcolm Knox SMH.

The World Cup shows our language has not caught up with reality

By Malcolm Knox

 

For statements of the national obvious, there’s no beating the World Cup. It was just as well Brazil exited when they did, because if I had to hear ‘samba football’ to describe eleven square-footed oafs passing the ball over the sideline yet again or dribbling it out of play one more time, I would have had to go down clutching my leg and screaming in agony. One more description of ‘tiki-taka’ for a Spanish team who simply couldn’t decide what to do, and I’d have had to eliminate myself on penalties.

Speaking our language: Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe, and Samuel Umtiti sining the French anthem.

Photo: AP

Among people watching the World Cup, national stereotypes come in as substitutes for thought well before the second half. Take Sunday’s finalists. France have been praised for the blend of their ‘Gallic flair’ (they’re French) and their ‘athleticism’ (most are also African), as if civilisation were a marvel of balancing brain and brawn. Yet when you look at the French play, the active characteristic of their game has been its ruthless, machine-like efficiency, which would be called Teutonic if only they made things easier for everyone and wore a different shirt. Paul Pogba’s energy and endeavour makes him the natural heir to his coach Didier Deschamps, only you don’t hear it often because Pogba is a tall black man whereas Deschamps is a short white man. France are disciplined, methodical, systematic, adjectives which are verboten when speaking of the French. Their opponents Croatia? Ah yes, that mercurial, tempestuous Balkan brilliance, a portrait undone only by the fact that they have ground out four hours in the past week of pure northern protestant grit. Still brilliant, yes, but they have been hardest-working men in Russia. It would make things much easier if they were Dutch. If they were Aussies, or more confusingly still Croatian-Australians, the Hansonites would blow a collective foofer valve trying to understand it.

Sometimes the stereotype is a useful tool for circumventing the uncomfortable, as with England’s implausible progression to the semi-finals. A lot was said about the spirit and unity of Gareth Southgate’s team, which they no doubt gained as a result of winning through while Westminster was yanking itself apart. But England made a World Cup semi-final by virtue of beating Tunisia, Panama, Colombia and Sweden, and demonstrated the Peter Principle once they came up against one of the top teams. Lucky England? No, that doesn’t fit. England are never lucky. It wasn’t a soft draw, it was good old John Bull.

What all this easy labelling obscures is something very interesting about nationality in football, so embedded it has become almost too obvious to see. Individual qualification for nations in FIFA tournaments – once a player has represented a country as an adult, he or she is committed to that country and that alone for life – is more strict than in almost any other international sport, and its rigidity is more significant today than ever. The policy was developed over many years, reaching its present form in 2008 to minimise nation-switching. It is a policy that both embraces the contemporary world, by assisting the passage towards irrelevance of the equation of nationality with race and ethnicity which cost tens of millions of lives in the last century, while also rejecting aspects of the modern world by resisting the argument of increasing flows of adults and children across borders throughout the course of their lives.

In most other big international sports, from the Olympic events to cricket and rugby, players can choose to switch nations at any stage of life. Usually they do so with regret, and to say they are opportunists is a slander of misunderstanding. Qualification periods must be served after they move their residence, to confirm the difficulty of the task and to retain the value of the new colours – these are countries, not clubs - but it is both possible and commonplace. We mock all those South Africans playing cricket for England and have self-mocked our new Australians ever since ‘Aussie Joe’ Bugner, but we’ve been at it for a long time. Back in 1878, the cricketer Billy Midwinter was the subject of a car chase across London between Australia’s captain Dave Gregory and the MCC’s Dr W.G. Grace, as each tried to physically snatch the Gloucestershire-born Midwinter for their country. Midwinter ended up playing for both.

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It’s an old story, but ultimately it is a serious matter for anyone to leave their country of birth and equally serious for their new country to accept them. Sport can often be a symbol of acceptance and inclusion, but it can also let us off the moral hook. Sport enables countries to congratulate ourselves on being an open and accepting lot, when our governments are anything but. Sport as a PR exercise is nothing new either.

