If you have any interest in the World Game in Australia then Roy Hay & Bill Murray, A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2014 is the best buy. With 310 pages and illustrations on virtually every one it is the most comprehensive and interesting history of the game. It will be the ideal Christmas or birthday present for anyone who has an interest in football or has been involved in the game. The story begins deep in the 19th century and comes through to the present day. There is a chapter on the women’s game in this country, the first time this story has been told.

(Click and double click on the images in the text to enlarge them)

Roy Hay

Harry Kewell is bringing down the curtain on a stellar career at the end of the current A-League season. It is a pity that he could not make it to what would be his third World Cup in succession, but the body which has inhibited him in the latter stages of his career will not let him deliver the kind of consistent performances demanded by Socceroo coach Ange Postecoglou. Even Melbourne Heart must have been reluctant to offer a new contract, despite the impact he has had on the players around him since he joined the club. So the time is right for one of our all-time greats to step aside.

New South Wales Under-15s, national champions in 1994

He was born in Smithfield in New South Wales of English parents. I first saw him play at Kim Reserve in 1994 with the New South Wales Under-15s who won the national championships beating a very strong Victorian side in the final. The light blues included Brett Emerton, Sebastian Sinozic, Yane Talcevski, Daniel Ucchino, Michael Cunico, Robert Trajcevski and Adam Brodbeck, all of whom went on to have significant careers in the game. Lined up against them were Vince Grella, Danny Allsopp, Simon Colosimo, Rodrigo Vargas, John Maisano, Clayton Bell and Colin Azzopardi. Between them these two talented groups produced most of the Joeys who took part in the Under-17 World Cup in Ghana where Australia pipped Spain on goal difference to qualify from its group behind Nigeria. Brazil proved too good in the quarter-finals and Danny Allsopp was top scorer with 5 goals and Kewell got the other.

Very soon the precocious Kewell was on his way to Leeds United where he began as a wing-back and his powerful engine got him up and down the field following his debut in the first team under Howard Wilkinson. He flourished under George Graham and David O’Leary clocking up over 180 league appearances and scoring 45 goals. On 24 April 1996, Eddie Thomson gave Kewell his first Socceroo cap against Chile in Antofagasta. Eddie was shrewd enough to know that Kewell could have been tempted to play for England so it was vital to ensure that he was aligned with the Green and Gold. Most sources want to claim that as a result he was the youngest player to be capped by Australia, but this is not true. Duncan Cummings was months younger when he made his debut against China in 1975, scoring within minutes of coming on as a substitute. That was the first of Cummings’ two games for Australia, while Kewell was to go on to amass 56 games and score 17 goals.

From Leeds, Kewell transferred to Liverpool where he was to win a series of trophies including the European Champions League in 2005, when injury resulted in his substitution before his team-mates produced a miraculous second half fight-back against AC Milan and won the cup on penalties. He played just under 100 league games for the Reds scoring a dozen goals. In 2008 he moved to Galatasaray in Turkey, captaining the club and performing various feats including a couple of matches at centre-half when injuries to other players occurred.

Meanwhile he took part in Australia’s unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the World Cup in 1997, scoring critical goals away from home and at the MCG against Iran. His heroics were not enough and Australia lost on the away goals rule. It was an equally sad story in 2001 as a home win over Uruguay thanks to a Kevin Muscat penalty was cancelled out by the three-nil loss in Montevideo. Opinions differ as to Kewell’s contribution to the away leg. My feeling was that he left Mark Viduka unsupported in the striking role failing to be close enough to the big man who had three top class defenders marking him for most of the game. In 2005 however Kewell came into his own with an inadvertent shank that set up Marco Bresciano for the goal at home to Uruguay and putting away one of the successful penalty kicks. Then in Germany in the finals he scored the decisive second goal against Croatia, but then had to miss the Italy game in the round of 16 thanks to what was suggested to be gout at the time.

Kewell backed up again in 2010 in South Africa though he was perhaps harshly sent off for blocking a goal-bound effort against Ghana in the second match and hence badly missed then and in the victory over Serbia. Kewell also contributed in Australia’s Asian Cup campaigns in 2007 and 2011.

