Australian Socceroos: Ever wondered why so many Australian footballers play overseas?

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Update :          Brisbane Roar’s convergence to the mean.

Views from the government funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation about the Australian Socceroos and Australian football:

In the lead up the 1998 Grand Final the ABC used the 'transvestite wogball' approach in James O'Brian's segment
'What's on in Sport '.  A typical strategy by the organisation!   Of course he never includes football (soccer) in his programs.  Then when rugby league (packielackey) players smear human poo all over hotel walls (Feb 1999) he says "It has nothing to do with it (packielackey game to be played on the weekend)."

(The crappielackies are still at it in 2011!)
 

This type of treatment by the Australian media of Australian football (soccer) is typical.  There is one rule for soccer and another for packielackey and tiddleywinks.

Previous comments in the ABC such as:

"Blacks don't play cricket in South Africa because it takes three lots of co-ordination to play cricket:
hand, eye and foot while only two to play soccer: hand and eye.  In time the blacks will learn the
game."  ABC Radio report from a one day international NZ vs SA. ;

The commentators all except the NZ commentator went on to agree that this was the case.

"The only interesting thing at the match was the gelato."  ABC Radio report of a match involving
APIA (an Italian community supported team) Vs Hiedelberg.
;

This team   is an Australian team that has a long and distinguished record.  Many of the members of Australia's 1974 World Cup  team were members or have played for this team. John Watkis, Jimmy Rooney, Peter Wilson, Greg Woodhouse, and George Blue to name but a few ; are typical.

But to digress as a fan recently said;

"My wrath was such that I did not, in fact, give the gist of (Jon) Anderson's
nonsense. There was a photo of Maradona and Cannigia kissing after a goal I
presume. He suggested that players 'attention often appears fixed on the
posterior with a lot of patting and sometimes even hugging. '"

So as to the accusations of paranoia,  I cannot be so because there are others who have the same empirical experience.  Visit deja-news from this web page for an insight into the attitudes of the packielackey media morons that dominate in Sydney and  the city of the 2000 Olympics.

This page is about the attempt to denigrate Australian Soccer  the  so-called 'wogball'  game.  How ignorant they are!

And to digress:

At  the grand final this year when the South Melbourne fans celebrated with wild jubilation after winning in the last few minutes flares were lit and the police moved in and then,  the chairs were smashed, and .....

Treat people like animals- some often behave like animals.

As one fan said:

"But I however do resent being called a  "Hellarse" fan, "rotten bastards"
>and "scum of the earth" as some people on this list have referred to
>us, to those I say ......................... UP YOURS coz WE ARE THE
>CHAMPIONS ..........."

And he abhores violence like the rest of the body of South Melbourne fans.

Was the Premier of Victoria threatened?- No!
He just shook his head- not a reaction of a frightened man.

And when thousands invaded the pitch at the AFL not a trooper in sight wielding the truncheon anywhere!
It appears there is a rule for one lot and not another.

Not to mention the pitch invasions at the cricket  in the Australian 1999 summer.

Why is it that when Australia is playing cricket and the English fans or Sri Lankan fans carry their national flags the commentators talk in glowing terms about their national pride, but when English, Greek , Italian, Iranian, Korean, Japanese, Swedish etc. go to the soccer they are wogs?

Or as one football fan puts it:

Scenario 1:

You're at a football game.

There's lots of pissed young people about because it's played on a summer's
evening, and they've been at the pub after work, and there's also alcohol
served at the stadium.

Some crowd-trouble erupts, and items are thrown onto the playing surface.  A
thrown bottle lands near a player from the away team, and a golf-ball hits
him on the leg.

The game is held up for five minutes.

The two captains are compelled to come out on the ground together and plead
for calm.

Nine spectator are arrested by police.  Ground security and police eject a
further 66 from the ground.

The next day, the papers are full of stories about how football should be
banned.  How it's un-Australian.  Why the low-scoring nature of the game is
the root-cause of such poor behaviour of the otherwise bored crowd.  How
it's caused by all these funny woggy people who just don't understand proper
Australian behaviour, and they never will until their game is banned.  How
mainstream Australians, watching mainstream Australian sport, provide the
model that these football fans should adopt.  Football and its fans becomes
the subject of vitriolic attack on talk-back radio, and in the tabloid
"current affairs" TV programs.  The pictures are displayed whenever stock
footage of a football crowd is needed in subsequent programs and stories on
football.
 

