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SOCCER - AUTUMN 2022


Dolfan in NYC

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On 11/16/2022 at 6:34 AM, Marcel said:

If I'm reading this right, they're going to pay $780M to build the stadium, but none of that will go to buying the land.  They'll pay $4M per year in rent  Well, it's not like City Football Group doesn't have the money to do it. 

And NYCFC needs to get out of Yankee Stadium.  Having to play "home" games at RBA and in Los Angeles is a bad look for the League in general and the club in particular.

I hope that's at least a 30 year lease.

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4 hours ago, odessasteps said:

It's weird to have the women's league and the lower leagues still playing. 

A bunch of Prem teams have played friendlies as well (Palace vs Botafogo, Leicester vs Troyes, and even Chelsea vs Villa today in Abu Dhabi).

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I forgot to mention that in years past. MLS restarted playing after the group stage was finished. 

i think some teams also went to Australia before the tournament got started.

a lot of the EPL teams have started warm weather training in the Middle East too.

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3 hours ago, odessasteps said:

 

One step forward, ten steps back for Aussie soccer. Absolutely pathetic. And the irony is that both sets of supporters were moments away from peacefully walking out in protest over the A-League selling the Grand Final rights to the NSW government.

Thoughts to Tom Glover (City keeper who was glommed by the flare bin in the clip), taken to hospital with facial cuts and a possible concussion.

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I'm so angry and sad about this.

To give some brief history on the issue:

The former national league in this country was shut down in 2004, while there were many contributing factors (refusal of broadcasters to show it on FTA, poor quality of the game, interference from other codes), the main driving factor to shut down and start again was largely that the majority of the clubs had basically become racially-exclusive firms that would kick the shit out of each other, and then occasionally 45 to 90 minutes of soccer would happen in between. The two most successful clubs in Melbourne (the Croatian based Melbourne Knights and the Greek South Melbourne Hellas sides were flat out refused entry into the new A-League as a result - since then, the Knights have leaned into this sort of violence and play in the state league, where they play in suburban parks against other ethnically identified teams in front of a couple of hundred people there for a race riot. South Melbourne attempted to rejoin the national league a couple of years ago - they still get heaps of supporters to their 13k sized stadium in the same league, but the same issues rear their head), instead we ended up with some weird ambiguous west-south western Melbourne side that no-one really cares about, but no-one is killing each other over it, so win by default. The state league is seriously corrupt, match fixing is rife (I've got some great stories about the six week period my criminal barrister friend got the inside word on the match fixing scheme, and so we travelled the state watching these comedically bad matches before it was shut down). It's a huge factor in the national debate about reluctance to setting up a promotion/relegation scheme akin to the UK leagues.

I joined the Melbourne Victory as a member in 2007 when the league started. It was a fun way to experience soccer, there was an arm's length distance to the usual violence, and ridiculous money was being spent attracting marquee names. After a while, getting into a long term relationship, feeling too sore after playing cricket during the day, and being bored of 0-0 draws that stemmed from terrible quality skills rather than intent made me lose interest in the league. By this point, plenty of teenagers emulating what they see on TV and at the local games, flares would be thrown every now and then, but lacked context or any violent intent.

By 2010 - my friend was chased by a group of them up the street for wearing a Sydney FC and stomped till he passed out. An ongoing power struggle between the club and the South End Supporter Group consistently responsible for violence at matches, undercutting club stances on LGTBQ+ representation, a women's side, etc. 

I haven't gone to an A-League game since 2017 and even that was a one off (Tim Cahill playing a single season warranted a ticket). The manufactured rivalry with crosstown team Melbourne Heart/City (bought out by Manchester City) appears massively inauthentic. Any excuse to start a fight with a rival group of supporters. 

Last night's events were inspired by a pre-planned walkout at the 20 minute mark by both sets of supporters to protest the league's decision to host the Grand Final in Sydney for the next few years, which the players, supporters, teams, boards have all strongly been against and the politics behind the move. Instead, dickheads decided to run on the pitch at this time and attack the keeper. Just fucked. 

I'd love to get my 5 year old daughter into soccer, especially after the success of the past few weeks. It's just not something I can entertain and couldn't ten years ago. No other sport in this country has these issues (save for the occasional Serbs vs Croats fight on the opening day at the Australian Open tennis). Rugby, Australian Rules, cricket, basketball. In fact, even the games featuring the national side, or as was the case when Manchester United toured a few months ago - its a completely different atmosphere - plastics like me everywhere who watch the game, politely applaud and go home. 

No idea how you fix this issue or even if you can. 

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