So Now What?

So here I am late on a Tuesday night and the situation around Clive Palmer's stoush with the FFA just hasn't become any clearer. His appearance on SBS's The World Game last night started with an unconvincing display of reading from a piece of paper and descended into a delusional rant.  Meanwhile Ben Buckley's interview on the same show saw him play a very political straight bat.  But things have escalated today with Newcastle Jets owner Nathan Tinkler weighing into the debate.  It seems this skirmish is on the cusp of escalating into a war, and the one true casualty may be the professional game in this country.

The week started with the resignation of Miron Bleiberg that never was.  It seems Palmer beat him to the punch and sacked him once he got wind of Bleiberg's intention to quit.

From there we saw Palmer's crazy rant on SBS.  First of all there are some valid points.  Yes the operating model of the league could be improved and realistically this should be evolving over time.  Palmer mentions coverage of the game on FTA TV and yes that would be awesome, but only if they are prepared to stump up the cash and out bid Fox Sports and also televise the game in prime time  Let's not forget channel 7 and their infamous burying of the NSL in an after midnight timeslot all those years ago

From there though Palmer totally lost it  To summarise his rant

• GCU are successful and not in crisis, and apparently there is nothing wrong with their crowds based on the population.
• The FFA is run on thuggery and back handers.
• Fox Sports didn't win the TV rights in an open tender
• Palmer only paid $500,000 for his licence.
• Owners would negotiate a better TV rights deal
• GCU looks after their players.
• FFA sent people to Townville to run a smear campaign and forced him out of town and into a marriage break up
• National teams are not picked on merit rather its is a case of who you know, who your manager is and the payment of kickbacks.

And now to Ben Buckley's response.  As I said he played a pretty straight bat.

• The situation at GCU is being evaluated and he was non-committal on their future.
• Angered by comments from Palmer about the game.
• Short term focus needs to be on the end of the season.
• Recognises that there are issues but sees positives from the season.
• FFA has put more focus on GCU than any other club.
• GCU had good initial strategy but has failed to execute.
• New TV deal aimed at covering salary cap but clubs must focus on growth to get financial stability.
• Refused that expansion had been a failure.

OK so after that I'm thinking Palmer has just walked out of this looking like a total nut case and the FFA would just sit by and watch him self destruct.  But this evening Newcastle Jets' owner Nathan Tinkler indicated that he was exploring legal over how much he had paid for the club.  In addition they supported Palmer on the following points

• clubs having greater input into the running of the league.
• greater operational transparency of the FFA
• changes to the operational model.

The FFA quickly responded by pointing out the difference between a licence fee and an acquisition fee.

The acquisition fee for a licence is unique to each club and reflects the particular circumstances of that club and its market - its history, its success, its support, prior investment including by FFA, the potential of the market and other factors that are relevant to an assessment of value.  In the case of the Jets, those market variables included the fact there was an established club with a successful history and strong supporter base in a traditional football area.  The agreement by Hunter Sports Group to the acquisition price reflected those market factors and followed an open and comprehensive commercial negotiation and due diligence process.

And now so here we sit, waiting for the next instalment, wondering who will be the next owner to enter the fray and publicly take a side in the argument, wondering what the FFA's next action will be and whether FFA chairman Frank Lowy will enter the battle.

In the meantime it is football that is suffering.  Staff in all shape and form at Gold Coast United remain completely unaware of what their immediate futures are.  An enthralling culmination of the A-League season, a new finals series and a new Asian Champions League campaign are in danger of being lost with the focus settling on these off-field dramas

At the end of the day its a total pain in the fucking arse.  Seriously how can a bunch of seemingly intelligent and people behave like such a fucking pack of squabbling school children. From Frank Lowy at the top of the A-League down through Ben Buckley to head of the A-League Lyall Gorman we seem to have an inflexible and uncommunicative structure that just isn't dealing with the issues that the clubs are facing.  But at the club level I just don't get what is going on with some of these people.  Whatever issues need sorting need to be taken care of in the boardroom and not in the media.  For fuck sake, god only knows how much damage this will do to the game.

The one thing that sadly I am comfortable is that this mess will not end peacefully.  Looking at the personalities in play there is too much pig headed ignorance flying around on both sides for this to have a happy outcome.  When the A-League first kick off I said it was the last chance for the professional game in this country and I haven't changed that opinion.  While the league has had its problems I've always believed it would slowly work its way through them.  But now I'm not so sure.  I think the next six months are critical and the FFA and the owners really stand at a crossroads.  If they get their next steps wrong then that may well be the end of professional soccer in Australia.