The full Nikou quote in context is actually quite clear. Asked at a writer’s festival about when to expect pro/rel he responded with: “The current A-League clubs have a licence till 2034 so promotion and relegation earlier than that is not likely,” Nikou said.
“I might point out that the FFA has a right to change that but in the current climate it would not be right for me to take this any further.”
Exactly. Remo Nogarotto saying the date seems completely arbitrary and having a whinge about it is just shit stirring and harking back to behaviour of the old Soccer Australia days.
God forbid Australian Football deals with its shit in-house in a professional manner for once and gives the appearance of a well run, cohesive organisation. Fuck that, let’s just bitch and whinge about what each other has said all through the media. Fucking amateurs with ego’s they dont deserve.
Yeah, I love to stick the boot into FFA but people whinging about this (and Remo) are fucking idiots. I’m pretty sure everyone bar the Nix got 20 year licence extensions awarded a few years back, right around 2014? That’s not arbitrary.
How long will this actually take do you think…1 more week, a month, a year? With no one in leadership strong enough to bring everyone together on a consensus who the fuck knows!?!
Focussing on the big issues again, no doubt. 
To be fair, if they aren’t busy running the A-League, this sort of stuff is now core FFA business. It’s all about grass roots clubs so it makes sense to focus on this as an issue concerning their core stakeholders.
Same as P&R, it’s just pacifying the loudest voices while doing fuck all to improve the game in Oz.
Yep – neither P&R or this are the burning reasons why the game has large portions of disconnected participants… you are right that they are nothing more than hot topics for the diehard – they are not what the average parent on the sideline of junior football are talking about… they are not the reasons why the A-League has stagnated… they are not the reasons why parents pay through the nose for kids to play… they are not the reason why talent players drop out disillusioned at 15 or 16… they are not why talented Australian sportspeople choose other codes…
talented sports people use the reason of there being no promotion and relegation in order to move to other codes… without promotion and relegation?
I think you missed the tone of my post (maybe my fault).
I am saying that there are many many more reasons than the unicorn that is P&R why football is in a rut or not on a path to complete with AFL and NRL… and that focusing on P&R and whether clubs can have certain things on their badges in misdirection on the highest order and wont solve squat in the greater scheme of things
The main reasons are (a) the novelty has worn off (b) the novelty has worn off © the novelty has well and truly worn off (d) other sports with far greater resources have ‘intruded’ into the summer calendar and further starved us of oxygen in the small window of attention that we used to have.
People can shit-talk the FFA all they want, and the Lowy exit war was a disappointing distraction, but there is no magic wand to fix the above problems - they are entirely outside our control.
Expansion is a sugar hit of novelty (albeit one which should’ve happened sooner) and not a magic bullet. It’s also one which incurrs an ongoing $7m/yr spending commitment through to forever (because the additional clubs need their annual payments to be sustainable), and we’re rapidly approaching the point (if we haven’t already) at which subdividing the pie won’t also enlarge it sufficiently to compensate. It’s hard not to see 14 as the end of the road.
FFA have finally done the right thing and gotten out of the way to an independent body. However, for all the promises of investment once independence is confirmed it didn’t take long for the biggest, wealthiest, best-run club in the country to start aggressively cutting costs by appointing its community officer as assistant AND director of football, and slashing its marquee budget from $2m to $1.4m.
Solid rant. I’m not the biggest FFA fan but people should remember that 15 years ago everyone was saying that it would be a miracle if the A-League was still around in 2/5/10/15 years. Not only is the league still here but we’ve had the opportunity to watch players like Dwight, ADP, ALF, Ninkovic, Adrian, Honda, Toivenen, Broich, etc. etc. etc. come and go without ever having to seriously worry about our club or the league or the game going bankrupt.
That time is rapidly approaching over the horizon come the end of the existing Fox deal though.
I don’t think anyone is underestimating the sheer difficulty it is in running a first division football league in Australia. I think most people’s gripes come to the fact that in the past few years, there’s literally been zero visible development of the league. When decisions have come around with regards to the a-league, the FFA has generally done what’s best for their pockets, rather than taking a hit and helping to develop the league.
Take a look at the teams that have been brought in, by all reports, Canberra and Wollongong are literally ready to go, yet they focus on Melbourne and Sydney in already saturated markets. Throw in the choosing of soulless shit stadiums for finals games, in order maximize their own profits and then the sheer complete lack of marketing to consumers.
The FFA in its current form has consistently looked to try and find quick fixes for the a-league, rather than trying to look forwards to development 10 years from now. It’s like they don’t understand the fact that if you need to spend money to make money. They refuse to spend, yet they’re getting paid shitloads of money to do jack all.
The Asian cup came and went, there’s was no concerted push to get people into the a-league, there’s been a world cup, again with no concerted push to capitalize on the growing interest. The clubs themselves have done more to market the game than the FFA has ever. The failed opportunities have contrasted with the sheer idiocy in some decisions, from the sacking of Stajcic to the fining of Pheonix and the use of that money to pay out Stajcic, despite the fact they refuse to acknowledge guilt.
I can go on, but the FFA has continuously shown that they either can’t handle managing the league, or they are so far behind with the times that they don’t know how to do so.
Gallop standing down
The press release forgot to mention that his tenure will be forever remembered as a stain on Australian football
Good riddance. 2020 can’t come soon enough.
Hopefully the AFL give him a job.
Great value for money.