What “influence”? Of all the things that have come out of Twitter out of all of this, I find this one the most confusing.
They have 6.11% of the vote. Who else do they have influence over? With a raison d’être incongruent to every other HAL club (essentially UEFA FFP violation), why would they have more influence over other clubs than Barlow, Di Pietro, Lederer, Sage, etc.? They’re clearly not buying out the smaller federations (NT, ACT, NNSW, etc.) who’ve been consistently voting against City on Congress matters, PFA is clearly pushing its own line, I see no reason why they would have any disproportionate sway over FNSW or Qld.
Not really an answer but the TWG site, who you would think have football enthusiasts on it at least, has had at least one or two articles over the last day or two doing their best Daily Telegraph impression.
There’s an interview with Fozz in today’s Herald with a couple of interesting tidbits re him and FFA that I don’t think are on the public record.
"It wasn’t the first time Foster has been in the frame for an official role at FFA. Before the election, he had lunch with Socceroos coach Graham Arnold to discuss whether he would be interested in becoming the country’s technical director.
He said no, because he would have had to report to another FFA employee - giving him no real autonomy in what should be the most important pure footballing position at the federation."
And: "After helping to save al-Araibi, Foster was again offered the chance to become an appointed director on the FFA board. He said no.
“There’s absolutely no way in the world that I was, or am, going to sit on the board (and be) compliant in decisions being made that I don’t think are in the best interests of the game,” he said."
Hmmm, I’m not sure about him as a TD: his views on football tend to be pretty old school and stuck in a bit of a fantasy world that put him out of step with the modern game. I was skeptical at first, but having him as an appointed director would be good.
I really like him but he is possibly a bit too idealistic and a few times you could question his suitability for a senior position in the game (i.e. Angegate).
What do you mean by Old School? To me, he seems one of the most progressive people in Australian football. And yeah, the TD role is being slated as reporting to Emma Heighwood , manager for Community…
Are you saying CF is less suitable than all the incumbents (who brought us stajic-gate) to contribute to football administration , because of a TV interview he did in 2006 ?
While I agree it’s sickening, if I’m not mistaken the only other candidate is from Qatar. I sure as hell don’t want us supporting them after all the slavery stuff.
And a third one from the UAE IIRC. So basically it’s choose which representative from which repressive regime it’s going to be, and they are all equally awful. The main difference is the Salman direct history with Hakeem.
I admire Foster’s passion and fighting for human rights but he’s in over his head on this occasion. As pointed out, the other candidates are from the UAE and Qatar who are not exactly known for democracy. And its going to be like this for a long time. In that area of the world, they have the money to buy the influence they need in the confederation. That’s what we will have to deal with. We asked to be in the AFC, after all. Surely someone like Foster was not short-sighted enough to think this kind of power imbalance wasn’t possible.
I endorse this. ACL is a good competition but a pain in the arse for our clubs to fit in, at a bad time in the season, and so long after qualification that our representatives are often shit by the time they participate. Additionally it loses most clubs money, and the stupid pandering AFC requirements are eye-gougingly embarrassing.
OK, we’d miss the rivalries with Japan and Korea which are actually interesting and have developed a nice history these past 12 years.
And not having to be in bed with cunts like the various ME royal families would be much easier on the conscience.
And in my nightmares, West Asia throw all their money in to make sure they get more WC spots than East Asia and we have to fight for maybe two spots against Japan, South Korea, China and maybe even rising powers like Vietnam, who are looking very promising with their young squad. It will be a shitfight unless we get another Golden Generation. Who knows when that will be?
East’s population base is far greater, but most importantly, the number of countries each side is similar (I’m guessing here). This means similar votes each side, so I don’t think there’d be that much chance of West getting it all their way.
Also, don’t forget we are talking expanded World Cup, where:
Asia in total should have 8+ spots (so 3 for East, worst case)
The World Cup is also now dead as of this upcoming edition, and we watch it to our shame