The Sun-Herald

Saturday, January 31, 2009

The USA Is Now Australia's Enemy #1

Our bid for 2018 had a tough week.

Indonesia crashed the party on Tuesday, announcing it would join Japan, Qatar, and Australia as one of four Asian nations bidding to host the FIFA World Cup.

"We officially registered to host the World Cup in 2022, before the February 2 deadline set by FIFA," said Nugraha Besoes, the General Secretary of the Indonesian Football Association.

"The rest is up to FIFA, whether or not they see Indonesia worthy of hosting a world tournament."

Well, not quite just up to FIFA, but there you go.

If a country on Australia's doorstep with a football-mad population of 80 zillion something was not a big enough headache for Football Federation Australia's diplomatic skills then on Thursday, a crunching migraine arrived.

While some Australians were whining about the $45 million the Federal government contributed to a 2018 bid campaign (the same amount, it is worth repeating, that tax payers funded the floptastic film Australia) in the United States the talk was that, as President Obama suggests, "Yes, we can."

The United States Soccer Federation announced on Thursday that it would be calling a press conference on Monday (see how to generate buzz?) to officially announce that it was bidding for both the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

Also on Monday, the USSF will announce the Executive Director of its campaign team. That is how far the US bid has quietly been working away.

Yes, indeed, they can.

"Oh no," was the quiet (very, very quiet) response within FFA's Sydney headquarters.

Without even delving too deep, the United States, which hosted in 1994, ticks a lot of boxes for FIFA and will provide genuine rivalry for European bids: Modern stadiums, Euro-friendly time zones, huge population, and a massive local television audience.

More evidence: the Euro 2008 Final between Spain and Germany was broadcast free-to-air by the ABC network on a bright and sunny summer American afternoon last year.

That's the equivalent of the Seven Network in Australia providing unconditional support for football (remember - this was a European tournament).

Do not underestimate either the influence a World Cup would have on a US - and global - economy.

Commercial rights, which include television, sponsorship and mobile telephone deals, to the 2010 event in South Africa were sold for US$3.4 billion, a 30 percent increase over the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Do not underestimate the Obama effect, either,

As the new President directly told Muslims in a carefully crafted interview with Arabian television, America is no longer the enemy.

Unless, of course, you're running an Australian bid for the 2018 World Cup.

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• by Matthew Hall at 01:40 AM
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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Money (and Snacks) Makes The Ball Go Round

Recession? What recession?

No one seemed to mention the global cash crisis to the owners of Manchester City, the English football club that last weekend offered somewhere near €90 million (AUD$188 million) to another club in order to buy the contract and services of a player.

OK, that player was Kaka, aka Ricky Leite, the Brazilian striker justifiably rated among the top three in the world.

(For some perspective, consider ALL the people who play football across the world - an awful lot - and then consider being in the top 100 and then consider the top three - mind-boggling).

There were several layers to this unfolding story.

One, Manchester City is not to be confused with Manchester United. Although its comparative lack of success on the field pains its fans, City does have one thing over United.

Money.

Manchester United is owned by an American family that took a loan so large to buy the club, United's profits pretty much all go to servicing that debt.

It has the mortgage from hell.

City, by contrast, is effectively owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family. It has funds as deep as its oil wells.

Which is where things get interesting.

"It's about playing with the best team, with the best players in the world, and winning trophies and it's not always about money," chimed in David Beckham, offering his unique perspective.

Beckham, remember, is the guy who joined Los Angeles Galaxy, the worst team in America's lame Major League Soccer, in a deal where he earns $25 million over five years.

But he is sort of right.

It's not always about money but it mostly is, as Manchester City conveniently demonstrated.

City's Chief Executive Garry Cook claimed Milan "bottled it" after the Kaka deal fell through.

Cook is an intriguing character, a former Nike executive who claimed to be disinterested in the human rights abuse allegations aimed at his former boss, ex-Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"Is he a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Does he have plenty of money to run a football club? Yes. I really care only about those three things. Whether he is guilty of something over in Thailand, I can't worry... I worked for Nike who were accused of child-labour issues and I managed to have a career there for 15 years. I believed we were innocent of most of the issues. Morally, I felt comfortable in that environment."

Jolly good, then Mr Cook.

