After Rebecca Wilson comes Neil Mitchell courtesy of the Herald Sun.

Please do not buy this paper.

Its un-Australian for me to read that shit and offer an opinion.

God, I hate the term "un-Australian". Such a cop out and just gives me mental images of bogans.

(I also hate football being called a "code". Its not a code, its a frakking sport!)

The blatant cheating is frustrating but that’s what comes playing against different cultures and if AFL or NRL was played around the world they would have exactly the same problem.

It’s a bit rich him bagging the A League. My bet is he has never watched a game.

I’m wondering if Football is in such a bad state why would he bother writing a story full of hate?

its weird this whole line the ALF spruikers run about being football fans being off with the pixies... From a game that lives in its own reality that doesn't extend beyond the southern states of one country. And jokers like Mitchell laugh when we use the word 'football' !!!

they have their own little planet and are welcome to it :lol:

in one sense, i just wish they'd leave us in peace and quit commenting on a game they despise. But on the other hand, every time one of them goes on a rant it just reinforces how desperately disconnected from the rest of the world they are. Which is really just digging their own grave... anyone with a brain of their own can see through all the bluster. We just need more of Australia's opinion makers and leaders speaking up to bring the sheep along with us.

I actually find myself shaking with rage. Even at the end saying that football struggles in Australia well at least it puts up a fight, is the AFL to un Australian and cowardly to do this in other countries or is the game really just that shit?

If we manage to jag the World Cup there will be years of these un educated pannick attacks.

The Victorian player numbers are strange!

Edited by Gotheberries: 1/7/2010 03:41:12 PM

Lol. He's complaining about "force feeding" when he's an AFL nut.

The AFL is spending a couple hundred million force feeding AFL in Western Sydney.

And LOL @ the "keepers blame everyone but themselves". Fucking moron. They are the defensive 'captain' so to speak, and it's their job to organise.

And AFL isn't peachy clean either. See Barry Hall king-hitting a guy roughly every 2 to 3 months, in assaults that would, ironically, see him jailed for 2 to 3 months if he did it out on the street.

Or that guy who got banned for 12 weeks. Because trying to break the hand of your opponent is so completely "Australian" that it's an outrage he was even cited.

Edited by macktheknife: 1/7/2010 03:42:48 PM

lol

Our game is far to quick for waiting on Video replays. Our game is to fast to take a few minutes to pat so and so on the back for missing a sitter, Our players are to bright to play with a punctured lung and the list goes on.

It ws a good laugh but now back to work.

These types of rants are very common here. Based on fear and jealousy.


If Football eradicated diving, faking injury, Referee errors would Neil and his mates follow the game. No. So as I said it’s based on fear and jealousy!

Thanks for the plug Neil. Stuff like this is great, it's so over the top that only old blokes will agree with it while the rest will be thinking hmmmm if this goose likes AFL I am not sure I wan't to be associated with it.

I just laugh at him calling footballers soft, I would much rather be on the end of Barry Hall's fists than a hardman like Muscat's studs. Even saying we would rush off to intensive care for something minor demonstrates his complete lack of knowledge. One only has to type in names like Antonio Puerta and Miklos Feher into google to know that some footballers have put up with much more than a punctured lung and have actually given so much that they have died on the field

nmitchell@3aw.com.au

You know what you have to do.

I wouldn't bother ...mitchell is a shock jock , thats just what he is fishing for...

Who cares these stupid articles will come and go but football will keep getting stronger in this country. His writings are fantasy the growth of football is a reality.
Interestingly enough, I was thinking that the Socceroos will always drive the most media attention. I long for the day A-league can do the same then I think football will be unstopable in this country.

I dont know where to start with how poor this article, there is just so much BS. THe thing that pisses me off though the most is this 'Un-Australian' BS that people like this use. Its like there higher and mighter than everyone else and they know best. Quiet frankely people like neil are a national embarrassment.

not to worry, football will be around long after he is dead.



surely you're not advising someone here should subscribe his work email to a wide selection of undesirable and smut filled websites are you?

why, could you image if web marshal alerted whoever manages the 3aw server that mr mitchell was found to be receiving explicit content from vomitfartmidgetturd.com...

Why get upset by it, anyone under 30 would be unimpressed by this piece. Dinosaurs like this one are fantastic because they give the immpression AFL is for old angry white racists. That's not the case but the more Cornes, Wilsons and Mitchels their are the better, if they say they liked Coca Cola I think coke consumption would drop.
Now if only we could shut up foz so we can take the moral high ground

ALl you have to do is look at the ratings SBS has been getting and compare them to the AFL, case closed.

