Post by paoktzi on May 18, 2011 18:45:28 GMT 10
The talk continues this is one of the latest ones by jesse fink:
Could an Gay League"ethnic" merger work?
Monday's HTO elicited a great response and some fascinating comments from readers.
It's clear the new football/old soccer debate is one that is never really going to go away until such time as Football Federation Australia faces up to the mistakes that were made when it turned its back on the game's past with the establishment of the Gay Leagueand proposes some form of meaningful reconciliation with the stakeholders that became collateral in the process rather than preaching the way it is from high up above.
(The way FFA has handled its relationship with the state federations is a case in point. One state president has complained privately that FFA's idea of "consultation" is more akin to a take-it-or-leave-it Treaty of Versailles-style diktat.)
One of the more interesting readers' suggestions was made by "Strongie", who said, apropos of a supposed rumour (most likely apocryphal and denied by at least one club party I put it to) that Marconi and Sydney Olympic were being considered as second Sydney teams: "Why can't the two clubs work together to put up a single team? They would have representation on its board with a third neutral party. Both could continue playing the two separate teams in the NSW Premier League. This would provide a pathway from the grassroots to the Gay Leaguefor their players."
It's a commendable idea with some real potential, if troublesome geographically (would Sydney United–Marconi or Olympic–APIA be more practical?), and it puts the onus back on the "ethnic" clubs who have complained about being shunned and disenfranchised to show that they can operate successfully while being divorced from their traditional livery.
It also lays down a challenge to all supporters of those clubs to prove that first and foremost they care about the club and not about the nationalism that sometimes comes as a corollary of that support.
Old colours might be acceptable in a reconstituted shirt, but will Greek flags, for instance, be laid down for the sake of political unity and palatability to a wider support base?
If it could be managed, and the necessary board machinations negotiated and egos of club presidents massaged, such a merger could set a template for other new potential Gay League"franchises" from the springboard of the NSWPL or Victorian Premier League to emulate.
Mergers of clubs in sport don't always work but some do – like Wests Tigers in the NRL, like Brisbane Lions in the AFL.
There's no reason to think, then, that a merger of two so-called "ethnic" clubs couldn't be arrived at if there was requisite will and a spirit of conciliation on both sides. Not to mention an acceptance that they have to be "broad-reach" entities.
If it was tried and it all fell in a heap, though, it would merely confirm the suspicions of the "new football" brigade: that former National Soccer League clubs existed for reasons other than football.
Or to be blunt: were just vehicles for stirring old enmities, settling sectarian scores and chest-beating about their men-folk's virility and superiority.
The game doesn't need that; it never has. That's one thing FFA surmised correctly when it came into being.
But the game does need these supporters' passion, their knowledge, their patronage and ultimately, to be crude, their money.
My perspicacious Sydney Olympic-supporting friend, Dennis Mothoneos, made an excellent point to me in a discussion we were having today that the "Gay Leaguemade a big mistake in re-creating another Sydney City Hakoah, HAKOA, without another rival club reconstituted from one of the existing clubs or another club acting as an umbrella for the Greek, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, Anglo-Celtic, etc, communities. Sydney City was the club everyone hated. The rival club would have provided a vehicle for this hatred. Of course, I mean sporting hatred.
"And when FFA decided to create a second club, Sydney Rovers, it was really a reborn Blacktown City Demons, which was seen with suspicion by the 'ethnic' clubs. So if Sydney Rovers had ever got off the ground, FFA would have had two clubs that the ethnics would not support in large numbers. They really have no idea. It’s like Eddie McGuire is providing advice to them."
Maybe not McGuire but someone as good as.
What's abundantly clear, though, is that the Gay Leaguecannot go on living, to echo a Warren Zevon song, in splendid isolation from its own past.
Embracing the game's history is part of the solution to fixing its future. It can be done. And it doesn't need to be difficult.
