https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/a-league-chief-faces-music-but-there-are-bigger-issues-20180921-p50553.html

I assume you won't post the second half of the article anywhere here among your snippets which was the crux of the article saying he has been talking lots to cops and active supporters etc etc and that's unfortunately being drowned out by the stupid comment?

I mean the man is clearly a bit of a buffoon but still...

So this pretty much confirms a hasty backflip on the music idea?

Thank God.

And that's probably bollocks as well,

Same as last time he (or Gallop) talked about crowd treatment and the time before that and the time before that

anyhow , this is the thread for his confirmed buffoonery

Home time but next week I'll dig out his going on about a Brisbane expansion bid being absolutely ridiculous

Just for you

Come on now, surely you can't believe this is anything more than hey look at us, we are trying to do something now because we are in the shit. 

Its what FFA and co do time and time again, all talk. 

Its all too little too late, considering active support is where it is now because of their actions and in actions, no one gives a shit what they do or say now. 

On the day of the A-League Launch

"We're looking at getting some better ones" 

THE A-League could welcome more rock-star arrivals midseason, with FFA chiefs set to reignite their marquee player pursuits in coming months as Keisuke Honda headlines the 2018-19 campaign.

Fernando Torres and Zlatan Ibrahimovic top A-League boss Greg O’Rourke’s wishlist once they’re available.

Former Liverpool star Torres looms as an option in January, with O’Rourke admitting they came within a whisker of signing the Spanish ace several months ago.

The 2018-19 season kicks off this weekend.

Japanese star Honda, one of the biggest signings in ALeague history, will debut for Melbourne Victory on Saturday and headlines the best batch of signings since the Alessandro Del Piero era.

Torres opted for Japanese side Sagan Tosu, who are locked in a relegation battle – the drop would likely trigger a release clause in December – with Mathieu Flamini (Bris- bane), Obafemi Martins and Michael Essien (Wellington Phoenix) among those pursued in recent months.

Ibrahimovic signed a two year deal for LA Galaxy, but last month hinted that he may leave next year.

Around $1 million remains in the A-League/W-League’s $3 million marquee kitty, with a portion used to secure Sam Kerr’s stay at Perth Glory.

One A-League club is trying to sign an uncontracted star in coming weeks.

But January looms as the most likely time for the next batch of big-name arrivals.

“We’ll be focusing most of our efforts on the January transfer window,’’ O’Rourke said. “That will require us revisiting a few names we’ve gone after before and were unsuccessful with.

“We were really close to landing Fernando Torres and we will again chase players like him and Zlatan if they become available. We’ve secured two marquees, Honda and Sam Kerr, so it still leaves a reasonable amount of money.”

You'd think he was in charge of a club the way he talks about signing players

Theres a reason why the clubs dont want these players. This bloke is a moron. An absolute moron.

I actually think hes been doing a great job. The most active head of A league we have had.
Marquees are a necessary evil atm to attract fans of football but not the a league

Crowds and Ratings would've dropped even more without his efforts ?

I think he has been inhibited by the Lowys in previous seasons, and this season he was given a licence to actually do his job

With or without him wouldn't have made a difference. The FFA were too busy in other areas to focus on the league. 
Gallop has always been a Lowy puppet unfortunately - and O'Rourke is one further down the chain.
Maybe with new administration they'll both get an opportunity to flourish. .who knows.
Bit hard to be a leader under a dictatorship.

A-League chief Greg O'Rourke is heartened by strong opening-round crowds and the quality of play but puzzled by low television ratings.

First dates always carry excitement and so it was with the A-League's season openers.

Round one attracted almost 18,000 more spectators than last season's series of first dates.

All host clubs banked attendances larger than their average for last season.

Even the A-League's problem child, Wellington Phoenix, scrubbed up OK.

Though the 9174 crowd in Wellington was the lowest of the round, the attendance was Phoenix's biggest in 26 home games.

The round one crowd aggregate of 84,761 - compared with 66,814 last season - were treated to compelling football.

All clubs scored goals - the first time that has happened in the same round since round two last season, when it happened for the only time in the 2017/18 campaign.

And there were no blowouts.

Three 1-1 draws and a pair of 2-1 victories, perhaps, offer early evidence of what could be one of the A-League's tightest seasons.

A-League chief Greg O'Rourke certainly hopes so.

"We focused on a few things this year, but two in particular," O'Rourke told AAP on Wednesday.