I'd rather see players dive than AFL players getting drunk in public or doing drugs, causing trouble and being arrested for it . Strange how they don't describe AFL players being locked up by the police for causing trouble as "un-Australian".

fucking racist prick

but this on the other hand

Praising real football
•   TORY SHEPHERD
•   From: The Advertiser
ALL sports were not created equal. Soccer is clearly the greatest show on Earth. There's a good reason it has achieved world domination. A soccer game combines graceful dance moves with steely determination. It is edge-of-your-seat nerves, soaring elation, strategic brilliance.
Soccer is also the broadest sporting church. Diversity is embraced and rewarded. You can be a compact, stocky, solid performer or a lanky, large-handed goalkeeper.
There's a spot for everyone.
In the battle of the football codes, the biggest criticism of soccer is that there are not enough goals - that you can sit there, often in the cold and the rain, for 90 minutes and still end up with a nil-all draw, or with the result decided by a penalty shoot-out.
Oh, please.
In football, goals are as common as muck and less exciting for their proliferation. In soccer, a goal is the climax of a series of moves as complex as a chess game.
All 11 players are involved, using their wiles to draw the opposition away, creating space for the ball's soaring and skidding movements, and then - ah, joy - finally seeing it cross that tantalising line.
Games are built, move by move, tactics relentlessly leading to that final attempt on goal.
Any moves to increase the number of goals in the game (by tampering with the offside rule, for example) must be resisted with full force because more goals would mean the inevitable cheapening of each mark on the scoreboard.
The other big criticism of soccer it that it is not tough enough.
It is true that soccer is a nominally non-contact sport and has a much lower hospitalisation rate from injuries. It relies on more targeted strength, skill and speed. If that is soft, then so be it.
There is no doubt AFL and rugby are tougher games. Both are more of a smash-and-grab variety of sport, which has its own appeal for some, no doubt.
People have forever been chasing blown up pigs' bladders around the ground, but in soccer that game has reached the pinnacle of evolution. Survival of the fittest used to mean victory for the caveman who could win the object of his desire through brute force.
But times have changed, so intelligence and beauty triumph. So soccer triumphs over football.
We are about to witness the world's most important sporting event, the 2010 World Cup. It is no exaggeration to say that this competition has global ramifications. South Africa will be scrutinised, experienced and broadcast like never before. This is an opportunity for them to prove their human-rights objectives, to invest in infrastructure that will cope with the hordes of rabid fans, that they can control crime in some of the most notoriously dangerous places.
It could push them leagues ahead or leave them shamed in the eyes of the world.
Each World Cup also alters the way countries feel about each other. A dishonourable tackle, an unfair result, poor refereeing decisions, the occasional head butt or dive can subtly shift relationships.
In some insular parts of the world (the US springs to mind), soccer may be a rare opportunity to learn the names, faces and characteristics of people from other countries. A lesson in geography and in human similarities and differences.
In Australia, more children - girls in particular - are playing the world game than ever before. Soccer unites us as we all are judged by the same rules. It rises above differences in beliefs and cultures.
The only thing left is to take back its proper name - football - and let the lesser codes fend for themselves.
FOOTBALL DOWN THE AGES
•   The earliest game of football proven to exist was a military exercise in China almost 2000 years ago, and comprised kicking a leather ball into a small net. Since then similar games have flourished all over the world.
•   Scholars have speculated that in ancient times the ball represented the sun, which "had to be conquered to secure a bountiful harvest".
•   Football (soccer) as we know it became official in 1863 in England when the Football Association was formed as a distinct entity from rugby.
•   Association football then spread rapidly throughout the world, and FIFA was founded in 1904. The first World Cup was held in 1930.
•   Australian football developed as an offshoot of rugby, devised in the 1850s by Australian Tom Wills after his schooling in England.

You had best not compare to either the afl or nrl over the WC period. You won't like what you see.

Really, how well does the AFL rate at midnight or at 4.30 am in the morning?

Surely Japan v Paraguay would compare to an AFL team from say the Brisbane league versus say a WAFL club...how would that rate for the good old AFL...on SBS?

Or the NRL equivalent.....

Edited by joffa: 1/7/2010 10:26:57 PM

But it doesn't need to rate at midnight or 4.30am, the WC does. You can only play the cards you're dealt. 'What if's' don't count in ratings, Joffa.