Scenario 2:

You're at a one-day cricket game.......................

And there is more...

Attacks in the media continued with calls to stop all sponsorship of football.

As another fan points out

"Okay, this tosser drive time host called Steve Price went absolutely mental
on Monday slagging off football, the supporters, the sponsors, in fact
anyone connected to the game. He called the fans a boorish, lunatic,
hooligans (no exceptions everyone was included), said that no sponsor
should be involved in football, said that a South Melbourne sponsor had
been involved in smuggling alchohol(sic)  into the ground, questioned why any
government should fund football programs."

Who would buy that other beer anyway- where were they during Australia's build-up to the World Cup-
conspicuous by their absence.

Then the publishers of Frank Farina's book - one of the first international stars in Australian football had
withdrawn due to the publicity.  Corporation bigotry is alive and well in Australian boadrooms.
What on earth has this got to do with Frank Farina?

Eventually the book was published but not without resistance.  And what a controversial book it is too.  It exposes the ex-Australian coach Eddie Thomson.  Except that he was a good guy not a bad guy.

Now when packielackie players smeared human poo all over walls in hotel rooms and peed on cars from the balcony in February 99, the Murdoch packielackey press reports it as 'a PR hiccup'.

The packielackey television argued that the players' careers are not over and that rehabilitation to the game is likely.

The ABC said it was all 'good' PR.
Other comments such as that by the Sydney Morning Herald that rugby league is ingrained in the 'Australian psyche' or should it read psycho?

Now the recent exposure of genitalia to a stunned Irish woman at a hotel by one of our illustrious ARL players in the build up to the ANZAC test and its muted media response is another example (21st April 1999) of the rule for one lot and not the other.

Imagine had it been a football player i.e. soccer player.

What would have been the response by the bigots in the media here?

And the writers in the packielackey newsgroup claim that I am paranoid!(see newsgroup archive posts at end of article).

It is they that are delusional.

Imagine calling an insignificant anal explusive game like that world class- no one hardly plays crappy packielackey!

Where are the calls to end packielackey sponsorship?

What would have been the reaction if the players were footballers?
Remember the editorial barrage calling for bans of the Olyroos after their caterpillar celebration of the goal that finally sank Canada?

A rule for one lot and not the other.

It appears the effective monopoly media has one rule for Murdoch's packielackey and another for football (so-called wogball).

To a biased press,

What about the baton wielding, capsicum spraying troopers at the football?

Wolves v Spirit (Feb 98)- fans riot or was it a police riot?

Here is a report from a fan at the game:

"As per usual the press has blown the whole incident out of proportion.

The police also over reacted and must accept part of the blame for what
happend..

Wollongong invited every child at the ground onto the pitch at half time to
be part of the entertainment ie chase the wolf competition.

At this stage there were hundreds of kids runnning around on the pitch.

Needless to say some big kids jumped the fence as well and then the action
turned to the section behind the northern goal where the Spirit supporters
had congregated.

The police chased the offenders around the back of the hill and at this
stage several hundred spectators moved to the top of the hill to view the
'action'

This went on for about 15 minutes during which time police back up arrived
(for what I don't know).

The players returned to the pitch and the second half started yet most of
the crowd were more intent to watch the police using batons and capsicum
spray chase a few people around a grassed enbankment.

I doubt there being 8 arrests.A few supporters were evicted from the ground
for offensive language. That is for telling the police what a bunch of
idiots thay were for the way they (the police) had reacted to the
situation.

The morning radio suggest that soccer's image has again been tarnished and
that 2 English backpackers were arrested, charged with offensive behaviour
and refused bail.

As I said a total over reaction."

One wonders if it is all orchestrated?
 

Sounds familiar.  Read on.

Then there was that tiddleywinks team (Victorian rules side) that was banned from Vietnam by the Vietnamese government because they demolished the hotel in a drunken stupor.  This seems to concur with their attitude to foreigners.  Almost total silence in the media.  No uproar , just an- oh well.  QANTAS the Australian airline carrier has on numerous occasions expressed concerns for passenger safety because of tiddleywinks and packielackey players behaviour.

