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The Game's Gone


NurembergVillan

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13 hours ago, MrDuck said:

And in possibly related news...

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FFA Congress reform rejected, FIFA may now be needed to step in to run football in Australia

Updated about 4 hours ago

The FFA's proposed reform of its Congress model has been rejected by member associations in Sydney.

 

The final resolution at today's Annual General Meeting to create a more democratic governance model was voted down, which means FIFA may now be required to take over the running of the game in Australia.

In a statement, FFA chairman Steven Lowy said the FFA would now formally communicate the outcome to FIFA, which had set today as the deadline on which to agree on expansion of the Congress.

"Those who voted against progress today are those who want to take the game back to the bad old days," Lowy said.

"Seventy per cent of the stakeholders today voted in favour of these resolutions and they together with the FFA board will not let the game go back to the bad old days.

"The game of football in Australia has never been in better shape than it is today. It's not perfect, but football in Australia today is in a fantastic place with great opportunities.

"We will now communicate with FIFA about what the next steps should be and to protect the interests of more than a million participants in the game and many more fans in Australia."

Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin, speaking on behalf of A-League clubs, said the vote showed Lowy "has lost the locker room".

"The professional game voted against it, the two major states voted against it," Griffin said.

"Once you lose the locker room in sport, it's very difficult to get it back.

"I think it has to go to FIFA. It's regrettable but that's what it is."

FIFA normalisation committee an option for football takeover

Lowy said there were a number of outcomes it could work through with FIFA, with a normalisation committee "at the extreme" of those options.
 

"FIFA has been working with the AFC [Asian Football Confederation] and with the FFA all through this process. They are completely aware of the role of the board, and that the board was asked to put in place an expanded congress that focused on representative democracy and an increase in that, and an increase in gender equality," Lowy said.

"It's exactly what the FFA has done. It has asked what FIFA has asked it to do. At the end of the day the members were not able to reach the high hurdle of 75 per cent to achieve change.

"Seven of the 10 members voted for this change, but three did not. So obviously we will be talking with FIFA and having discussions about what those steps should be going forward."

Lowy said an independent FFA board was crucial to Australian football's recent successes.

"The fact that the A-League club owners together with a few of the bigger states voted against it doesn't deter me one bit. Our job is to act as independent custodians of the game, and we will do that," he said.

"If the game wasn't independent, we wouldn't have qualified for the World Cup, we wouldn't have the Matildas possibly as the number four [ranked] team in the world.

In a statement, the Federal Minister for Health and Sport, Greg Hunt, said governance was a matter for the FFA and football, and that the Government's focus was "on ensuring that Australia has the best chance to secure the Women's World Cup [in 2023]".

"We will carefully monitor the next steps taken by FIFA and the FFA," the statement read.

A-League clubs accused FFA board of conflicts of interest

Today's AGM got off to a rocky start when A-League clubs delivered a bombshell on the morning of the crucial meeting, detailing a list of 13 potential conflicts of interest involving FFA board members.

The Australian Professional Football Clubs Association (AFPCA) — the lobby group formed by the A-League's 10 clubs — wrote to Lowy this morning to outline concerns about the independence of his board.

The letter flagged to FIFA that fundamental governance problems were at play, with FIFA believed to have a range of options open to it now the FFA had failed to agree on a congress restructure.

One of the most severe options is FIFA installing a normalisation committee to take over the sport until the governance question was resolved.

The AFPCA's letter, which has been seen by the ABC, was also sent to FFA staff members, directors, state federation officials, representatives from FIFA and AFC, the A-League clubs and Professional Footballers Australia.

It provided an overview of previous affiliations between FFA board members or their companies with the Westfield Group or the Lowy family, with a source or reference attributed to every claim.

The ABC has not been able to verify the claims in the document.

"There was a poll called, and the poll was asked for by A-League member Mr Griffin," Lowy told the media gathering.

"It's interesting that Mr Griffin knows that it was Football NSW and FFV [Football Federation Victoria] voted against it, but we were not aware of it because it was a closed poll."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-30/ffa-congress-move-rejected-steven-lowy-fifa/9212074

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Surprised it's taken 5 pages for this ball bag to make an appearance -

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Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg says he "allowed Tottenham to self-destruct" when he refereed the 2-2 draw with Chelsea in May 2016 as Spurs conceded the title to Leicester.

Spurs needed to beat Chelsea to retain any hope of winning the league.

Clattenburg says he "went in with a gameplan" so he could not be blamed by Tottenham for losing the title.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42219327

More concerned about what the press might say about him than actually reffing the game properly.  He says he could've sent off three Spurs players, but as soon as he sends off the first one maybe they calm down a bit and the other two incidents don't happen?

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50 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said:

Surprised it's taken 5 pages for this ball bag to make an appearance -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42219327

More concerned about what the press might say about him than actually reffing the game properly.  He says he could've sent off three Spurs players, but as soon as he sends off the first one maybe they calm down a bit and the other two incidents don't happen?

 

Yeah, I don't believe any of this.  Clattenburg is just a clown.

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10 hours ago, bobzy said:

 

Yeah, I don't believe any of this.  Clattenburg is just a clown.

