So What Next?
First of all thank-you to all the football fans who took part in whatever action of the weekend. It was pleasing to see that as a fan base we stood as one throughout the course of the round and even though various actions were taken we saw the football community grow as an entity to support a common cause.
What will happen next is anyone’s guess but if the short shared Mark Bosnich interview with Damien De Bohun is anything to guide us we shouldn’t be holding our breath. ‘Bozza’ was only one of many football people to come out over the weekend but given his platform and personality probably made the biggest impact overall.
Without individualising it was great to see those in the football media stand united with the fans under the ‘No Fans No Football’ platform.
The interview with De Bohun was as predictable as an Alan Jones talkback caller and was about as useful as one. De Bohun fed the viewer the company line about the convoluted appeals process, and was barely believable when expressing how much the fans meant to the league. In fairness Bozza did ask the tough questions, but none were unexpected. De Bohun once and for all showed how out of touch he is with the fans and the league and showed why he must either take a new role at the FFA or move to another organisation.
In recent times the FFA has been too concerned with the Socceroos and has forgotten how to run a domestic competition. This season there has been very little marketing (if any) and the emphasis placed on the A-League competition has been minimal. Now under the guidance of new chairman Steven Lowy presents the perfection opportunity to relinquish the control of the A-League from the FFA and see a new independent board established. Steven Lowy stated he wanted to be his own man, this provides his perfect chance.
I would envisage a seven man board to be run by football people, for football people. The current FFA board would remain in place and look after the business side of the FFA but the league itself would receive a much needed overhaul. Ideally you would have an honorary chairman such as Les Murray to instil confidence in the football public of Australia. Proper decisions would be made by football people and the focus of the league would once again become football, not metrics and misguided potential new markets like at present. Existing football fans would be called upon to become a greater part of the league, not merely a customer like how they are treated by the current regime.
Issues such as fan appeals, fixtures, stadium deals, ticket prices, high presence of security, and many other issues wouldn’t be solved overnight but with football people addressing said issues you could expect matters to be resolved with fan interest in mind.
Fans have a far greater respect for football people running our game, not businessmen in suits making emotionless decisions that have far reaching effects on our game. Over the last weekend we witnessed the power of the fan and how detrimental the league could become if the FFA continues to ignore the fans.
Whilst I understand fans are not the only stakeholder, they are a key stakeholder in OUR game and play a very important role in the growth of our sport.
Without fans the game of football in nothing, hopefully the FFA remember this.
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