This is the sport that claim they are he-men.  Yet players are suspended for tripping (April 1999)!  Tiddleywimps might be more appropriate.  Half tackles at best!

The  effective media monopoly owns not only the free-to-air, the pay TV, the newspapers, the magazines but also the telecommunications network .

Is it any wonder that they also own the dodgy leagues?

Is it any wonder they control the gambling outlets, buy  the internet content providers in Australia, buy out the rights to Australian soccer and impose a media blackout, and  make slagging attacks on the real and original code of football in this country?

Is it any wonder that they attack people's origin and heritage because they follow soccer?

Is it any wonder they ignore their own codes of ethics?

Then look at Newcastle- where are they those corporate leaders ?
Conspicuous by their absence.
Hunter Valley wine is absent.

The ABC blacked-out  news about the Atlantan Olympic football tournament using its monopoly radio coverage   to do so.

This situation will highly likely continue in Sydney 2000 given current their attitudes towards
the world's game.

Recently, ABC  television news failed to report the Australia vs. Chile, and vs. South Korea  games.  ABC radio
news failed to report the scores after the matches.  Yet they managed to give saturation coverage to local
packielackey league news when not even in season. This saturation coverage when in season results in only
modest crowd sizes, but when even limited coverage is given to football equally large crowds attend.

Not only that, but they were ignorant to the fact of the Korea v Japan game at Australia's very doorstep in the region. They do not report important games in the region such as the Asian championships, Asian Club Championships and are totally ignorant of the President's Cup. When overseas teams from Korea and Japan play local sides - not a whisper of their presence.  A case of dejavu- the football lepers are here again.
 

In  the game played between the Socceroos and Croatia , June 1998  this organisation failed to report the result except again in its very early morning news.  The build-up to the game was not existent.  The loss of 7-0 is of course no excuse- in fact it was even more newsworthy as it revealed the difficulties experienced in the Socceroo camp.  Ill preparation and lack of incentive all contributed to another crash-landing of the team.  Terry Venables era as the coach ended on a dejavu note.
 

The  series of games (March 1998) involving the Olyroos (Australia's Olympic team) and Brazil's Olympic team had all but been blacked-out by the organization.  The games were not reported on the television news and only the scores reported by the radio network despite complaints by the public over the lack of information.
The ABC's  flagship program Grandstand, felt that the arrival of Brazil didn't warrant a mention even though they are the most successful countries in this tournament.  After all Brazilian are only 'ethnics' aren't they?

Then  there was the Oceania Cup played in Brisbane (Oct. 1998), the winner to progress to the FIFA Confederation Cup in Mexico with a minimum purse of   $A1.3 million.  There was a virtual media blackout of information about the tournament. The complete lack of corporate sponsorship indicates the esteem they hold soccer in general and the  Pacific Region in particular.  Interesting for a nation that wishes to export to its 'wogball' neigbours in the Pacific Rim.  Australian corporate bigotry is alive and well.

As one fan commented when trying to get information about the final:

"Does anybody know what time the gates open??
The total lack of info available is astounding..."

These were our Pacific neighbours who because they play soccer were not worthy of recognition by the monopoly press.

Teams such as the multicultural Fiji, Cook Island, Tahiti, New Zealand to name a few who were ignored by the ignorant media.  The packielackey station didn't even report any of the results including the  FIFA Oceania Final.
Of course media blackouts are easily achieved in the effective monopoly environment which exists in Australia.

The government's pandering to the whims of the corporate media bigots  is well known in a country where free speech is limited due to the wealthy's ability to use torts to extract silence from dissenting voices in the community.  Politicians even use torts when the media criticice them.!  The media owners, well they own the media but if anyone dares to say anything about them they immediately use their wealth to suppress freedom of speech.

Now the government funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation continues to not report Australian soccer in its radio sports news.

The game between Sydney United and Marconi in Round Two, 1998 (and there are too many others to mention) didn't even make the news at 9 pm (and 10 pm,...) yet other sports received coverage with " currently playing" status.  The crowd was well in excess of the other codes with 8752 crowd, without any prematch build-up in the news, and none of the saturation coverage given free to the other codes.

Soccer was again blacked out.