FIFA’s qualification rules are important because they give an added authenticity to the visible multiculturalism on the field. These teams have not been assembled by money. They are not Real Madrid, PSG or Juventus. They are national representatives, and their varying races and ethnicities argue forcefully against the idea that nation, race and ethnicity are aligned. The racial make-up of France’s team as long been a finger in the eye for the Front National, just as England’s has turned its archaic white supremacist supporters from a menace into a laughing stock. Someone pointed out that France is the last remaining African team in this World Cup, as its squad includes three players who were born or grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, three in Senegal, two in Cameroon, and one each in Congo, Guinea, Togo, Mali, Morocco and Algeria. But because of the well-known tightness of FIFA’s rules, those 14 players are comfortably French and nothing but French. Where so many European countries are taking in migrants of all ages from Africa and the Middle East, it has become a point of pride for teams such as Belgium to reflect their rainbow populations. Football does not solve one single real-world problem, but by blocking the ‘flag of convenience’ option, it reminds a troubled country that Romelo Lukaku, born in Antwerp, is not a Belgian-African or an African-Belgian, but a Belgian.

If FIFA is going to be so strict, why not go all the way? Seventeen years of age might seem a random point at which to draw the line. If seventeen determines sporting origins, then Greg Inglis is indeed a Queenslander. FIFA could have enforced a birth rule, and then really hammer the point home that home-bred people come in every colour. But that would be to retrospectively give children the same agency as adults. Some of these men were young boys when their families moved. Some were boys when their families allowed them to move to enhance their prospects in life. Whatever the circumstances, the difference in the powers of children and adults is preserved by the seventeen-years rule.

Football, I think, has been getting this right. But the sport is still watched by millions who will pass comment on seeing an ‘African’ team playing a ‘European’ team on Sunday night. What remains is for language to catch up with reality. When we see a tremendously fit and thoroughly drilled French team, we don’t have to try to contort our heads around how their efficiency makes them almost Germanic or twist them into the euphemistic cloak of ‘athleticism’. They are simply very organised and fit professional footballers. When they take on a Croatian team that has been a wonder of solid effort and consistent will-power, we don’t have to square it with what many of us thought we knew about Balkan clubs in Sydney and Melbourne, because whatever it was we thought, if it relied on national stereotyping we were certainly unqualified.

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Taurus

Taurus

Posted
Posted

As someone who watches a lot of youff games, I can accurately say that the FFA are dumb c---ts & this is one of Bossi better articles.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/lessons-from-russia-ffa-should-stick-to-what-it-does-best-20180630-p4zooo.html?platform=hootsuite

Lessons from Russia: FFA should stick to what it does best

Dominic Bossi
By Dominic Bossi
13 July 2018 — 10:30pm
  •  

While the Socceroos were preparing for the World Cup, a fierce battle was going on back home that would have ramifications on the country's participation in future tournaments. The beancounters at Football Federation Australia had proposed the immediate axing of the National Youth League.

Having already scaled back the NYL from a full tournament to an eight-game regional competition to save costs, FFA's money men wanted to scrap what was left of the tournament to make further savings. Understandably, the proposal met with fierce protest from several A-League clubs - the ones who see the value in investing in youth - and from the national teams department within its own organisation.

The threat of the axe bound together two groups whose relationship had until then soured to the point of toxicity - the clubs and the national team. Fearing Australia's best young players would have no exposure to competitive football while the A-League was running, both parties made enough noise to keep the FFA's number-crunchers at bay, bringing the proposed scrapping of the NYL to a halt at the 11th hour.

