Strikers Off Season News

Doubts about the Brisbane Strikers’ strength and competitiveness for the next NSL season and beyond might be swirling amongst fans and some media sources, but the club itself is having none of it.

Brisbane Strikers General Manager, Ray Evans, today issued a strong message that, despite cynicism and concerns over the club’s failure to announce a new coach, its small number of contracted players, and reports that Soccer Australia may be preparing to allow rival club, the Queensland Lions into the NSL next season, the Brisbane Strikers will not be distracted from their objective of remaking the club from the ground up.

"There is no need to change our plans", Evans said. "We won’t be panicked into anything. We’re trying to become a development club - to develop our own youth - and that won’t change".

Evans would not comment on a report in the Sydney Morning Herald today about the Queensland Lions, based at Richlands in Brisbane’s south-west, joining the NSL, other than to say "we have had no official notification from Soccer Australia about it".

Regardless of the accuracy of the report or the merits of the proposal, intervention of this sort by Soccer Australia would certainly constitute unexpected behaviour from the new Board of the governing body. This is because the Crawford Report, which recommended the installation of the new Board led by Frank Lowy, also recommended that the NSL be established as a separate entity under licence by Soccer Australia, and thereby freed to manage itself rather than be managed by Soccer Australia. This message was reinforced during consultations by the Crawford review team with the NSL clubs, and was instrumental in gaining their support for the replacement of the old Soccer Australia Board. Therefore, it would seem unlikely that the new Board would immediately embark on a course of action that is out of kilter with these recommendations and assurances.

Meanwhile (and to the almost certain groans of Strikers fans), Evans said he did not have any announcement to make regarding the eagerly awaited appointment of a new coach.

"I have nothing more to add (on that topic)", he said. "Things are underway, but I can’t make an announcement. We will be making some form of announcement before training starts, which will be in the second week of August at the latest".

Evans had both bad and good news on the player recruitment front. Midfielder Peter Grierson, who had been expected to re-sign with the club on Monday, has not yet done so. Negotiations with the player are continuing. However, classy young Sydney United midfielder, Louis Brain, is keen to play for the Strikers and is talking seriously with them, and Evans said the club "is constantly talking to other players known in the (National
Soccer) league that we are interested in signing". 

Evans also announced that the Strikers have signed Cairns youngster Peter Clarke, formerly of the Leichhardt club, who had caught the eye of the Strikers during trials held in March, and who had been particularly impressive in the game played by the Strikers in Mackay last weekend.

Scottish youngster Daniel Alexander had also done enough in the game for the club to invite him to continue training with them, while reports on other players would be presented to the new coach - whoever he may be. 

Evans said he was not worried that the club had arrived at a point, only weeks before pre-season training, with only a small number of contracted players.

"Look at it this way - none of the players we offered contracts to have gone to another club. They are still talking with us", he said. He acknowledged however, that Brazilian playmaker Fernando Rech, who is said by Parramatta Power to have signed with them, might be the first exception. Evans said he was still seeking confirmation of this from the player himself. Regardless of the outcome, he said the club’s recruitment plans
were on track.

"We want to give the new coach ten, or maybe twelve, players and let him decide on the rest", Evans explained, adding that he thought it would be unfair to present the new coach with more players and deprive him of the opportunity to supplement the squad with players of his own choosing. "With the seven we’ve got, three we are negotiating with, and maybe another two - that would be twelve. The rest of the squad will probably be made up of young players up to about their early twenties, and that could include some players from the local league", he said.

Evans also reiterated that part of the club’s rebuilding process would involve the hiring of new off-field staff. "We are planning for the long term", he said. "We are not planning for the short term". 

After months of political intrigue, arguing, back stabbing, cajoling, legal chicanery and other behaviours quite typical of Australian soccer’s top administrators, the remaining members of the Board of Soccer Australia resigned before they were shown the door in Sydney today. When the dust settled on the meeting to elect a new Board, billionaire shopping centre magnate and property developer Frank Lowy finally emerged as the Chairman of an entirely new and hand-picked Board. His deputy will be Brian Schwartz, while other Board members will be John Singleton, Ron Walker, Suzanne Williams and Phillip Wolanski.

Lowy accepted months ago the invitation of an independent inquiry into the administration (or rather, "maladministration") of Australian soccer, to take charge of a Board tasked with overhauling and cleaning up the way the sport is run. It has taken more than three months for the reformers in Australian soccer to win the battle to get him installed.

Many will now view Lowy - a man said to be possessed of business acumen and a love of the sport in roughly equal measure - to be the saviour of the sport. Those optimists had better take a reality check.

Australian soccer’s governance is in the terrible state that it is because its constitution and highly-politicised voting structure have encouraged those who inhabit its halls of power to behave in a selfish and short-sighted manner that has often been quite disastrously against the best interests of the game. It’s not necessarily a case of the game attracting mediocrity in its administrators. It’s more a case of the game’s administrative structure breeding it. When you inhabit a sewer, you eventually must eventually fall prey to the diseases that it harbours. 

That is why Frank Lowy and his team must not be seen as a panacea to cure all the ills of a game which, in this country, has staggered from cock-up to calamity for most of the last fifty years. Lowy’s initial tasks are not glamorous.

They are not about building a great national team or finding sponsors to pour millions into the game - although Lowy might have plans to eventually do exactly that. Instead the first jobs Lowy must undertake, as described in the Crawford Report, are "to assess and act on the current financial position of Soccer Australia" and to "introduce a new constitution". In other words, to lay the groundwork to ensure that future administrators inherit a financially sound organisation and a constitution which reduces the need to play politics and allows them to escape the sewer - and to take the game with them.

Based on what we have seen lately, that will not be an easy task. Only this week, Brisbane Strikers General Manager echoed the silent fears of many when he told the BSSA "I’ve heard nothing to say that he (Lowy) won’t be elected, but my concern is about what he will find and what sort of state it (Soccer Australia) is in - what deals and contracts are in place". Suffice it to say that few expect Lowy to find everything to his liking.

And Lowy’s job in reforming Soccer Australia’s constitution, and those of the State Federations, will be an extremely difficult one. Although the ‘stakeholders’ voted overwhelmingly (and perhaps unanimously - we await reports on that) to install Lowy and his board, many of them did so because they felt they had been politically outmanoeuvred in the debate which followed the release of the Crawford Report, and thought they had little choice but to throw in their hand with the winning side.

Now that Lowy is installed, the remaining Luddites within the system will go back to their bunkers, batten down the hatches and work out what they can do to resist changes which will cause them some short term pain at best, or completely neuter their political power within the existing system at worst. They will be hoping they can ride out the storm, water down the reforms, and outlast Lowy. 

Fans should have few doubts - the sewer is still there, and so are some of the rats. We can only hope that when Lowy opens the manhole cover and gets down there amongst them, he finds enough good men and women in there with him that he can finish the job that he starts today. 

Those of us who dearly want our game to win the respect, the admiration and the hearts of many more Australians, those of us who want our junior players to have a future in the game in this country, will be wishing Lowy and his team every success. 

Go, Frank!

The Brisbane Strikers’ player recruitment plans for next season are log-jammed behind the one initiative that fans have been anticipating for months - the appointment of a new coach.

Brisbane Strikers’ General Manager, Ray Evans, said yesterday that the club was hopeful of finalising its coaching arrangements within a few days, and for the first time indicated that an assistant was part of the formula. "A coach and an assistant coach have been offered terms and have indicated interest, but have not yet accepted", he said. 

While Evans did not further clarify the matter, it is believed that the sticking point for the head coach is still the club’s inability to offer a contract for longer than two years due to continuing uncertainty over the NSL.

Evans again preferred not to divulge the identity of either the head coach or the assistant coach that the club has in its sights. However, he said that the head coach was a "name" coach. "Let’s put it this way - he will be known to people here", he said.

Meanwhile, Strikers’ skipper Stuart McLaren has given the club an important morale booster this week by signing a new contract. Key midfielder, Peter Grierson, has also agreed to terms and is expected to sign on Monday. 

This will bring the total number of contracted Brisbane Strikers players to nine, with another half dozen or so still considering offers.

Amongst the undecided brigade are defender Jon McKain, midfielder David Pilic and former Socceroo, Steve Laybutt. Evans said that all three had been trialing overseas and that, when last he heard from them, McKain was in Romania and Pilic in Turkey. Laybutt had trialed in Belgium but, Evans said, he had been trying without success to contact the
big defender since hearing that he had arrived back in Australia. "I spoke to his agent yesterday, but he couldn’t tell me anything (about Laybutt’s whereabouts)", he said.

Evans confirmed the club was looking seriously at around four players from Queensland Premier League clubs, but is grappling with the problems caused by the convergence of the Premier League season and FIFA’s transfer deadline. The players are unavailable until their QPL commitments are over, which means that the Strikers have only a fortnight’s window of opportunity, between 1 September and 15 September, in which to  sign them. 

Their QPL commitments also make them unavailable for pre-season fixtures, which is hampering the Strikers’ ability to organise the games.

However, the Strikers are working their way around this dilemma for the trial game organised in Mackay this weekend by supplementing the ranks of its contracted players with a number of young triallists.

Evans said the club would be using the game in Mackay to run its collective eye over the form and credentials of a former Stoke City and Hibernian player named Daniel Alexander, and a number of other youngsters from areas such as Newcastle, Armidale, Tweed Rivers and Byron Bay.

"We hope things are going to be a lot clearer in a week or so", he said. 

Supporters and players might be thinking it has taken an eternity, but the Brisbane Strikers have begun to piece together their squad for the 2003/2004 NSL season.

And, in keeping with the club’s limited pronouncements on the topic so far, it seems likely that the squad will have a decidedly Queensland flavour.

Enquiries to the Brisbane Strikers’ General Manager, Ray Evans, today revealed that 7 players have been signed to contracts, while a further eight have either been offered contracts and were still considering them, or were about to be offered contracts. In addition, a steadily growing pool of other players have contacted the club to offer their services.

The 7 players already contracted reflect an emphasis upon retaining the best young players brought to the club during the reign of outgoing coach, John Kosmina. They are defenders Wayne Heath, Shane Stefanutto, Adam Webber and Daniel Dreger, midfielders Matthew McKay and Chris Scuderi and striker Joshua Rose.