The complete blackout has continued with regard to information about Australia's game with the USA  played  Nov 1998.  Of course the belief is that only 'wogs' play soccer in the USA by the media monopoly here. This is despite the fact that it is played all over the USA by Americans of all backgrounds.  There is little mention in the newspapers or electronic media.

The government funded Grandstand sports program again totally ignored the Socceroo game against the USA.  They appear to agree with the tiddleywinks' newsgroup view  that Australian soccer players such as Viduka and our olympians are third -rate presumably 'wogs'.
 

 It is they that are third rate.

This attempt to denigrate our Socceroos is typical of this organisation and the media in general. The packielackey stations are the worst offenders and completely blackout any information about Australian soccer.

Mark Viduka by himself is worth more than the entire tiddleywinks/packielackey competitions.

As a fan reported on the Oz soccer newsgroup who saw the game the rest of Australia was denied:

Location : San Jose, USA
Result : USA 0 Australia 0
Referee : Mike Siefert
Attendance : 15,074
Temperature : 49F
Mud/Pitch Ratio : 10%
USA Snickers Player of the Match : Clint Mathis
Aust Snickers Player of the Match : Mark Viduka
Line-Ups :
[USA]
                        #1Zach Thornton
        #23Eddie Pope   #18Carlos Llamosa  #12Jeff Agoos
#13Cobi Jones#21Richie Williams#15Clint Mathis#6Eddie Lewis#9JoeMax Moore
                #20Brian McBride        #10Roy Lassiter

[Australia]
                      #11 Damian Mori            #9Mark Viduka
       #10Josip Skoko
 #2Brett Emerton  #7Kasey Wehrman  #8Lucas Neill  #12Simon Colosimo
        #4Hayden Foxe   #5Alex Tobin    #6Tony Popovic

                                      #1Jason Petkovic
 

They are totally ignorant of the fact that there are no friendlies in football.

As the fan reports:

"Simon Colosimo was raped by a mad tackle from Carlos Llamosa in the 90th
minute.  Carlos' two legged challenge got himself all of Simon's right leg
and knee, and a red card to go on top.  Raphael Bove came on as the Colosimo
went off on the stretcher."

That was the friendly!

Both the USA and Socceroos  fielded strong experimental sides in what promised to be a match of the future.  Young gifted players were given the chance to impress while the known experienced players continued with their professional commitments in top league sides throughout the world.

The blackout continued because of the anti-competitive practises of the ignorant monopoly media.  Yet they give saturation coverage to packielackey teams that tour for months at a time due to the lack of other teams to play.

Then rights have been bought to Socceroo games by the Seven Network (a tiddleywinks' station) and they are not televised.  This is the height of anti-competitive practice.

While on the subject of USA v Socceroos, this media ignorance extended not only to Viduka but also playing for Australia was Kasey Wehrman the promising talent from Brisbane.  Damian Mori is Australia's top goal scorer.
He too was ignored.  This ignorance extended further to Colosomo and the list goes on....

The ignorance continued with the media blackout of the Matildas  (Australian Women's Football ( Soccer )Team who played Italy and Canada as well as the blackout of the South Korean Olympic team in the 1998/99 summer international season.

These people in the Australia media are intent only on stopping the public of Australia from watching the Socceroos.  They are content only when attacking the game of football.

Why wasn't the game given to SBS to broadcast it nationally when Channel Seven had the pictures and then refused to play them to the Australian public?

This  network is the monopoly holder to the Olympic coverage together with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation whose history of abuse of Australian soccer is equally abominable.

They blacked-out football from Atlanta and will do so again.

Is it an attempt to buy the competition and close it down?

But hey!

Soccer has managed to survive these bigoted attacks before!
And it is the only football code of any integrity in this country.

When South Africa were liberated from the oppression of the whites, the Mandella Cup was played between the Socceroos and South Africa.  The media blackout was all but complete.  The media totally ignored the South Africans but the crowd turned up. Soccer in Australia has proven its popularity many times.

Did the crappy packielackey media report the result?

No!

They failed to report on the match.

Does the crappy packielackey media continue the attempt to denigrate the sport of football?

Of course.

Soccer holds the crowd records for all the grounds on which the Socceroos have played.

This has been despite  the crappy packielackey media.