It was the latest example of a struggle within an organisation that tries to be everything at once but consistently fails in its duty of player development. Just a year earlier, the FFA shut down its Centre of Excellence, formerly known as the AIS program for football, which developed the likes of Frank Farina, Ned Zelic, Mark Viduka,  Lucas Neill, Mark Bresciano, Craig Moore, Brett Emerton, Mark Milligan and, most recently, Daniel Arzani.  It reportedly saved FFA just $1.6 million per year. Furthermore, it's understood that money has not been redistributed back into the much-needed youth development programs.

There was little attention, and even less money, directed towards providing more game-time opportunities for Australia's best youngsters.  The pathway of Australian football is not so much a bottleneck as a drip bag. There are only nine professional football clubs in a country where, according to Roy Morgan,  4.5 per cent of the population plays the game in some form.  That is more than 6340 participants for every one senior contracted player in the A-League eligible to play for Australia. At the other end of the spectrum, Iceland are ranked 14 places above Australia, boast 12 teams in their top professional league, five divisions and less than one tenth of the registered players as NSW.

The money saved by the closure of the CoE and the cutting back of the NYL wasn't redirected to putting on more games for the Young Socceroos (under-20s) or the Olyroos (under-23s). Both continue to struggle in competitions against teams that are battle-hardened and comprised of youngsters who are regularly exposed to senior football.

In the past 12 months, the Young Socceroos have played eight games and none since November. The Olyroos have played seven, their last coming in January when they were bundled out in the group stage of the Asian U-23 Championships. By contrast, Vietnam are one of the most improving Asian nations and have played 13 Under-23 games in that period, while Japan's Under-23s have played 11 games in the last six months alone.

The funds haven't been redirected to the establishment of a national second division that would provide more opportunities for young players. After six years of public pressure, only now has FFA revisited A-League expansion, which will start making amends for the folding of three professional clubs under its watch since 2008.

These problems have had tangible impacts on the performance of the national team. The Socceroos failed to score a goal from open play at the World Cup. It does not take a huge leap of the imagination to understand why the Socceroos have been hampered by the much-publicised shortage of forwards. In last season's A-League, not one of the 10 clubs started the season with a centre-forward who is eligible for the Socceroos.

That is why the battle to save the NYL was fought so passionately at a time when the attention should have been on the Socceroos' imminent World Cup campaign. However, the timing of the scrap served to highlight the FFA's main strength. While it FFA came perilously close to landing another blow to youth development, its most successful arm was operating at full steam.

As 23 players toiled in preparation for the World Cup, a small army of  coaches, analysts, scouts, physios, doctors, sports scientists, security officers, operations and communications staff were working on what is surely the most professional sporting set-up in Australia. While the Socceroos arrived in Russia as among the least fancied teams, 38 back-room staff were working behind the scenes to ensure they were arguably the fittest and among the best prepared.

By Australian standards, the Socceroos are perhaps afforded the most professional working environment.

In recent years, the FFA's national team wing has taken that a step further. It's why the Socceroos were provided with a chartered jet that was turned into a recovery studio for their World Cup qualifying match against Honduras. Cryotherapy chambers were available for players, team chefs were flown in for every game. There were luxurious training camps and round-the-clock treatment that players don't even experience at some of the wealthier clubs around the world. That's all before being afforded the services of a world-class coach in Bert van Marwijk.

"Here is where I work the best," Tim Cahill said before the World Cup. "We have staff, maybe 15 just on the pitch constantly giving you information, picking things up. Off the park, we have a well-oiled machine, physios, fitness coaches, computers - you name it."

It's not just the Socceroos enjoying the treatment but the women too. The Matildas' rise to peak at No.4 in the world coincided with a significant spike in their conditions, more specialists and staff.

That Australia - a country with just nine professional football teams and serious issues around player opportunities - was able to compete against finalists France in the World Cup, was good value for the draw against Denmark and unlucky to lose to Peru is a marvel in its own right. Much of it has to do with the comforts and standards afforded to the players.