Harry Kewell at Melbourne Victory

He was named as Australia’s greatest ever player in a poll in 2012 which inevitably focused on recent stars. He certainly generated the charisma which attracted people to the game in an age of celebrity. So when he returned to Australia in 2011 and signed with Melbourne Victory on a contract which gave him an element of his income based on the number of extra fans he attracted to the game, there is no doubt that he boosted the profile of the club and the A-League. However by now his body was giving him less chance to demonstrate his talent, though as the first season ran its course his contribution on the field improved significantly. After the season he returned to England and then played briefly with Al-Garafa in Qatar before coming home for what turned out to be his final fling at Melbourne Heart. Again injuries cruelled his season, but he deserves to go out with a flourish in Heart’s final game of the season against Western Sydney Wanderers on 12 April.

Kewell attracted a fair amount of controversy over his long career, partly explicable as a product of the tall poppy syndrome, but some self inflicted or a result of the agents with whom he dealt. Also the injuries he suffered were not appreciated by those furthest from the man himself and his abrasive or dismissive attitude to the media did not always work to enhance his image. Nevertheless, he has been a major contributor to Australia’s recent success, as key member of the ‘golden generation’. In time people will be able to evaluate his career more dispassionately and with greater perspective, but he is certainly one to be considered when listing the players who have lifted the profile of the game in this country.

Bookends of two careers. Harry Kewell of Victory and Brett Emerton of Sydney FC

Roy Hay

Quite a surprise at the amount of media coverage of the retirement of a former Ayr United player given that he hasn’t turned out for the club since 1974. Also there has been little recognition of his visits to this country as a player in 1967 and as national team manager in 1985. These episodes were significant moments in the career of a man who went on to rewrite the record books as manager of Manchester United, which has hogged the major share of the panegyrics on his retirement.

As a boy Alex Ferguson wanted to play for Glasgow Rangers and after a spell at Queen’s Park and stints at St Johnstone and Dunfermline Athletic he joined the club in 1967. That year Celtic won the European Cup, Rangers reached the final of the European Cup-Winners Cup and Leeds United won the Inter-city Fairs Cup, the three major European trophies of the time. Earlier that season Scotland had been persuaded to send its international team to Australia, a major coup for the relatively new Australian Soccer Federation. Ferguson was still at Dunfermline when the team was selected. When the time came to leave for a nine-match tour in May 1967 which took in Israel, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the clubs involved in European competitions withdrew their stars. So the Scottish Football Association downgraded the international matches to ‘B’ rather than ‘A’ status and Fergie never received a full international cap. This has always rankled with the man and he devoted much of a chapter of his autobiography to the issue. Nevertheless he scored nine goals in seven games on the tour including both Scotland’s goals at Olympic Park in a two-nil win over Australia on 3 June 1967.

When he returned to Scotland Ferguson was transferred to Rangers where he scored 25 goals in 41 games. A change of manager occurred and Fergie was transferred to Falkirk and then as his career wound down Alastair MacLeod persuaded him to join Ayr United in 1973. MacLeod kept Ayr in the top division in Scotland with brilliant man-management and a unique incentive scheme. He handled spiky characters splendidly and got the best out of a collection of players who lacked the brilliance of some previous Ayr United teams. George ‘Dandy’ Maclean and Fergie were two of his entertainers with whom he had some immortal struggles. He and Ferguson—‘a real barrack-room lawyer’, according to MacLeod—had some blazing rows, but professional respect and slightly bizarre senses of humour kept them going. Ally left Ayr to manage Aberdeen and won their first trophy for seven years then took over as manager of Scotland. He recommended Ferguson as his successor at Aberdeen. That was where Fergie began piling up the trophies which led to his appointment as manager of Manchester United.

Always willing to learn, Ferguson buried the hatchet with the SFA and became assistant manager of the Scottish team under the legendary Jock Stein of Celtic. When Stein died following at heart attack at the end of a World Cup qualifying match in Wales in 1985, Ferguson took over as national coach. Scotland faced a two-leg play-off against Australia. My father-in-law died in November 1985 and my son was already in Scotland playing with the Victorian Country Under-13 team. So I took him to Hampden Park where he tried to outshout 60,000 Scots as the home team won the first leg two-nil. Frank Arok, the Australian coach, wanted the return game played on a bumpy pitch in Darwin at mid-day, but the ASF needed the money and decided it should take place on the bowling green surface at Olympic Park in the evening.

