I am so happy for them and Aussie football. Back in 2012 the A-League was really going through shit. Gold Coast United was disbanded and the A-League and the FFA were losing money all the time. Youth development had also slowed down big time. Personally I feel that Arthur Papas and Rob Baan played a part in this as they were around when all this failure occurred.
Now you have the Western Sydney Wanderers, a team which draws crowds of 15,000 a game (good for A-League) regularly which have a great community connection. You have the FFA Cup, a proper FA Cup like tournament. You have a teamed owned by Manchester City and lots of other improvements which young players making a name for themselves.
Ya, I mean Baan was the one who started all the first initiatives and made everyone follow the "Dutch" way and Papas would probably struggle to get a job in the A-League and A-League youth league.
Arthur claims he was Asst Coach at Newcastle Jets, but speaking to current coach of their U18 Michsel Bridges who was keen to be part of ISL in some player-coach capacity. .Artur was only with youth...he talks himself up a lot...and seems to have as many detractors in Oz as the # of people in Indian football that be has pissed off...
But then again. ..if one had to work for the AIFF..anyone would lose their head and pick fights
@footydip ; So this means that we are going backwards. We always had 1 qualification slot of ACL and 1 confirmed spot in AFC Cup. ACL qualifier loser used to play in AFC Cup. Now even AFC Cup slot is not guaranteed-for that also qualifier. and ACL qualifier loser will get to play in AFC Cup or not??? Few years back, everybody wanted to kick out Air India, ONGC saying that we want to be professional and we want to play in ACL. What happened now-did they get to play in ACL without qualifier-rather even AFC Cup now we need to play in qualifier. Now the definition of "Professional" has changed. "Thok Denge" clubs are considered professional.
@munna219777 but i can't find any reliable source to back this statement. no official statement yet by afc. if true obviously it's downgrading indian football. we should have 1sure spot of afc apart from acl qualifier spot. xtratime may have loosely said that. they didn't bother to mention any source.
Comments
Founded In 2012 and now in Semi finals of afc champions league beating the defending champions in there 1st ever season
West sydney wanderers
But then again. ..if one had to work for the AIFF..anyone would lose their head and pick fights
as per this 1 acl qualifier spot and 1afc cup qualification spot. is it decided??
Now even AFC Cup slot is not guaranteed-for that also qualifier. and ACL qualifier loser will get to play in AFC Cup or not???
Few years back, everybody wanted to kick out Air India, ONGC saying that we want to be professional and we want to play in ACL. What happened now-did they get to play in ACL without qualifier-rather even AFC Cup now we need to play in qualifier. Now the definition of "Professional" has changed. "Thok Denge" clubs are considered professional.