ACL playoff

Despite Adelaide United’s best efforts, it looks like the ACL playoff will be going ahead on Thursday night at Hindmarsh against Persipura. Should the Reds lose, they’ll be consigned to playing the lesser AFC Cup, an exercise that will apparently cost far more money than it’s worth.

Republik Persipura

The Court of Arbitration in Sport ruling is one that sets a very interesting precedent, in that it recognises the legitimacy of a breakaway competition that is not sanctioned by an official national FA. This could have huge ramifications for FIFA in the future. I’m not quite sure where I stand on this issue, as clearly in some circumstances a FIFA-certified national footballing federation may be less competent, more corrupt and so on than a rebel breakaway group – but certainly opening the doors for a free-for-all where any cabal of powerful clubs with enough money can set up their own exclusive competition would be a worrying path for football to go down…

Queensland United?

Good old FFA, forever finding creative ways to screw the fans. Now there’s a proposal to turn Gold Coast United into a travelling roadshow:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/federation-seeks-parley-with-palmer-to-make-gold-coast-united-again-20120208-1rexy.html

One possible solution is to rebadge the club and play games in regional Queensland. Palmer grew up on the Gold Coast, but his mining interests are in central and north Queensland, and it’s believed he is warming to the idea of taking the team around the state.

A possible scenario is for the team’s 13 home games to be divided between Gold Coast, Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton – the last two cities have recently upgraded their stadiums to the point where they are considered to be of A-League standard.

Threatening to turn the club into a travelling circus could well be the last straw for a lot of remaining Gold Coast supporters. Closing off three quarters of the stadium and imposing a crowd limit was one thing, but it’s hard to imagine an act of greater disrespect towards the fans than by shifting all their home games around an entire state. A club cannot grow in any meaningful sense without a loyal, and local, set of supporters.

Some might argue that it would be no great loss to the league – the people of the Gold Coast have, in general, failed to embrace the franchise that was plonked into Robina in 2009. Big mistakes were obviously made in the way the organization was set up and marketed. And there were plenty of people who thought that the FFA made the wrong call in axing the North Queensland Fury, and should have given Gold Coast the chop instead.

He never asked....

It would have been an easy decision to make, had Clive Palmer not been so damn rich. The FFA don’t want to lose his money. But surely there comes a point where the problems associated with someone like Palmer running a football club (with all the tact, diplomacy and respect that you would expect from a Gold Coast real-estate-mogul-turned-mining-multibillionaire Bjelke-Petersen crony) outweighs his financial clout – which seems to have had very little off-field or on-field benefit for the club in any case.

The FFA need to put a stop to these sorts of shenanigans and ensure that they work with Palmer to actually engage with the people of the Gold Coast. No doubt that will take a long time, but the aim should be to build a club that will still be here in 50 years (yes, I know this is Australian football we’re talking about). It’s ridiculous to think that a city of half-a-million people – bigger than Newcastle, Wellington or the Central Coast – couldn’t support a top flight football team. Surely the support is there, it’s just that the current model has utterly failed to capture hearts and minds. If Palmer wants to pick up his bat and ball and go home, so be it – but the FFA need to make sure that they don’t further alienate the Gold Coast public, as they have in North Queensland. They’ve made the decision to put a franchise in the Coast – a mere three years ago – and they should be doing whatever it takes to allow it to succeed in the long term. The damage that has been done under Palmer is surely not so large that it can’t be undone.

Unruly mobs

It’s no secret that, in Australia, fooball is routinely derided by segments of the media and general public keen to paint it as a game played by effeminate (usually foreign) sissies and supported by thugs driven to violence by low scores and the offside rule.

It’s also no secret that football supporters in Australia can at times be rather sensitive about perceived injustices towards our sport, and are prone to jump down the throats of anyone with the nerve to express negative opinions about the game. So, while we’ve got good historical reasons for being touchy about the mainstream’s treatment of football in this country, we can at times go off half-cocked.

When opinion columnist Tory Shepherd recently wrote a piece about the Canberra Tent Embassy kerfuffle in Adelaide’s Sunday Mail, she included the throwaway line that the protesters “were better behaved than spectators at plenty of soccer matches I’ve been to.” This was a big mistake. In a follow-up column entitled Don’t Blame the Beautiful Game for Riot Shame, Shepherd writes that:

Readers called me a stupid f***king bitch, a ‘stereotyping whore’, a racist bitch. They said I’d fabricated the soccer violence, that I had, with that one rather lacklustre sentence, destroyed the game’s reputation.

It’s enough to make you think maybe there is an anger management issue in the soccer community.

The thing is, Shepherd is a football fan. She knows what she’s talking about, and she’s quite right to point out that, frequently, football and violence go hand-in-hand. In her words:

Soccer is, globally, inextricably linked to violence in people’s minds. But it’s not soccer’s fault. Soccer just happens to be the medium for the message. It is the excuse, the scapegoat.

Soccer teams more often than not reflect ethnic, political, social and religious divisions. Throw thousands of fans aligned with either side into an enclosed space, and watch them work themselves up to fever pitch.