That group of players has been made available to "guest" for the Capalaba Soccer Club this weekend in a fixture against the Victorian Institute of Sport - a fixture the Strikers had earlier pencilled in for themselves for their first pre-season exertions, but were forced to abandon due to having insufficient numbers of contracted players at this stage.

Evans said that other players from last season’s squad who had been offered contracts, but had yet to sign, were goalkeeper Jason Kearton, defender Jon McKain, midfielders Peter Grierson and Stuart McLaren and leading goal scorer Anthony Roche. Evans also said that contracts were ready to be offered to defender Stephen Laybutt and midfielder
David Pilic as soon as those players returned from overseas. 

A contract had also been offered to a young player from Cairns who impressed coaches at trials held by the Strikers in April. "We are also looking at other players", Evans said, "mainly younger ones in Queensland".

However, Evans did not rule out signing some established NSL players from other clubs, and said that the Strikers have "had many approaches" from such players, including some Queenslanders and players who had turned out for the club in the past.

"It’s looking like we will have a squad with a good mixture of experience and youth", he said. 

Evans also said that the choice of which new players to bring to the club would be heavily influenced by the new coach, whose identity the club was still not in a position to announce.

"We had decided on a coach last week and had come to terms with him, but then he asked for a 3 year agreement, which we didn’t think we could give due to the situation in Soccer Australia and the uncertainty over (the future composition of) the NSL", he said. "I think the coach understands and probably accepts that, but (Chairman) Clem Jones has had further meetings and talks and has some further things to report to us, but has not done so as yet".

Meanwhile, the Strikers are awaiting a clearance from Soccer Australia before they can definitely confirm they will be playing home games at Perry Park next season.

"We’re still negotiating with Soccer Australia over Perry Park", Evans said. "It has been inspected by them - in fact they were here with the NSL chairman (Remo Nogarotto) yesterday, and we’re awaiting awaiting a response from them. I think it’s likely that they will come back to us with an approval subject to conditions.

"The field has come on a ton", he continued. "There are still one or two rough patches, but I think it’s improved a hell of a lot since we came in to the place".

28 days 
Oh no not again!
Another 28 days
Because of 3 men

Another 28 days 
Of venting my spleen
Waiting and hoping
You're gonna come clean

Another 28 days
Of your wheeling and dealing
And denying the game 
Its chance of true healing

Another 28 days
It just doesn't figure
While you waste all this time
The hole gets so much bigger

Another 28 days
To derail the game
To watch other codes prosper
Or is that your aim?

Another 28 days 
Clubs are already irate
So p- - - - d off with waiting
Unsure of their fate

Players in limbo
Careers at stake
Another 28 days
For f- - - s sake
Give em' a break

28 days
Too much for Lowy?
Well stick this where it fits
cause he's not getting toey!

And what of the fans
Who you treat with disdain
28 more days
To drive us insane?

Another 28 days 
Of sustaining your rump
While the majority of us 
We just wish you'd go jump!

But us fans are resilient
And we'll show you true grit
Another 28 days
Well.... It's really Jack S - - t.

This past week, the Adelaide City Force and Sydney Olympic, two of this year's Championship Series' teams, have announced a radical downsize of operations for the 2003-2004 NSL season. 

The Force are on the verge of sitting out next season whilst Olympic rumours involve dramatic cost-cutting measures, with a degree of part-time employment that would rival most fast food restaurants.

What does this mean for a Brisbane Strikers fan like myself ? Well,  firstly, the NSL are due to hold a Committee meeting tomorrow, as in Friday June 20.

If the rumours of withdrawals are true, then the true & correct action to see is that the Force formally does so at this committee meeting. Otherwise, the league runs the risk of another last-minute pull-out, such as what the Canberra Cosmos did just three weeks prior to the 
2001-2002 season, or worse, what Carlton did the season prior, who pulled out eight rounds into the same season.

Personally, the opinion of this writer is that such a decision will be important to the Adelaide market as it will allow the team that DOES represent Adelaide to get a 12-18 month lead-in to the 2004-2005 season, assuming the league is finally given a revamp. In this case, the time-off will be like a quality off-season for a player; a chance for old wounds to heal and a new energy to grip the city.

Over $25 million was spent to upgrade Hindmarsh Stadium to a world class stadium with a capacity of over twenty thousand for the 2000 Olympics. Since the Games, the best crowd has barely filled a quarter of the seats for the Force. New team, new league, fantastic stadium - could Adelaide be the next powerhouse of Australian football ?

Assuming they DO withdraw, we suddenly find ourselves with a 12 team league. Will this mean we still have an anaemic 24 game season - this time WITHOUT the two bye rounds ? Will we still see a six team finals series ? Will any teams be brought into the league ?

Moving onto Olympic, they could also find themselves in a Force-like situation, which means the possibility of an 11-team, 22-round NSL isn't so far-fetched, but unlikely.

More importantly, for a team that spent an NSL record $110,000 transfer deal to sign Ante Milicic from Sydney United two years (he guided the Sharks to the 2002 Championship and is likely to return to United on a free transfer), and mountains of cash to lure the best players from other clubs (Brisbane fans can count the numbers on both hands), what 
does this action say about the state of the NSL ? Is the concept of full-time playing a myth ? Is full-time a chance to form a cohesive playing unit, or simply an excessive bleeding of money ? Are junior players only being signed for their European transfer potential ?

Furthermore, as the vultures pick the best meat from both rosters, what will it mean for other NSL clubs ? Will Brisbane be in any position to sign up a "diamond" or an ex-player ? Will players want to move from the Sutherland Shire to the City of Sun Days ? Will the Sharks be able to utilise any skilful juniors from their NSL Youth team ? Who will be the 
best NSL team of Sydney ?

With Parramatta Power undergoing the opposite tactics out in Sydney's west (by signing many star players), will the Sharks' example of a good idea gone pear-shaped be enough of a warning to a club opening their wallets at a time of heavy losses in the NSL ?

Finally, what can Brisbane learn from the examples of the Force and Sharks ? 

The Adelaide lesson shows us that the responsibilities of a one-town team are enormous, and never to be underestimated. Given that rival clubs have sought to take an iron grip on the football monopoly both in Brisbane & Adelaide, the Strikers must be aware that whilst they have no competition WITHIN the league for their city's affections, there are external aspirants eager to make better use of the South East Queensland market. A market that is currently yielding crowds of two thousand people from a population base of over two million. 

Secondly, the Sharks have downgraded their squad from full-time to part-time status, some of whom will get paid less than a teenage checkout operator at your nearby supermarket. Meanwhile, the Strikers will undertake a full-time wage structure again next season. Whilst a full-time squad looks good on paper and might sound appealing to potential new signings, if the club doesn't use effective time management, then they may as well have players alternating between sprint drills, five-on-fives and asking customers if they'd like fries 
with their order.

For every failure, there are lessons to be learnt, which can lead to success. Other NSL clubs will look at the Adelaide City Force and Olympic Sharks very closely in the upcoming months. But who will benefit from their efforts is yet to be seen.

The Brisbane Strikers today held talks with most of their players from last season’s squad and told them the club was keen to retain their services for the next NSL season - if there is one!

Club President, Ross Melville, said today that he had met with all available players who had not already been told their services were no longer required, in an effort to outline the club’s plans and reassure the players they can be a part of them.

Melville made it clear, however, that the very existence of an NSL next season was far from secure, as the clubs find themselves the unwilling victims of the power struggle occurring at Board level in Soccer Australia.

"The situation is not good, with the shambles at Soccer Australia" Melville said, explaining that the latest delaying tactics employed by the three Board members who were refusing to stand down made it entirely possible there will not be a national competition for 2003/2004. 

Melville said he had been "completely honest with the players", telling them that the club has "a fervent desire to sign them" but was unable to offer any contracts until Soccer Australia got its act together. He told the players that the Brisbane Strikers Football Club had done all that it could to deal with the current situation.

Team captain, Stuart McLaren, confirmed that the players had been given an honest appraisal of the difficulties faced by not just the Brisbane Strikers, but all NSL clubs. He said that the players, who have been in the dark about their futures since March, had appreciated the effort made by the club to talk with them.

"It was good to hear from the club", he said. "They made it known that they felt for the players, but that they can’t do much about things in the present circumstances.

"They let the players know why contracts haven’t been offered, and it’s all relative to the uncertainty about the league at the moment. The (Brisbane Strikers) Board were aware of the players’ concerns, but all the players there were given verbal assurances they would be offered contracts if the league goes ahead. It has taken a lot of weight off the players’
minds, that they are wanted."

Despite the doubts that surround the immediate future of the NSL, McLaren saw at least one reason to be optimistic. 

"The Brisbane players are perhaps a little bit better off than some other players at the moment", he said, "because we should at least continue on as a full-time club".

All of the NSL clubs are feeling the pinch at the moment -so much so that some traditional powers in the league, such as the Olympic Sharks, have decided to downgrade their playing squads to part-timers. 

It is our sad and sorry duty to inform you - the fans, players and disenfranchised real stakeholders of Australian football - that on Saturday, at a meeting of voting stakeholders held in Sydney for the purpose of booting out the Board of Soccer Australia and installing a new Board led by Frank Lowy - next to nothing happened.

Due to the threat of legal action by the three remaining members of the Soccer Australia Board - who publicly proclaim that they want Frank Lowy to lead the game, but give every appearance of refusing to let him do so - the meeting was abandoned. The only reported action of note was the passing of a vote of "no confidence" in the Board. The vote was
reported to have been backed by all state and territory federations and all but two of the NSL clubs.

Soccer New South Wales claimed afterwards on its website that the Soccer Australia Board now has the option to stand aside and "in the interest of the game, call a meeting of the stakeholders within 7 days to allow the membership to ratify the short notice of the (cancelled) meeting and to finally vote in a Frank Lowy-led Board for a three-year term".

The statement went on to say ""This will be a clear message from the Soccer Australia Board to the Soccer Community that they do want to facilitate the orderly transition to Frank Lowy".

Don’t hold your breath! It now seems that, due to the complexities of Corporations Law, the intracacies of Soccer Australia’s archaic constitution, and the continuing efforts of a few smart lawyers, the three men who remain on the Board of the ruling body hold the game in this country prisoner for at least another 28 days. Apparently, that is the minimum notice required to hold a legally valid meeting, the purpose and meaning of which is more than apparent to all stakeholders RIGHT NOW! 

So effectively, in fact, do the trio hold the game prisoner that they can now handcuff it to a goalpost and leave it out in the sun to suffer and die while malicious onlookers poke fun and pelt it with stones and rotten fruit.

