The mainstream media... Enough said


What do you think about the FourFourTwo article Government Clears FFA On Bid Spending?
Football Federation Australia has been cleared of allegations that it attempted to mislead the Federal Government over the spending of money in the bid for the 2022 World Cup.

Have your say.

yea fuck The Age.

the damage has been done.

fuck the rival codes.

Any chance of libel action??

No one should Kidd themselves that the AFL are not all over this. The Age is all but owned by the AFL. I long ago stopped believing the only Melbourne broadsheet would hold out against the AFL. Their unsubstantiated actions every day this past week were un-Australian, tabloid gutter trash.

And expect more noise from rival codes to come as December draws nearer. Despite the good-will image the AFL and Co put on a football world cup in Australia would be disasterous for them and they will do all they can to stop it.

Even if the bid team were making some dishonest transactions in their campaign effort I don't really mind. All of our competitors for 2022 will be doing the same.

Good thing I don't bother with The Age... how unaustralian are they to report on something that could potentially derail an event (that's already cost millions in tax payers money) and it turned out to be just an informal document that had no bearing on the financial situation of the bid. But its out there and the mis-informed will just shout louder.

I'm sure Andrew Demitriou is somehow behind all this ...

now sue!!! Why should we take second position and just cop this shit! There is only 1 football

Should start suing i think.

However it wont affect the bid one bit. If FIFA clear it as well then its like it never happened.

what's going on? Fairfax newspapers are now anti-Aus 2022 while News Ltd papers are pro-bid with a series of articles countering those from fairfax?

Edited by westie: 4/7/2010 09:46:08 PM

we could use the money to continue the development of football in Australia! It's win win.

Ltd News is not pro-Bid, they're just anti-Fairfax

I wonder if the age has or will print a retraction?

maybe one line buried on page 36....

When I see or hear another negative headline about Football I immediately look at the author. 9 times out of 10 there is a dinosaur name with a hidden agenda and that’s what needs to be common knowledge in the public.

Its got to be out there.

Before you believe it, look at who wrote it.

If it says Rebecca Wilson, Peter Fitzsimons, Steve Price, Phil Rothfeild, Paul Kent, Neil “whats his name” and a host of others, SHRED IT!

I'm not sure what has happened at The Age. In the first 3 years of the A-league they were supportive. Now every chance they get they kick the game.

IMO the FFA should fet the legal eagles on to them and sue the pants off them for defamation. It NEEDS to be done, as The Age has crossed the line, and if its not they'll do it again. The following two paragraphs from Buckley suggest a legal suit is on the cards:

"FFA CEO Ben Buckley said he was pleased that the Government had given FFA a clean bill of health over its financial reporting and any suggestions of dual accounts were outrageous and defamatory.

"We told The Age at the beginning that there was no issue with our accounts and it is extremely disappointing that they went ahead and made these damaging claims anyway," Buckley said.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It's funny you say that one

What exactly are you trying to say?

Sueing them would also be a huge story which would hopefuly carry to everyone that read the stupid article and show them that this was wrong. As for the age I dont read it but them and all the other press against them should take a step back and relise what they are harming with these stories

Not exactly a reprint they say it as though the FFA are lieing and they have it right

FFA given all-clear for 2022 bid
July 4, 2010 - 5:19PM

AAP

Football Federation Australia says it has been cleared of allegations it attempted to mislead the federal government over the use of funding allocated for the 2022 World Cup bid.

FFA said in a statement on Sunday it had willingly opened its books for an investigation by the government's Football World Cup Bid Taskforce and had been cleared of any wrongdoing.

The examination followed Fairfax newspaper reports last week which suggested the federal government was not told specific details about how taxpayers' money was to be spent on the lobbyists and grants to overseas football bodies headed by powerful FIFA officials.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Rejecting any suggestions of dual account keeping, FFA said on Sunday the government had accepted the document which formed the basis for the reports was merely "an informal planning document".

FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said suggestions of dual accounts were "outrageous and defamatory" and could cause unnecessary damage to Australia's bid for the tournament.

"We are involved in an extremely sophisticated and competitive process where we are trying to bring the biggest sporting event in the world to Australia but we have always said that we would play by the rules," Buckley said.

"All of our operations are in line with FIFA guidelines and our financial reporting meets our obligations under the funding agreement with the government and any suggestion otherwise is completely wrong and the government has accepted that.

"The eyes of the football world are on this bidding process and any misleading suggestions and or implications have the potential to cause significant damage to the bid, FFA and Australia."

The newspaper report said "secret" FFA files revealed two European lobbyists hired to help bring the cup to Australia stood to receive up to $11.37 million in fees and bonuses between them if the bid was successful.

The reports last week also claimed around $50,000 of bid funding had been spent on gifts of pearl necklaces and pearl cufflinks for some of the FIFA executive committee members and their wives.

FIFA's executive committee will in December determine which nations hosts the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.

Australia's main rivals to host the 2022 tournament include the US and Qatar.

Still consists of smear & innuendo. FIFA will also clear the FFA as the bid team has done everything to the letter of the law per Buckley's letter in late June. Why does the The Age/SMH continue to repeat or reference their reports containing these allegations when they know it's baseless? I'm amazed that the journalists are still on staff - they have got this one so wrong, most damaging for Fairfax they first went to print without considering the FFA response. Headlong into the frying pan of defamation;

http://www.theage.com.au/national/ben-bucklys-letter-in-full-20100629-zj4u.html

The Age and the rest of the anti-football media in Australia is not our biggest enemy. The enemy who's easily identified can only do so much damage.

Our biggest enemy are the "friends" of our sport who work in the "sokka" media and never miss an opportunity to put the A-League, the Socceroos or the FFA down and also the fake football "supporters" and their "multis" who raid football forums such as this and use every unsubstantiated negative story published anywhere at all they can get their hands on and use it to undermine the good work the FFA has been doing for our sport during the last 6 years by turning unsuspecting football supporters against it.

That's our biggest enemy and it's much more dangerous and effective than the Age newspaper, because it's the enemy from within.

I see that the World media has given our bid a clean bill of health. More people read Soccernet every day than would read The Age. Just putting things in perspective.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/805853/ce/uk/?cc=4716&ver=global

As has been stated from day one of this, it is a non issue. I hope that the FFA carry through with their defamation case against them.

You certainly have to question the timing of this story. An inflamitory, anti-football article right in the middle of the world cup. Sounds like the authors of this story were sitting on it waiting for the most damaging time to release it.

FFA.