As the most widely-followed game in the world, by a long shot, football is an important and highly visible site for the performance of individual and group identity (the Port Said tragedy being a very recent case in point). The game itself isn’t – usually – directly to blame, though it does provide a platform for the playing out of political and social tensions. If Australian sport has been largely immune to the troubles often attributed to world football, it is more a reflection on Australia’s (relative) political and social stability than it is on the intrinsic qualities of the sports themselves. Those so keen to shame football would do well to remember this.

Historically, football supporters have copped it from all angles from the Australian media. But sometimes it’s best to take a deep breath and try to listen to what someone’s trying to say before erupting in a fit of rage. Violence in football does exist, and simply pointing out that fact doesn’t constitute an attack on the game. Our aim should be not only to proselytize but to analyze.

Adelaide round ball, 1918

This photo is of a 1918 match at Jubilee Oval in Adelaide. Despite what you may have heard about football having no history in Australia, it seems people actually did play this curious sport in the Olden Days. Apparently this ground stood on what is now the north east corner of the University of Adelaide.

Preliminary ACL squad named, Levchenko misses out

This is the preliminary 27-man squad United has submitted to the AFC ahead of the Asian Champions League:

1.Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), 2.Osama MALIK, 3.Nigel BOOGAARD, 4.Jon McKAIN, 5.Daniel MULLEN, 6.CASSIO, 7.Zenon CARAVELLA, 9.Sergio VAN DIJK, 10.Dario VIDOSIC, 11.Bruce DJITE, 12.Antony GOLEC, 13.Ricardo DA SILVA, 14.Cameron WATSON, 15.Jacob MELLING, 16.Spase DILEVSKI, 17.Iain RAMSAY, 18.Fabian BARBIERO, 20.Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk), 21.Francisco USUCAR, 22.Milan SUSAK, 23.Evan KOSTOPOULOS, 24.Teeboy KAMARA, 25.Alan WELSH, 26.Jonathan MAVROMATIS, 27.Jordan ELSEY, 28.Liam WOODING, 30.Paul IZZO (gk)

While this is still subject to change, it looks like the odd man out is Levchenko – the latest victim of the ACL’s ’3+1′ rule. Given that he won’t be playing ACL it seems extremely likely that, come April, his contract won’t be renewed and he’ll be heading back to Europe. A pity, given that injuries have meant we haven’t really seen the Netherlands’ Sexiest Vegetarian at his best in Adelaide. Hopefully he’ll at least get a bit more game time at the back end of this season.

Here’s a Google Translate of Lev’s Feb 4 interview with a Ukrainian football website:

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsportonlinetv.com%2Fnovosti%2Fyeksklyuziv%2Fevgenii-levchenko-vojazh-v-avstraliiskuyu-a-league.html&act=url

On moving to Australia:

In order to decide on such a step must be to some extent, an adventurer. Not everyone will agree to go to Australia – unknown to many football country. But for me it is – new opportunities, new friendships, new impressions. I came here, not only to learn the local football, but also to get acquainted with the continent and a new country for themselves.

On Kosmina:

After three days stay at the helm of the team said he would bet on the young Australian players and not yet count on me. I was very disappointed. Of course, the change of coaches in the team – it is always a risk to drop out of football. Especially in such an authoritarian coach as Kosmina. To me he his toughness and desire to keep a tight rein on all the coaches like the old Soviet training.

(In Soviet Russia, ball kicks YOU)

On the standard and style of Aussie football:

Of course, to compare the Australian and European Championship of any incorrectly. And it’s not the amounts that are invested in the development of football. The fact that in Australia, few truly strong or talented players. There’s even a lack of effect of local students! Do not operate very efficiently, local schools, and reluctantly players come here from other countries. Yes, they returned a few players who have to raise the level of football: it’s Harry Kewell, Emerton and Brad – famous names in football. On the whole, some commands, such as the Brisbane Roar and Central Coast, show good soccer. You have to know that Australian football – just kind of. It is a powerful, power football, which physically is not inferior to European football, and perhaps superior to it. And tactically it, of course, still need to grow. But this is the future of football, because football clubs in Australia – finanosoe stable position. This football invest, acquire players, coaches. Local players who have played here a long time in football, told me that over the last couple of years the team has grown significantly, increased levels of players.

On supporter demands for ‘toughness’:

I think the question here in the local style of football. Even the fans who come to the stadium, they want to see men fight, when all the team players are laid out to the last, “bite” the lawn. Therefore, the judges give a play, so for some violation of the rules close their eyes. Of course, some players are ill-considered decision on the field, which lead to sad consequences. But these players are in all the championships!

On his playing future:

Australia – an attractive country in terms of everyday life, and in terms of football, always nice to play in the championship, which develops, but, on the other hand, I’m not 18 years old, and I want and is ready to play football rather than sit on the bench. So if in the near future will not change anything, I do not see any reason to stay here. A contract with the team I have until April 2012. If you do not renew the contract here, it is likely to return to Holland. Maybe even have’ll do some other thing, not football. On this occasion I have said Duzhe football with my agent. I feel good, do not reach an injury, but I ask myself the question: “Will I enjoy football?”

