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about 1 month ago
kwlap wrote:
I find it odd that football rule makers will do everything in their powers to avoid just stopping the clock until play resumes. Like why isn't there a little time ref who's job it is to push stop/start on the watch whenever a player goes down acting like they've been shot by a high calibre round. Once the performance is over, resume the clock and the game. Simple AF. 
I don't even get why VAR can't do the clock, turn it off when the ball goes out and match it to the stadium. tell the ref in the ear piece when 2 mins, 30 seconds are left, and FT.
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Endorsed by
kwlapLGMartoWanderingSheep
about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
Putting all the crap with advert hydration breaks to one side, in the World Cup I did like the focus on eliminating time wasting around throw ins and so on.

Good move.

Auckland will rise once more

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Endorsed by
LGtheprof
about 1 month ago
Bullion wrote:
 PKB wrote:
 RR wrote:
Three new law changes – two of which are groundbreaking trials – have been approved and will be implemented this coming season in both the 2026/27 Isuzu UTE A-League and Ninja A-League. 
I hope the referees will crack down on those slow Auckland FC long throws. 
So when Oli Sail got injured taking a goal kick, Sakai would have to spend a minute on the sidelines?
I hope the referees will be more understanding than that. It's more when Brisbane goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis sat down game after game to waste time and clearly wasn't badly hurt. 
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Endorsed by
LG
about 1 month ago
PKB wrote:
 Bullion wrote:
 PKB wrote:
 RR wrote:
Three new law changes – two of which are groundbreaking trials – have been approved and will be implemented this coming season in both the 2026/27 Isuzu UTE A-League and Ninja A-League. 
I hope the referees will crack down on those slow Auckland FC long throws. 
So when Oli Sail got injured taking a goal kick, Sakai would have to spend a minute on the sidelines?
I hope the referees will be more understanding than that. It's more when Brisbane goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis sat down game after game to waste time and clearly wasn't badly hurt. 
Doesn't seem that there is ref discretion, only certain instances, for which the Sail injury doesn’t fit, would a stoppage for a 'keeper not result in 1min of the captain on the sidelines. 

If the ref does use discretion when it seems the rules don't allow it, then the opposition would be upset.
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about 1 month ago
Can just imagine it. A team is down 1 nil, its late in the game, they've used all their subs, the 'keeper gets injured requiring medical assistance. Now down to 10 one of the outfield players needs to play 'keeper and the captain spends 1min on the sidelines.
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about 1 month ago
Why would the APL go public before the PFA have had chance to comment on it? Such a poor move if trust is an issue in negotiations. 
I have an amazing ability to find my way out of mazes. I'm pathological. 
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Endorsed by
Bullion
about 1 month ago · edited about 1 month ago · History
so like always it boils down to the money, who has it, what they want to pay to broadcast the league and how much the clubs get to pay their players. Neither party involved is looking out for the league or the fans, they are all looking at their own bottom line!

Queenslander 3x a year.

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20 days ago
Players have been encouraged by the movement in negotiations and as part of a counterproposal put forward by their union -- Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) -- have asked for three items to be addressed by the APL.

The first is to ensure clubs are policed and punished if they fail to pay wages or superannuation on time.

At least five clubs are understood to have done so in the last 18 months and the PFA will push for the APL to impose stronger deterrence in the form of financial penalties if clubs struggle to fulfil their payroll obligations on time. 
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5 days ago
Shit just saw an article that Refs have withdrawn their services from Australi  Cup games and pre season games as they sre having a dispute with Football Australia.
Could impact on A League games. 
Will be pissed if it does given the trips i have booked.

GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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5 days ago
ballane wrote:
Shit just saw an article that Refs have withdrawn their services from Australi  Cup games and pre season games as they sre having a dispute with Football Australia.
Could impact on A League games. 
Will be pissed if it does given the trips i have booked.
From the article, dispute is over FA trying to make APL responsible for hiring A-League refs. Refs view it as major conflict of interest being hired by the APL.

I believe the A-League should be fine. (APL sorting their own arrangement just in case)
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Endorsed by
martinbPK
4 days ago
The ref dispute coming on top of the player wage dispute is another sign that not everything is rosey in the AL house.
There has been lots of chatter on Aussie football forums about the woes of the AL. Adam Taggerts shift to Hanoi generated lots of comment about the inability of the League to hold onto old pros. These are the guys who should be there guiding all the youngsters currently pouring into AL sides.
Its just inevitable that as the salary cap gets lower and lower the AL wil have less financial ability to hold players. Looks like we cant even compete with SEAsian leagues and are seeing players go to Bali, Thailand and Vietnam.
Its also a worry the transfer $$ for players leaving the AL is close to bottom of the pile. Welcome to the Warehouse AL, where everyone gets a bargain

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Endorsed by
PK
4 days ago
True, Austin, it is challenging. Referees debacle, and players union agreement with APL still not solved. 

