Ethnic Cleansing... FFA style
Friday 28th March, 2008
Since the 1950s, foundation-member clubs, supported by different ethnic groups, have survived and retained the integrity of this game in Australia with minimal support from both their governing body and the general public. During the so called ‘bad-old days’ of football, people involved with the game invested a countless amount of hours and money for little or no return, but simply for the love of their club and the game. The fortunes of these clubs were not aided by any organizational funding or by extensive marketing, which may have assisted in their growth and development. The games commercial exposure was limited to reports of overblown incidents of crowd trouble, often referred to by media outlets as ethnic violence, and the perceived consensus was to expel the clubs and there unruly ethnic supporters.
When the English Premier League went through their period of difficulty with regards to crowd violence in the 1970s & 1980s, did they expel the clubs at the time and create a whole new franchise league? No they did not. They worked together with the existing clubs to expel those fans who were continually found responsible for inciting such incidents of violence. It was an initiative that worked to great effect. The English FA realized that the violence was a social issue and that they could not hold the clubs solely responsible for this anti-social behaviour, recognizing the importance of maintaining the culture in their football.
It has been the occurrence of crowd violence at A-league matches, especially at Victory-Sydney FC, and Victory-Adelaide matches, which is proof that our clubs were indeed scapegoats for a media hell-bent on suppressing the game in this country. A-League incidents of the same type are often downplayed by a Lowy-backed media who now have interests in the game’s success. It is this media that continues to report such incidents as a playback to the ‘bad old days’ of the NSL. The ironic part of all this is that this is a statement often made by people who never even attended a football match prior to 2004. Furthermore, reports from supporters of both new and old football have stated that crowd disturbances during the first 3 years of the A-league far out number those which occurred during the last three years of the NSL.
For many years prior to the creation of Football Federation Australia (FFA), fans of ethnic clubs agreed unanimously that change was needed to propel the game forward in this country. However, in regards to the proposed restructure, the FFA saw no place for these foundation-member clubs, which had supported the code for so long. The words ‘ethnic club’ became a dirty term, much maligned in the media and often chastised by followers of new football.
Enter the A-league.
When applying for licenses for the new A-league, many of the existing clubs at the time were priced out. There were, however, several clubs who still believed that they could come up with the capital to purchase such a license, although the new FFA told these foundation-member clubs that they ‘need not apply’; a polite way of saying that they did not want the involvement of any of these so-called ethnic clubs. It is these ethnic clubs that are responsible for where football in this country is today. The commitment of these clubs to the success of football in this country is unquestionable. They changed their names, logos and insignia on request for the so-called good of this game, although this was not enough. Foundation-member clubs were never opposed any of the proposed initiatives, including the introduction of new franchises or clubs, if it was believe to be of benefit to football in Australia. While such moves were never opposed by these ‘ethnic’ clubs, it is the A-league franchises who respond to any related proposal like spoilt children. The idea of a foundation-member club seeking admission to the A-league is often greeted with a level of xenophobia not unlike that which existed during the period of the White-Australia Policy.
Without these ‘ethnic clubs’, there would have been no Viduka, no Swarchzer, no Cahill, no Bresciano, no Culina, no Emerton, and we could go on. In other words, without these clubs, who developed over 90% of the world cup squad, there would have been no World Cup 2006. Yet who received all of the plaudits and praise for this successful campaign? It was the A-league and its new franchises, of which many of those involved had not supported football in this country until they saw the opportunity to make money from the sport. The ethnic clubs did not get a mention.
The traditional football supporters and foundation-member clubs have, irrespective of this complete and utter disrespect, continued to support the game in this country, despite being told that there clubs are not marketable enough to ever return to the top flight, due to their ethnic ties. The truth of the matter is that these foundation-member clubs never once had the opportunity to thrive in a properly marketed league. We are referred to as the bad old days of football in this country, when the truth is, and as anyone who has supported the game prior to 2004 will tell you, there were some fantastic moments prior to the establishment of the FFA. There were also some impressive crowd figures. To put this into perspective, Sunshine George Cross, a club most of our new football fans would have never heard of, pulled in crowds of over 15,000 on a number of separate occasions, and had a record home attendance of 25,500, which occurred at a state league game back in 1962 at Olympic Park. This was without the millions of dollars in marketing, which today’s A-league has at its disposal. With even clubs such Sunshine once pulling 25,500 people, don’t tell me that foundation clubs are not marketable commodities. Who will ever forget the debacle that was the channel 7 deal, which saw television coverage of the national football league at the time (the NSL) placed in a time slot even a telemarketing program would be unhappy with.
The majority of these derogatory comments come to us from Anglo-Australians who, up until the inception of the A-league, and even later, used to call our beautiful game ‘wogball’ and a game played only by ‘wogs’. Where were these people when the ‘ethnic-Australians’ were regularly braving all conditions to travel to Olympic Park to watch our beloved Socceroos play to less than 10,000, or even be outnumbered by the supporters of the opposition; most notably against Chile at Olympic Park in 1998.