A ridiculous analogy, Joffa. The once in 4 years, biggest event in world football, compared with a state league game that doesn't exist? Come on.
The WC ratings dropped drastically after the Germany loss and obviously, more so after Australia dropped out.

PAR V JPN got 208,000 btw. England/Germany was the best lately with 503k

I hastily read the article and there are a couple of things that stand out to me:

1. I'm amazed at the outright arrogance of the AFL crowd in Victoria. Zealot does not even begin to describe... I grew up in northern NSW where AFL has always been a 'novelty', but i was always interested in (or played) other codes as well as football. To me sport is sport and they're all good, but i like some more than others. Live and let live.

2. I can't help but feel bigoted undertones in this article. Its as if the writer has never travelled outside of Australia (I mean really travelled, not just an organised tour of Europe with a bunch of other Aussies). There's no outright racist comments, but i just get an impression of what the writer might be like from the tone of the article.

3. Why does he feel the need to write about it? When i ask myself this question, i can only assume that the compulsion stems from a 'mine's bigger than yours' mentality. Which, i believe, comes from insecurity.

TBH, its probably not uncommon for (true) football supporters to write similarly toned articles defending the rise of football in Aus. Alot of the time these articles appear to be ultra defensive, bristling almost. I shake my head at these too.

I tried to add a comment on the Herald Sun site in response to this article but it appears that nothing was added. Seems about right as they only ever seem to accept comments that back up the writers opinion.

The fact is that if to be Australian you need to be a thug, as AFL players are, with limited skills, then we really are a nation with no hope. The fact that the AFL and its PR machine do not understand the game and go in so biased against anything that threatens their game, I really see no hope of any change. The AFL control so much of the media's attention and any chance they have to get negative words out there about Football, they do it. Its no holds barred.

The whole WC bidding issue was uncovered with people with agendas, which would unlikely to have been the case if it was an Olympic bid. Football seems to genertae so much hate, namely because there is a fear of what it could do in this country, to upset the status quo.

It was expected that the ratings would drop if things did not go that well for the Socceroos. most people watching are ustralian fans, not football ones. Im surprised that the numbers are still quite high, given the times and the loss of interest from many.

It goes to show Football still has its attraction to many in this country, even without Australian involved.

http://www.theage.com.au/world-cup-2010/world-cup-news/world-cup-push-nets-aid-cash-20100701-zqpm.html

RICHARD BAKER AND NICK MCKENZIE
July 2, 2010
.EXCLUSIVE
AUSTRALIA'S World Cup bid team has used the nation's foreign aid budget, and proposed appointing key FIFA officials as honorary consuls, as part of its strategy to win backing for its campaign.

The revelations come as FIFA announced in Johannesburg that it would investigate reports in the Herald that Australian bid officials handed out jewellery and paid travel costs for a Trinidad and Tobago football team.

''FIFA can confirm that it is looking into this matter. For the time being, FIFA cannot disclose any other details or make any further comment,'' the sport's governing body said.

The Herald can reveal that the federal aid agency AusAID agreed to help Football Federation Australia's bid to host the World Cup and has increased funding for aid programs in Africa and Oceania.

The FFA is trying to win support from the African and Oceania representatives on FIFA's all-powerful executive committee - a group of 24 men who decide the location of the World Cup.

Government sources said the FFA took the extraordinary step last year of raising with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade the possibility of appointing FIFA executive committee members to official Australian representative positions, known as honorary consuls.

It is understood that last year the FFA discussed appointing the Ivory Coast FIFA executive committee member, Jacques Adamou, and the then British FIFA executive committee member, Geoff Thompson, to the roles.

Mr Thompson, who recently replaced Lord David Triesman as the head of England's 2018 World Cup bid team, is reportedly close to the FFA's highly paid lobbyist Peter Hargitay.

Under federal rules, honorary consuls are appointed only ''where there is a demonstrated need for an Australian presence to provide consular services''.

A foreign affairs spokesman said the government had discussions with the FFA on how best to support the bid but had ''not appointed honorary consuls in relation to the FFA bid''. Sources said it was unlikely the department would support the request.

Documents reveal AusAID's director-general, Bruce Davis, was told by FFA figures in March last year that they were ''looking for the capacity to provide Australian aid assistance that is identifiably 'football-delivered' and football-relevant, though not necessarily football-exclusive''.

It is understood that last year the then prime minister, Kevin Rudd, other ministers and senior public servants supported FFA's overseas strategy to help win either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Australia has since withdrawn its 2018 bid.