Nice work so far, guys. We owe you so much!

Further to yesterday’s report that the Board of Soccer Australia was trying to have tomorrow’s Extraordinary General Meeting, called by Soccer New South Wales for the purpose of replacing the present Soccer Australia Board with one led by Frank Lowy, we can now report that an extremely busy day has been had by the protagonists in this dispute.

Soccer Australia, an organisation which some days finds no soccer news with which to update its website, has been unusually productive, with no less than two statements appearing on its website today about its stance on THAT meeting, plus another spruiking about how it has generously decided to "absorb" $461,000 worth of losses by the NSL for the year ended in June 2003.

The two statements in relation to the meeting are so long and verbose that we really do not expect you to wade through them both in their entirety. Therefore, we will quote from just one, and suggest that if you wish to read both statements in their entirety you should go to www.socceraustralia.com.au and do so. Here is part of one of the Soccer Australia
statements:


"The Board of Soccer Australia would like to clarify the situation regarding the proposed notice for the General Meeting called by Soccer NSW for Saturday 14 June 2003 and the misleading and erroneous comments made in the media by the President of Soccer NSW, Mr. Tom Doumanis.

The legal position regarding the Meeting called by Soccer NSW, and the concerns of the Board about this Meeting, was presented in a letter to Soccer NSW on the 3rd June 2003. This letter reflected the legal advice presented to the Board of Soccer Australia, and this advice indicated the Meeting called by Soccer NSW would be invalid.

The statements in the media by Mr Doumanis that the Board of Soccer Australia "are clutching at straws" and "this nonsense is just trying to frustrate and delay Frank Lowy" are unfortunately quite misleading and totally incorrect - THE LEGALITY AND VALIDITY OF THE MEETING IS OUT OF THE HANDS OF THE BOARD.

The Board cannot cancel the Meeting, as it was called by Soccer NSW. However, the Board does have a responsibility to inform its Stakeholders of the position, in accordance with the legal advice presented to it, regarding this Meeting.

In this light, THE BOARD HAS NO OPTION BUT TO INFORM ITS MEMBERS THAT THE MEETING CALLED FOR SATURDAY JUNE 14TH IS DEFECTIVE AND INVALID IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS LEGAL ADVICE AND THE CORPORATIONS ACT.

The real "nonsense" is not what the Soccer Australia Board must now do as its legal responsibility, but: 

· WHERE THE RESPONSIBILITY LIES FOR THE CALLING OF AN INVALID MEETING?; and,

· WHY THE NOMINATIONS WERE WITHDRAWN FOR THE LEGALLY CALLED JUNE 7TH GENERAL MEETING, THUS MAKING IT REDUNDANT?

The Board has had absolutely nothing to do with either of these actions, which have led to this "unbelievable position". Acting Chairman, Les Avory stated, "The Board would ask of those truly interested in the future of the game, to enquire diligently as to how this situation has occurred, but please refrain from allocating blame to this Board when, as a matter of fact, it has had no involvement in either of these actions.

"All the Board is now doing, as a matter of responsibility, is simply informing its Members as to the legal advice it has and the subsequent position facing the Stakeholders."

Meanwhile, Soccer New South Wales has issued the following, rather more pointed, statement, on its website:

"The meeting of Soccer Australia Stakeholders to be held on Saturday 14 June 2003 will proceed.

The members will be asked to adjourn the meeting for the purpose of  obtaining declarations from the Court that the notice issued by Soccer NSW Limited was valid.

The meeting cannot be held in the format proposed due to the threat of an injunction by Soccer Australia.

The members of Soccer Australia are being frustrated in the opportunity of electing those who are to govern them.

The meeting will commence at 10.00am at the Hilton Airport Hotel Sydney".

Finally, we will include a quote from David Crawford, the man who’s report into the governance of Australian soccer recommended that the current Soccer Board stand aside in favour of an interim Board led by Frank Lowy. Crawford was quoted today on the Fox Sports website as saying:

"Hopefully the application by Soccer NSW will be dealt with swiftly by the court and the stakeholders' meeting quickly reconvened to install the Lowy team with the overwhelming support of stakeholders. 

"It is about time that the current Soccer Australia board stops its petty legal obstructionism and accepts the overwhelming will of its members."

We can only assume that Crawford is nothing but a supreme optimist.

One thing is for sure - the behaviour exhibited by some football administrators during this undignified brawl is more proof that the inquiry into the way the game is run in this country was absolutely necessary and essential if soccer was ever going to dig its way out of the bog in which its administration is mired. 

Saturday, 14 May could well be the day that fans, players and some administrators are liberated. As usual, we can only hope for the best while we expect the worst.

The Brisbane Strikers have postponed until next week a meeting with the club’s players to discuss plans for next season.

The players have been waiting since their season ended in March to hear what the club has in store for them, and plans had been made by club President Ross Melville to hold a meeting with them this week.

However, when contacted today General Manager, Ray Evans, said the meeting was now scheduled to take place at 2.00 pm next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the club is still negotiating the finalisation of a lease over Perry Park, which it intends to use as its home ground next season. When asked whether he was confident the club would have the dilapidated home of Queensland football ready for the intended start of the new NSL season in September, and how it intended to do so, Evans had a
cautiously optimistic response.

"Soccer Australia first of all has to approve (the stadium for NSL use)", he said. "Indications are that they will, subject to conditions being set. We have told them the Brisbane Strikers will make it clean and tidy, and make the field as good as is humanly possible, but there will be no extra spectator facilities for the start of the season".

Evans said that further improvements to the stadium, such as extra seating, would depend on other things such as building approvals and would take time. The club’s aim, he said, would be to have plans for an upgrade ready to be put into effect "as soon as the last ball of the season has been kicked". 

He also said the club was making further progress on the selection of a new coach which, as we reported last week, had come down to a choice between a short list of four candidates. "We’ve got our preferences within the four", Evans explained, before adding that the club was negotiating with all four candidates on the basis of a prioritised list, and that its priorities could still change subject to the outcomes of those negotiations.

While Evans was still in no mood for name dropping, a recent report in the Gold Coast Bulletin said that former Melbourne Knights assistant coach, Luciano Trani - presently coaching Victorian Premier League side Fawkner - had been to Brisbane to meet with the Strikers and run his eye over their set-up. Other names touted in various media outlets
over the past few weeks as possible coaching appointments have been Gary Phillips, Alan Hunter, Danny Wright and Steve O’Connor.

Evans and his co-administrators will, of course, be given a significant boost in their ability to plan for next season when the unholy mess over the membership of Soccer Australia’s Board is sorted out. 

He confirmed that the club was "absolutely desperate" for the matter to be resolved as soon as possible and was optimistic this would happen at an Extraordinary General Meeting of stakeholders called for this Saturday by Soccer New South Wales - despite Soccer Australia’s attempts, announced yesterday, to have the meeting declared invalid on a legal technicality and rescheduled. Soccer Australia is questioning the validity of calling the meeting without giving 28 days notice, and on the basis of the currency of Soccer New South Wales’ financial membership. 

"I’ve not been told as yet that there is no meeting", Evans said, adding that since the meeting had been called by Soccer New South Wales, it was not a prerogative of Soccer Australia to cancel it. 

"I don’t think technical things will come into it", he said. "Most of the Directors of these organisations (Soccer Australia and its State Federation and NSL club stakeholders) are in voluntary positions. There are no paid employees, so it’s not as if it’s an AMP-type situation. I’m told that as long as a majority of those present accept it (the calling of the meeting), it’s OK".

It appears that reports last week that the remaining board members of Soccer Australia were about to stand down might have been premature.

Last week, when announcing the cancellation of a general meeting to elect a new board, Soccer Australia released a statement which said, in part:

"Yesterday (Friday), encouraging discussions were held with the members of the Crawford Inquiry team. We believe that those discussions will bring about a positive conclusion to recent events and will pave the way for a smooth transition of governance to the Frank Lowy lead Interim Board following the General Meeting of Soccer Australia Members to be held on Saturday, 14 June."

This was interpreted by some media outlets, particularly SBS Television, to be an indication that the three remaining Soccer Australia board members would stand aside on Saturday and that the game of soccer in this country could start planning for the future. That optimistic interpretation of matters was reported on this website.

However, a report on the SBS "World Sports" program last night suggested that the "anti-Lowy board" of the ruling body has now attempted to have Saturday’s General Meeting, requisitioned by Soccer New South Wales, declared invalid due to a "legal technicality" in the notice papers for the meeting (a phrase which seems almost synonymous with the Soccer Australia board lately). The report further suggested that the Board now wants to delay the general meeting for another 28 days.

This would, of course, spell disaster for the NSL’s plans to begin its 2003/2004 season in September, delaying and seriously hampering the capacity of the clubs to offer contracts and secure sponsorships, to mention only two of the problems a further delay would create.

It would also throw into doubt the willingness of Frank Lowy and his intended board to continue to wait for the chance to lead the sport out of the wilderness. This might, of course, be exactly what the Soccer Australia board is hoping for, given that the vast majority of its voting stakeholders have called for the Board to resign, and there really appears to be no other way for the Board to retain control over the game. 

Soccer New South Wales is reported to have asserted that Saturday’s meeting should go ahead, regardless of any legal technicalities. 

We will attempt to keep you informed while this this sad and shameful saga continues and players, fans and administrators try to deal with the situation. 

Statement by the Board of Soccer Australia

"On behalf of the Company, the Board of Soccer Australia has taken legal advice relating to the General Meeting called by Soccer NSW for Saturday 14 June 2003.

In view of this legal advice, the Board considers that the notice of Meeting is defective and that any Meeting that takes place will be invalid.

This Board has always maintained, due to the complexities of the Constitution of Soccer Australia, the Corporations Act and FIFA Statutes, the Company must be extremely mindful of 'possible complications' involved in calling any Meeting (see media release of 5 June 2003).

The Board called a valid Meeting for Saturday 7 June 2003 when the stakeholders had the opportunity to, if they deemed it appropriate, vote in the whole 'Lowy team'. For whatever reason these six nominated people WITHDREW THEIR NOMINATIONS FOR THIS MEETING - thus making the meeting redundant. 

In this light, and so as to not bring together its Members at considerable cost to the Company for only a discussion on the Crawford Report recommendations (the only resolution not affected by the withdrawal of the nominations), the Board cancelled the Saturday General Meeting on Friday 6 June 2003.