Northen Spirit are also ignored in the media .  No previews about the game- yet the crowds arrives.
A crowd of 18 thousand gets no recognition from the media and no previews.  Now that's a crappy packielackey media!

Is it because the teams involved have followers of "ethnic" origin (who btw also pay tax)?
Northern Spirit? Look at the names of the players!

This is how the dottering dodder of a dodge league behaves with its complete control of the media and the telecommunications network.  And what is their interest in gambling outlets?

The ABC has exclusive radio rights to the Olympics in Australia.  Based on the history of its
blackout of news about football and its current practice of blacking-out of football news,  it is reasonable to
predict that  it will use its monopoly power over the Olympic radio broadcasting rights to again stop information
about Olympic football from reaching the Australian public.  Are they are after-all the nursery for packielackey?

As a further example, the result of the Olyroos v Brazil match where the Olyroos won 2-1 in Perth was reported at
4.00 am in the ABC of ignorance news but not in later morning bulletins.  Then the following night all the scores
from rugby union, rugby league and Australian rules were reported ( none of which are fully national games) in
the 10 p.m. news and the national football results were not reported.  The media and particularly the ABC has
reach new lows in the extremes of ignorance.

Prediction:  The upcoming games between the Olyroos v China to be played
Wednesday Nov. 25th 1998 at Marconi Stadium and Friday Nov. 27th at Wollongong will not be televised by the monopoly rights holders and there will be a general blackout of news about the tournament in the media.

Monday night 23 Nov just before the game and I can't see it mentioned anywhere.
Should I be surprised at this?

In an amazing turn-around the ABC radio news reported the result of the first game! Almost twenty-five words.

Olyroos 0 v China 1
Olyroos 3 v China 3

Another piece of empirical evidence.

Now  on the Friday of the game with China what can be found in the major newspapers : nothing!

Not one word about the Olyroos v China in the papers.

Now is this surprising?

On the weekend before the games there is a general blackout.
Information about the Olyroos v China  was completely lacking in the media.
 

China is a major trading partner and was treated like lepers!
But then that is normal,  isn't it?
 

Will Fosters an Official Sponsor of the Sydney 2000 and other Australian corporations currently exporting and importing from China again be conspicuous by their absence?

Of course!

Corporate bigotry rules in Australia.

Will Olyroos receive the usual media treatment?

Well,  that has been documented already.  A case of- not again!

The appalling and scandalous thing is that the IOC have granted monopoly media rights to the organisations that actively promote these views.

Stoke's Joke aka Channel Seven had a complete blackout of the national league competition results.  Despite over 18 000 attending the soccer to watch Perth Glory go top of the league there  wasn't even  a report of the result on the 'bigot space' i.e. Channel Seven the Olympic monopoly holders (except in Western Australia).

Then there are others with different views such as:

"The only reason that channel 7 bought the rights to the NSL coverage is
so that they could show none, thereby allowing Optus to have a jump on the
market for Australian soccer coverage. The reason for this is that the
seven network owns a very large number of Optus shares. This whole move is
purely business oriented, because the seven network couldn't give (two-hoots)
about Soccer Australia. And selling the ABC the rights to show the small
amount that they do is only a further insult to the football watching
public."

This  is unlikely because by restricting access to the very few, the public audience has been limited to a narrow geographical base. It has been rumored that Seven will sell its share in Optus, but then who owns the rights?

Is it a case that Stoke's joke is to avoid competition ?
 

Otherwise the rational thing to do would be to show the games on the national free-to-air.  They already own the pictures.  They do not however use them.  Why not?

Fortunately there is an ABC coverage, but since SBS have been pushed out of the commercial sphere, the Australian public has had very limited information about the Olyroos and Socceroos.

Never before in the history of Australian media has there been such a complete black-out of the Australian national teams.

Now that is anti-competitive.

How will they treat the  footballers when the Olympics arrive?

Well now that's well documented isn't it.

Will it be a case of a  bigoted end to the millennium in Sydney 2000?

Unfortunately it appears so.

Or as a fan commented

"..But it's not only Channel 7 that's the culprit here. What about the
coverage the papers are giving us. Especially the Herald Sun.. It's
pathetic really.."

There is an ongoing blackout of match results in Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) news bulletins from the National Football Competition. Their official policy is that football is 'not newsworthy' presumably because it is played by people of all origins and backgrounds.

