WITH the longest off season in world football now upon us I will be posting not as a rabid Sydney FC fan but as a general football fan.
During the off season my allegiance is to football and football only.
In December I shot over an e-mail to the office of Hon Kate Ellis MP Minister for youth and sport. Today I received an e-mail back, the response coinciding with news from FIFA that the deadline for expressions of interest had passed for hosting the World Cup in 2018; it was revealed that 11 countries had entered the contest
The contenders are: England, Spain/Portugal, Russia, Netherlands/Belgium, USA, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Qatar, Korea and Indonesia - plus Egypt for 2022.
The email I received was very pleasing as it outlined just how much support the Federal Government was giving Football. The $45 million bid money aside its messages like this that warm my football heart.
There was a time when previous Federal governments have been quoted as saying things like "Soccer is not part of Australian mainstream culture"
Well. how things have changed...
God was second choice to Jade North
So Robbie Fowler has signed up to play for the North Queensland Fury after Jade North quit the club to play in Korea. Isn't 70% of Queensland in flood mode at the moment? Perhaps the heat will be the least of their worries. Has anyone asked God how he felt when he realised he was second choice marquee to Jade North. You can hear Robbie's scoucer accent reply: "Who is Jade North?
Have you seen my chopper?
While North Queensland has made the news with the Robbie Fowler signing, Miron Bleiberg coach of Gold Coast United has been on TV telling everyone who will listen that "I have a very rich boss who has two pilots and they fly helicopters and my boss lets me fly in them all the time" Mad Miron is going to be entertaining next season we can all bet on that.
Sydney FC and their one season wonder Czech coach
For all the talk about stability being the most important ingredient for a football club, it is encouraging to see the trend of Sydney FC owners bucking the stability trend by hiring Czech boss Vitezslav Lavicka on a one year contract only.
These are actual quotes from the following FourFourTwo article
http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/95590,czech-to-bounce-after-a-year.aspx
"We are looking at this as a long-term solution (but) we have to respect the fact that - coming from the Czech Republic - living over here is a lot different to living in Europe," Kamasz said.
Although conceding Lavicka's grasp of English was 'basic' but there was no problem with his 'football English', Kamasz hailed the former Sparta Prague coach's signing as a momentous occasion in Sydney's history.
So from the above article we can ascertain that the new coach wants to leave after one year because living in Europe is different to living in Australia. And he might not like Australia that much. And the coach has good Football English.
Hopefully he knows shoot, pass, tackle, save, win, run, and don't lose.
The pedigree he holds will be the highest of any of the A-League coaches. He won a championship in the Czech league, he has coached in the UEFA cup and has the highest coaching badge you can get in UEFA.
Lavicka was the former coach of Sparta Prague. I have been to Prague a beautiful city untouched by ravages of World War Two, filled with cheap beer, the most beautiful stony faced women in the world and mullets.
The Czech national team always qualifies for World Cups and Euro championships regularly hopefully Sydney FC can gain something positive from this Czech experience. [Even if it just cheap beer at the SFS - KA]
