bjw
bjw
(Full Article)- note where she called the A-League 'terrible' and has sour grapes over $10 Million not going to NRL.
f**k off Rebecca Wilson you f**king stupid bitch.
THE Federal Government this week saw fit to give Australian soccer a whopping $45million to fund its bid for the 2018 World Cup.
A beaming Federal Sport Minister, Kate Ellis, cosied up to soccer chief Frank Lowy for a photo opportunity. She was looking very pleased with herself, as was Lowy, and must have been extremely happy with the media coverage of the announcement.
Not a single soccer or sports journalist in this country asked either Ellis or Lowy for a precise breakdown on how the money would be spent.
Lowy simply said there would be no Olympic-style orgy of dinners and lunches for the voting delegates on the FIFA executive. Instead, he said, the money would go towards "professional services'' - marketing, public relations and an international promotional campaign.
As we speak, some sports marketing mob must be rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of spending the millions.
Not a cent of the money will be spent on the actual game itself. While other sports are bleeding and begging the Government for funding, soccer has been handed yet another golden egg. A sport that is absolutely incapable of supporting itself financially should not have been given such a massive cash injection.
The World Cup is undoubtedly huge. It is rivalled by only the Olympic Games in magnitude and reach. If Australia is awarded the event (and the early money suggests we are long shots), there will be much chest-beating about it from within the Australian soccer fraternity.
Staging a World Cup would give soccer bosses the right to trumpet to all of us that this is the only world game and that Australia has a real place in its upper echelons. It would also provide ample opportunity to gloss over the problems the code is suffering here.
My feelings on the state of soccer in this country are well known and have caused fanatical fans out there a lot of angst in recent weeks.
If Kate Ellis had taken a good, long look at the sport, she might have realised that the $45million would have been much better spent on infrastructure, skills coaching, junior development and the terrible A-League.
If she had an even longer look, she would not have given soccer another cent. Sports funding was one of the first cuts made by the new Labor Government earlier this year.
Sport was promised the universe by former prime minister John Howard and the former Liberal government had their promised millions slashed or cut completely. Rugby league, for one, lost a promised $10 million. That was money earmarked for spending on junior development.
Ellis is the Sport Minister who admitted at a rugby league function this year that she did not know the rules of the game, so it is little wonder the the most popular football code of NSW and Queensland was rissoled.
Our swimmers brought home the bulk of the 14 Olympic gold medals won in Beijing. But appeals for increased funding for the next four years have fallen on deaf ears. Ellis happily swanned around Beijing in her green and gold ensemble, lapping up every moment of Australian Olympic glory.
But she is the one who is now saying no to Olympic sports as they face a very bleak couple of years before London in 2012. Swimming bosses are confident they will receive better news when the Crawford report, an independent review of sports funding in Australia, is released in February.
Bear in mind, though, that swimming only gets about $7million a year, one-sixth of the handout to soccer. Olympic sports not in the so-called "top five'' - rowing, cycling, athletics, swimming and sailing - are likely to have their funding cut to drastically low levels.
As one sports boss said this week: "They will just be robbing Peter to pay Paul because the pot is not getting any bigger.''
No doubt Ellis will be offering her smiling services to soccer chiefs, eager to jump on the gravy train that inevitably rolls into town when countries bid for massive events like an Olympic Games or World Cup.
And no matter how Lowy wants to sugar coat it, it's clear some of the huge amount will go towards wining and dining officials. FIFA bosses are hardly likely to go hungry as countries vie for their votes. These campaigns are long and full of largesse.
As the world enters a recession and Australia braces itself for a serious economic downturn, rival football and sports bosses have every right to feel very miffed about the handout. Within the next 12 months, families are going to stop forking out for footy tickets as the downturn bites.
At least we can all take comfort, though, that soccer bosses will be smiling secretly to themselves as they eat, drink, market and advertise their way through the 45million big ones.
f**k off Rebecca Wilson you f**king stupid bitch.
THE Federal Government this week saw fit to give Australian soccer a whopping $45million to fund its bid for the 2018 World Cup.
A beaming Federal Sport Minister, Kate Ellis, cosied up to soccer chief Frank Lowy for a photo opportunity. She was looking very pleased with herself, as was Lowy, and must have been extremely happy with the media coverage of the announcement.
Not a single soccer or sports journalist in this country asked either Ellis or Lowy for a precise breakdown on how the money would be spent.
Lowy simply said there would be no Olympic-style orgy of dinners and lunches for the voting delegates on the FIFA executive. Instead, he said, the money would go towards "professional services'' - marketing, public relations and an international promotional campaign.
As we speak, some sports marketing mob must be rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of spending the millions.
Not a cent of the money will be spent on the actual game itself. While other sports are bleeding and begging the Government for funding, soccer has been handed yet another golden egg. A sport that is absolutely incapable of supporting itself financially should not have been given such a massive cash injection.
The World Cup is undoubtedly huge. It is rivalled by only the Olympic Games in magnitude and reach. If Australia is awarded the event (and the early money suggests we are long shots), there will be much chest-beating about it from within the Australian soccer fraternity.
Staging a World Cup would give soccer bosses the right to trumpet to all of us that this is the only world game and that Australia has a real place in its upper echelons. It would also provide ample opportunity to gloss over the problems the code is suffering here.
My feelings on the state of soccer in this country are well known and have caused fanatical fans out there a lot of angst in recent weeks.
If Kate Ellis had taken a good, long look at the sport, she might have realised that the $45million would have been much better spent on infrastructure, skills coaching, junior development and the terrible A-League.
If she had an even longer look, she would not have given soccer another cent. Sports funding was one of the first cuts made by the new Labor Government earlier this year.
Sport was promised the universe by former prime minister John Howard and the former Liberal government had their promised millions slashed or cut completely. Rugby league, for one, lost a promised $10 million. That was money earmarked for spending on junior development.
Ellis is the Sport Minister who admitted at a rugby league function this year that she did not know the rules of the game, so it is little wonder the the most popular football code of NSW and Queensland was rissoled.
Our swimmers brought home the bulk of the 14 Olympic gold medals won in Beijing. But appeals for increased funding for the next four years have fallen on deaf ears. Ellis happily swanned around Beijing in her green and gold ensemble, lapping up every moment of Australian Olympic glory.
But she is the one who is now saying no to Olympic sports as they face a very bleak couple of years before London in 2012. Swimming bosses are confident they will receive better news when the Crawford report, an independent review of sports funding in Australia, is released in February.
Bear in mind, though, that swimming only gets about $7million a year, one-sixth of the handout to soccer. Olympic sports not in the so-called "top five'' - rowing, cycling, athletics, swimming and sailing - are likely to have their funding cut to drastically low levels.
As one sports boss said this week: "They will just be robbing Peter to pay Paul because the pot is not getting any bigger.''
No doubt Ellis will be offering her smiling services to soccer chiefs, eager to jump on the gravy train that inevitably rolls into town when countries bid for massive events like an Olympic Games or World Cup.
And no matter how Lowy wants to sugar coat it, it's clear some of the huge amount will go towards wining and dining officials. FIFA bosses are hardly likely to go hungry as countries vie for their votes. These campaigns are long and full of largesse.
As the world enters a recession and Australia braces itself for a serious economic downturn, rival football and sports bosses have every right to feel very miffed about the handout. Within the next 12 months, families are going to stop forking out for footy tickets as the downturn bites.
At least we can all take comfort, though, that soccer bosses will be smiling secretly to themselves as they eat, drink, market and advertise their way through the 45million big ones.