The National News Editor's policy is "... consideration must be given to the newsworthiness of various news items." Interestingly full houses at the soccer are not reported but 4 000 at the packielackey receive saturation coverage.  News of packielackey and tiddleywinks make the news after the game but football not till 12 midnight.

The ABC has also made unfounded and unproved attacks on football players, coaches and administrators in
Australia.  This went to the extent of attacks in Parliament based on the dubious and erroneous information
claimed by the organization.  No evidence was found to support the allegations by the ABC network.  This
resulted in huge financial losses to Australian football and individual administrators, coaches and players falsely
accused.  Losses that Soccer Australia still have not recovered from, and which were in part responsible for the lack of a suitable build-up to the Iran qualifiers.

These included attacks on:

*      the National Coach, Eddie Thomson at the time (now in Japan) and his supporting team;

It was Eddie Thomson who laid the groundwork for Australian players in their endeavour to escape the bigoted
attitudes of the media here to make a reasonable living in European competitions.  It was shown that he oversaw
the contracts so that the players received fair remuneration and no evidence was found of any pecuniary
interests by him.   A media witch hunt motivated by prejudice eventually resulted in Eddie Thomson seeking to
apply his trade as a coach in Japan.  But then of course that is where Royal Arsenal got its coach.

Frank Farina in his book 'My World is Round' says of Eddie Thomson,

"This episode showed me that that the players were more than just two feet and a head to Eddie.  He tried to look after players and advise them outside of football which, for me, is part of what made him such a special coach".

Eddie also had many notable victories:

As a fan commented:

"I know the Socceroos played good football under Venables, but they also
played good football under Eddie Thomson when he had charge of his best
side.

Everyone seems to forget how well the roos played against NZ in 1993 in
Melbourne (3-0), how we should have beaten Canada 10-1 instead of on
penalties that same year. What about the Olyroos beating Canada 5-0 at the
SFS to qualify for Atlanta. And what about the 1-1 draw v Argentina at the
SFS in  the WC Cup qualifier. Facts are that when we had our overseas stars,
Thomson invariably produced the good. I'll concede he had some limitations
with the local-based players though he also had some good results there v
Ghana, Japan, Sweden (the roos beat them twice from memory when Svensson was in charge)."

That of course is also not to mention his excellent record with Sydney City.
 

Hardly your packielackie/tiddleywinks account.

*     the administrators of the game were attacked without evidence, one of whom was an original founder of the National League and head of arguably the most successful football club in the country; Marconi.  What was his crime?  His crime was attempting to promote Australian soccer and giving players opportunity to play in the best leagues of the world.

Is it surprising that these cowardly packielackey/tiddleywinks attacks
reached the highest levels of parliament?

(And in Australia- there is no free speech, people are sued out of existence, by way of legal fees by the bigoted media barons.  In Australia, Clinton could have sued to a fortune - common practice by our politicians.)<

Not to mention the other 180 odd nationalities who follow soccer in Australia. Or is it simply because the team is Marconi- a team they tried  to stop having an antenna and a boomerang as its symbol of a Nobel Prize winner and Australia because of its 'ethnicity'.  They argue in the press that they are racists because they have a gathering of people of common descent.  No mention of St Patrick's Day!  A drivelling Australian sports media.
 

The ABC’s axing of the National Football League without notice from television coverage when football adopted
QUIT Smoking as a sponsor while retaining coverage of rugby league with cigarette advertising.  (Rugby league
supporters have been noted as attacking followers of football as ‘wogs’ in their attempt to stop the progress of
football in Australia.  This is despite the fact that football is Australia’s oldest code.)  There has always been this close link between the broadcast content and personnel of these organisations.

It has recently acquired the rights to the national soccer league.  Will they provide a proper coverage or use this power to limit the game's exposure?  Time will tell.  And it has.  No coverage on free to air.  See page 2
for why it has nothing to do with the popularity of football but is merely because of the bigots in the Australian media.  The ABC now have coverageof football, but without sponsorship deals allowed.

When one asks, why the ABC only report soccer results between midnight and 7 am and then only partially and
sporadically? The reply is " Coverage is given to the national soccer league events, but consideration must be
given to the newsworthiness of various news items..." from the National News Editor-Radio.  This is despite
saturation coverage of an already duplicated packielackey/tiddleywinks coverage on another commercial network.