It does mean people criticizing the Phoenix for bringing in juniors are proven wrong though, because the others are promoting juniors too. Adelaide men have a truckload of juniors and signed 2 more this week. This is great for these little bubs to get their first stadium football. Now I hope each team can still get 4 or 5 foreign players though. Probably a good thing if people abandon foreign goalkeepers now. 
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4 days ago
It seems like the FA are kinda being gigantic douchebags? 

They’ve got this Championship running. I suspect they’re not watching the salary rules too closely. They’ve kicked the kiwi clubs (and their Aussie players) out of the Australia Cup. 

Now with there being an issue with player finances they’re causing issues for the APL from elsewhere. 


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4 days ago
martinb wrote:
It seems like the FA are kinda being gigantic douchebags? 

They’ve got this Championship running. I suspect they’re not watching the salary rules too closely. They’ve kicked the kiwi clubs (and their Aussie players) out of the Australia Cup. 

Now with there being an issue with player finances they’re causing issues for the APL from elsewhere. 
Our maybe they are just cutting free from the AL and focusing on this new Championship. This new Championship looks to me like AL lite with a more affordable setup. The real powerbase in Oz football is the state league clubs many of whom have huge membership . There is not a lot of love for the AL at grass root level.
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4 days ago
The A Leagues get people into national teams and World Cups though. Surely that is more important. I see a number of people of South Sudan background are getting called up to that national team from NPL though. 
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3 days ago
forcing officials to consider flying in overseas referees
One can only hope!!! 🤣
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Endorsed by
PK
3 days ago
Can they out source VAR as well?
Actually with modern technology VAR could easily be centralised. I know its starting to happen. Having each stadium needing a VAR booth and staff and setup costs is dumb.
You could have a central VAR centre in Sydney for the whole AL and rotate staff on demand. Get FIFA to pay for it. VAR was their idea
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Endorsed by
PK
3 days ago
austin111 wrote:
Can they out source VAR as well?
Actually with modern technology VAR could easily be centralised. I know its starting to happen. Having each stadium needing a VAR booth and staff and setup costs is dumb.
You could have a central VAR centre in Sydney for the whole AL and rotate staff on demand. Get FIFA to pay for it. VAR was their idea
On the other hand, if the main problems with the system are still human fail points and checkpoints in the system, then having fewer and fewer of those does save money…however…!!


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3 days ago
1) FIFA should pay for VAR 🤣

2) As long as they don't bring in South African Refs. They terrible 😭. Besides they haven't been trained on how to use VAR yet 🤣. It's there, all bought for, by FA hasn't conducted training yet, so it hasn't been implemented in the new season which has the Sports Minister hopping mad 😡

3) this issue is all about money. As always. FA outside of Europe always have this issue.

This is how the PSL resolved this issue years ago.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) covers referee salaries and match fees using funds sourced from the clubs, but distributed securely through a league representative to prevent any direct financial contact.

How the Payment Model Works
Club Contribution: The clubs provide the match and transport fees, either by prepaying the league or handing the funds over on match day. 

PSL Intermediary: A designated PSL representative manages each match, collecting the money and paying the officials directly so there is no direct handover from a club to a match official. 

Association Oversight: While the money flows through the PSL structure for top-flight matches, referees officially belong to and are assigned by the South African Football Association (SAFA). Lower divisions like the ABC Motsepe League are funded directly by SAFA rather than the PSL. 

Note:
It's not ideal but necessary to run smoothly without disruption. Their TV deal has KPI which requires the match to start on time. From a PSL point of view the less the FA is involved the better. 
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3 days ago
austin111 wrote:
 martinb wrote:
It seems like the FA are kinda being gigantic douchebags? 

They’ve got this Championship running. I suspect they’re not watching the salary rules too closely. They’ve kicked the kiwi clubs (and their Aussie players) out of the Australia Cup. 

Now with there being an issue with player finances they’re causing issues for the APL from elsewhere. 
Our maybe they are just cutting free from the AL and focusing on this new Championship. This new Championship looks to me like AL lite with a more affordable setup. The real powerbase in Oz football is the state league clubs many of whom have huge membership . There is not a lot of love for the AL at grass root level.
Yes. The FA got turfed out of the A League. As a petty result it is giving more and more power back to single ethnic clubs. Already we’ve seen racist signs back. This was the point of the A league, to make football inclusive for everyone and not a reenactment of wars European wars/border disputes/or worse. 

Now the A league is weak and not with Fox, the FA is happy to undercut it. That seems incredibly counterproductive to run a small amount of funding into fighting each other for screen time and fan base loyalty. 