A former Department of Foreign Affairs deputy secretary, Paul Barrett, said any proposal to appoint FIFA officials as honorary consuls was ''improper'' and that the aid budget should be distributed with the aims of reducing poverty and promoting development. ''If aid is motivated by a desire to host the World Cup, then it would fail to meet these primary aims.''

Aid to Africa was increased about the time the FFA was lobbying the government to back its strategy of winning support from African nations with influence on FIFA's executive.

In 2009-10 the government increased aid spending in Africa by 40 per cent to $163 million. There is no suggestion this was due to FFA lobbying.

It is understood the government also viewed the increase as helpful for its bid to win a seat on the UN Security Council. Australia has also agreed to a tenfold increase in tertiary scholarships for African students by 2012-13.

Department sources familiar with Mr Rudd's involvement in the bid confirmed he was told by the FFA that it was putting ''a lot of effort into Africa and the four voting members from the African continent''. They are Egypt, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Nigeria.

In one briefing to Mr Rudd, the FFA advised: ''We have had a preliminary discussion with AusAID about a similar program in some [African] countries as the one we recently signed with Oceania.''

Australian embassies and high commissions in Africa have hosted cocktail parties for FIFA executive committee members using bid funds. AusAID has been approached to support FFA projects in Asia and the Caribbean.

The government announced in August that $4 million would be provided over four years for ''football-delivered'' aid to the Pacific in partnership with the Oceania Football Confederation, which has a vote on FIFA's committee.

Oceania has one FIFA executive committee member, Reynald Temarii from Tahiti. Working with the A-League sponsor, Hyundai, the FFA has delivered cars to each football association in Oceania, except New Zealand.

The FFA's multimillion-dollar consultants, Mr Hargitay, Fedor Radmann and Andreas Abold, have been strongly involved in the Africa strategy. At their suggestion, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, and the Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis, have attended FIFA junior football tournaments.

Mr Abold arranged for Archbishop Desmond Tutu to visit a South African hospital with the FFA chairman, Frank Lowy, and the FFA chief executive, Ben Buckley, last year.

The FFA donated $150,000 to a hospital and Archbishop Tutu declared his support for Australia. Last month in South Africa FFA spent $160,000 providing lap-desks to township children outside Johannesburg, adding to a government program.

This week, the Herald revealed the FFA planned to pay up to $11.37 million in taxpayer-funded fees and bonuses to Mr Radmann and Mr Hargitay.

FIFA's executive committee is to announce the successful bidders in December. The FFA has insisted its bid is above board. It declined to comment on the new allegations.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

It just gets worse. These media organisations are trying to rip the bid apart it seems, one part at a time. The fact that so much is going into destroying the bid really does raise questions as to the objectives of the media. Is there a kind of 'influence' being pushed on them by their NRL and AFL interests? Maybe that should be investigated too so that we have a clear and even representation of the facts, not just sensationalism.

This is how you get these events, just as political parties promise election sweeteners at election time. Do they not see any kind of logic here at all in reporting this? These are just ways of promising a legacy, which all bids would be doing. Qatar is promising to give away most of the stands and seating to African and Asian nations for instance, along with whatever else has not been reported. Every country wants to see some kind of benifit unfortunately and we have to play the FIFA game to get this prize.

It just annoys me. This country tries everything to rip itself apart. Self interest groups, NIMBY's through to sporting code wars, is there no maturity in this country at all to run a sensible country, with ambition and drive. Instead we are stuck with 1950s mentality, where the suburbs are still villages and skyscrapers are a new thing. Times change and so should those minds stuck in the past.

I am not a fucking lawyer but my reading the article does not seem to indicate any improper activity on behalf of the FFA

But the article heading and the way it is worded has the implication that there is

The fucking unsavoury behaviour of the Bogans that have media authority and approval to espouse these mislead arguments is well: I do not know what to fucking say anymore
:evil:

I agree. Its the implication and the fact that it is designed to terminally damage the bids credibility with not only the readers of the paper but also add fire to our rivals. You would not see this from many countries fighting for a WC, as they know what damage it would cause.

it does seem that every time the AFL (think about milne case being revisted , or players pissed off with MRP )
or the NRL (think racial issues last week,rumours of TITANS also being over salary cap) has issues in the media ,out trots the journo's with Football related pieces designed to deflect attention away from the above issues. Just thinkin out aloud....: )

Great point. I would love to see some transparency in the reporting of stories and the strategies used by media outlets to influence the way stories are presented and the damage limitation afterwards. The use of deflectionary tactics is clear in this case, as is the AFL's consistent ambush marketing style when other events are on. Announcements on key days of other sports and the media uptake to take away the spotlight from anything else really do seem 'un-Australian':) If the words can be used to go against Football, then a mirror would illustrate just how hypocryitical they really are in their stances taken.