Kosmina v Vidosic?

Looks like there’s still some bad juju at United. For the second match in a row, Kosmina hooked Vidosic for the 16-year-old Melling during an ineffective second half, to the obvious displeasure of our marquee man. At the full time press conference Kossie had a bit of a go at Dario’s decision making and workrate, and it’s looking increasingly obvious that Vido is not super-happy at Camp Hindmarsh.

Given that he has moved back to the A-League after a promising stint in Germany, you can’t really begrudge Vido for his frustration playing with such a lacklustre United side at the moment. He is human after all, and having his game publically called into question by the coach can’t be much fun. Certainly, though, Vidosic needs to start living up to his reputation and talent by showing a willingness to pull his finger out and take control of games. By rights he should be up there with Broich, Carle and Hernandez as the vital creative pin in his team’s midfield, but for whatever reason it just isn’t happening at the moment.

My worry is that in his approach – trying to create a team of fighters and grafters – Kosmina is making the same mistakes with Vidosic as Magilton appears to be with Hernandez at Victory. I tend to think that, if he could, Kossie would go with a whole team of Fabian Barbieros, competent battlers who get by on guts and workrate. Unfortunately in football you need both workmen and artists to succeed – so I hope that Kosmina and Vidosic can get over whatever little tiff they’re having at the moment and get back to the task of rebuilding Adelaide into a team that the opposition actually fears, because I think that in the long run Vidosic is too valuable a player to lose.

Another home loss

Sanchez brings the boos back to Hindmarsh!

To be fair, they never really went away…

Yet another game where the Reds started brightly then fell into a twitching heap at the first sign of pressure. Nice finish by Djite, but defensively we’re fucked. A line of witches’ hats could have done a better job keeping that second goal out – and sadly, that includes the usually-great Galekovic. Midfield is just as bad.

Crowds are slipping back down again at Hindmarsh, probably not surprising given how rare home wins have been this season (and I realise that through this post I’m not really making any great effort to counter the general feelings of doom and gloom). Adelaide United? Right now we’re competing with Victory for the A-League’s most ironically-named club…

First stop: West Papua

When it was initially announced that Adelaide United had arsed their way directly into the group stages of the 2012 Asian Champions League by default, avoiding a playoff situation due to a lucky draw and the withdrawal of two other clubs, the news seemed too good to be true. And so it was.

Now the Court of Arbitration for Sport has (provisionally) ruled in favour of Indonesian club Persipura Jayasura’s appeal. Persipura, from the city of Jayasura in Irian Jaya (West Papua) had initially been denied entry into the competition by the Indonesian Football Association as they now play in the breakaway Indonesian Super League rather than the officially-sanctioned Indonesian Premier League. What this means – I think – is that Adelaide and Persipura will play off some time this month, with the winner going on to play in the group stages with the Red’s old friends Bunyodkor (UZB), Gamba Osaka (JPN) and the winner of a Pohang Steelers (KOR) – Chonburi (THA) playoff.

It’s kind of a bummer as this was a hurdle that we all thought we had avoided, but at the same time I’m glad that justice has been served and that the CAS has given Persipura their deserved place in the competition. I’ll be happier for the Reds to get into the group stage on merit than by default anyway. Given that we finished third in the league and were initially never heading to Asia – until that beautiful little extra half-spot came along – I’m happy even for the playoff.

Tragedy in Egypt

I woke up this morning to the terrible news that at least 73 people have been killed and a thousand injured in stampedes and riots following Al-Masri’s home win over Al-Ahly in Port Said, Egypt.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/scores-dead-in-soccer-match-riots-20120202-1qtyy.html#ixzz1lB7W7zcS

“This is not football. This is a war and people are dying in front of us.”

Some are laying the blame for the disaster at the feet of security forces with links to the ousted Mubarak government:

Albadry Farghali, a member of parliament for Port Said, accused officials and security forces of allowing the disaster, saying they still had ties to the government of President Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown a year ago.

“The security forces did this or allowed it to happen. The men of Mubarak are still ruling. The head of the regime has fallen but all his men are still in their positions,” he screamed in a telephone call to live television.

“Where is the security? Where is the government?”

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest political force, accused supporters of ousted president Hosni Mubarak of instigating the violence.

“The events in Port Said are planned and are a message from the remnants of the former regime,” said MP Essam al-Erian in a statement on the Islamist group’s Freedom and Justice Party website.

The full story will emerge in coming days and weeks, but it’s already clear that this is one of the biggest tragedies and losses of life in the history of the game, reminding us again of how dreadfully wrong things can go  when football and incendiary politics mix.

Our thoughts are with the people of Egypt.

AUSC, 1955

Some Adelaide Uni Blacks history here, courtesy of the National Archives. Inter-varsity tournament in 1955.

“Asian students played a big part in Inter University Soccer Game – Melbourne inside right Don MacLean from Scotland and Adelaide left half Ta Kim Mit from Malaya [Malaysia] go for the ball. Melbourne beat Adelaide 3-2.”

…Fuck off Melbourne.