Soccer? Football? Or is the name of the game now Souvlaki?

There's been a lot of good come out of the FFA Cup, and a few things that can be improved on. A cliche in itself, the magic of the cup has been clouded with an overdose of stereotypes and tokenism. Is the only stat we can get for a lower tier club really how many kilograms of lamb they have ordered for the spit?

The Fox Sports obsession with souvlakis at Kingston Heath has gone more than a tad overboard. I'm told (was at the game) that the commentary even referred to the venue as Souvlaki Stadium last night.. They probably think the SC in Bentleigh Greens SC stands for Souvlaki.Club.

Whilst it has been a boon for canteen sales, it can also be seen as demeaning to the Greens as a footballing entity. When they would rather talk about your food than your football, it has to be seen as a slap in the face. How about pondering whether Andrew Redmayne or Tando Velaphi are any better than Alistair Bray? Or could John Anastasiadis ever be considered for an A-League coaching gig without having to do a Phil Stubbins and go overseas for a few years to wash away the VPL/NPL stigma?

A Fox face eating a souvlaki on air has been a staple of network's FFA Cup coverage in it's inaugural season.. Can't recall seeing footage of the commentators eating a hot dog or a bucket of chips at any of the hundreds of A-League games I've watched. Patronising at all? 

It's interesting to see such culinary appreciation portrayed by some as a healing in the relationship between "Old Soccer" and "New Football". I've yet to see anyone pushing that line address the issue of the FFA's National Club Identity Policy. 

If a group of Afghan refugees decided to start a new club, and wanted it to maintain links to their heritage, they would not be allowed to do so. No tasty treats in the canteen will get you past that. There's more freedom in the detention centres than there is under the FFA in this case. 

During the draws the teams outside of the A-League were referred to as "member clubs". This piqued my interest given the legal battles between Victorian clubs and the FFV over the years. Unlike American Express, it seems membership does not have it's privileges. Who would join a club where your membership fees were spent to benefit others, not on anything you are entitled to? That is what has happened when State Federations have been engaged to run the Youth and Women's components of A-League teams. 

The compromised draw is something a few would like to see done away with. It probably needs to be maintained though, especially if the plan to eventually have the Final played annually on Australia Day takes place. Once the NPL teams go too far out of season, it will be near impossible for any to progress to the latter stages in an open draw. That would mean no souvlaki, cevapi or kebapi fairytale stories for the broadcaster. 

If the draw remains compromised, I'd suggest seeding the A-League clubs to give more prospects of an early upset. Two pots of balls for the A-League clubs, one with the top teams drawn to play each other, and the other for the bottom of the table teams from the previous season to be placed in to face the member clubs.

I also think the week before the A-League season starts to be the ideal time for the FFA Cup Final. It gives member clubs a leg up facing A-League teams in pre-season. It also gives A-League clubs meaningful competitive games rather than training ground friendlies, which is always a preferred arrangement. It would suit teams in the latter stages of the Asian Champions League in dealing with the A-League close season. Like the Charity/Community Shield, it would provide a marquee fixture to lead into the season proper.

Still a Big Swindle

Last week the FFV announced an alteration to the 2014 Fee Schedule, reducing team entry fees across the State League board. What do these reductions mean to the figures discussed in The Great Football Swindle post of February 23rd? It means that instead of taking an extra $1,046,300 from clubs this year compared to last, it will only be $863,900 more.

One hopes the extra cash would see the game managed better, but there is little improvement on that front. Already the early Dockerty Cup games have descended into farce, with forfeits once again to the fore. The FFV blames the clubs, the clubs blame the FFV. The buck (no pun pardoned) has to rest with the FFV. Just weeks after the FFA triumphantly launched the FFA Cup as the chance for grassroots clubs to take on teams at the highest level and perhaps live the dream of fairy tale upsets, what is the entry point to that competition remains a debacle.

When Fee Schedules and Rules of Competition are still being adjusted this late in the piece, it is little wonder small, amateur clubs are struggling to meet requirements. Even if it is the clubs at fault, the onus should be on the FFV to find a solution as they are the ones who suffer in comparison to bodies in other states when the situation becomes shambolic.

The question still remains, will the services to clubs improve in line with the additional revenue to the FFV coffers? Over the weekend on Twitter I noticed @FootballChaos and @Socceraust were churning out results tweets and news at a high rate.The FFV account only seems to be activated when there's a link to a new article on their website to be promoted. I dare say  Football Chaos (now there's a domain name more apt for the FFV) will once again produce better video coverage (in terms of quality, frequency and variety) than what the FFV comes up with for the NPL Victoria.

One can only imagine the folks at South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights struggling to contain their sniggering when being instructed on utilising social media by the FFV recently. Either the FFV are following the strategy of spreading the release of information out over several days (and haven't started yet), or they have very little to announce. At this stage it seems there will be radio commentary of some games via the internet, with further details still to emerge. The FFV has advertised for match reporters, and will need to increase their pool from last year when they barely had enough to cover a 6 game VPL round to be able to cover two divisions of the NPLV.

It was interesting listening on radio station SEN the day after the launch of the FFA Cup. Talkback callers quickly changed the subject to that of junior fees at NPLV clubs and their tendency towards being exorbitant. When hearing a justification of the fees/national curriculum, journalist Patrick Smith asked "are these clubs, or are they academies?". Coupled with a rare piece from Craig Foster that I actually agree with, it is clear we are entering dangerous territory. The NPLV is proving very expensive to implement, exhausting all resources to do so and then getting it wrong would prove to be a disaster that would top all those that have come before it.