By libelous - 14 Jan 2021 9:18 PM
Fox Sports, as the broadcast partner to both Football Federation Australia and, more recently, Football Australia, has exerted a great deal of influence in how the game is run here.
But should they be solely to blame for the current state of the A League, after all they were just buying content for their sports channels. It seems that they were given ' carte blanche' by the FFA as long as they 'stumped up the cash'. It would seem that Lowy (senior and junior) along with various CEO's who were totally unsuitable for the job, are being held responsible for today's ills. So is it fair to put too much blame on Fox Sports.
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By libelous - 16 Jan 2021 7:35 PM
+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+xCertainly James Johnson and the 'new' Football Australia administration seem to be putting the game first rather than sitting back and 'taking the money' which is what previous administrators seemed happy to do. I guess, in that context, Fox aren't the main 'villain', although, having watched Optus Sports coverage of this seasons J League I have to say Fox offering is amateurish at best. That Dazn are a likely lot. They stream everywhere that matters overseas. If Greg O'Rourke & co could invite them over for a bbq and beers, maybe they could stream A League. The product is good, so with a massive company like them, the profile could raise and the Apl could attract more business in time. They stream boxing at the minute as they try to get a foot hold on these shores. You can blame foxsports. Or FFA. But surely the clubs are also responsible. They wanted the $$$ too. We’ll see which direction the league heads for broadcast rights for next season.
I got a feeling it will be all about the money money money, too. And likely foxsports the highest bidder! The clubs had no say in the tv deal - it was entirely an FFA thing. That was one of the central arguments over independence Stan & ch9 are looking like they will make a bid for the A League later in the season...A League hub twitter. "are looking like" ..are they ? how do you know ? Pretty much a done deal apparently I haven't heard anything - except that Delaney wants to take FA and APL guys out to lunch. If indeed it is a done deal then discussion may well be about gaining control of the back-catalog of A-League, FFA Cup, Socceroo and Matidas games that Fox own. Taking back content and the FA and/or APL owning it would be important going forward as future media/streaming deals are negotiated.
I think that part of the new broadcast deal included handing over archival footage of the Socceroos and Matilda’s games.
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