Good / Reasonable Football Articles

[midfielder]

Interesting article ...... from Joseph Healy is a director of Football Federation Australia and group executive, business banking, at National Australia Bank

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/opinion/a-league-confidence-stems-from-comparisons-with-us-development/story-e6frg7t6-1226356681050

A-League confidence stems from comparisons with US development

BY: JOSEPH HEALY From:

The Australian May 16, 2012 12:00AM


THERE is no doubt that recent events surrounding soccer and the A-League in particular have provoked a wide variety of views.

At times like this, an important leadership quality is the ability to move from the dance floor to the balcony and look at what is really happening.

We need to focus on the opportunity that is in front of us so we can unlock the huge potential that the game has, sitting alongside the other great sporting codes we are fortunate to have in Australia.

From my perspective, what we have seen in the A-League is broadly what we should expect at this stage in the evolution of the competition. Remember - the A-League is only seven years old.

When I reflect on the current state of the game, I am generally encouraged and very confident about its future. We have just witnessed the best A-League season, with average attendance up 23 per cent on the previous season, and our national team, the Qantas Socceroos, is well positioned among the top 20 football nations.


While we have made great progress, it's important to reflect on the many lessons from recent times and build on those lessons in crafting the future of the game. The game's professional administration, as with any business, has to continue to learn, adapt and especially listen to those with constructive contributions to make.

We know that the future sustainable success of our national team is heavily dependent on the growth and success of the A-League.

I also believe that the strength of soccer in Australia has real economic value to our nation, particularly in a football-crazy Asia, where this common link and passion for the world game creates the basis for developing relationships. No other sport in Australia has the same regional or global ability to build bridges across cultures and languages.

The basis for my confidence is found in the comparisons between our game and the development of soccer in the US.

The parallels are highly informative, as are some similarities in the cultural developments of both nations reflecting a significant immigration history, particularly from a football-dominated sports culture in Europe

Like the US, in general terms the game is less well attended in Australia than other forms of football and in the case of the US, baseball. This is in contrast to the vast majority of nations around the world where soccer is the major sport.

The progress of Major League Soccer in the US, however, provides a useful roadmap for thinking about the A-League. The MLS has had a rocky modern history since its inception in 1996, with the game really taking off in terms of public interest in the late 1990s following the hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 1994.

The Americans also saw the potential to develop the women's game as a significant driver of growth of football's popularity. That popularity was also greatly assisted by television coverage of domestic and global matches being complimented by news and other media coverage, promoting greater public interest.

An important development in the MLS has been careful cost controls, including player and stadium costs, but it still took more than a decade before some clubs became profitable.

While there are some material differences between the two markets, there is enough in common to see the MLS as a useful model for the development of the A-League.

The comparisons also extend to the fact that both national leagues embraced teams from neighbouring countries, New Zealand in the case of the A-League and Canada in the case of the US. Both nations have soccer as the most active team sport, with more than three million participants in the US and an impressive 1.7 million here in Australia.

Given the population difference, our progress is remarkable.

While the A-League is making great progress on the field, changes to the business and economic model are needed and owners do need greater say in the league's strategic direction. In my experience, there is always more that can be done, with stakeholders working together for the benefit of the game.

Sport, as with business, needs thoughtful, passionate leadership at all levels. Leaders understand the importance of standing back and looking at what is really happening and what needs to be done.

Real leaders know that building something worth having, worth the full support of all in the community, is not easily achieved. They also know that staying the course and listening to constructive advice from key stakeholders along the way is critical.

I'm very confident that despite current growing pains, we are making good progress and on track to build a strong A-League, which is critical to having a strong national team.

The 1.7 million Australians who participate in the game want soccer to grow and prosper. This vision is what unites us as a football community, and what will make us stronger.

Joseph Healy is a director of Football Federation Australia and group executive, business banking, at National Australia Bank

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Thanks for sharing MF

 

[midfielder]

Not too sure the angle of the writer maybe having a crack at football or the A-League but a decent story..

Spain's pain exposes the problem with putting your faith in football

May 17, 2012

In the cathedral of hope, 96,000 worshippers each held aloft a square of red, or blue, or yellow paper. Collectively, they formed a giant picture for themselves and for the millions watching on TV. They formed a flag, a banner and a message, formed in yellow letters:

''SOM I SEREM''.

Although this festival of belief was in Spain, when I looked the words up in Spanish they did not appear. It was not Spanish. It was Catalan, and it meant: ''We are and we will be''.

homage, it has been foreigners, not Catalans, who dominate.