It is this Board's objective to ensure that all General Meetings of this Company are convened validly.

It is for this reason that the Board is notifying the Members about the General Meeting called by Soccer NSW for this Saturday.

The Board will address this position in the immediate future with the same 'bona fides' it has maintained throughout this period and investigate the earliest possible solution to this quandary the game now unfortunately faces."

Statement by Soccer New South Wales

Stakeholder Meeting to Go Ahead

Despite reports currently being circulated by Soccer Australia, the President of Soccer NSW, Mr. Tom A. Doumanis, with the full backing of his Board, have advised that the meeting of Soccer Australia Stakeholders that is scheduled for
Saturday the 14th June will go ahead as planned.

These mischievous reports are in direct opposition to the formal request, issued by the vast majority of stakeholders last Friday, that the remaining directors of the Soccer Australia Board step-down and allow the smooth transition to a Lowy-led team to take office.

The meeting will be held at the Sydney Airport Hilton Hotel on Saturday the 14th June, 2003 commencing at 10:00am.

The Brisbane Strikers are busy making long-term plans for the future of the club, but are sweating on a resolution of the battle for control of Soccer Australia before they can put them into effect.

And in the shorter term, the questions at the forefront of every supporter’s thoughts at the moment - namely, who will coach and play for the club next season, remain unanswered but are set to be determined over the next few weeks - Soccer Australia permitting.

Club President, Ross Melville, said today the Strikers were about to move, after weeks of uncertainty, to clarify the futures of their current squad of players.

"I will meet with them next week to tell them of our plans", Melville said. "We are confident of securing the services of all those players who were not given a letter to tell them they are not required".

Melville said that rumours the club was going to recruit an "all Queensland" squad, while quite close to the mark, were not necessarily completely correct.

"There will be an emphasis on Queensland youth", he said, "They are not necessarily all going to be Queenslanders, but you’ve got to remember we are making a big investment in Meakin Park and Perry Park and we are working on a three-to-five-year plan to develop players".

With this sort of planning in the pipeline, choosing the right coach to bring the best out of the Strikers’ youth is obviously crucial, and no-one could accuse the club of rushing its decision. 

"We’re some time off (making an announcement)", Melville said. "We were overwhelmed by the number of applicants initially, but we’re down to three or four now. Our attentions have been directed elsewhere by other commercial activities and partly by Soccer Australia’s problems".

Having a plan is perhaps a fine thing, but having the freedom to put it into effect relies very much on the Brisbane Strikers getting the green light to continue in the NSL, and indeed on having an NSL at all. This, in turn, relies on the Board of Soccer Australia getting some semblance of an act together in terms of its membership and direction for next season. It is in this area that the world the NSL clubs are operating in has become very foggy. The appointment of a new Board, headed and selected by Frank Lowy as recommended by the Crawford Report, is still being obstructed by the three members of Soccer Australia’s "rump" board who have refused to stand aside for Lowy.

Melville’s exasperation with the intransigence of the rump board, and with the small minority of clubs and state federations who continue to support their cause, was obvious.

"The Soccer Australia thing is still an absolute disappointment", he said. "You would have thought that the soccer community could think rationally about the Crawford Report and move ahead. But instead we’ve once again demonstrated that we behave irrationally, thinking about vested, singular interests of states and clubs - they have come to the forefront.

"Crawford, in a meeting with the stakeholders, said clearly the intent of his report was that the existing thirteen NSL clubs would form the foundation for establishing an autonomous league. From there it would go forward. But I think some of us are too stupid to understand what that meant. Now three defiant board members are conducting a Eureka-like stand. They should recognize that they are caretakers".

Melville was only faintly optimistic that the Soccer Australia wrangle would be resolved at a meeting of the stakeholders called by Soccer Australia for this weekend. "I would hope so", he said, "but I’m not certain of anything now". 

He was particularly savage on plans announced by Soccer Australia this week for next season’s NSL, just as the NSL clubs were about to meet to further their own plans. The Soccer Australia proposal included retaining the existing clubs, inviting applications from three others and introducing a promotion and relegation system. While making it clear he was not commenting on the merits of the proposal, Melville was aghast that the rump board should actually find the temerity to put forward its own plans at this juncture.

"I just about fell out of my car (when I first heard about it)", Melville said. "I cannot believe they are so bloody-minded as to put this proposal forward without any consultation with the NSL clubs. For these three guys to put forward a new model, for a league starting in October, with applications invited from another three clubs, when we (the NSL) have
already decided on starting in September with the same clubs - it’s just another wildcat scheme". 

When pressed as to why he thought Soccer Australia had chosen to release such a plan, Melville would not be drawn. However, fans who are well versed in reading between the lines of decision making in Australian soccer could scarcely be blamed for wondering whether the surprising announcement is a cynical ploy to grab votes from state federations harbouring clubs with NSL aspirations, or perhaps even a device to shore up Soccer Australia’s financial position with the funds from new NSL licence fees.

Watch this space.

Footnote: At the time of writing, and after speaking to Mr Melville, there is a report on SBS Television that Soccer Australia has cancelled the general meeting it had called for Saturday, 7 June and is instead preparing to stand down in favour of an interim board led by Frank Lowy to be installed at a general meeting next Saturday, June 14. This move reportedly follows a notice of no confidence signed by 9 of the 11 state and territory bodies and a petition signed by 8 of the 12 Australian NSL clubs - the Brisbane Strikers, Perth Glory, Olympic Sharks, Wollongong Wolves, Newcastle United, Melbourne Knights, Parramatta Power and Sydney United.

We will follow this news closely over the next few days to see if it really does herald a new beginning for Australian soccer, or is just another delaying or diversionary tactical move by the forces of reaction. If it turns out to be the former, then let us be among the first Australian football fans to congratulate the entire board of Soccer Australia for doing the right thing by the game!

Perth Glory today finally got their just reward for six years of blazing the trail for the way football clubs should be run in Australia, when they beat the Sydney Strikers (otherwise known as the Olympic Sharks) in the NSL Grand Final at Subiaco Oval in Perth.

A goal in either half to big defender Jamie Harnwell and star forward Damian Mori gave the home club, which is a model of professionalism on and off the field, its first Grand Final win from three attempts and satisfied the biggest and hungriest group of supporters in Australia. 38,000 turned up to roar home the boys in purple.

In truth, the biggest obstacle the Glory faced today was the overgrown, hairy primate which rode on their backs after they failed to win either of their previous two Grand Finals - both played in Perth. The fear of failure was a far greater menace on the day than the Sharks, who were lame and lamentable throughout, apart from two half chances which fell to Joel Porter.

The Glory, while never playing at their flashy best, were simply too determined and, in the end, too organised and composed for a Sharks side brimming with former Brisbane Strikers. The likes of Clint Bolton, Jeromy Harris, Jade North and Andrew Packer never looked like finishing on the championship-winning side as they did with the same club last year. The magic had gone - it might be time to come home, boys!

We’d love to describe for you the scenes of delirium among the home fans and players as the Glory players lifted the NSL trophy, but sadly such televisual images were denied us by Channel Seven, whose rather mean-spirited coverage of the match began a few minutes before kick-off and ended a minute or two after. That being the case, we also cannot describe how the fans reacted to Perth Glory owner Nick Tana’s suggestion that they boo the Soccer Australia commissioner who was to present the trophy. Tana and Perth Glory have made it clear they want the Soccer Australia board to step aside in the next week or so and allow billionaire Westfield chief Frank Lowy to run the governing body with his hand-picked Board for three years.

But it would be equally mean-spirited of us as football fans not to at least acknowledge and congratulate Channel Seven for its apparent change of heart on whether to provide any coverage of the match at all. Earlier this week it was reported that Seven would provide coverage only through its regional affiliates, and TV guides were bereft of any mention of the NSL Grand Final. Until today, that is, when - to our surprise - Channel Seven came good.

So now, it’s perhaps time to dream. To dream of an NSL which next season will be conducted against a background of a renaissance in Aussie football led by Lowy, Singleton et al. Of an NSL empowered to run its own affairs (and itself run by an independent board which is capable of finding sponsors to pump money into the game). Of a Brisbane Strikers reinvigorated by a new coach and a team of players containing a solid core of favourites from the past few seasons, augmented by a clutch of new faces and perhaps even a few prodigal sons.

Sweet dreams, Strikers fans. 

Most NSL fans have been inclined to bag the administrators of their favourite football clubs on occasions, but there are times when you wouldn’t want the job or managing an NSL club for quids.

Now is surely one of those times, for you would have to be an eyes-rolled-back, drooling, head case to even contemplate the prospect that there could be any job satisfaction in running an NSL club at the moment. 

Here we are, just days away from the 2002/03 NSL Grand Final between Perth Glory and Olympic Sharks in Perth - which Soccer Australia’s gloriously-annointed media "partner" Channel Seven apparently refuses to screen in capital cities. We should be savouring the grand final and looking forward to preparations for next season.

Instead, the grand final will be invisible to the vast majority of Australians. And while the Unholy Trinity on Soccer Australia’s Board who are refusing to step aside in favour of billionaire Frank Lowy’s "dream team" continue in their present vein, next season remains a distant dream. 

The NSL clubs are effectively paralysed in their attempts to plan for next season by the intransigent rump Board members. While the identity and policies of the governing body’s Board remain unresolved the clubs are reluctant to recruit players for next season, and are potentially legally constrained from doing so. Sadly, the impasse in Soccer Australia looks unlikely to be sorted out until at least 14 June. If the Board had done what the majority of its own stakeholders, the Crawford Inquiry team and the majority of fans and players want (i.e. stand aside) it could have been all over almost a month ago.

Where does this leave the NSL clubs in the meantime? The answer is: "Up sh*t creek without a paddle". Our own Brisbane Strikers, for example, have been without a coach since March and feel they cannot responsibly fix this situation until Soccer Australia’s mess is sorted out. Most other clubs appear to feel the same way, although South Melbourne notably bucked the trend Wednesday when they announced that Stuart Munro would be their coach for next season.

And what of the players? Where do they fit in the scheme of things? Well, as always, their interests come roughly second-last in Soccer Australia’s list of priorities - an awfully long way behind "preservation of the perks of high office" and just a nose in front of "fans". Most players who are not contracted beyond the end of this season are simply stuck in
purgatory - not knowing whether, or when, their clubs can offer them a new contract or even whether they will have an NSL club to play for. 