I sent Fergie a dossier on the Australian team and I still have his thank-you letter acknowledging it, but after the game when Australia just could not score against the Scots I realised that I had to reconsider my allegiance. So Scotland, not Australia, went to the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and we had to wait another twenty years to qualify. Meantime Fergie was appointed manager of United, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Roy Hay

Australia squeaked out of its home game against Oman with a two-all draw after going behind in the sixth minute and further behind as a result of an own goal four minutes into the second half. The fight back began quickly with a powerful header by Tim Cahill and late in the game Brett Holman fired in a grounder to equalise but despite a number of corners and more headers by Cahill the game ended all square, leaving Australia precariously placed in its World Cup bid.

Line ups before the game

It was not an impressive performance by Australia though it had far more possession, and it had more difficulty in finding its targets in the front third than the visitors in their infrequent breaks.

Australia had the ball on a string for the first five minutes without threatening, then Oman made its first foray forward and Abdul Aziz (Mubarak) left Michael Thwaite in his wake and nutmegged Mark Schwarzer to silence the expectant crowd. From then until the interval, Oman was content to leave five men at the back and let Australia play in midfield. Michael thwaites came up for a corner but headed wide and when Cahill was fouled, Luke Wilkshire free kick found Mile Jedinak, but the defensive midfielder headed well over. Ali Al Habsi, the Wigan Athletic goalkeeper came flying out to punch the ball clear before dealing with two Australian headers in more orthodox fashion. As the Socceroos tried to get back into the game Matt McKay’s free kick, resulted in a Brett Holman header on the second ball which once again tested the keeper.

The second half began with another disaster for Australia as Raed Salah (Ibrahim got clear on the right in the 49^th minute and cut the ball across goal. Mile Jedinak was caught facing his own goal and his attempt to prevent the ball going past him only resulted in his wrong footing Schwarzer as he knocked it into the net. The Omani fans in good numbers down that corner of the field were ecstatic as their team celebrated with them.

Australia however hit back almost instantly as Robbie Kruse won a corner and Luke Wilkshire delivered the perfect cross for a trademark header by Cahill. The tiring James Holland was removed with Marko Bresciano coming on, and immediately Australia looked more composed in the centre and Alex Brosque got in at the back post only to have his shot blocked. Then Wilkshire hit the bar and the post with a lofted shot which beat Al Habsi but would not cross the line. In the 72^nd minute Bresciano was injured in the act of shooting and was replaced four minutes later by Tommy Oar. Cahill had another header which bounced over the bar, again with the keeper stranded. But despite four minutes of notified extra time and a little bit more the Socceroos had to settle for a point.

Paul le Guen was understandably pleased with the result and his players. ‘We expected to do well and but sometimes you dream of more. I am proud of these players and hope they will be recognised,’ he said. ‘We played quite well, and we are improving stage by stage. Compare this team with the one which played 18 months ago, it is a different group of players and we are closer to the top teams than we were before.’

Holger Osiek was highly animated on the touch line, showing his displeasure at the first half performance, which he made clear to the players and to the press corps at the end of the game. ‘The spirit was back in the second half,’ he said. ‘The passing needs to be more direct and we need a better performance over 90 minutes not just a half.’ He was concerned about Mark Bresciano’s injury with a stud in his foot which meant he had to be replaced only a few minutes after coming on. This disrupted the team and the strategy in the second half, though Tommy Oar did some good things in his short appearance. Archie Thompson replaced Robbie Kruse but could not conjure up a goal, though he did put in some excellent runs and a couple of crosses, where his speed down the flanks got him ahead not only of the defence but his fellow attackers as well. Tim Cahill was clearly the man of the match for his goal, his series of fierce headers when he seemed to win every corner kick in the air and his leadership as he tried to persuade the Uzbek referee to clamp down on Omani time-wasting.

Roy Hay

(This article was published on the Goal Weekly website on 1 January 2013. http://www.goalweekly.com.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=6715:australia-missed-chance-to-be-world-champion&Itemid=126 )

Amidst the euphoria of qualification for the East Asia Football Federation tournament late last year, most people seem to have been unaware that Australia missed the chance to be the Unofficial World Champion (UFWC) in football. In the qualifying tournament in Hong Kong, Australia led DPR Korea by a goal to nil scored by Archie Thompson. Had they held on to win, instead of conceding an equaliser to An Yong-Hak, Australia would have been on top of the World once again. The last and only time it reached this eminence was in June 1992 in South America when the Socceroos beat the United States by a goal to nil, scored by Warren Spink in the 85^th minute, to claim the title. That only lasted one game as Australia was knocked off its perch by Argentina. Australia’s only UFWC holders were: Robert Zabica, Milan Blagojevic, Mehmet Durakovic, Ned Zelic, Alex Tobin, Paul Wade, Tony Vidmar, Ernie Tapai, Vlado Bozinoski, Mike Petersen, Warren Spink, Aurelio Vidmar and Jason van Blerk. Eddie Thomson, a Scot, was the coach.