No, the main place of worship in Barcelona is Camp Nou, and the crowd with the banners had come to see the pride of Catalonia dispatch the English giants, Chelsea. The winner would have a place in the climax of the world's club football calendar, the European Champions League final, which will be played in Munich on Saturday.

Barcelona are the reigning European and world club champions. The only club to match their brilliance this year was their great rival Real Madrid, who had also reached the semi-finals. Destiny pointed to an all-Spanish final.

The two Spanish giants duly dominated their opponents. But here we come to the hole in the heart of the world's most popular religion, football.

Barcelona played all over Chelsea, and Real Madrid dominated Bayern Munich, but fate conspired against the Spanish giants. Just four days earlier, they had met each other in the Spanish league in a game that would settle the title. Real Madrid won, but the epic struggle, football of the highest quality, took its toll.

Such is the flaw in the design of football that a team can be outplayed in every way but defend doggedly for a goalless draw, or score against the run of play and survive. Chelsea survived, heroic but clearly inferior. So did Bayern Munich who survived a siege and won through to the final via a penalty shoot-out.

Instead of an ''El Clasico'' in the final, the two inferior teams of the semi-finals will contest the great prize. It happens all the time in football, far more than in any other code. Yet an outrageous inertia afflicts the game. Everyone watching knows a goal should not have been scored, or should not have been disallowed, yet the referee cannot rely on TV replays.

A shocking and cynical inertia at the global headquarters of the game in Switzerland has held firm against television replays and other basic reforms that would tackle the negativity in the game.

In Australia, this presents a double burden to football, where the peak of the game, the A-League, has a flawed business model and mostly tepid atmosphere. In its seven-year history, 11 team owners have folded the club or handed over to someone else to suffer losses. All the teams are in financial stress. Two are in a precarious position. The average attendance in 2011-12 was 10,490 - lower than in the first season seven years ago.

The league must also function under the shadow cast by Europe, where the giants of the game offer the pinnacle of quality and atmosphere. And there is the shadow cast by the giants of AFL and NRL, which are the pinnacles of their parochial codes, not pale imitations. Where in Australia have we ever seen anything like the 96,000 red, blue and gold banners being held high to form a flag, a banner and a message of cultural defiance?

Yet even the giants can be bought low by the hole in the heart of football. A football match before a big crowd is, after all, a passion play. Those watching want to see natural justice, not just entertainment. Phantom goals, or 11-man defences playing not to score, are an offence to natural justice.

Following a football team is ordeal enough without manifest and avoidable injustices which can determine a match and a season.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/spains-pain-exposes-the-problem-with-putting-your-faith-in-football-20120516-1yr6b.html#ixzz1v8BFOnyU

 

[pjennings]

Nice story about Hutcho remembering his roots. Also seems like he is going back to China after his holiday,

http://www.latrobevalleyexpress.com.au/news/local/sport/football-soccer/soccer-skills-washed-out/2583489.aspx

Soccer skills washed out
BY CATHERINE MCGAURAN
07 Jun, 2012 12:00 AM
CENTRAL Coast Mariners star and former Morwell boy John Hutchinson paid a visit to the future stars of Gippsland soccer on Monday.

Unfortunately heavy rain prevented the much-anticipated skills session, but Hutchinson was still able to engage the young soccer players with a seminar, with time for questions and answers.

National and international soccer commitments have prevented the central midfielder from spending time in the Valley over the last year, but he believed it was important for successful athletes to "remember where they came from".

"I think it's important for people who have succeeded, in any area really, sport or something else, to come back and encourage young people, especially in regional areas," he said.

Growing up in Morwell, Hutchinson played for Morwell Pegasus and later, the Gippsland Falcons.

Hutchinson remained with Pegasus as he rose through Australia's soccer ranks, and said it was important to choose a path that worked for the individual.

"There are so many pathways available now, like the academy and other training schools," he said.

"It's important that kids realise that there are always options, and that just because your friends are doing things one way, doesn't mean you have to do it the same."

In terms of advice, Hutchinson stressed to the students that it was not just the most talented players who made it to the professional leagues.

"It really comes down to hard work and dreaming big," he said.

"There's no point in making your goals really small and being satisfied with that.

"Say you want to play for the Socceroos one day and if you don't make it, it doesn't matter, at least you've had a go."

With the A-League season ending recently, Hutchinson said he was looking to play the Chinese Super League over the break, with the Mariners sister team the Chendu Blades.

"I played with them last year so hopefully that'll come off again," he said.

"Otherwise I'm just up for a five-week break."

Of Maltese heritage, Hutchinson also played in the Maltese national team.

 

[Mumbles]

John's a great ambassador for the game. Excellent work ethic and just gets on with the job.
Hopefully the boys will make a few more public appearances now that Lawrie's back.