At the Brisbane Strikers, the tension must be palpable, as most of the squad comes off contract by 30 June. Some, of course, have already been told their services are no longer required or have decided to move on. These include Fernando Rech, Kris Trajanovski and Richie Alagich. As for the others, while we believe there has been informal communication between the club and some players, many are living like fungi in varying shades of darkness. We understand, however, that moves are afoot to correct that situation very soon, and we can only hope that is the case. 

Now, as if these problems were not enough to occupy the minds, time and finances of the Brisbane Strikers Board, there are also the uncertainties posed by the need to secure a new home. With Ballymore no longer being a home ground option for at least the beginning of next season (due to Rugby World Cup commitments) the Strikers must find an alternative. Of course, most of us are by now aware that the Strikers have been negotiating with the QSF and the Brisbane City Council for a lease over Perry Park. While the deal appears to be moving towards completion, there are enough jittery nerves within the Strikers to make them unwilling to say that the deal is across the line - despite the fact that they are in the throes of moving office!

Then, even when the deal is completed, there is a massive job required to bring the ground and the offices up to a presentable and playable standard. The Strikers will need every week of the remaining time between now and September - and possibly more - to turn their new ‘house’ into a home.

Of course, they could begin to tackle the job with some confidence if certain people within Soccer Australia stopped putting obstacles in their way (and in the way of all the other NSL clubs). Indeed, if those certain people chose to demonstrate that their love for the game they administer transcends their self-interest we could all start looking to the
future with confidence and even a touch of excitement.

Now wouldn’t that be nice? 

With the Brisbane Strikers’ player recruitment plans for next season remaining either a closely guarded secret or a complete mystery to everyone - depending on who you listen to - we thought it was high time to throw some light on the dark and clandestine world of the football transfer market.

We know the players we want are out there - somewhere. Hell, a few of them might even be hiding in your street - future, or even past, Brisbane Strikers favourites cloaked in anonymity, waiting for the phone to ring or the postman not to arrive.

We also know that those fine practitioners in Brisbane’s media are at their wits’ end wondering what is going on, waiting with a sense of keen anticipation for the Strikers to appoint a coach and for the fax machine to hum with the news of the latest star recruited to the Strikers’ playing roster. Yes folks, even as you read this the fingers of our favourite journos are wracked with tension as they sit poised over keyboards, and speaker-phones remain at the ready so that incoming news of the latest signing can be blasted around the newsroom to the cheers of their colleagues. But alas, they - like us - remain frustrated in their thirst for news on who will wear the yellow and gold next season.

Not since the American military commenced its search for Saddam Hussein and his elusive henchmen has there been such an anxious wait for news on the whereabouts of missing talent. The Americans, though, are never ones to sit on their haunches while, well, nothing happens. No Sirree. Displaying their admirable flare for reducing complexities to mundane simplicities, they have chosen to ease the tension of the adoring, waiting masses by issuing their now famous deck of playing cards containing mug shots of their favourite Iraqi regime leaders. What better way of introducing luminaries such as Saddam Hussein, Chemical Ali and Tariq Aziz to simple folk than by a good ol’ pack of playing cards?

Well, why should the Americans have all the fun? Why not borrow from their down home methods and use them to ease the Unresolved Soccer Tensions of Brisbane’s media and public? Why not introduce our own deck of playing cards, containing the names of all those players whom we know are just itching to get the call-up for the yellow and blue?

Why not indeed? You’ll be glad to know that we are not prepared to let a good idea go to waste. After consultation with members of the Brisbane Strikers Supporters’ Association (or at least those of them who are not yet comatose) we are ready to release our very own virtual deck of playing cards. What’s more, we promise that as soon as any player featured in the deck is located and signed you, the public, and the waiting media throng, will be the first to know. 

Right now, we have forty-six playing cards ready to deal. They contain the identities of many current, past and future favourites of the Brisbane Strikers, plus a number of NSL leading lights we wouldn’t mind playing for us, several that we no longer want to see playing against us and a few absolute bolters....you’ll get the idea. And before you ask, they do not contain players who have departed the Brisbane Strikers without any likelihood of coming back (which is one way of saying that we’re keeping our options open on Fernando Rech). 

Last, but not least, there are eight blank cards reserved for you, the visitor to this site, to nominate your favourites. You can do this either from within the ranks of the local Premier League or wherever else you figure your future Strikers fave is hiding. Why not check out our incomplete deck, and then go to our Forum and nominate another player to appear in
the full set? 

You never know, you might unearth a future star or two and help deal us a Royal Flush.

Virtual Card Deck

The Brisbane Strikers have reacted with disinterest to moves by the remaining members of Soccer Australia’s Board to encourage stakeholders at a meeting on 7 June to nominate persons to replace former Chairman Remo Nogarotto and board member Robert Sestan, both of whom resigned last week. 

The latest move by Soccer Australia in the lead-up to a meeting supposedly called to enable stakeholders to elect an interim Board headed and hand-picked by Westfield boss Frank Lowy to run the game, was reported in The Australian today as "a body blow to the federal Government, the Australian Sports Commission and David Crawford, author of the
Crawford Report into Australian soccer."

That wasn’t quite how Ray Evans, General Manager of the Brisbane Strikers, was seeing it. "My comment is that whoever they (the Soccer Australia Board or sympathetic stakeholders) put forward they will be defeated and Lowy will come on board", Evans said. "We (the Brisbane Strikers) will not be nominating anyone who is not nominated by Lowy". 

Evans did not think there was necessarily anything sinister in Soccer Australia’s latest move. "They are doing everything by the book", he said, adding that he had received papers from Soccer Australia showing how the meeting on 7 June would have each remaining member of the Board stand down in turn, in order to be replaced by Lowy and his team. 

Every remaining member of the Board except, perhaps, Western Australian Paul Afkos. Afkos’ name did not appear on the list - for reasons which were not known to Evans. 

The Brisbane Strikers, whose preparations for next National Soccer League season had been thrown into turmoil by Soccer Australia’s current leadership vacuum, have been given some breathing space by a decision to reschedule the NSL season kick-off for 19 September.

The NSL clubs met in Sydney last week to sort through a number of issues, including the necessary preparations for an August kick-off, and emerged with a new starting date.

Brisbane Strikers’ General Manager, Ray Evans, said today that, while he had not been at the meeting himself, he understood that Soccer Australia's staff had raised a number of practical problems associated with an August kick-off. In view of these problems the clubs decided to delay their season until September.

This is probably just as well for the Brisbane Strikers, who are grappling with a number of issues which need to be resolved prior to next season, including the appointment of a coach, contracting of players and preparation of a home ground.

Evans said that the Strikers Board had met for two and a half hours over the weekend but had not got around to discussing the playing and coaching fronts any further. The majority of the meeting, he said, had been spent discussing the fallout of the Crawford Report, while there were also discussions about leasehold issues which still need to be resolved - over Perry Park (where the club intends to play home games) and Meakin Park.

While the club grapples with these issues, the uncertainties affecting many of last season’s Brisbane Strikers squad are at least moving towards a conclusion - but bad news has been delivered to some players. Evans confirmed a report in yesterday’s Sunday Mail that some of last season’s players had received a letter from the club telling them their services were no longer required.

The Sunday Mail quoted former Socceroo striker Kris Trajanovski, who has spent the last two seasons with Brisbane and who has received a letter, saying he felt the club had been "pretty gutless" by approaching the task of informing players they had been sacked by letter, rather than face to face.

Evans said that, although he could understand Trajanovski’s disappointment, the Strikers Board had felt it better to approach the task in writing.

"Normally it (telling the players) would be done by our football manager (Jack Baren), but he is ill and the Board thought that rather than get into discussions with players it would be wiser to advise them by letter", he said.

While some supporters who read the Sunday Mail article might have wondered what expertise the Board brought to its decision to cut some players from the roster, it is understood that Baren and outgoing coach John Kosmina were consulted some time ago on which players the club should retain for next season. 

Evans declined to elaborate on which players had received the chilling visit from the postman, but said the club was still not in a position to offer contracts to players for next season. The club has previously cited the uncertainty at Board level within Soccer Australia as the main reason it is unable at present to offer contracts to players. The other is the need to consult the new coach, whose contract cannot be offered for the same reasons.

However, Evans was able to inform us that ace defender Jon McKain, who has been trialling with Werder Bremen, is expected back in Brisbane this week. Evans said he believed McKain had followed his trial at Bremen with a short holiday in Scotland, but he had not received any information on the outcome of McKain’s trial.  

He also confirmed that the club’s former Socceroo, Steve Laybutt, was training with the Queensland Lions as reported in the Sunday Mail. Strikers fans can rest assured, however, that Laybutt is doing so simply to keep fit.

The failure last Saturday of Soccer Australia to appoint an interim Board looks likely to delay the Brisbane Strikers’ preparations for next season by at least a week, and up to a month.

That is the wash-up from Soccer Australia’s cancelled Extraordinary General Meeting at which stakeholders had been expected to appoint an interim Board, headed by Westfield boss Frank Lowy, to run the game for the next two years as recommended by the recently released Crawford Report.

NSL clubs were already facing a tough ask to prepare for a season to kick off in August despite this season’s finals campaign being still in full swing. They are now trying to negotiate the extra hurdles placed in their way by a minority of Soccer Australia’s stakeholders who were unwilling to elect Lowy’s handpicked Board. Their reluctance forced Soccer Australia Chairman, Remo Nogarotto, to cancel the EGM so as to avoid the public humiliation the sport would have endured by rejecting Lowy. Under the terms of the resolution put to the stakeholders when the meeting was called, 100% of stakeholders were needed to back Lowy’s appointment. 

Under the present circumstances, clubs are finding it difficult to commit to contracts with players, coaches and other staff before because the management responsibilities for, and composition of, the NSL remains unclear while things are so uncertain at Soccer Australia Board level.

Brisbane Strikers General Manager, Ray Evans, described the situation today as "very frustrating". 

"We are hoping to have a Board meeting on Saturday to discuss things further", he said, adding that the meeting would probably discuss whether there were ways to work around the current stalemate. He said that a meeting before Saturday was not possible because club President Ross Melville was unavailable.

