It has been said that those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. In many ways, it is a statement that perfectly describes Australian soccer and completely frustrates those who can see the potential for far greater possibilities beyond.
The politics surrounding Australian soccer
has been stifling for decades and the recent election of new board members to
Football Federation Australia (FFA) via significantly expanded voting blocs is
unlikely to change anything of substance. Let’s be clear that political and
financial clout will always be prerequisites in modern sports administration
but just who in FFA is equipped to translate that clout into much improved
performances on the field of play? The “Whole of Football Plan” published by
FFA back in 2015 contained a tacit admission that the development of promising
young Australian players had seriously stalled through the absence of world
class coaching. How on earth was that allowed to occur after the Socceroos
excellent achievements at the 2006 World Cup and why has it continued in a
downward spiral ever since?
Regrettably what we’ve seen with FFA is the growth of a bloated soccer bureaucracy that increasingly appears out of touch and the ultimate expression of it was the appallingly handled sacking of successful Matildas (Australia’s national women’s team) coach Alen Stajcic in January 2019. There was no clear statement of wrong doing but instead vague references to anonymous surveys carried out by a third party as justification for the sacking. It was certainly suggestive of political correctness gone stark raving mad, leaving many people including Matildas players bewildered by the decision with a World Cup looming on the horizon.
Regrettably what we’ve seen with FFA is the growth of a bloated soccer bureaucracy that increasingly appears out of touch and the ultimate expression of it was the appallingly handled sacking of successful Matildas (Australia’s national women’s team) coach Alen Stajcic in January 2019. There was no clear statement of wrong doing but instead vague references to anonymous surveys carried out by a third party as justification for the sacking. It was certainly suggestive of political correctness gone stark raving mad, leaving many people including Matildas players bewildered by the decision with a World Cup looming on the horizon.
Then to throw salt on the serious wounds of
Australian soccer, the Socceroos lost 1-0 to UAE in the quarterfinals of the
2019 Asian Cup. While admittedly weakened by injuries, the Socceroos were alarmingly
mediocre throughout the tournament against very moderate opposition and failed
to equal their standard of play in the 2018 World Cup. Graham Arnold
demonstrated for the second time (the first time was in 2007) that he is out of
his comfort zone as a head coach at international level. In fact, the outcome
was totally predictable before a ball was kicked – the result of our failure to
develop our players to higher levels and the absence of world class coaching.
So what will FFA do about it or will it just blindly look the other way in the vague
hope that somehow the problems will cure themselves?
One might be forgiven for fondly thinking back to 1967 when a fiercely determined young Australian team lead by Johnny Warren won the National Day tournament in Saigon by defeating South Korea 3-2 in the final and completed the entire 10 match tour of South East Asia undefeated. Have we really learned so little in the intervening 52 years?
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| Johnny Warren (R) & coach Joe Vlasits hold the trophy aloft that Australia won at the 1967 National Day tournament in Saigon. |
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| The welcome that the victorious Australian team received in 1967 at Sydney airport. |