But rather than bottle it, the Italians agreed to sell their player to Manchester City for the huge dollars on offer.

It was Kaka who was unimpressed with Manchester City's sales pitch. He, or at least his father who is also his agent, wanted to know how much money, exactly, was on offer for his son.

City, or at least Cook, wanted to know how much, exactly, Kaka earned (answer: around AUD$42 million).

Neither was forthcoming - deal off.

But Cook was as unimpressed with Milan's hospitality as he was with the deal's failure.

"We were confined to a room with no food or drink," he said. "We were starving by the time it finished. They gave us a cup of coffee so it would be unfair to say there was nothing. But the hospitality wasn't the finest. It was interesting to see how they worked. The dynamics of it were strange, very unnerving. It wasn't a place we would want to be in."

Maybe Beckham is right.

It's not just about the money.

It's about the snacks.

(Which makes the Sydney FC soap opera seem like a park picnic, right?).

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• by Matthew Hall at 03:17 AM
• Comments (5)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Sydney FC's Culture of Deceit

It starts at the very top.

Sydney FC chairman Andrew Kemeny announced he'd leave his post in March in an interview with The Australian Jewish News last week.

You can read that story in full here.

It's an interesting article on many levels but asks more questions than it answers. Like, just what goes on inside Kemeny's brain?

His claim that "I wouldn't have signed Juninho if I was in charge - players of certain age, not reputation should be signed," does not match facts.

Either Kemeny has lost all memory (possible), is not very good at keeping records (unlikely for a very successful businessman), or is attempting exquisite revision of history (perhaps).

After the last A-League season, the one in which Juninho was the club's marquee player, Kemeny was keen to resign the Brazilian World Cup winner.

"[Kemeny] summoned me to his office at 11am on March 13, 2008, several weeks after the last season concluded and said 'Find a way to bring Juninho back,'" confirmed Leo Karis, the well-respected player agent who represents the player in Australia.

Hold on. Kemeny wanted to retain Juninho's services after last season?

"Correct," Karis told me.

The reason that didn't happen, according to Karis, was because Sydney FC could not fit Juninho into its salary cap after Kemeny and his executives handed John Aloisi a $1.4 million marquee contract.

Kemeny's attempts to rewrite history, however, did not stop there.

"I'm disappointed that I've now read and heard Mr Kemeny speak negatively about Juninho and the Juninho signing on a couple of occasions," Karis added.

"I was a Chairman's Lounge guest for game one of the current season and in his welcoming speech, Mr Kemeny said Sydney would not be 'making mistakes like Juninho again'."

Kemeny was referring to injuries Juninho collected during his stay in Australia that rendered him less effective than he could have been. On the surface, a fair comment, maybe.

Until reality surfaces.

"According to team doctors, Juninho suffered two freak accidents on his shoulder and his knee," Karis explained. "They were not the result of wear and tear or age. They were freak accidents. Yet he continued to be injected every match and strapped up when he could have taken the easy option to sit on Bondi Beach."

Juninho is not the only player to fall foul of Kemeny, a chairman who is not shy to criticise others. Kemeny has squeezed out-of-favor marquee John Aloisi into an uncomfortable position over a so-called "gentlemen's agreement" to quit the club if things didn't work out.

Only, there is no such agreement. Only that, when he signed, Aloisi offered to tear up his marquee contract if a scheduled knee operation failed. Aloisi has not missed a minute of training nor a match because of his knee this season.

There's something rotten within Sydney FC. It is not the playing staff. There is, however, a culture that incoming owners David Traktovenko and Paul Ramsay would do well to cut out.

Lies. Self-interest. Deceit.

Sydney has been poor on the pitch. But has shown little character off it.

• by Matthew Hall at 06:05 AM
• Comments (33)

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Silent Civil War

Hungry for success, Sydney FC is now eating itself.

What was originally billed as a season of sure success has become another chapter in an ever-unfolding saga of drama, deceit, and, ultimately, disappointment.

Picking over the bones, fans, media, and club officials all want scapegoats and someone to blame. It's not pretty and it is far from dignified.

Frank Lowy possibly can't believe his luck at being able to extract himself from the fiasco and sell his shares to David Traktovenko.

But the Russian, at home in St Petersburg mulling over bigger and badder businesses that he is involved with, is possibly wondering what he got himself into by buying this dysfunctional football club in Australia.