Traditional football supporters in this country have remained quiet throughout this period, despite the disrespect they continually receive from ‘new’ football supporters. Many supporters of so-called ‘ethnic’ clubs are now just content at the fact that they still have a club to support at all, even if it is in just the state league. The truth is the powers that be have never wanted anything ethnic in this country to succeed, football-related or otherwise. In relation to the Victorian Premier League, a league which has the potential to attract crowds way in excess of leagues, including the VFA, Pura Cup Cricket, and even the national basketball league, its governing body, the FFV, appear either to have no marketing dollars whatsoever at their disposal or to be one of the most incompetent governing bodies that have ever graced world sport.
Recently, the FFA made a rule that goes against the very reason why FIFA came into existence and is a breach of their rules and regulations. The rule suggests that the perceived incompetence of the FFV may simply be their way of sending our foundation clubs broke. It was this rule that first sent out the warning bells to the foundation-member clubs and their supporters. The rule states that no state league club is allowed to sell a player for over $3,000, irrespective of age and the finances they invested into the player’s development. Any club in the world will tell you that, outside of television revenue, which our foundation-members clubs do not receive, player transfers are their financial life-blood. This rule could, in effect, see the demise of most of our clubs. In imposing such a rule, illegal in the eyes of the world’s governing body, the FFA only encourage our foundation-member clubs to sell their youth players to overseas clubs at younger ages. Why sell a player to the Victory for $3,000 when you could sell him to a lower division club anywhere in Europe for over $10,000. It appears that the FFA has also thought of this, which may have been one of the reasons, which to them coming up with their most recent creation, an initiative they call the V-league. Traditional football supporters, however, see this new creation for what it really is; the ethnic cleansing of football in this country… ethnic cleansing, FFA-style.
The V-league is a FFA-FFV initiative. It will be a summer league and will involve up to 12 franchises, which will incorporate 8 metropolitan regions and 4 country regions. However, yet again, our already established clubs have been told that their applications for this league will not be considered. Private consortiums will run these teams. The license for a franchise will be $500,000 and the yearly salary cap will be $100,000.
This V-league would mimic the A-league, but on a state level. The teams involved in this generic league would have names such as Melbourne Metro., South-Western Melbourne, North-Western, and country franchises names such as Sunraysia and Bendigo. The result of the establishment of this V-league, in such a manner, would see foundation clubs relegated to a league called ‘Division 1’. This league will be played during the winter and will only involve amateur contracts, which will, in effect, make players not want to participate in the league, irrespective of whether or not it clashes with the V-league or A-league.
One may ask, have the FFA taken into consideration the following issues?:
- Who the hell would invest into a franchise state league?;
- Who the hell would attend or even have any interest in a franchise state league?; &,
- Where do they think these franchises are going to play?
They will receive a rude awakening if they expect to play these franchise teams out of the grounds of foundation-member clubs for next to nothing, especially following their treatment.
The major question that I would like Lowy, Buckley and the rest of the 3rd Reich of football in this country to answer is why would you invest so much money in a league with no future when you could invest it into a league involving clubs with proven supporter bases, established youth development systems, and who are also prepared to provide financial support, irrespective of the shit-hole of a league you place them in? People invest money into our foundation member clubs, not because they expect a return, but because they love their club and they love the game. Is this not for the good of the game? Is ‘for the good of the game’ attending the Telstra Dome, where the majority of the gate receipts go towards both the AFL & towards individuals who only now care for the game for financial reasons? The A-league is a league that involves no youth development system and none of the elements that make football around the world so great; culture, history, derby matches, promotion and relegation. How is this for the good of the game?
In Australian football, respect is gained by the colour of your money and not by the colour of your shirt. There is even talk that the governing body want Perth Glory, due to poor low crowd figures over the past few seasons (crowd figures which were higher in the old NSL mind you), to be re-branded and re-launched. They propose to do this to the only team in the league with any history at all. This mentality is the reason that we will never have great clubs in this country, such as a Manchester United, a Liverpool, or even a Red Star Belgrade or a Steaua Bucharest (apologies to our new football fans who have not previously heard of these once great clubs).
I previously posed the question as to why the FFA would invest money into this recently proposed new V-league. There is only one answer, and that involves the term ethnic cleansing. FIFA need to be made aware of the discrimination going on in football in this country. So to all those who are listening to this, or reading it somewhere on the inter-net, the next time you pay to go to a Victory game at the Telstra Dome, stop think about what type of institution your money is going towards and also the fact it is indirectly supporting the demise of our foundation-member football clubs, or as new football supporters call them, ‘ethnic clubs’. If this fact doesn’t bother you, then this says a lot about your character and all I can say is continue to support Lowy and his henchmen at your peril. If our clubs go under, their blood will be on your hands.