For those who are bemused by all this, the story of the Unofficial World Championship began in 1967 when Scotland beat England at Wembley in the Home International Series by three goals to two. Since England had won the FIFA World Cup the previous year, and hence were official World champion, many Scots, like me, claimed that since we had knocked off the reigning champion we should now be regarded as their legitimate successor. The idea has a long historical pedigree in football, as the FA Cup in its very early days in the 1870s was played on a similar challenge system. The Cup holder sat out the qualifying matches and the team which won the knock-out games would then challenge the holder in a one-off match for the Cup. FIFA, a bunch of spoilsports, did not accept this idea should still hold so the Unofficial World Championship remains unofficial. A country only retains its title until it loses its next match and then the accolade passes to the victor. The current holder is and remains DPR Korea.

The keepers of the flame have recalculated the UFWC back to the very dawn of the game in the mid-nineteenth century and you will not be surprised to know that Scotland remains the country to have held the UFWC most often. Scotland has been champion 86 times and England only 73, followed by Argentina on 51 and Holland on 49. Mighty Brazil languishes in sixth place on 29. Spain the current official World and European champion can only manage eleventh on 17.

You can follow up the work of the dedicated calculators of the UFWC on their website at http://www.ufwc.co.uk/rankings/

A bad week for football might do some good?

Roy Hay

The game of football has taken a battering this week though it is possible that the crises which have occurred will result in improvement in future. Racial vilification incidents have been the focus of media attention in Melbourne and in England, the once mighty Glasgow Rangers will start next season in the Third Division (actually the fourth tier) of the game in Scotland and the former head of FIFA, Joao Havelange and the president of the Brazilian Federation, Ricardo Teixeira, are now said by a Swiss court to have received massive bribes from the ISL company from 1992 to 1997.

John Terry, captain of Chelsea and England, has just been acquitted of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers during a match last season. Terry protested his innocence throughout claiming that he simply repeated something which was thrown at him during a testy encounter in which sledging on an Australian football scale was rife. Though acquitted of the offence at law, Terry could face an investigation and sanction by the Football Association, whose independent disciplinary commission only requires a balance of probabilities rather than the legal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt. It would seem that this is double jeopardy but the FA handed out an eight-match ban to Luis Suarez of Liverpool for abusing Patrice Evra of Manchester United. So the precedent might lead to pressure on the FA to act.

In Melbourne a match between two clubs, Sunshine Heights Western Tigers and Tullamarine City ended in a brawl among spectators which the Age claimed was sparked by racist abuse of the Sudanese players with Sunshine Heights. Many things are not clear from the report and Football Federation Victoria has been quick to point out that it has policies and procedures in place to prevent racial vilification and deal with incidents should they occur. The tailpiece to the article is a note that one person had given up playing AFL because of ‘racist comments and violence’. So the issue is not confined to soccer and occurs despite the great efforts of both AFL and FFV to combat racist abuse. If the publicity leads to more awareness of the distress caused by this type of ‘violence of the tongue’ then good may come of what has been a very unsavoury episode.

Here in Scotland, the mighty Glasgow Rangers, which was put into administration towards the end of the recent football season, will play next month in the lowest division of the Scottish league. Or rather the new company, Sevco, which owns the club will field a team at that level. The consequences for the game in Scotland are only just being worked out and there has been a clear failure of leadership at the head of the governing bodies, of which there are three. The Scottish Football Association has overall responsibility for the game and has the membership of FIFA as its charter to do so. The Scottish Premier League is a separate company which presides over the top echelon with its 12 clubs, while the rest of the senior clubs in the land are members of the Scottish Football League. The league has three divisions and the top team in the first division at the end of each season has no automatic right of promotion to the Premier League.

Now that Rangers’ successor club is in the third division the existing Sky television contract is almost certainly to be torn up or renegotiated. Some of the figures being bandied around are derisorily low, so the idea that the game itself should take charge of its own football channel has been reactivated. Scotland tried to pioneer this option many years ago but the experiment foundered when only 80 per cent of votes rather than 88 per cent were cast in its favour. A wider reconstruction of the governance of the game is called for and if it occurs it might do better than the current incumbents have done. Breaking the Celtic-Rangers duopoly might also be no bad thing.

