Robbie Slater’s warning to FFA: ‘There is a revolt on its way’
A REVOLT against Football Federation Australia is on its way because they have lost their way and are not listening to the people they need to, according to Fox Sports football expert Robbie Slater.
Slater believes the FFA are mostly concerned with protecting themselves, and that’s contributed to “horrendous” Asian Champions League results.
Slater cited the scheduling of fixtures as one example that’s made Australia “the embarrassment of Asian football at the moment”.
Brisbane Roar played their ninth match in 28 days against Ulsan, which resulted in a 6-0 Asian Champions League loss, while Western Sydney Wanderers played their eighth match since January 22 and were thumped 5-1 by Shanghai SIPG.
“What is going on is not acceptable. It’s been going on for quite a long time,” Slater told Bill & Bozz.
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Western Sydney Wanderers' midfielder Mitch Nichols.
Western Sydney Wanderers' midfielder Mitch Nichols.Source: AFP
“Two weeks before they [the Wanderers] play an ACL game, they go to Perth, get beat in Perth, and then they have to travel to China.
“Brisbane travelled back [from China] a couple weeks ago. They caught a plane on a Thursday night — an overnight flight in economy — landed on Friday and had to play on a Saturday.
“That is not acceptable. It’s not safe for the players to play in those conditions.
“Then you get to the point where Brisbane’s squad is stretched so thin that they’re playing young players who have potential but shouldn’t be playing at this level at the moment.
“We’re embarrassing. There’s no doubt about this.
“There is a revolt on its way. There is a revolution coming in this game.”
Slater also noted that “shameful” harm had been done to Australia’s youth system, and it’s impacting the Socceroos.
“We don’t qualify for youth cups anymore, we don’t qualify for the Olympics anymore,” he said.
“They were feeder teams to the national team.
“The curriculum, the way we’ve coached our young players; we’ve taught them it’s OK not to win. That is completely wrong.
“Individual players are no good, we produce robots.”
He added: “There’s one thing that can help our players and that’s expansion.”
It follows on from Ange Postecoglou’s comments that individual Socceroos are lacking ambition, which he said will impact his selection for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Iraq and UAE.
While Slater believes Australia will qualify for the World Cup, he noted that Postecolgou speaking about these topics sets off “alarm bells.”
He also said that Australia over-achieved with the players they had at the 2015 Asian Cup, but now the Socceroos simply don’t have players good enough to play at the levels of those from the ‘Golden Generation’.
The Fox Football Podcast gang are back as Adam Peacock, Simon Hill and Daniel Garb run the rule over the game’s big issues.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/robbie-slaters-warning-to-ffa-there-is-a-revolt-on-its-way/news-story/09c58a9281919bc74342997bf5d172d5