"One was what initiatives are we going to bring to the game and the fan experiences, and the second thing is the quality on the park.

"It seems to have worked on both measures.

"Everybody is saying the quality on the park seems to be really good.

"And what is important about this is it's not just in one or two teams, you can see quality in all the teams which is reflected in the goals and the scores."

The opening round crowd figure was bolstered by some shrewd scheduling, including the Melbourne derby which drew 40,504 spectators.

The A-League debut of Japanese megastar Keisuke Honda for Melbourne Victory helped produce the 11th largest crowd for an A-League home-and-away game.

However, low television ratings puzzled O'Rourke.

Sydney FC's away opener against Adelaide United was watched by 67,000 on broadcaster Fox Sports - the smallest viewership for a season opener since 2011/12.

About 70,000 viewers watched the channel's coverage of the Melbourne derby, down 30,000 from last season's Saturday night opener between Victory and Sydney.

"That 30 per cent drop in the Fox number, we were surprised by. We're going to dig a little bit deeper (to find out why)," O'Rourke said.

But digital engagements over the first round were well above last year.

O'Rourke said engagements on Twitter were up 185 per cent year-on-year, with Facebook (up 19 per cent) and the league's website traffic (up 34 per cent) all increasing.

That's probably a decent reason as to why traditional broadcasting figures are down - people aren't idiots, they can (and do) consume content more digitally these days. If the MyFootball app had the ability to Chromecast then I'd ditch Foxtel in a heartbeat.

So would I, but then it would violate the contract with fox.

Not singling you out, but it's incredibly evident that most people talking about what's happening don't actually know what's happening.

“O’Rourke also forecast a change in interpretation to VAR offside calls from this weekend (R2) in the A-League.” 

 “We hope to roll out an improved interpretation from round two.” 

 https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/aleague-bosses-lobbying-for-var-process-explanations-in-stadiums-and-on-broadcasts/news-story/c8e8ad65bdbe95a21ee9ee9a208286fc?fbclid=IwAR2BepcL4zJ7qJtZNAOQ1ZLxmbtoFsg4ggXErn9w6wHWhykb6lzga3yze2U

It's good to know that the rules just change as we go...

they won't get rid of the var all the leagues will have it soon 

I know that. I was being a bit of a dick with that post.

VAR will remain but our refs are not good enough to execute it.

" Head of A-League Greg O’Rourke told FTBL he would not be commenting on the matter for now."

https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/merrick-blames-video-refs-for-var-farce-514691

why ?

1. Because Gallop's decided to talk about it this week?
2. Because he said he'd fix it before Round 2

That dude still exists?

-PB

anyone listen to his interview on daily football show last night thought he was ok

He was very honest and thoughful with his answers. I like the new direction the FFA are taking the game.

The negativity must stop, says A-League boss

With A-League expansion locked in and a new look Football Federation Australia board at the helm, Head of Leagues Greg O’Rourke has pleaded for negativity surrounding the game to stop.

While the past week has been one of progress for the A-League, the competition has been plagued by issues on and off the pitch in recent times with fans voicing their discontent.

A new FFA board led by chairman Chris Nikkou however does promise a potential new era for Australian football, with O'Rourke stressing a mind shift from many is necessary to ensure the game can move forward.

“I’d like to take the negativity out of the commentary around the game,” O’Rourke said on The Daily Football Show.

“The fans called for expansion. We expanded. The fans and commentators asked for marquee players to liven up the league, we did that.

“People want us to talk about second division. We’re now getting groups in place to actually work through that with a genuine position.

“All this sort of stuff is what everyone was asking to do, we’re doing it, and yet we find that we continue to turn on ourselves and talk about ourselves in such a negative way.

“If we were talking about the game and the progress we’ve made in a positive way, I just wonder how successful this game could be if people stop the negativity and started talking it up.”

O'Rourke will be hoping the football can do the talking on the pitch this weekend with a Melbourne and F3 derby to look forward to in the A-League.

https://www.goal.com/en-au/amp/news/the-negativity-must-stop-says-a-league/fbtbm6tj1uqc1p5upcleibtzz?__twitter_impression=true

O'Rourke reads these forums.

Has a point to be fair

Yes indeed he does have a strong point.

We can have everything everyone has been bitching about and yet we will still get negativity.

the negativity persists because the nuvo new dawners are slowly waking up to the fact that they are gullible fools