Sepp Blatter and Joao Havelange in Australia in 1983. Photo: Les Shorrock. Les Shorrock collection, Deakin University Library.

It was always said around football that FIFA and its leadership was corrupt. Andrew Jennings detailed many of the scandals in his books and articles over the years. Now a Swiss court has provided details of the extent of the malfeasance. Havelange resigned from the International Olympic Committee just before he was due to face an ethics committee investigation into his role in the ISL scandal. Now it is likely that he and his son-in-law will escape sanction as will several other leading members of the organization. Question marks about the current president, Sepp Blatter, will remain, despite his much trumpeted plan to reform the organisation. Perhaps the sponsors and others whose good name is vital to them can do something to bring about a cleansing of these Augean stables, but I would not be holding my breath.

Are Spain the greatest ever?

Roy Hay

It is inevitable that Spain’s scintillating demolition of Italy in the final of Euro 2012, coupled with its victories in Euro 2008 and the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, would raise debate about whether this is the greatest team ever to play the game. There is always the problem of truncated memories, with recent events having an advantage over things that happened many moons ago. For example, Uruguay won the Olympic Games tournament in 1924 and 1928 and then won the inaugural World Cup in 1930. In both cases there were fewer teams involved, but you can only play against the opposition you face in any era. Then there is the question are we restricting the comparison to national teams or do we include some of the great club formations, such as Real Madrid from 1955 to 1960 or even, and I have to declare an interest here, Celtic from 1940 to 1910? My grandfather captained that team.

What is most impressive about Spain is that the core of the side took part in all three tournaments, and most of the players were also contributors to their club successes at Barcelona and Real Madrid at domestic league and European levels. There is no doubt that there is a golden generation of Spanish players and, unlike their Portuguese equivalents from the 1990s, these ones have turned performance into results at the highest level. The academy at Barcelona deserves much of the credit for it has been the nursery for the majority of the Spanish stars, including Iniesta, Fabregas and new boys like Jordi Alba. The scary thing is that this conveyor belt may already be producing the successors to this current crop.

Some of the other contenders for the greatest team label include West Germany in the 1970s when the team which included Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller and Paul Breitner won the European championship in 1972 and the World Cup in 1974 and reached the final of the European tournament in 1976, losing to Czeckoslovakia on penalties. The Hungarians in the 1950s, with Puskas, Hidekuti and co., were Olympic champions in 1952 and World Cup finalists in 1954. Brazil, with Pele, Garrincha, Tostao, Gerson and others, won the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970. If Pele had not been kicked off the park by the Portuguese, who knows if they might have won in 1966 in England. The Dutch had a spell of club and national brilliance with John Cruyff but could not win a major tournament.

No doubt everyone will have his or her favourite depending perhaps on which team was dominant at their most impressionable age. I still think Hibernian’s ‘famous five’ forward line of the late 1940s and early 1950s—Smith, Johnstone, Reilly, Turnbull and Ormond—paired with the Rangers ‘iron curtain’ defence—Brown, Young and Shaw, McColl, Woodburn and Cox—would have given any team a run for its money. They never played as a Scottish selection so it is a bit academic, but it coincided with my growing up.

Spain, however, have certainly set the bar very high in a fairly competitive era. The transformation from a team which had won nothing since the Olympic Games in 1992 and before that the European championship in 1964 is quite astonishing. I have no doubt that in future we will look back at an exceptional era of on-field brilliance under Luis Aragones and Vincent del Bosque, two fine coaches and human beings, who have allowed and encouraged the talent at their disposal to flourish in a variety of tactical formations. Who would have thought a team without a recognised striker could take four goals off Italy? Enjoy it while you can, and perhaps leave the question of which is the greatest for another day.

Roy Hay

(This story appeared as a Blast from the Past column in Goal Weekly on 2 March 2012, p. 19. Click on the photographs below to enlarge them. The headline picture is of Jim Fraser (left) and Lou Kastner, two superb keepers.  It is by Roy Hay, the next two in the column are from the Laurie Schwab collection at Deakin University Library).