This is a grandstanding of ignorance.

The TV Duopoly's views:

The monopoly granted to the Seven Network in Australia by the IOC has resulted in a:

*    blackout of Olympic Football news by the monopoly;

Virtually the entire tournament was black-out.

*     failure to cover the games involving Australia during Atlanta;

Football fans around the country organized themselves to watch the advertised match involving the Olyroos and
were greeted with 3 minutes of action from the game.  Football fans in Australia need to be tough minded as this
is a typical ploy by the media in its attempt to frustrate football supporters in this country.

Another example is the packielackey station where they advertised a game and then put some ridiculous show about the end of the world in its place.  They practice the technique of complete blackout of information about football.  Is this surprising out a company that owns packielackey and  gambling in Australia?

*     blackout of other games in the tournament;

This network also:

*     failed to report the result Grand Final of the National Football Competition despite a record sell-out crowd in
1996; and

*    gives saturation coverage of negative aspects of the game.

This is because it as one of the two suppliers of television spends large sums on Australian Rules and is
prepared to pay to get the rights to football so as to blackout the coverage of the game to avoid competition with
its code.

It is this organization that has extensive financial interests in the Docklands Stadium that was originally
mooted as the site for Olympic Football, then withdrawn without notice by the government under pressure from
the consortium.  This caused a last minute need to reorganize the location of football tournament for Sydney
2000.  It is another clear example of how the media operates in Australia with regards football.

Recently this organization entered an agreement with Soccer Australia to buy exclusive monopoly rights to Olyroo and Socceroo matches.  Hopefully, it won't use its monopoly power to limit exposure of the game.  Time will tell.  And it has.  No coverage! Why? See page 2.

As a fan recently commented:

"We were promised the total package & the most
comprehensive coverage of the NSL ever. I always liked SBS but I wouldn't
care who showed it as long as we get coverage of the game. I am really
annoyed we have now got virtually nothing. Channel 7 & the ABC have the
rights now, not SBS any more, so where is NSL coverage ? short of getting
cable, how do I get to see highlights of Perth Glory v Adelaide or Northern
Spirit v Syd Olympic ? And I am not talking about 15 second items in the
7pm news.

So someone is not doing their job, or we have been lied to."

Or as another fan observed:

"The only down side was that ABC (and TV in general) continue to
stuff up the audio. Why is it they can make a crappy Rugby league crowd of
about 2,000 sound like Wembley and yet muffle 17,000 crowds at the soccer so
that you'd swear there were only a dozen people. That's two weekends in a
row, both involving the Spirit."

It is becoming apparent that the rights to Australian soccer have been bought to stop coverage and to limit its exposure to the public.  It is these same organisations that hold the exclusive rights to the olympic coverage.  All indications are that there is to be another blackout of football news at the next olympics in Sydney 2000.  This may be last gasp attempt to stop football in the old millennium to which these types of media organisation belong.

We have the World Cup in Asia in the new millennium.  Hopefully technology in the new millennium will make football information available to all Australians and reduce the monopoly control and anti-competitive practices of the Australian media.

Of course the Seven Network who own the Olympic rights to 2000 games have used their ownership to not show Australian soccer games on its free-to-air network.

 The buy-out of Australian soccer rights to the free-to-air networks has been used to avoid competition by not showing games on free-to-air television. The ABC coverage though quite good does not allow commercial sponsorship and so football cannot compete on an equal footing as the right to do so has been bought by Seven and not used.  Why would they do that?  To avoid competition?

Further, the government in Sydney then saw fit to ignore the football fraternity in its organization and appointed
packielackey administrators to ensure that football at the Olympics is not properly promoted!  These appointees
have no knowledge nor desire to promote football.  In fact the board is full of  packielackeys! There organisational skills -non-existent and attitude to people of other nations (wogball followers) is well known.  Now they come from an organisation whose vested interest is to stop football.