It showed that for all its faults, the FFA is actually a highly successful organisation when it operates as a federation in the traditional sense - looking after its national teams. Its shortcomings in other areas suggest the national federation may not be the appropriate body to operate all arms of domestic football. If there is a lesson the FFA should take from Russia, it is that it should consider relinquishing control of leagues and development to the specialists, and stick instead to what it does best - managing the national teams.

 
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Prydzopolis

Prydzopolis

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Paul01 said:

ESPN+ have purchased the digital rights to the A-league and W-League on a multi-year deal. 

The FFA probably said you can't have the W-League unless you take the A-League.

2 for 1 package or could have been related to the huge following of women’s football in the US. They have plenty of footballers playing in the W-League & they are very popular in the states too.

Facinating battle for rights in the US. ESPN have taken the Serie A rights from BeIN who did show more matches that ESPN did (only 2 matches broadcast in the new deal), BeIN’s online app has been compared to Optus sport & ESPN is a lot better in terms of reliability in delivering the content. AL/WL builds the content for ESPN.

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mack

mack

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Posted

WARNING: SMITHIES ARTICLE

With $15m academy and no fees, Western Sydney Wanderers make a pitch for talent of the future.

FOR a man in the process of spending an awful lot of money, Paul Lederer had a definite spring in his step on Thursday afternoon as he toured the new Western Sydney Stadium getting close to completion in Parramatta.

In 12 months’ time the Wanderers chairman will be preparing for his club’s first game there, but there are other landmarks coming rather sooner.

Within the next four months the club’s new headquarters in Rooty Hill will be opened, along with the first three of nine pitches to house every team at the club from the A-League and W-League down to the youngest juniors.

This first stage has cost Lederer and his fellow directors $15m, but the running costs will be substantial too as the club will charge no fees to those selected for its academy.

With most elite academies across NSW charging around $2-3k per child, this is a significant and ongoing statement by the Wanderers, especially as every team will have only professional coaching.

Built on land leased from Blacktown Council, the new headquarters will house the club’s administration as well as a gym and medical facilities, all under one roof. Eventually there are plans for more development, including a club for supporters to frequent, but the move to bring every representative team together is seismic in itself.

“This is our seventh year in existence and we’ve been unbelievably successful considering the age of the club,” Lederer told The Saturday Telegraph.

“But I like to think this is the second stage of our life, the most exciting stage. It’s once in a lifetime: building a brand new stadium for 30,000 people, world class in every facet, and on top of that we’re building an academy, which to me is equally important.

“This is a venture we’ve planning for three years – (CEO) John (Tsatsimas) and I went around the world and looked at all the latest facilities. In my view this will be just as good.”

In such a fertile football region, the decision to charge nothing to those selected for the junior squads will give the club a major competitive advantage in attracting the brightest talent.

“We will have no fees,” said Lederer. “We will be the first elite club in Australia to have no fees. If you want to play for the club, you can. It’s a costly exercise, but we will pay for it.

“We want to give an equal opportunity to boys and girls, whoever they are, to be the best. We will give them the best amenities, the best coaching, that’s what we’re building.

“Equally we have invested heavily in the W-League this year and we’re very keen to have the women perform to the peak of their ability. They have separate amenities, separate changing rooms, so they feel utterly comfortable.”

Lederer isn’t given to bluster, but he gets increasingly passionate when asked why – even allowing for his lifelong love of football - he would spend so much time and money on this project.

“We’re not doing this for the short term or for financial gain,” he said. “We’re doing it because we enjoy it and we want to make a difference to Western Sydney. If we achieve that, we are on a good track.

“Why do we do it? It’s because we’re passionate and believe in something. We are conscious of a young kid, whose father is working long hours, maybe in a factory, can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars a year to play football.

“If you have two or three kids that might be $7500 - that eliminates a lot of talent that goes by the wayside because they just can’t afford it.

“Western Sydney is a working class area and we are conscious of that. We believe in this area, that’s why we’re putting our hard-earned money into it.