Australia has had some wonderful goalkeepers over the years from George Cartwright and Jimmy McNabb who began the tradition in the 1920s and 1930s to Mark Schwarzer who holds the Socceroo position today. It is arguable that over his long career that Jim Fraser has had as much influence on the game as any of them. He helped Australia qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 1974, played at the top level for Budapest St George in its glory days in the 1970s and in recent years has coached many of the top keepers in the land at his International Goalkeepers’ Academy in Sydney. He has also been the specialist goalkeeping coach at Sydney FC in the A-League. His enthusiasm and professionalism have communicated themselves to a legion of young and not so young keepers including Clint Bolton at Melbourne Heart and Liam Reddy at Sydney FC.

Born in 1948 in Sydney, his dad was an ice hockey goaltender, but young Jim made his game football. He started at Polonia and his talent was recognised early as he was selected as a member of the Australian World Cup squad for the qualifiers in 1969, behind the incumbent Ron Corry. Fraser went to St George in 1970 where he broke his wrist in 1971 and spent some time at Canterbury on loan after he recovered. St George tried a couple of other keepers but when Jack Reilly decided to return to Melbourne, Jimmy Fraser regained his spot at St George. When World Cup qualification got under way in 1973, Ron Corry was still the number one keeper with Reilly pressing him close. Jim Fraser’s performances for St George could not be ignored and he got his first full cap at Olympic Park in Melbourne against Bulgaria on 18 February 1973. Though the Socceroos lost two-nil against what was their World Cup team, Fraser showed that he could handle the job.

Jim Fraser makes a finger-tip save against Iraq in 1973.

After Australia was held to a surprise three-all draw by New Zealand, Fraser was given the number one spot against Iraq on 18 March. He kept a clean sheet as the Socceroos held out Iraq in scoreless draw. A six-nil thrashing of Indonesia saw Australian through the first stage, a point and goal difference ahead of Iraq. The next opponent was Iran and Fraser once again denied the opposition as Australia ran away with a three-nil win. The second leg in Tehran was a different story as Iran scored twice through Parviz Ghelichkhani in just over half an hour. It was backs to the wall from then on, with Fraser putting up the shutters once again.

Jim Fraser and another flying save against Iran in 1973.

Then came home and away matches against South Korea. Both were drawn, the first scoreless, the second a fightback from a two-nil deficit. While Branko Buljevic and Ray Baartz got the credit for the goals, Fraser’s patience, skill and positioning ensured no further goals against and so the final place at the World cup had to be decided by a third match in Hong Kong. Everyone knows about Jimmy Mackay’s 70^th minute thunderbolt, but fewer appreciate the unflappable keeper’s performance. Les Murray thought it was the best goalkeeping performance he had ever seen. So Australia was all set for the trip of a lifetime to West Germany.

Unfortunately Jimmy Fraser found he could not abandon his security dog business and had to pull out of the squad, handing his place back to Jack Reilly. Virtually all of the Australians were part-timers in 1974 and Manfred Schaefer who ran a milk delivery service had missed one tour and threatened to leave another after his financial arrangements were not honoured by the Australian Soccer Federation.

Not the tallest of keepers, Jimmy Fraser punches clear in a match in Sydney. Source: Sid Grant, Jack Pollard’s Soccer Records, p. 268.

Jimmy Fraser amassed 10 caps for Australia, and represented New South Wales against several visiting teams and in interstate matches. When he hung up his boots in 1978 he began a long-running coaching career at a host of clubs and with the national and state teams and eventually set up the International Goalkeepers’ Academy in 2000 with the aid of a number of investors and supporters including that well known soccer nut, would-be keeper and film superstar Anthony La Paglia. Pierre Littbarski who coached Sydney FC to the A-League premiership in 2006 is a great fan. The last words on Jimmy Fraser should rest with him.

‘The work you did with the goalkeepers was outstanding. Clint Bolton became a real consistent player and real personality. With your help he developed his physical skills a lot, but more important for me was, that he went from a “one man show” to a real leader. This was especially in the final series a big factor and gave us the championship, because Clint Bolton played very good.

Our second keeper Justin Pasfield improved his basic skills a lot in one season. Also your work with the young keepers, who joined us regularly in our sessions with Sydney FC, was very effective. That proves, that you can coach players of all ages.

The most impressive point for me was, that you were capable to do some coaching beside your goalkeeper training. The daily training, especially with the defenders (passing, heading, kicking, throw in, tactical training for the 4-back line, etc.) was fantastic. The players loved it and for me it was a big help. Goalkeeper coaches should not focus only on the keepers.’

Says it all, really.