He rocked up over here last weekend on NBC's Premier League coverage. Didn't know he was a Geordie - he also obviously had no idea how to tie a tie - what a bellend.

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR65EPaWlRgZWK1UtgTSQt

http://www.nbcsports.com/video/mark-clattenburg-referees-dealing-managers-sidelines

 

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27 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

saw a fair few things about bayern vs PSG last night on twitter, Bayern friendly journos complaining about how PSG's money was ruining the game...

bit like how man utd fans moan about man city

Bayern's club record fee is £37m (apparently) - which they only achieved this season in signing Tolisso.

 

So, no, just not the same at all.

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exactly that @villa89 they've used their finances to dominate their league for decades now buying pretty much whoever they want from the bundesliga, usually unsettling under contract rival team players too, gotze, reus, lewandowski, hummels in the last couple of years, i think they're after goretzka on a free now

@Xela havent seen much of him for PSG, i think last night he became the youngest player to reach 15 CL goals by almost 2 years so statistically he's doing ok

Edited by villa4europe
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Bayern are worse than PSG imo. PSG flaunt their cash and buy their players for extravagant fees, but at least the clubs get a good transfer fee for them. 

Bayern actively try to snipe their oppositions best players and disrupt other clubs. Bayern often get really good players on free. 

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Bayern, unlike PSG has earned their money.

And unlike most other behemoths they don't (as far as I know) have any massive debts they don't pay back on or shady property or sponsor deals or Qatari oil money.

They also bailed Dortmund out with a £2m loan back in 2004 when they were on the verge of going bankrupt.

Bayern are where they are on merit.

Then again I'm in no way saying Bayern are without fault, they certainly are not. They are certainly swinging their big d*** to buy everything they want in the league.

Can't fault their fans protesting against UEFA and Anderlecht charging £100 for a CL ticket thou, just like fans all over Germany has protested increased ticket prices all season.

Edit: Swiss Ramble Bayern finances- Massive article.

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Off the pitch, Bayern’s dominance remains unchallenged, as they have just announced record profits and revenue for the 2015/16 season. Profit before tax shot up by €23 million (72%) from €31 million to €54 million, though profit after tax “only” rose by €9 million (39%) from €24 million to €33 million, due to a higher €21 million tax charge.
 
Revenue increased by a massive €118 million (25%) from €474 million to €592 million, just shy of the €600 million threshold. All revenue streams grew, though commercial income led the way, increasing by €65 million (23%) from €278 million to €343 million, driven by sponsorship, up €56 million (49%) to €170 million, and merchandising, up €6 million (6%) to €108 million.
 
Broadcasting income actually rose more in percentage terms (39%) or by €42 million from €106 million to €148 million with the growth split fairly evenly between the Bundesliga (€21 million) and the Champions League (€16 million). Match day income was up €12 million (13%) to go above €100 million for the first time (€102 million)...

http://swissramble.blogspot.se/search/label/Bayern Munich

Edited by sne
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5 hours ago, villa89 said:

It is though. They have all the money in the German league and poach the best players from other teams continuously. So for them to be saying that another team is ruining football by throwing money around is rich in the extreme. They've been buying the title in Germany for years and now that they are no longer rich enough to be one of the top teams in Europe they throw their toys out of the pram. Break out the violins. 

They do take players from other German teams, sure. They’ve done it 4 times for fees over £15m - I’d suggest it may be the prestiage that wins over the players, rather than the money (the money will help, of course!).

They’re definitely one of the top teams in Europe, by the way. Haven’t not spent over £40m on a single player ever. It’s just not the same as PSG. 

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3 hours ago, Czechlad said:

Bayern are worse than PSG imo. PSG flaunt their cash and buy their players for extravagant fees, but at least the clubs get a good transfer fee for them. 

Bayern actively try to snipe their oppositions best players and disrupt other clubs. Bayern often get really good players on free. 

Like PSG getting Ben Arfa on a free from Nice? That kind of thing?

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4 hours ago, sne said:

Bayern, unlike PSG has earned their money.

And unlike most other behemoths they don't (as far as I know) have any massive debts they don't pay back on or shady property or sponsor deals or Qatari oil money.

They also bailed Dortmund out with a £2m loan back in 2004 when they were on the verge of going bankrupt.

Bayern are where they are on merit.

Then again I'm in no way saying Bayern are without fault, they certainly are not. They are certainly swinging their big d*** to buy everything they want in the league.

Can't fault their fans protesting against UEFA and Anderlecht charging £100 for a CL ticket thou, just like fans all over Germany has protested increased ticket prices all season.

Edit: Swiss Ramble Bayern finances- Massive article.

http://swissramble.blogspot.se/search/label/Bayern Munich

 

I haven't fact-checked the tweet, but it's got traction on Twitter if it isn't true.

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Premier League: Saturday night games among 200 to be televised from 2019-2020

Eight Premier League games will be played in a new 19:45 slot on Saturdays under the terms of a new broadcast package from the 2019-20 season.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42278119

 

I wasn't exactly sure where to post this but I imagine Saturday night games finishing just shy of 10pm will be a nightmare for traveling away supporters getting home.

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