I think somebody, anybody needs to put a stop to this kind of thing. It's obvious to anyone who wants to see it that the AFL/NRL have too much influence on the media and it isn't just effecting Football but other sports which are left out in the cold in order to give more limelight to these bloated, overemphasised sports full of overgrown children. These kinds of articles are written by stupid white men (yes, I count Ms. Wilson as one too) who I'm sure would have a lovely time talking to Pauline Hanson.

Edited by thatguybayne: 2/7/2010 03:54:29 PM

I had to laugh most when the AOC (Australian Olympic Commitee) asked or its additional funding, James Heard's (or however it is spelt)consultancy business put in a submission that stated sports like the AFL should get the money instead. The media ran with it too, trying to say it was a smarter idea than wasting cash on sports no one cares about. How the logic of that can be justified, I would have no idea. The AOC were even willing to go to court to get the full contents of that submission, yet the media at the time did not give anywhere near a fair and equitable say for the AOC.

The fact that the AFL is swimming in money now and wastes it to the extent it will, with GWS for instance just for prestige, really goes to show how rediculous sports planning and the power of a few are in this country. Its like an exclusive club :) Everyone else must wait as the guestlist only includes the powerful.

I would like us take football more seriously as a country, but with crap like this on an ongoing basis, I see it staying as a niche professional sport, fighting for the scraps. Its the sad reality it seems. Real change needs to occur before the balance of power shifts.





Edited by Heart_fan: 2/7/2010 05:02:05 PM

   
   

How would you propose that to be done in a democracy with press freedom as it's backbone? Have the FFA and FIFA run our legislature?

We have liable laws for those that think they're wronged by the press. I'd like to be as certain of winning lotto as I am that Fairfax would run everything they print past their in house legal department.

My mistake, News Limited.

Edited by skeptic: 2/7/2010 05:57:26 PM

This part of the article is just amazing, extremely one eyed. The keepers arent bagging the defence there trying to get them into shape and motivate them.

And that last line 'Bagging your mates is, and always has been, un-Australian'. WHAT THE FUCK? What planet is this guy on, its not even football related but what hes saying is unbelievable. Just amongst my group of friends we bag each other to no end whether someone is a gook, wog, jew,arab or gay, its just all shits a giggles. you can ask a foreigner and it seems its 'Australian' to hang shit on people ( or thats the general consensus i get from my mates who are from overseas). That statement alone shows how out of touch Mitchell is.

Prior to this there were at least two "humorous" digs at football in The Age within two days, one by Danny Katz. Many football fans commented their objections at the blatant attempts to undermine the game, thinly veiled as "humor". Odcourse the bogans were there with their "diving prima-donna, weak, unAustrlaina comments.

I commented on the above article in The Age. I pointed out that this just sensationalist journalism designed to disrupt the WC bid, and that this was not surprising as a lot of people at The Age depend on reporting on AFL events to earn a living. You only need to look at the ginormous billboard at Etihad proclaiming The Age: Real Footy. that The Age has a vested interest in undermining the game. .My comment never got published. Plenty of bogans comments did.

What surprises me is that I expected this from the Herald Sun. But I suppose the fact that even The Age has gotten in on the football bashing tells me just how much they fear football

BTW type in Ben Buckley in The Age search and out will spout about one dozen articles in the past 2-3 days all with a negative tone

Expect the negativity to increase in the lead up to the hosting announcement in December. Next we will see attacks on FIFA and key FIFA officials, continued attacks on FFA officials, A-League clubs and God help us if there is any type of trouble at an A-League or State League match.

Can you imagine the reaction of this Bogan country should we by some slim chance actually be successful with our bid

The reaction across the country will be UN Australian

so if i prefer to eat fried rice , or spaghetti bolognese instead of a meat pie am i un-australian ?
F**K off Mitchell and Wilson and any one else who wants to tell me whats Australian and what isn't

mate that type of attitude is Un Australian.

Edited by joffa: 2/7/2010 11:46:44 PM

\:d/

:-" :-" :-" :-"

It's funny you use the words freedom and democracy when you've got the press telling us what sports are and aren't acceptable to please thier NRL/AFL masters.