Gold Coast kicked out of A-league

[Far from the royal crowds]

Breaking news from Australia - Gold Coast United have had their license revoked with four matches of the season left. The FFA is now trying to negotiate an agreement with the players to pay them for the final matches.

The Gold Coast chairman has been a vocal critic of Lowry, the head of the FFA, over the last few weeks. On saturday, Gold Coast played in a "special" strip which had "FREEDOM OF SPEECH" instead of the sponsors logo...The FFA was about to abandon the match but remembered it's obligation to the away supporters "and Fox sports"...

Unless another team take the licence, we're going to have a 9 team league next year.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a- ... 6285089378

[cmonurz]

So they've had their licence revoked for wearing a certain phrase on their shirt? A-LOLeague.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

It's a bit of weird one. He was on record of saying "football is a hopeless game" and "rugby league is miles better".

When asked to clarify such a strange statement, he insisted he was talking about how the game is run, rather than than the game itself.

He's an outspoken critic of the way the game is run in Australia. Rather like America's MLS, clubs are franchises, with cash going to a central pool rather than being kept by clubs individually.

Revoking the licence does seem somewhat extreme through.


I actually saw about 10 minutes of the "Melbourne Derby" the other week on some streaming channel. I didn't plan on watching it, but my interest was piqued by seeing Grant Brebner get sent off about 15 seconds after I started watching.

[FiNeRaIn]

I've been to an A-league game, it was sydney versus brisbane on someone, michael bridges was playing. To be fair the fans are actually pretty passionate but the standard is not great, the MLS comparison over how its run and the actual game play is pretty accurate.

[comeonyouroyals]

I've been to an A-league game, it was sydney versus brisbane on someone, michael bridges was playing. To be fair the fans are actually pretty passionate but the standard is not great, the MLS comparison over how its run and the actual game play is pretty accurate.

Just been and seen Sydney vs Melbourne heart and was 0-4 with the keeper making a awful blunder, also a crap standard of match but as you say fans are pretty good even its the european style where the club hire someone with a loudspeaker to stand in the middle and keep the chants going. Also saw Melbourne Victory with Harry Kewell stroll to a win over Newcastle Jets and Micheal Bridges 2-0 also Jim Magultion was in the stands as he had just been hired as Melbournes manager.

[Very near...far away]

The (former) owner of Gold Coast is a great big fat bustard. Good riddance.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

I've been to an A-league game, it was sydney versus brisbane on someone, michael bridges was playing. To be fair the fans are actually pretty passionate but the standard is not great, the MLS comparison over how its run and the actual game play is pretty accurate.

Just been and seen Sydney vs Melbourne heart and was 0-4 with the keeper making a awful blunder, also a crap standard of match but as you say fans are pretty good even its the european style where the club hire someone with a loudspeaker to stand in the middle and keep the chants going.

I'm pretty sure clubs don't hire someone to do the chants anywhere.

[comeonyouroyals]

I've been to an A-league game, it was sydney versus brisbane on someone, michael bridges was playing. To be fair the fans are actually pretty passionate but the standard is not great, the MLS comparison over how its run and the actual game play is pretty accurate.

Just been and seen Sydney vs Melbourne heart and was 0-4 with the keeper making a awful blunder, also a crap standard of match but as you say fans are pretty good even its the european style where the club hire someone with a loudspeaker to stand in the middle and keep the chants going.

I'm pretty sure clubs don't hire someone to do the chants anywhere.

Why you so sure can you prove otherwise.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

The guy doing that is always a fan - in many ways not much different to a regular chant starter that you used to get on the terraces, but typically held in slightly higher regard by the fans. They come up "through the ranks" as it were, as support is more organised. The ultras groups are more like a club, dedicated to supporting the club the best way they can. They are not run by the football clubs. Quite often there's a rather prickly relationship between the fan groups and the clubs, and as such anyone "hired" by the club - where would they hire people from anyway? Song Starters R Us? - would not be respected by the fans.