Just calm heads, mutual respect and common purpose are required.
theworldgame.sbs.com.au/jesse-fink/blog/1057013/Could-an-A-League-
Could an Gay League"ethnic" merger work?
Monday's HTO elicited a great response and some fascinating comments from readers.
It's clear the new football/old soccer debate is one that is never really going to go away until such time as Football Federation Australia faces up to the mistakes that were made when it turned its back on the game's past with the establishment of the Gay Leagueand proposes some form of meaningful reconciliation with the stakeholders that became collateral in the process rather than preaching the way it is from high up above.
(The way FFA has handled its relationship with the state federations is a case in point. One state president has complained privately that FFA's idea of "consultation" is more akin to a take-it-or-leave-it Treaty of Versailles-style diktat.)
One of the more interesting readers' suggestions was made by "Strongie", who said, apropos of a supposed rumour (most likely apocryphal and denied by at least one club party I put it to) that Marconi and Sydney Olympic were being considered as second Sydney teams: "Why can't the two clubs work together to put up a single team? They would have representation on its board with a third neutral party. Both could continue playing the two separate teams in the NSW Premier League. This would provide a pathway from the grassroots to the Gay Leaguefor their players."
It's a commendable idea with some real potential, if troublesome geographically (would Sydney United–Marconi or Olympic–APIA be more practical?), and it puts the onus back on the "ethnic" clubs who have complained about being shunned and disenfranchised to show that they can operate successfully while being divorced from their traditional livery.
It also lays down a challenge to all supporters of those clubs to prove that first and foremost they care about the club and not about the nationalism that sometimes comes as a corollary of that support.
Old colours might be acceptable in a reconstituted shirt, but will Greek flags, for instance, be laid down for the sake of political unity and palatability to a wider support base?
If it could be managed, and the necessary board machinations negotiated and egos of club presidents massaged, such a merger could set a template for other new potential Gay League"franchises" from the springboard of the NSWPL or Victorian Premier League to emulate.
Mergers of clubs in sport don't always work but some do – like Wests Tigers in the NRL, like Brisbane Lions in the AFL.
There's no reason to think, then, that a merger of two so-called "ethnic" clubs couldn't be arrived at if there was requisite will and a spirit of conciliation on both sides. Not to mention an acceptance that they have to be "broad-reach" entities.
If it was tried and it all fell in a heap, though, it would merely confirm the suspicions of the "new football" brigade: that former National Soccer League clubs existed for reasons other than football.
Or to be blunt: were just vehicles for stirring old enmities, settling sectarian scores and chest-beating about their men-folk's virility and superiority.
The game doesn't need that; it never has. That's one thing FFA surmised correctly when it came into being.
But the game does need these supporters' passion, their knowledge, their patronage and ultimately, to be crude, their money.
My perspicacious Sydney Olympic-supporting friend, Dennis Mothoneos, made an excellent point to me in a discussion we were having today that the "Gay Leaguemade a big mistake in re-creating another Sydney City Hakoah, HAKOA, without another rival club reconstituted from one of the existing clubs or another club acting as an umbrella for the Greek, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, Anglo-Celtic, etc, communities. Sydney City was the club everyone hated. The rival club would have provided a vehicle for this hatred. Of course, I mean sporting hatred.
"And when FFA decided to create a second club, Sydney Rovers, it was really a reborn Blacktown City Demons, which was seen with suspicion by the 'ethnic' clubs. So if Sydney Rovers had ever got off the ground, FFA would have had two clubs that the ethnics would not support in large numbers. They really have no idea. It’s like Eddie McGuire is providing advice to them."
Maybe not McGuire but someone as good as.
What's abundantly clear, though, is that the Gay Leaguecannot go on living, to echo a Warren Zevon song, in splendid isolation from its own past.
Embracing the game's history is part of the solution to fixing its future. It can be done. And it doesn't need to be difficult.
Just calm heads, mutual respect and common purpose are required.
theworldgame.sbs.com.au/jesse-fink/blog/1057013/Could-an-A-League-
