...AND Debt Makes Promises. I though it appropriate to start this edition with a Dutch proverb.
Aside from being apt for the times, I think it also sums up how many Sydneysiders and fans from surrounding cities feel about the FFA's treatment of its NSW fans. I will go into that in some detail below.
But to put this article into proper context, it needs to be said that I am writing about one part of the many things the FFA do and for the most part have done brilliantly. This is an exciting time for football fans in Australia and the FFA's staff can take much credit for that being the case.
Personally, I am already jumping with excitement about the upcoming qualifier. The team has promised to perform, and if things go our way the headlines next Thursday will read "Mission Accomplished". It will be a great day for Australian sport, and it will, once again, have happened in Sydney.
On present indications, there will be a decent, but not great crowd at Homebush to see it happen. We are unlikely to see the scenes of sheer jubilation that accompanied qualification in November 2005. We are unlikely to see the numbers either. Partly, that is a testament to the way in which the FFA and Pim have handled qualification - with utter pragmatism and a minimum of fuss.
The other and much more important reason that there will be no massive celebration is that, ever since the November 2005 qualifier, the FFA and Pim has shafted Sydney and its surrounding cities. Indeed, Sydney, the focal point of more than a quarter of the Australian population, has arguably not seen a full strength Socceroos side since Johnny slotted "that penalty" and definitely hasn't seen one since June 2006 - nearly 3 years ago.
In that time, Melbourne has staged full strength blockbuster friendlies against Greece (then champions of Europe), and Argentina, as well as a full strength qualifier against Qatar. Brisbane has staged a full strength friendly against Paraguay, as well a qualifiers against Iraq and Qatar featuring the full Socceroos side.
Sydney on the other hand has been fed the bare scraps from the FFA table. The blockbuster rematch with Uruguay in June 06 featured most of the Socceroos A team, drew 86,000 people and was a pretty good spectacle. 32,000 of us turned out to watch the A-leaguers beat Bahrain in October 2006.
Roughly the same amount turned out last May to watch about half of the A team scrape past Ghana in a match where the highlights mostly occurred in the stands at the away end, thanks to Ghana's fantastic supporters. And then we have the debacle of last year's China game, where Pim and the FFA gave 70,000+ Sydneysiders paying up to $120 per ticket, the middle finger by playing the developmental/Olyroos side, who repeated the big FU with an even worse performance than they managed in the Ghana match.
On the back of all that had gone before, it was a stinging slap in the face for NSW football fans. It was also not lost on Sydneysiders that the blockbuster of the qualification round was given to Melbourne. All going well, that will be a dead rubber, but you can bet your sub-prime yen-hedged dollar that there will be no development squad running out on the MCG to face the Japs.
3.5 years since the penalty, on the brink of qualification for the World Cup, Sydneysiders (as well as those from Canberra, Wollongong, the Central Coast and Newcastle who bravely battled both distance and Sydney traffic to attend the abovementioned fixtures), are set to return the favour to the FFA, with a barely adequate 50K crowd. It's a sad situation isn't it?
It is also the wrong situation.
Sydney and the surrounding cities need to get onboard here. It's a big ask on a Wednesday night, in the middle of a recession, but we need to put our love of football first and get out to the match, to watch our nation qualify for the World Cup. If you are not yet going, get there. Get your mates, parents, wives and kids there too. Make it another storied night to remember. Mostly, let's support the players.
Sydney and its surrounding cities make up the FFA's most important market. We are a football loving region that will ultimately sustain six A-league clubs in the triangle between Wollongong, Canberra and Newcastle. The FFA has taken for granted and broken the trust of its fans.
It is a debt that will take some time to repay and FFA owes NSW something special to begin to rebuild that trust, not only in this match, but in the scheduling to come. A full strength game against an Italy, Brazil, Germany or England would be a great start, but going forward the FFA needs to make a priority of treating Sydneysiders with respect.
Three years between games is a disgrace. The full strength Socceroos side should play in Sydney once a year, at a minimum. If it means forcing Pim to pick the A-team when he otherwise mightn't, then that is a fairly reasonable imposition.
If it means trading one of the many London matches for a mid-season home-coming, well, the FFA may have to stare down the European clubs occasionally and do that too. Whatever the solution, the FFA needs to find a way to make good the debt it owes its NSW fans for the past three years, and then cultivate the underlying goodwill we have for the game and our national team.
However, Wednesday night is about the future. Australia in the next World Cup, not by luck but by undeniable force of results. Lets get there, support our boys, make it a big night and then celebrate Mission Accomplished. Whatever you do, make sure you get there.
Over to you...