Roy Hay

Australia overcame a spirited Saudi Arabia by four goals to two in the final game of the first qualifying group for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The Socceroos had to come from behind to win the game in a purple patch in the second half during which they scored three times in three minutes.

The Saudis needed to win to be sure of qualifying and they took the game to Australia in the opening period. Moves were sharp and decisive, though Australia actually had the ball in the net after 4 minutes. Harry Kewell touched a header by Alex Brosque over the line from very close range but was offside when he did so.

The Saudis moved the ball around quickly and were very aggressive in attack, something which surprised coach Holger Osiek and his players.

In the 19^th minute, Saleem Mohammed Aldawsari skipped along the edge of the defensive area with the Australians standing off until he fired the ball into the corner.

Australia did engineer some good breaks but for the most part they were trying to curb the Saudi’s attacks.

Alex Brosque closes down the Saudi skipper

Two minutes before the scheduled end of the first half, Marco Bresciano fed Alex Brosque and the striker got away from the defence beating Osama Abdulzrag Hawsawi and then the keeper with his shot.

That lead only lasted till the last minute of time added on as Hassan Muath Fallatah came down the right and crossed for Nassir Ali Shamrani to beat Schwarzer for a second time. Again defenders stood off and paid the penalty.

Osiek and his opposite number Frank Rijkaard made no personnel changes at half-time but the Australians lifted their momentum and began to get a little more accuracy into their work.

Archie Thompson came off the bench for James Troisi in the 63rd minute and soon began posing problems for the Saudi backline.

They had looked very comfortable against two attackers, but three meant that gaps began to appear.

The Socceroos took full advantage and turned the match round with three goals in three minutes.

In the 73^rd minute, Thompson put Alex Brosque away down the left and he cut the ball back to Harry Kewell who finished cleanly.

The Victory striker had come close on two or three occasions but this goal capped off one of his best games for Australia and of this season.

The crowd had hardly resumed their seats when Matthew Spiranovic sent a long ball from the back to release Brett Emerton who chipped the ball into the path of Brosque who buried his second goal.

Green and Gold Army

A minute later, man of the match, Marco Bresciano fed Thompson then took the return and slid it through the defence where Emerton just held off Almousa, whose attempt to clear only glanced off the sliding Socceroo and finished in the net.

The Saudis were deflated by the sudden transformation of the game and though they fought it out to the end, it was a comfortable win in the end for Australia.

Frank Rijkaard said his team had kept possession and played well in difficult conditions (it rained throughout the match) and could with a little luck have gone to three-one up which would have changed the character of the game.

He was happy with the players’ effort but said  that defeats and draws earlier in the campaign had prevented his team from qualifying.

Holger Osiek said his team was playing in a new formation with some players out of position so it took time for them to come to terms with that.

In the second half however ‘We got our stuff together, played through the channels with imagination, mobility and pace.’

He said the Saudis had great quality, but Australia had played as he wanted them to do in the second half.

Saudi corner

There was a good crowd of 24,214 to make plenty of noise at AAMI Park.

It was a supreme pity that Frank Lowy decided to sack Gold Coast United on the afternoon of the match between the Socceroos and Saudi Arabia.

What was a dead rubber to the public became a sideshow to a stoush between the FFA and one of its club owners.

Match details

Wednesday 29 February 2012

Australia 4 (Alex Brosque 43’, 75’, Harry Kewell 73’, Brett Emerton 76’) Saudi Arabia 2 (Salem Mohammed Aldawsari 19’, Nassir Ali Al Shamrani 45 + 2’)

Venue: AAMI Park

Local kick-off: 8:30pm

Referee: KIM Dong Jin

Assistant referees: JEONG Hae Sang and Jang Jun Mo

Fourth official: KIM Jong Hyeok

Attendance: 24,214

Australia:

1 Mark Schwarzer, 2 Lucas Neill, 4 Matthew Spiranovic, (3 David Carney 82’), 5 Jade North, 6 Sasha Ognenovski, 7 Brett Emerton, 8 Mark Milligan, 10 Harry Kewell, 11 James Troisi (9 Archie Thompson 63’), 20 Alex Brosque (16 Nick Carle 87’), 23 Marco Bresciano.

Unused substitutes: 12 Eric Paartalu, 13 Adam Sarota, 14 Michael Marrone, 15 Michael Thwaite, 18 Matt Ryan.