And extreme dysfunction is what it is.

How else to explain a club where the star player, coach, and chairman are at war with each other, won't talk with each other, and all claim each other as the reason for the season's woes (privately, if not publicly).

Exhibit A: John Aloisi, the household name signed with much fanfare as the highest-paid footballer in the country. Except that he was played within a tactical formation that doesn't suit his assets and the result is terrible season in front of goal. Boo-hoo, his salary has become a focal point of grievance. Fans complain. Everything, apparently, is Aloisi's fault and that includes a global recession, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the price of a hot dog at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Exhibit B: John Kosmina, Sydney FC's beleaguered coach who has to produce a Championship, with style, or else he's dead meat destined for one of those SCG hot dogs. One of the best Sydney squads ever, including local heroes Aloisi, Simon Colosimo, and Mark Bridge, has the talent to deliver on its promise wrapped up in a shiny bow. Except Aloisi hits a downturn, Colosimo is injured and Bridge goes nowhere. Meanwhile, there's talk the dressing room has turned. Maybe Branko Culina, Terry Butcher, and Pierre Littbarski weren't so bad after all.

Exhibit C: Andrew Kemeny, club chairman who is friends with no one - except Frank Lowy and Kosmina, which counts for everything as this cast covers its back. But rather than support Aloisi, Kemeny publicly twists a "gentleman's agreement" in an effort to get the player he signed to walk away from his contract.

What will transpire over the next few weeks remains uncertain but one thing is sure - this club isn't big enough for all of these guys.

Who will exit?

Kemeny is on borrowed time when Traktovenko takes over in March.

Aloisi has a contract that Sydney cannot afford to pay out.

Kosmina has underachieved, when former coaches have been fired for less clear reasons.

"Be part of something big," claims Sydney FC's website.

A big mess wasn't the original implication.

• by Matthew Hall at 08:45 AM
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Saturday, January 3, 2009

The Fly On Frank Lowy's Wall

Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy spent the New Year cruising the Caribbean in his private yacht.

As you would if you could.

We know this because Jack Warner, President of CONCACAF - the confederation that represents Central and North America in football matters, told me so during a conversation last week.

Warner is controversial and candid but just as importantly he's a FIFA Vice-President and very powerful within international football's corridors of power.

Warner holds one of the 13 votes that Australia requires to win the hosting rights for the 2018 World Cup.

So, it was good news for Australia when Warner said he was expecting to have dinner with Lowy when the FFA chairman anchored his luxury liner off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

While the rest of us fired up the barbie and recovered from seasonal excesses, Lowy worked his own charm for FFA's 2018 bid.

As Warner explained (Cross promotion alert! You can read the story in full in the week's edition of The Sun-Herald) he's a fan of Lowy and has already been entertained at the FFA boss's Sydney waterfront mansion.

But that might be the end of the good news. Warner told me that he thinks Australia is no chance for 2018.

True, he agreed, Australia is a great candidate. There's infrastructure, stadia and top facilities.

Warner was in Australia last year for the FIFA Congress and also spoke glowingly of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But he also spoke bluntly. His thoughts were something like this:

Australia is a member of the Asian Football Confederation.

The AFC hosted the World Cup in 2002.

The End.

In 2018, it will be another confederation's turn, whether that's CONCACAF or, more likely, Europe.

(And yes, Europe does get to host the World Cup out of turn and more regularly than any other confederation. The reason is simple - because it can.)

This also puts a 2018 bid from Qatar, which made its intention public last week, an intriguing play.

Saud al Mohannadi, secretary-general of the Qatar Football Association, said: "We are interested and we believe we can successfully host such a prestigious event as the World Cup finals. We have the stadiums and we have experience hosting top sports events. We don't want to rush into anything, we need to find out what the full requirements are, but we are interested."

Add an official joint bid from Spain and Portugal to England's sentimental pitch and Australia may be waiting a while longer for a World Cup.

Frank Lowy is a smart man. This is all stuff he knows.

At least, we would hope so.

Which is why the prime position this weekend would be as a fly on the wall of Frank Lowy's yacht as he meets with Jack Warner - and then continues to work the phones.

• by Matthew Hall at 02:44 AM
• Comments (1)