Do You Believe In Magic?

EVERYONE at a magic show craves to know the secrets behind the tricks. But when you understand the secrets, the magic is gone. So do you really want to know the truth? Or would you rather just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show?

Over the past season, I have been fortunate to get a peek behind the scenes of a professional football club. It's an experience many fans would treasure, and it's certainly been educational. For better or worse, the Gold Coast United show is never boring!

Coach Miron Bleiberg understands better than most people that professional football is a form of entertainment, and that people can quickly lose interest if the show becomes dull. He's always happy to offer journalists a lively quote, and he rarely shies away from controversy. If he sometimes oversteps the mark, he's usually quick to apologise.

Owner Clive Palmer also loves generating a few headlines, which he clearly sees as part of the fun. Unfortunately, this has led to a situation where Palmer often seems to be fighting a proxy war for power with the FFA, and Jason Culina's Gold Coast squad have frequently been the hapless victims in the cross-fire.

Asked recently about the state of his relationship with the FFA, Palmer made an illuminating comment: "It's all between me and Frank Lowy. There has never been a problem."

Well actually, Clive, there have been a LOT of problems, including the opening game's move to Brisbane, the Crowd Cap fiasco, player suspensions, and the chances of a Grand Final at Skilled Park. But obviously these are not serious "problems" for Clive, the $60 Billion Man, who sees the whole thing as a bit of a diversion from more stressful work.

I suspect it's much the same thing for fellow billionaire Frank Lowy, who takes a more serious approach but still enoys the football limelight and clearly hopes to establish a legacy for himself in the local game. Like Clive and Miron, Frank understands that the entertainment factor is a key part of the football money-go-round. That's why he has maintained a strict salary cap, limited the number of clubs, etc.

But it's time these two A-League giants realised that their playful tussles and rule-bending impulses are having a negative effect on the public's perception of the competition. Their latest clashes perfectly illustrate the point.

From Frank's point of view, why wouldn't you want to have the Grand Final in Melbourne, and preferably against Sydney? That's where the people are, that's where the new clubs are coming in, that's where the money is! By the same token, why wouldn't you let Nick Mrdja move to Melbourne? Obviously Victory needed a bit of help to get over the final hurdle, so why stand on principle? It's all for the good of the game, right?

And just by coincidence, it's all good for Frank Lowy too. Well, where's the problem in that? Blatter and Bin Hamman can interpret the rules to suit, so why can't Frank? It's good to be king! 

For me personally, however, that Mrdja move was the last straw. The FFA has now jumped the shark, and like Happy Days, the show is never going to be the same again. I am no Euro-snob, but that move made the A-League look like a Mickey Mouse Club.

You want to put on a show, Frank? OK, go ahead. But the magic has to at least be credible. When you can see the hands moving clumsily inside the puppets, it becomes a comedy, not a serious drama.

Matthew Breeze's inept refereeing against the 'Nix was just the icing on the cake. Was it intentional, as Beliberg suggests? Who cares. Not me.

I sat there in the rain, listening to the louds boos of the crowd, with the Beach singing "One nil, to the FFA, one nil..." and I was just sad. This is not how the dream of an inaugural Premiership should have ended for Gold Coast United this season. The players in particular deserved better.

So I don't want to be part of the Frank & Clive Show any more. I don't want any more peeks behind the curtain. I've seen enough to know that I will be happier next year just sitting in the audience with my kids, enjoying the game for its own sake.

There's a magic that happens out there on the pitch that has nothing to do with the backroom games, the money, or even the results. And there's a magic that happens in my kids' eyes as they watch their heroes giving it everything they've got. That's the only magic that interests me now.