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Nil

Saudi Arabia:

1 Waleed Abdullah Ali, 3 Osama Abdulrzag Hawsawi, 4 Abdulla Mohammed Aldossary, 7 Kamil Saddiq Almousa, 10 Mohammed Bandar Al Shalhoub (9 Naif Ahmed Hazazi 79’), 11 Nassir Ali Al Shamrani (Yasser Saeed Al Qahtani 72’), 12 Hassan Muath Fallatah, 14 Saud Ali Khariri, 15 Ahmed Mohammed Alfraidi (6 Ahmed Inrahin Ateef 66’), 17 Taiseer Jabir Al Jassam, 19 Salem Mohammed Aldawsari.

Unused substitutes: 2 Yasir Gharsan Al Shahrani, 5 Mohammed Eid Albishi, 8 Yahia Sulaiman Al Shehri, 13 Ibrahim Jahshan, 16 Yousef Mansour Al Salem, 18 Hamad Al Hamad, 21 Yasser Abdullah Al Mosailem, 22 Ahmed Ali al Kassar, 23 Kamil Omar Fallata

Yellow cards: 14 Saud Ali Khariri 62’, 11 Nassir Ali Al Shamrani 64’

Red cards: Nil

Roy Hay

(This aritcle appeared on the SBS website, The World Game on 22 February 2012 and in Goal Weekly on 24 February 2012.)

The eruption of the ebullient Clive Palmer, multi-millionaire natural resources baron and owner of Gold Coast United, as self-appointed spokesman for the owners of the A-League clubs has Football Federation Australia (FFA) on the back foot. He wants more say for the owners who are bankrolling the league, though their total contribution is probably less than that contributed by the public, through their purchase of tickets, merchandise, sponsors’ products and above all, tax concessions and direct subsidies by Federal, State and local governments.

It must gall the owners that one of Australia’s richest men, Frank Lowy, presides over the FFA and the A-League but is apparently unwilling to dip into his own pocket to support the league. But if Lowy did so the media would be jumping on his back straight away, as they did at the start of the league, with cries of ‘conflict of interest’. He and his family helped a number of clubs financially to meet the stringent financial conditions for entry laid down. Subsequently they assisted the ownership transitions which occurred in others. Most of this was done by stealth to avoid a public outcry. In doing so Lowy was repeating something he had once done as the leader of the Hakoah club in the ‘bad old days’ of the Australian Soccer Federation (ASF). He put his house up as a guarantee for the funding of the club, and then realised the idiocy of that approach. From then on he was determined that football must run as a business and be self-sustaining, not dependent on one-off donations by benefactors.

The dilemma remains, what is the best strategy for the A-League to become a self-sustaining entity? Several people, including David Crawford, the Professional Footballers Association, Wilson Smith and some of the current owners have argued for the A-League to become a separate entity from the FFA, or at the very least for the owners to have a greater influence over its operation. These are arguable cases, but the historical record and the example of other sporting operations in Australia are not favourable.

The Victorian Football League used to be run by its clubs, until Sir Kenneth Luke built Waverley Park to break their control and that of the ground managers who administered the venues at which the game was played. Eventually the AFL, as it became, set up a commission to run the game and over time this took the kind of control it now has today under Andrew Demetriou and his board. And they have done reasonably well, thank you, despite recent complaints about losses and Demetriou’s remuneration. There are major differences, of course. The AFL does not have to run an expensive international game in senior, junior, male and female competitions as FFA has to do. The success of the Socceroos sometimes cross-subsidises the domestic league.

Most people have blamed ethnic politics for the problems of soccer under the old ASF, but in fact the main factor was the governing structure set up at the foundation of that body in 1961. As a paper at the time said, it was government of the clubs, by the clubs, for the clubs. That might have been fine had the game continued in the same way as it had done since the 1880s, but within a decade the game had gone national and international, with the ultimately successful attempt to qualify for the World Cup in 1974. The success could not be repeated and the key reason was that the clubs through the state federations controlled the ASF, the tail was wagging the dog.

Given the current requirements of the game as a whole, returning to club control for the A-League would be a recipe for disaster. The current structure is not perfect, but changes should be very carefully thought through and above all the FFA must not pander to those critics in the media who cannot distinguish between income and wealth, or who want to treat these fundamental issues about the health of the game as items for public amusement by pillorying the current members of the FFA executive.

Roy Hay is a member of the History Panel of the FFA and is working on a history of the game in Australia with Bill Murray. These are his personal views.