How The West Can Be Won - SBS TWG

The reason the challenge is tough lies in the timing. Getting a club, now non-existent, ready to make a credible start in the A-League by the start of October, in less than six months, is a task even Sisyphus might dismiss as a bad idea and not at all preferable to eternally rolling boulders up a large hill.

Damian Lovelock, commenting on Sky News, said he looked upon the prospect with ‘cautious pessimism’.

Ordinarily such a project would, or should, be given a year or two, maybe three, to evolve and mature into readiness. But not this one due to the need for FFA to negotiate a scrumptious television deal, which calls for a ten-team competition, in quick time.

Such a challenge is fraught with the kind of dangers that make a football lover tremble and break out in a cold sweat.

Western Sydney, as we have been reminded for a small eternity now, is the heartland of football. Milking its potential for Australia’s showpiece national competition is an opportunity that makes all other sports palpitate and suddenly become apoplectic with envy.

If FFA stuffs this up (and it has form in stuffing things up) the damage to the game’s image may be terminal. Ben Buckley would be advised to take prolonged gardening leave from football, away and somewhere quite distant and maybe a bit less dangerous, like Somalia.

I hope Ben is busy and has cancelled all leave, for there ain’t time to waste here.

Read the rest of the article at the SBS website