The same thing then happened in Brisbane, another location of the football tournament. The administrator is from The packielackey code and whose interest is in not promoting football at all.  In fact , they have moved the
stadium away from the football stadium to the packielackey stadium.  In a peculiar burst of realisation there has been a move to the IOC but the essentials of the argument still hold.  All the benefit of the stadium upgrade will
go to the other codes, and football will miss out on the use of the stadium after the Olympics. This leaves football without a stadium of  world class quality anywhere in Australia despite millions spent on upgrades to stadiums as
a result of the Olympics.

The stadium situation for soccer is so bad in Australia that Soccer Australia's newest club Northern Spirit cannot get decent facilities and are obstructed from improving the crowd comfort which have been around the 16 thousand mark.  The playing pitch is treacherous with a cricket pitch in the middle.  On all accounts it is also a treacherous wicket.  This situation will also exist after the Olympics.

Attempts were also made to stop the football finals from being played in the main Olympic Stadium.  It was
argued they would interfere with the closing ceremony-but the real reason was to stop access of football.  There
was even discussion of playing packielackey before the Olympics to open the stadium in the ultimate insult to the
Olympic movement.  The packielackey code has a history of attacking players of football as 'wogs'- hardly the
Olympic ideal.

Now that the members of the Sydney Olympic Games Organising Committee in charge of the
football tournament are from the packielackey stable and have free access to FIFA marketing
expertise which has been denied to Australian soccer,  it  is now intended to open the Olympic
Stadium not with football but with rugby league.

The expertise in marketing brought by FIFA is still lost to soccer. The stadiums are still lost to soccer.  Footballers will again be  forced to played on sub-standard pitches while all the benefits of these stadiums are to go to other codes and sports.  The use of the Olympic Stadium by football will be limited to when other codes are not using it.  Packielackey for instance requires only thick lush grass and a soft surface and it is unlikely that an even bounce and level surface will remain a feature of the stadium.  This is the experience from the  other 'multi-pupose' grounds where the ground surfaces resemble crater fields with multiple markings  rather than football fields.

The defilement of the Sydney 2000 stadium is to be complete, with the packielackey (rugby league) opening and its attitude to international sports people is well known- wogs playing wogball (footballers playing football).  But then one only needs to look at the composition of the board to realise their attitude.

In an amazing turn-around it now appears that soccer will actually open the stadium with a FIFA approved World XI v  Socceroos match.  It appears that at least somewhere the Olympic spirit lives and fair play seems to have triumphed.

How wrong it is to even contemplate such a thing!

The opening game will be packielackey and no wonder given the members of the board.  A full house is expected for the double-header of packielackey at discount prices.  Then the used multi-lined, divoted surface of a stadium gets a second-hand opening with FIFA World XI v Socceroos at ticket prices in excess of $A140 played on the defiled turf!  Compare that to the under $10 tickets for the packielackey opening with most tickets at  $A5.  An  organised and premeditated attempt to further down-grade football by the packielackey administrators- you can bet on it!

The Prime Minister of Australia in typical weak-kneed fashioned oversaw the end of the last semblance of any olympic spirit for the millennium ending Sydney 2000 games as the packielackey teams emerged on March 7, 1999 into the Stadium Australia.  The packielackey defilement of the Sydney 2000 Olympics is now complete with almost a full house in attendance.  With continuous use of the Stadium by packielackey up to the games the result is an old stadium for an old century with old multi-marked lines, an old soddy surface and an old bigoted board. The media shouts world record crowd!  Bull, there were two games on not one!

The board of packielackey cronies  want desperately not to play football at the ground during the Olympics.  Why is that mate?

Prediction: a total media blackout of the second-hand opening event- football in Sydney by the packielackey media. How will the players be treated? A predictable "Oh no, here are all those wogs."

The result is a second-hand stadium for the Olympic Opening Ceremony by the group that has used
the 'wogball' attack to justify its own sport.  Not only that; this sport  has only just started to test for
drug use of its players.  And guess what?  Rife throughout the game.  Now this is a great
advertisement for the Olympic movement and Olympic spirit here in Sydney.

And in all this, there is not one Australian soccer stadium that can be used in local or international competitions from the considerable building projects without hard cricket pitches in the middle of playing surfaces or without the heavily sodded, long grass , soft surfaces typical of rugby league grounds that increase the risk of leg injuries to the mobile players of football in this country.

 

Go to page 2 for more about the Australian Socceroos and Australian football

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edmundoe@my-dejanews.com