So we want to give power back to local big wigs like: https://greekherald.com.au/sports/south-melbourne-fc-president-nicholas-maikousis-resigns/

And note the publication there. Suddenly football is entirely ethnicity based.

And funnily enough this dodgy president got his club in the OPL too. 

Or do we want this: 
https://greekherald.com.au/news/greek-community-demands-action-after-offensive-banners-at-south-melbourne-fc-match/

Or this, even though it’s old, leopards and spots:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/oct/03/football-australia-starts-disciplinary-action-against-sydney-united-58-over-fascist-songs-and-salutes-from-fans

The problems the A League was brought in to solve didn’t go away. 


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3 days ago
@martinb it's unacceptable mate but we all know Oz has been like this for a long time. The "soft gloves" approach to dealing with these undesirables behaviour have contributed to this mess. 

This culture of giving every immigrant group a "name" is f..... intolerable. Even work banter can sometimes be unnecessarily sharp. It's unacceptable. But there you go...

Where ever they go around the world, Greeks have contributed immensely to that society. Even South African clubs have Greek owners. That's who they are....great people that I have a lot of respect for. 
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3 days ago
Saffa wrote:
@martinb it's unacceptable mate but we all know Oz has been like this for a long time. The "soft gloves" approach to dealing with these undesirables behaviour have contributed to this mess. 

This culture of giving every immigrant group a "name" is f..... intolerable. Even work banter can sometimes be unnecessarily sharp. It's unacceptable. But there you go...

Where ever they go around the world, Greeks have contributed immensely to that society. Even South African clubs have Greek owners. That's who they are....great people that I have a lot of respect for. 
But also from a soccer perspective- in the A league Ange could manage the ‘Dutch’ team from Brisbane and create an inclusive free wheeling team and it was about the football. 

In the old league half of it it was about avenging old scores and making new ones and the football wasn’t the most important thing, and that’s also not much of an image to get people involved. Especially compared to say the AFL which cleaned up all the melees and promoted itself as a family game. 

And now there’s some bitterness or pettiness and having already poisoned pilled the league with two weak franchises on the way out, there’s more pettiness and it’s just turning back the clock.


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3 days ago · edited 3 days ago · History
austin111 wrote:
Can they out source VAR as well?
Actually with modern technology VAR could easily be centralised. I know its starting to happen. Having each stadium needing a VAR booth and staff and setup costs is dumb.
You could have a central VAR centre in Sydney for the whole AL and rotate staff on demand. Get FIFA to pay for it. VAR was their idea
I thought VAR was already centralised?, ie the booth for Wellington games is in Sydney. just link the bunker in NRL

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/a-league-to-adopt-new-var-bunker-system-20180712-p4zr3p.html

Queenslander 3x a year.

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Endorsed by
brBullionmartinbWanderingSheep
2 days ago
martinb wrote:
In the old league half of it it was about avenging old scores and making new ones and the football wasn’t the most important thing, and that’s also not much of an image to get people involved.
On the bright(?) side, it could be a lot worse.
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Endorsed by
PK
1 day ago · edited 1 day ago · History
Simon B wrote:
 martinb wrote:
In the old league half of it it was about avenging old scores and making new ones and the football wasn’t the most important thing, and that’s also not much of an image to get people involved.
On the bright(?) side, it could be a lot worse.

Genocidal militias in the 1990s wars in ex-Yugoslavia were literally recruited from football ultras.

On the other hand, the Australian government made a deliberate choice to let fascist Croatian war criminals immigrate in 1946, and it's the grandkids of those guys who are now the supporters of Sydney Ustaše 58 and similar teams. There's a reason Central United and other NZ "ethnic" teams don't have that problem.

Ramming liberal dribble down your throat since 2009
This forum needs less angst and more Kate Bush threads



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Endorsed by
Noah4thenixPKSouthernix
1 day ago
Doloras wrote:
 Simon B wrote:
 martinb wrote:
In the old league half of it it was about avenging old scores and making new ones and the football wasn’t the most important thing, and that’s also not much of an image to get people involved.
On the bright(?) side, it could be a lot worse.

Genocidal militias in the 1990s wars in ex-Yugoslavia were literally recruited from football ultras.

On the other hand, the Australian government made a deliberate choice to let fascist Croatian war criminals immigrate in 1946, and it's the grandkids of those guys who are now the supporters of Sydney Ustaše 58 and similar teams. There's a reason Central United and other NZ "ethnic" teams don't have that problem.
Yes, Central United, Auckland City and Wellington Olympic etc far better people, far better club culture.

Anyway with the A League, we tend to avoid those problems for the most part. Wellington Phoenix etc with better club culture. 
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