Lies, Incompetence and Racism, Football Admin Has It All

The FFV has once again undertaken the annual clearing out of the records of tribunal cases and appeals from it's website. For an organisation that claims transparency as one of it's core values, it's an action that opposes that aim.

There is apparently the opportunity to request past determinations with a phone call, but if that's anything like how they handle emails (and promises made in them) then don't hold your breath awaiting a reply.

The first game I attended this year was the W-League Grand Final. It was a great day, fine weather, good game, right result for a Melburnian with one notable black mark. In an act of incompetence that you would think should no longer be possible, the presentation stage was erected with it's back to the only parts of the ground open to spectators. When patrons should have been cheering for the women who had just completed a brilliant season, they were instead booing the idiots that were treating them with disdain.

With the game being filmed from the western stand, spectators were restricted to the eastern and southern parts of AAMI Park, bar a single bay of the northern end reserved for the Sydney FC active support. That is an acceptable arrangement, ensuring a solid crowd in the background of the telecast. When it comes to the presentation though, surely portable cameras could have been used to film it with the stage set up to allow the thousands of people who had stayed back for 20 or so minutes to witness it? Many would have probably left upon the final whistle had they known they were not welcome.

Would you be surprised if the idiots responsible were to one day wonder why more people don't go to games? I wouldn't.

Thanks to the great work of Paul Mavroudis in creating an archive of the Studs Up! fanzine, some historic gems have been unearthed. None more so than this account of an interview with former Soccer Australia board member George Negus on a Brisbane radio station:

Negus and David Hill pushed for the de-ethnicising of the NSL, and it is in their vision that the NCIP was introduced. Next time someone tries to tell you those policies were only about broadening the game's reach and not in any way racist, reflect on the words above.

It's my understanding that not employing someone on the basis of ethnicity is discrimitaion, of a racist variety. I'm not sure how George could spin it around to claim it isn't. He clearly states the thick accent of Matic is a deal-breaker and that his credentials and merits are therefore irrelevant.

In case you are not sure, these are some of the rules:

A Balkans accent is un-Australian.

British and Irish accents are Australian. These people are even more Australian than those born here to ethnic parents from places other than the UK and Ireland.

Once you grasp the importance of these rules you can see why unless the White Australia Policy is restored, the NCIP must strictly be adhered to.

                                                    (Click on images to enlarge)

A Version of History

This is the blog post I've had the most difficulty in writing, and it's not just because the last time I did a book review was back at school in the late 1980's. I've struggled with how to deal with some things from a book which I largely admired and is clearly a work of great significance. 

Roy Hay and Bill Murray's A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves is certainly a grand undertaking. A game with a poorly recorded history (particularly from it's own governing bodies) clouded with so many diverging political issues, it was never going to be an easy task to sum it all up in a manner that would satisfy everyone.

The chapter on the women's game towards the conclusion is a strong one. It's a lighter read than the heavy opening to the book which deals with the how the various forms of football were codified in the late nineteenth century. Once over this necessary introduction, the book soon delves into the various struggles of the game as it spread across the colonies. The hindrance of financial depressions and World Wars give way to migrant boom times and the expulsion from FIFA. 

The book is tremendously well-researched, as one would expect from two fine academics. There are hundreds of notations. It touches on the "Code Wars" without becoming bogged down in them, which is no mean feat.

There are some great insights into the numerous breakaways from previous governing bodies and the early World Cup qualification campaigns. Throughout the book, there are some amazing photographs which really capture their time perfectly.   

A famous quote, most often attributed to Winston Churchill, is that "History is written by the victors". With that in mind it is noteworthy that the Foreword of this book is written by Frank Lowy AC, Chairman of Football Federation Australia.  

Does this mean there is a lack of balance and objectivity in sections of the book later on? One can certainly raise a few questions. In the chapter relating to the NSL it is noted that "The 1987 season began in controversy when Frank Lowy, who had been at loggerheads with the ASF about the direction the game was taking, pulled Sydney City Hakoah out of the league after the first round". It does not go on to expand on how destabilising the action was to the competition, or treat the act of spite (later it is written he "had learned and come to despise Australian soccer politics") in the same disdain later expressed at how Clive Palmer's ownership of Gold Coast United would come to an end.

Whilst much is written about the Crawford Report, no mention is made of critical elements to it yet to be implemented. Similarly whilst it is explained how the the voting structures for the State Federations were reformed to take power from top tier clubs and share it with bodies representing juniors, women's teams and refereeing bodies, little is mentioned of how the FFA no longer seems to have any elections.

The former Chairman of Soccer Australia, David Hill, though described as divisive is also portrayed rather favourably. In relation to the infamous draw with Iran which saw Australia fail to qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Terry Venables is labelled as being out-coached on several occasions. To be critical of the coach, should one be as critical of the man who appointed him? When Venables is described as erring in not bringing on Milan Ivanovic to try and hold the lead at 2-0, I can't help but think of Zoran Matic, Ivanovic's highly successful club coach at Adelaide City. The Serb Matic would have stood a better chance of being appointed Socceroos coach under any number of Croats that may have been Chairman than he did from getting the job from the famously Anglophile Hill.

Perhaps I'm making too much of these issues, but with this book likely to be the first foray into the extended history of the game in this country for many readers, it does need to be pointed out that it is just a version of history and that being definitive on such as subject is probably impossible.

Does it deserve to sit atop the pile of books about the game in Australia? It's a question, like many aspects of the sport here, that is a real political football.