If Evans finds the situation frustrating, the same can almost certainly be said for the club’s prospective players and coaches, who are faced with the prospect of another month in purgatory while they wait to discover if they have a place in the NSL next season. And waiting in the wings with ever increasing impatience are the supporters, who expected to hear an announcement on the club’s new coach as much as a month ago.

It could be argued that if ever there was a case in point to demonstrate why the the NSL needs to be removed from the direct control of the national governing body, the current situation provides it. Evans said that Melville, who had gone to Sydney for the cancelled meeting, was of the opinion that about 20% of stakeholders were opposed to electing Lowy’s board on Saturday. Most media commentators also reported the 20% figure. 

If that is correct it equates to approximately five or six delegates (with the bulk of the voting veto held by State Federations, who do not run NSL clubs) blocking the wishes of the vast majority of the soccer community - for reasons which smell primarily of self-interest and not the wider good of the game.

The next Soccer Australia meeting to discuss the election of an interim Board cannot be held until 31 May at the earliest.

The Brisbane Strikers are sweating on the outcome of Saturday’s Soccer Australia meeting to nominate directors to the proposed interim Board of Soccer Australia before moving ahead with their plans to appoint recruit a new coach and squad for next season.

Strikers General Manager, Ray Evans, today said that the uncertainty over the composition and direction of the interim Board was making it difficult for all clubs, not just the Strikers, to plan for the coming NSL season. 

"This Saturday we will probably know who is on the new Board, which will probably meet very quickly and sort out a few things", he said. "But you shouldn’t be making any commitments as a director of an NSL club until the new Board of Soccer Australia has dealt with the issue of control of the NSL - you can’t make long term financial commitments from a good corporate governance perspective. Anything we do we are liable for".

Evans said that uncontracted Brisbane Strikers players he had spoken to on this issue "accept and understand" the position of the club, even if they didn’t particularly like being kept on tenterhooks about their future.

But Evans’ quiet optimism that the power vacuum within Soccer Australia would be quickly resolved was shaken when told of reports in the southern media that independent soccer inquiry team members (Dr David Crawford and Mark Peters) were scheduled to meet tomorrow night with caretaker Soccer Australia Chairman Remo Nogarotto and representatives of the Victoria and New South Wales Soccer Federations. The reports suggest that Nogarotto and the state federations will use the meeting to nominate two current caretaker Soccer Australia directors - Paul Afkos and Walter Bugno - for election to the interim Board to be chaired by Frank Lowy.

The normally affable Evans reacted to this development with surprise and concern, but chose his words carefully. "I’m disappointed they (Dr Crawford and Peters) are meeting (only with) those Federations", he said. "They should be consulting with all the stakeholders". 

Evans said that the difficulty in offering contracts to players in the current situation was compounded by the fact that it would also be irresponsible of the club to offer a contract to a new coach - who will obviously have a major say in picking his squad.

"We had hoped to appoint a new coach by the end of the month", he said, adding that the club now planned to make an announcement as early as possible in May. He refuted reports that the club had a short list of two coaches. He said only that he had his own preferred candidate, but that the Strikers Board had not met to finalise its decision.

Meanwhile, Evans confirmed that Fernando Rech, after failing to agree terms with the club, had left for Brazil and that Lawrence Drake had been released from his contract to join the Queensland Lions. Only three players from last season’s squad (who he declined to name) had been offered contracts to date - and that was some weeks ago, before the uncertainty had arisen within Soccer Australia. No players from outside the club had yet been offered contracts.

However, Evans was optimistic that the club’s recent talent identification trials had unearthed "possibly two, maybe three, players that we should seriously consider" for next season’s NSL squad. But, he said "we will need to talk to the new coach" before making a final decision on the youngsters.

The club was hopeful of conducting further trials to assess more players in May or June, to be overseen by the new coach, as the club’s youth policy begins to take shape. Evans also said that, as soon as arrangements over the club’s lease of Meakin Park in Brisbane’s south were completed, the Strikers intended to put together developmental squads to train at the ground with the assistance of local football clubs in the area. In a heartening sign of bridges being built with the local football community, three clubs had already expressed an interest in working with the Strikers on this project. 

The Brisbane Strikers have broken their self-imposed off season silence in Brisbane’s media, with news emerging in the Sunday Mail today that the club is hoping to return to Perry Park by the start of the next NSL season, which is scheduled to begin in August.

The newspaper reported that the Strikers are negotiating with "Queensland Soccer" (their term, not ours), which in turn was talking with the Brisbane City Council to reassign the state body’s 30 year lease over the ground to the Strikers.

Brisbane Strikers president, Ross Melville, was said to be "hopeful" of the club making Perry Park its base and that it planned "substantial improvements".

"We want to take over the facility at Perry Park", he is quoted as saying. "If all goes to plan our priority is to do work on upgrading the surface and play our matches next season in the afternoon because the lighting is not up to standard. 

"It’s the traditional soccer venue and where four out of five people believe we should be playing". The article closed by mentioning that "Queensland Soccer" general manager David Kay expected an announcement this week.

Knowing the Brisbane Strikers management as we do, we think we can say with some certainty that if the club is willing to at last come out of the closet over the Perry Park move, it is more than just "hopeful" that it will occur. The Strikers, particularly over the past year or so, have adopted a stance with the media that it will not announce anything that is not "set in concrete" - much to the annoyance of its most zealous supporters, who crave news about the club on something more frequent than a monthly basis.

As a club official is now in print about this matter, and Kay is expecting an announcement this week, we can expect the reassignment of the lease to become ‘official’ within days.

So what are we to make of this development? Well, to begin with, let’s be fair and say that it could herald the beginning of an exciting new era for the club - one in which it has a genuine "home" at which it can call the shots, and from which it can maximise its game day takings and plough the earnings back into its business. No more doling out money hand over fist to other sports for the right to rent a place to play its home matches. 

It is also reasonable to assume that the Strikers will move their administration team back into Perry Park - some two years after moving out during a period of bitter infighting with the then Queensland Soccer Federation led by former Strikers Chairman, Tony Petty. An administrative base at the ground will enable the club to house its administration in more
comfort and to project a more positive image to the world than was ever possible from its temporary accommodation at Spencer Park - for which the club was, nonetheless, eternally grateful to the Brisbane City Soccer Club. 

But while the acquisition of Perry Park holds enormous long term potential for the club, there could be some short term downsides associated with it. While many supporters will be heartened at the prospect of the club returning there, others will be wondering just how this neglected facility will be brought up to the required standard to host NSL matches. Its
playing surface, which has been used over the past year or so for anything but the round ball code, is in a deplorable condition and is thought by some fans to be in need of considerable remediation work to even make it safe for football, let alone to render it up to the standard needed for the game at the elite level.

Furthermore, the neglected stadium is in dire need of an overhaul and expansion if it is to meet Soccer Australia’s standards for under-cover seating in NSL stadia, and its changing rooms are also, according to those in the know, in need of upgrading. The Strikers are going to have to spend significant sums of money to make the ground habitable and
attractive to potential paying customers - some of whom have become accustomed to a better standard of comfort and viewing at Suncorp Metway Stadium (Lang Park) and Ballymore than is presently available at Perry Park.

The club’s suggestion that it is looking to play its matches in the afternoon, due Perry Park’s lighting being inadequate for night football (and, we would assume, for television) is of particular interest. That is because it is of potential concern to both players and spectators. Late afternoons in Brisbane’s summer can be not only stifling, but also debilitating. One wonders what the players and their union, the Professional Footballer’s Association, will make of these plans from the point of view of the players’ health. It is also worth recalling how, on the two occasions that the Strikers played in late afternoon at Ballymore, the club was besieged with complaints from patrons over the discomfort and sunburn they experienced if they were unable to get under shade - and this was in Brisbane’s autumn!

These issues aside, however, there does appear to be a substantial amount of goodwill within the Brisbane football community to the concept of football, and the Brisbane Strikers, returning to Perry Park. It is, as Melville says, the traditional home of football in the city. Many fans have advocated a return since the club first moved its home games
away from Perry Park into Lang Park in 1995. They have advanced a number of reasons for this, including its superior atmosphere when even small crowds are in attendance, its better business sense in terms of the club generating and keeping game day revenue, and its nostalgic appeal to what seems to have become a lost demographic of football supporters.

Many an internet posting has been made over the last few years by fans lamenting the loss of Perry Park to football, and suggesting that if the Brisbane Strikers were to return there, they (the fans) would start watching them again. It now remains to be seen whether these were empty words and excuses, or genuinely held convictions.

Last Thursday’s Courier-Mail caught a lot of people connected with the Brisbane Strikers napping when it published an article headed "Rech Brazil-bound after failing to clinch deal with Strikers". As the title suggested, it was a story detailing the intention of the Brisbane Strikers’ star import, Fernando Rech, to head home to Brazil because the NSL club had not come up with the necessary folding stuff to keep him in Brisbane next season.

"I don’t want to fight with the Strikers", the article quoted Rech as saying. "I understand their problems and I had a great time here but I have two little boys and I cannot play soccer just for fun. It was a hard decision but I have to make money for my family".

After quoting Strikers’ General Manager, Ray Evans, saying the club wanted to keep Fernando and that it thought it had made him an offer he was happy with, Rech was quoted again, in the context of last year’s speculation that he might play for Australia some day.

"I have all the papers (for Australian citizenship) all ready to apply. I was just waiting for the Strikers to offer me the right contract so I could say I had a job, but it is not happening now. I am still registered in Brazil until June 30 so I will go home and see what is happening....if I am in Australia I want to be in Brisbane. My wife and little boys, we all love it here. If I go to another (NSL) club we have to move somewhere else maybe for a year or two, then move again. Better we go back to Brazil now. I have a house there and there are lots of clubs".

"I would like to leave the window open.......maybe I will come back as a coach or even to play. Who knows? The club has been good to me and this is a wonderful place. I hope the Strikers do well in the future so they can offer me more money next time".

Now, is it just us or is there something about this article that’s just a little bit fishy? Generally, when a player has left the Brisbane Strikers it has been the club that has gone to the press to announce it and the player has ridden off quietly into the sunset, unpursued by the media and never to be heard from again. 

On this occasion the opposite applies. The Courier-Mail, which is currently without a dedicated soccer writer to go looking for stories, gets the story first and the club (Evans) is asked to react. Strange, eh? 