“We want the Western Sydney people to believe in us. I worked 45 years in Western Sydney, I spent 12 to 15 hours a day in Western Sydney. I built businesses only in Western Sydney, I’ve had lots of factories.

“I’ve done very well, personally, extraordinarily well. Now I can put something back into Western Sydney.”

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Sithslayer1991

Sithslayer1991

Posted
Posted
On 28/09/2018 at 6:41 PM, mack said:

WARNING: SMITHIES ARTICLE

With $15m academy and no fees, Western Sydney Wanderers make a pitch for talent of the future.

FOR a man in the process of spending an awful lot of money, Paul Lederer had a definite spring in his step on Thursday afternoon as he toured the new Western Sydney Stadium getting close to completion in Parramatta.

In 12 months’ time the Wanderers chairman will be preparing for his club’s first game there, but there are other landmarks coming rather sooner.

Within the next four months the club’s new headquarters in Rooty Hill will be opened, along with the first three of nine pitches to house every team at the club from the A-League and W-League down to the youngest juniors.

This first stage has cost Lederer and his fellow directors $15m, but the running costs will be substantial too as the club will charge no fees to those selected for its academy.

With most elite academies across NSW charging around $2-3k per child, this is a significant and ongoing statement by the Wanderers, especially as every team will have only professional coaching.

Built on land leased from Blacktown Council, the new headquarters will house the club’s administration as well as a gym and medical facilities, all under one roof. Eventually there are plans for more development, including a club for supporters to frequent, but the move to bring every representative team together is seismic in itself.

“This is our seventh year in existence and we’ve been unbelievably successful considering the age of the club,” Lederer told The Saturday Telegraph.

“But I like to think this is the second stage of our life, the most exciting stage. It’s once in a lifetime: building a brand new stadium for 30,000 people, world class in every facet, and on top of that we’re building an academy, which to me is equally important.

“This is a venture we’ve planning for three years – (CEO) John (Tsatsimas) and I went around the world and looked at all the latest facilities. In my view this will be just as good.”

In such a fertile football region, the decision to charge nothing to those selected for the junior squads will give the club a major competitive advantage in attracting the brightest talent.

“We will have no fees,” said Lederer. “We will be the first elite club in Australia to have no fees. If you want to play for the club, you can. It’s a costly exercise, but we will pay for it.

“We want to give an equal opportunity to boys and girls, whoever they are, to be the best. We will give them the best amenities, the best coaching, that’s what we’re building.

“Equally we have invested heavily in the W-League this year and we’re very keen to have the women perform to the peak of their ability. They have separate amenities, separate changing rooms, so they feel utterly comfortable.”

Lederer isn’t given to bluster, but he gets increasingly passionate when asked why – even allowing for his lifelong love of football - he would spend so much time and money on this project.

“We’re not doing this for the short term or for financial gain,” he said. “We’re doing it because we enjoy it and we want to make a difference to Western Sydney. If we achieve that, we are on a good track.

“Why do we do it? It’s because we’re passionate and believe in something. We are conscious of a young kid, whose father is working long hours, maybe in a factory, can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars a year to play football.

“If you have two or three kids that might be $7500 - that eliminates a lot of talent that goes by the wayside because they just can’t afford it.

“Western Sydney is a working class area and we are conscious of that. We believe in this area, that’s why we’re putting our hard-earned money into it.

“We want the Western Sydney people to believe in us. I worked 45 years in Western Sydney, I spent 12 to 15 hours a day in Western Sydney. I built businesses only in Western Sydney, I’ve had lots of factories.

“I’ve done very well, personally, extraordinarily well. Now I can put something back into Western Sydney.”

Smart Business decision I think they are banking on the transfer market to pay for the investment in the academy

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Paul01

Paul01

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Posted
10 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Smart Business decision I think they are banking on the transfer market to pay for the investment in the academy

Also boys and girls. So will there be girls youth teams next year?

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