And then there is the overall tone of the comments from Fernando. He seems almost to be saying ‘Please, guys, I love it here and I don’t really want to go home to Brazil, and certainly not to any other NSL club. I’ve got my citizenship papers ready, for heaven’s sake, and all I want is the right money to keep me here. C’mon, fellas - just give me a little bit more than you’ve already offered me and I’m yours. I might even coach if need be".

At least, that’s the way it reads to us - the cynically-minded. If Evans is genuine when he says he thought the player was happy with what he had been offered, it would appear that someone has been in the Brazilian’s ear suggesting that he can perhaps get a little bit more, and that perhaps a story in the Courier-Mail could help. If so, then perhaps Fernando’s advisers have miscalculated the environment in which Fernando is employed. Strikers’ supremo Clem Jones tends not to react to the press, much less to do business through it.

That would be a shame. Everyone knows that money is extremely tight in the NSL these days. The indications are that all of the clubs are cutting back their playing budgets. Even Perth Glory, the runaway success story and most innovative club of the NSL over the past five years or so, is taking a savage axe to its players’ wages. If the mail from Perth is to be believed, only Damian Mori seems to have been spared from the "slash and burn" approach. In this new climate of austerity, perhaps Fernando needs to be realistic about how much money he can be offered to stay in the NSL. 

But if the Brisbane Strikers and Fernando Rech had indeed got close to agreeing on terms, the club faces a difficult decision over whether to go the extra few yards to satisfy Fernando. Rumours have abounded over the past few seasons on how much Fernando has been paid, and there has been some debate among supporters over whether he has been worth the rumoured money. 

Certainly, when Fernando has played well the team as a whole has tended to play well (and when he hasn’t, the reverse has been the case - leading to some suggesting that if he is not consistently playing well, he is not justifying his wages). Fernando has been the conduit through which most of the team’s attacking play has flowed. He has been the
orchestrator of the team’s midfield and also the finisher of much of its best work. There is no question that he has been the Brisbane Strikers "go to" man, and that he has a skilled, all-action, charismatic on-field presence that, well-marketed, could have attacted many more supporters to Brisbane Strikers fixtures than has ever been the case. He potentially still could.

But on the other side of the argument, the club has other factors to consider. Does it deprive itself of the ability improve the overall strength of its squad by recruiting say, another two or three NSL players of reasonable quality instead of spending the money on keeping Fernando? Does it use the money it might save (by letting Fernando go) to help retain some of its other quality players by making them better offers? This could include players like Shane Stefanutto, Jon McKain and Anthony Roche, for example, who are likely to attract attention from other NSL clubs or perhaps overseas clubs? Does it, (oh, be still our beating hearts), spend some of that precious money on promoting the club to the Brisbane public?

Is it a case of Fernando or the farm?

These are not easy pros and cons to weigh up, and supporters will await the outcome of the club’s deliberations with a great deal of interest. And so, no doubt, will the yet-to-be-announced new coach of the club, who is facing the prospect of coming into the job without the services of its most renowned player. It is to be hoped that the Brisbane Strikers have sought his opinion, or that they will do so before Fernando gets on a plane bound for Brazil.

Brisbane Strikers General Manager, Ray Evans, yesterday declared his support for the findings of the Crawford Report into the administration of Australian soccer.

"I’ve scanned through nearly every page of the report, and it appears to me that the recommendations are basically what was expected", Evans said. "I have no problems with any of them".

"It recommends a separate body (from Soccer Australia) for the NSL, and that’s important", he said. Evans also said he felt the report gave the Brisbane Strikers some comfort that they can continue implementing their ambitious plans to build more football infrastructure for their NSL future.

"The clubs had already decided that the NSL should stay unchanged for two years", he said. "The report says nothing untoward about the NSL. All the clubs pushed for an independent NSL and they should be happy with it".

Evans expressed confidence in Soccer Australia’s "compromise" proposal, offered two days after the release of the Crawford Report. The Board agreed to stand aside in favour of an interim Board headed by Frank Lowy and also containing John Singleton and Ron Walker, provided that the remaining three positions could be filled by persons nominated by Soccer Australia’s stakeholders. Evans said he did not see the proposal as a device to frustrate the reform process.

"It’s probably important to have people on the interim board who understand the game", he said, "although I know Frank Lowy certainly understands it. John Singleton would be there for his marketing expertise and I suppose Frank Lowy must have a lot of time for him as a marketing person. Those two guys should be able to draw a lot of corporate support for
our game. 

"But as for the three board members (that Soccer Australia wants to nominate) - I would hope that they would nominate someone with experience from within the game from an administrator’s perspective."  

On Monday, 7 April the Independent Soccer Review Committee chaired by David Crawford released its report on the structure, governance and management of soccer in Australia to the Federal Government, Soccer Australia and the waiting public. The review team has since hit the road to speak to the game’s stakeholders about the report and its findings and recommendations.

On Wednesday, 9 April at the Good Earth Hotel on Wickham Terrace, it was Brisbane’s turn. Those 25 or so stakeholders who attended the meeting with the review team could not help but be impressed by what they heard.

The review team, represented by Australian Sports Commission Chief Executive Officer, Mark Peters, and Adsteam Marine Chairman Bruce Corlett, gave the unmistakable impression that they knew what they and the grass roots of the game wanted for its future, that they knew why they wanted it and, most importantly, that they knew how to get it.

We are not going to wade through the details of the report in this article, encouraging and enlightening though it may be. If you are interested, you can find the report on the web at http://www.soccerinquiry.org.au/content.html. It should be compulsory reading for anyone who cares about the future of soccer in Australia.

For our purposes here, it suffices to say that the report is a hard-hitting snapshot of all that has been wrong with the management of the game for far too long, and all that could continue to be wrong if the report’s recommendations are not implemented. And those recommendations are extensive and comprehensive. They are designed to change the culture of decision making within Soccer Australia. They are designed to put an end to the labyrinthine politics, the "buddying up" and deal making with cliques and factions, an end to the almost routine rumour and suspicion that the people who run the game have conflicts of interest. As one of the review team remarked, the recomendations are about "Never again having in the Board of Soccer Australia an attitude of ‘what’s in it for me’"?

The assembled group at the Good Earth Hotel was a cross-section of people ranging from Soccer Queensland administrators to coaches, supporters and former players. They listened intently as Peters, who led most of the presentation, spoke clearly and unequivocally about the recommendations and the work that lies ahead in implementing
them. By the end of it, just about everyone in the room was giving the Crawford Report the thumbs up

This was an important consideration. That is because the only people who appear to be standing in the way of implementing Crawford’s reforms are the seven people who form the current Board of Soccer Australia - the same seven people who have now been asked by Crawford to step aside and allow a six-member interim Board, headed by Westfield boss Frank Lowy, to begin implementing its recommendations.

If the seven incumbents refuse to go, it will be up to the current voting stakeholders to call an Extraordinary General Meeting and vote them out. And some of those stakeholders were in the room on Wednesday listening to Peters explain the need to act, and act now.

So persuasive was the report and the explanations provided by Peters and Corlett, that former Soccer Australia Chairman and Brisbane Strikers director Ian Brusasco was moved to get to his feet and briefly address the group. He explained that he had put 40 years of his life into soccer, and had been inclined lately to think that those forty years had been wasted. But, he said, the report that he now held in his hand and the review team’s work and explanations that day had given him renewed hope for the future. It summed up the mood in the room.

But Peters left the audience in no doubt that, while the review team had worked long and hard to sift through the morass of the game’s administrative problems and come up with solutions, and while high profile and highly regarded identities like Lowy, John Singleton and Ron Walker were prepared to serve on the interim Board, it was up to the soccer
community to insist that the Soccer Australia Board fall on its sword. In Peters’ words, "it’s over to you".

The fact that the inquiry team was able to persuade Lowy to declare his availability appears to have been a masterstroke. Lowy, who was instrumental in getting the NSL off the ground in the mid-1970s when it was the first national football league in the country, seems to have an almost God-like status within the game. The glowing references
provided by some of the people in the room based on their dealings with him, and their knowledge of his profound love of the game, more than matched those which have been heard from administrators and journalists south of the Tweed. The feeling was that if Lowy is prepared to have a go, then the stakeholders were prepared to clear the way for him. 

There was optimism expressed that, based on southern press reports that morning and on statements made by some of the stakeholders, the Soccer Australia Board members would indeed resign and that if they do not do so, reformists within the game ‘have the numbers’ to remove them. But as we all know, nothing can be taken for granted when it comes to the game’s stakeholders acting in the best interests of the game.

But what of the NSL? What can we, the supporters of the Brisbane Strikers, Queensland’s NSL team, expect from the NSL if and when the review team gets its way and the new broom is swept through Soccer Australia? 

The report says "It is clear from the information made available to, and submissions received by the Committee, that there is a need to implement changes that....restructure the relationship between Soccer Australia and the NSL". Further, "the Committee recommends the NSL operates as a separate entity under license to Soccer Australia".

Therefore, we can expect to see an NSL which governs itself on a day to day basis, licenced to do so by Soccer Australia. An NSL which is, like the Soccer Australia of the future, governed and guided by its own independent, six member board - a board which, according to the reform team, already has a number of quality people interested in
serving on it if, and only if, the interim Soccer Australia board is appointed. We can expect to see an NSL with its own constitution, its own rules and regulations. We can expect to see an NSL with more freedom to negotiate its own television deal, its own sponsorship deals, its own marketing rights - subject to negotiation with Soccer Australia so that the head body’s aims do not conflict with the NSL’s.

Perhaps we can start to dream about such staples of successful domestic leagues as regular press releases, promotion from the top down, regular TV broadcasts of matches. A league in which quality players are prepared to stay longer instead of heading off in their early twenties or teens for obscure third-grade clubs in European or South American
leagues because they cannot obtain either a decent wage or profile here. We can start to imagine a league in which sponsors are prepared to invest and the clubs can actually make a profit and make themselves bigger and better. 

That is the future, or at least an estimation of it which is perhaps rather conservative. But it’s up to us now to make sure that it happens. The likes of you and me, the people who have contributed their views and communicated their desire for change to the review, and the people who must now ensure that there are no delays, no compromises and no
obfuscations from the Soccer Australia Board and the people who elect it, in relation to implementing the report’s recommendations. 

It is up to us to grasp the opportunity that has been provided to the game by Crawford’s team, and to champion the future. If you support this future and have the slightest doubt about the willingness of your NSL club or State Federation to support it, we suggest you get on the phone to them or drop them a line - now!

E mail Contacts for State Federations

Queensland Soccer
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Others
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Soccer Australia
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Football fans aren’t normally the types to get their kicks from reading government reports. But Monday was a notable exception for most of us.

That is because the Federal Government’s inquiry into the administration of Australian football (or "soccer", to some) finally released its findings in the Crawford Report. The report did not make pleasant reading for those who inhabit the corridors of "power" in Australian soccer - but it was music to the ears of all of those ordinary people who have struggled against all odds, and in the midst of appalling neglect and even contempt by administrators, to keep their love of the game alive these last few decades.

Put simply, the Crawford Report delivered a stinging criticism of the way the game has been run in this country, and proposed a new, broader-based, more representative administrative structure to enable it to grab hold of a brighter future.

It also recommended that the NSL be empowered to run its own affairs, under license from Soccer Australia, rather than being administered by the head body. This recommendation was core to the Brisbane Strikers Supporters’ Association’s own submission to the review, which was quoted in the report along with submissions by some 230 groups
or individuals, including some individual members of the BSSA.

But next comes the hardest part - getting the current powers-that-be in the game to implement recommendations that will dilute their hold on that power. The Crawford Report requested that the current Soccer Australia Board stand aside and allow the game to be run by an interim committee for two years. The interim committee will be asked, amongst other things, to oversee the drafting of a new constitution designed to provide for better management of the game.

The inquiry team now is turning its attention to visiting Australian capital cities to provide feedback sessions for those who contributed submissions to the review. Today it was Brisbane’s turn, and the BSSA was there.

We suggest you return to this site over the next few days for news on what transpires.

Last weekend's youth trials at Heath Park might have unearthed a Brisbane Strikers star of the future, according to club captain Stuart McLaren.

McLaren who, along with experienced coaches Andrew Bettell and Gordon Arrowsmith, put around 20 youngsters aged between 17 and 19 through their paces, said today he thought "at least four or five" had displayed enough ability to suggest they could play NSL football at some point in the future.

While McLaren hastened to add that he was not given the task of making any "final assessments" as to which of the youngsters, if any, should be brought into the Brisbane Strikers set-up (that decision is likely to rest amongst Bettel, Arrowsmith and whoever is appointed as the new Brisbane Strikers coach), he had been quite impressed with the overall quality of the triallists.

He felt that a particularly good barometer of the potential of some of the triallists had been their performances when pitted against the Brisbane Strikers players in scratch games.

McLaren said that a handful of the players had impressed him with "their level of maturity" when they adapted to a level of competition they had not experienced before. Those players had "looked comfortable" and shown confidence and composure.

"I'm not sure of the next step (for the triallists)", McLaren said. "But I imagine the more promising ones will be monitored and perhaps invited back to the next session". The Strikers are planning to hold more youth trials during Easter.  

McLaren also said that prior to the commencement of the trials club President, Ross Melville, had informed all of the triallists they would receive feedback on their assessments within three weeks. That feedback would include the results of the fitness tests that were conducted.

Some questioning has occurred this week on local internet football forums about the merits of including fitness tests as part of the assessment package, but McLaren was inclined to boot this topic into touch.

He said that people only needed to look at the English Premier League to see the emphasis placed in football nowadays on speed, strength, agility and endurance. The trend is for footballers to be stronger and faster than ever before and clubs were placing an
emphasis on recruiting players with superior fitness levels.

"If you're trialling two players with fairly equal skills levels, their fitness can be used to differentiate between their abilities", he said. 

While at the Eastern Suburbs Soccer Club on Sunday, I spoke with Marilyn Taylor, manager of the U14 soccer team. This team of young boys is on its way to New Zealand in July to play in the Kiwi Cup competition.

This team has the honour of being the only Australian team to compete in the competition, and will be playing against teams from the U.S., the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. One roadblock in the team's way, though, is funding.

They are seeking to raise $15,000 to help the team get there, and will be conducting many raffles, a trivia night at a time to be advised, and a night at Laserforce. They will also welcome any donations and sponsorships.

So, to fellow members of the BSSA, how about we get behind this young team, and help them on their way to a common dream, to compete internationally. It may not be in the sense with which we usually associate those words, but it's a valid dream, nonetheless.

Marilyn spoke with pride of team, most of whom have been playing together for five years. She said, "They are a great team, they work well together, and have a dedicated coach and parents."

The team is made up of:
Michael Plaxton
Dion Tsolakides
Shaun Richardson
Luke McDonald
Chris Stockwell
Steven Hughes
Daniel Harding
Anthony Finocchiaro
Michael Atherton
Stuart Hughes
Jake Taylor
Chris Kozionas
Sam Kelly
Keelan Richardson
Cameron Blade 
and Chris Valle

Laurence Harding is the coach.

Well, Marilyn, here's hoping that this young group makes it!

The Brisbane Strikers are set to put around 20 NSL hopefuls through their paces at Heath Park, East Brisbane this Sunday, 30 March.

General Manager, Ray Evans, said today that most of the triallists will be journeying to Brisbane from country areas, due to the fact that many Brisbane-based youngsters are involved in fixtures this weekend.

However, he also said the Strikers are planning to set aside another day in April for city-based players to stake their claims for an NSL future.

With no announcement having been made about a new coach for the Brisbane Strikers, and junior development officer (and first-choice talent spotter) Shane Stefanutto having jetted out to Europe on Wednesday for trials of his own, Evans said the young triallists on Sunday would be put through their paces under three watchful pairs of eyes. Those eyes will be peering out from beneath the brows of club captain Stuart McLaren, state Director of Coaching Andrew Bettel and Gordon Arrowsmith, who has a wealth of local and overseas coaching experience.

The BSSA also expects to be watching, and is hoping to pick up a few snippets of information and opinion from the coaches and the triallists.

Watch this space as we attempt to inform you about a potential star or two of the future. 

It was interesting to read journalist Garry Legg lamenting in his final NSL match report of the season in last week’s Sunday Mail, that the Brisbane Strikers had not made any announcements since the "sacking" of John Kosmina, and "done nothing to quell the uncertainty surrounding its future, an issue that seems to appear at the end of each season".

Long-suffering fans probably probably had some empathy with Legg’s viewpoint, but by midweek they, and Legg, had what they wanted when the club made an announcement that should go a long way towards convincing its critics that the club intends to be around for a long time yet

That announcement concerned the club’s acquisition of a lease over Meakin Park in Slacks Creek, south of Brisbane. The lease, for a minimum of twenty years, will enable the Strikers to operate a "Strikers Development Foundation" to develop junior players. It will also provide them with licensed premises to help fund the operations of the foundation, and with training facilities not only for junior players, but for their NSL team as well.

And the news could get better yet. If Legg had attended the after-match gathering in Ballymore’s Reds Bar, he would have heard Strikers directors tell the assembled fans and players that the announcement we have now heard would be just the first of a series of announcements about the club’s future plans. We await more over the coming weeks and
months, including those about its new coach and on where it will play its home matches in future. 

An announcement can also be expected on an initiative strongly hinted at when the Meakin Park announcement was made - that of a similar base for junior development in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. 

That announcement is probably still a good way off in the future, but the next piece in the jigwaw of the Strikers’ future will fall into place by the end of the month. Those who were keen and observant enough to find a short paragraph headed "Strikers trials" in Wednesday’s Courier-Mail will have seen that the club is calling for applications for players aged between 17 and 19 for "NSL trials" at Heath Park on 30 March.

General Manager, Ray Evans, said on Saturday that the response to this call had been very good, with applications received from as far afield as Cairns and Rockhampton. "It’s part of our going along the path of a junior development program", he said. "We are having the trials to identify players with NSL potential, to hopefully find one or two players who can go straight into the squad and, failing that, to keep an eye on them for the future".

While Evans was his usual cagey self about what "keeping an eye on them for the future" means, those young players who turn up and impress can be sure that, if discussions between the Strikers and the QAS are fruitful, they will be part of some very definite plans for the future.

It is not yet known whether the trials will be overseen by the club’s yet-to-be-appointed new coach. Evans said that interviews had been held, but that no decision on an appointment had been made. Ideally, an announcement will be made by the end of the month but if that is not the case the club is planning for its junior development officer, NSL
fullback Shane Stefanutto, to supervise the trials. 

Evans also said that, depending on how various factors worked out, the new coach would not only be involved in coaching the NSL team but would also have a supervisory role over, and a guiding hand in the selection of, coaches for the development foundation.

Meanwhile, Evans confirmed that the club had spoken to some of its current squad about contracts for next season but no final decisions would be made until the new coach has had an opportunity to have his say on the composition of the NSL squad.

The Brisbane Strikers’ season ended on Saturday night, and a terribly long off-season began.

At the after-match gathering of supporters, players and administrators some broad announcements were made by Strikers’ Board members about what they are planning for the club’s future. More specific announcements are expected to be made within the next two weeks, including the announcement of the coach who will replace John Kosmina.

What seems obvious is that that the new coach will come into a club that will be entirely different from the one that John Kosmina has had to struggle along with during his time at the helm. The club has led a hand-to-mouth existence for all of its ten years, but the Brisbane Strikers Board has been putting some plans together which should end all that. The "virtual" football club that has teased and tormented supporters over the uncertainty of its future, seems about to become a real one.

No-one will tell us anything "on the record", but if what we are hearing off the record is true then the Strikers have been working on, and are about to put into effect, a package of initiatives which could be described as imaginative, bold and even audacious. On that basis, the future looks very promising.

One thing is of major concern at present, however: The players, most of whom have performed with distinction even, at times, during this disappointing season and certainly in the season before, appear to have little idea of what is going on and what their futures are. This might have been one of the reasons why last Saturday night’s performance on the pitch seemed rather distracted and out of sorts. Most of the players feel intensely loyal to the Brisbane Strikers and want to continue their careers with the club. They deserve to be spoken to openly about the club’s plans and afforded the dignity of being consulted about their futures, rather than being kept hanging around in limbo. The club’s administrators, who were probably caught between a rock and a hard place on whether to discuss these issues ahead of last week’s final fixture, should deal with that issue quickly.

The accent within the Strikers appears set to turn heavily towards youth, for reasons that should soon become apparent. That is admirable enough, but in the rush to implement a strong youth policy, let’s hope that the club does not forget the ability it already has within its ranks and that it makes the right decisions about blending experience with that youth.

Let’s not have the blue and gold bathwater drained down the plughole while the baby is put in the bath!