Pignata Talks Sense
New Sydney CEO Tony Pignata who has crossed the ditch from a similar role at Wellington Phoenix has certainly hit the ground saying all of the right things in an interview with Bonita Mersiades at Sportsbizinsider.com.au
Pignata highlighted that Sydney FC the marquee club in the A league is still referred to as “Bling FC” a result of season one and their recruitment of Dwight Yorke, a season in which they were the envy of every club in the competition, but stated they are a long way from that tag now as a club.
One of the key comments made in this interview which augers well for Sydney FC the club is that he stated what many around the country feel about their A league clubs and other sporting sides that they have to do more than as Mr. Pignata put it “just send some players out for a coaching session and that’s it.”
He went onto say in the article “That’s the easy bit, doing a coaching session, or attending a sign-on session, has to have benefits both ways. We want those people to come to a game, and then another and then another. In short, we want to turn fans into fanatics.”
Pignata went on to state that he wants to meet with as many clubs, associations, members and fans as possible. Coming from New Zealand he is bound to have an open mind and not be bogged down or influenced by local politics, as are many of the other CEO’s around Australia.
“I’ll listen to everyone. I won’t be coming in from day one and making wholesale changes. The focus will be getting ready for the next season, while listening and learning at the same time. I come from a sales background. Members and fans – just like customers – are the lifeline of the club and they want to feel part of it.” He told Mersiades.
He his saying the right things and has the right attitude, for the Hyundai A League and Sydney FC’s sake let us hope that he manages to follow through on all those and lift the club back to where it should be. If he does maybe others will adopt some of his philosophies.
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No Longer Skirting the Issue
Sometimes it is better is sports administrators let common sense prevail and even better that they say nothing.
Badminton’s world body announced this week that it has shelved plans to force female players to wear skirts. The decision was made as they faced the possibility of controversy at the Olympics had they tried to enforce such a rule.
The Badminton World Federation caused uproar last year by trying to make dresses mandatory for female competitors in an attempt to attract more fans to the sport. The countries to stand up against such a ruling were China, Malaysia, Indonesia and India.
However it is understood that the BWF has urged competitors to ‘look their best for the cameras’ as they try to attract a greater television audience. They have decided to push competitors to take more care about their presentation.
Deputy President Paisan Rangsikitpho was quoted as saying “We just want to encourage women and men players to dress properly. We want them to dress nicely, professionally.”
Denmark’s Karina Jorgenson hit the nail on the head when at a recent event where the skirts debate was still raging when she was quoted as saying “It should be about what we do not what we wear.”
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Heading in the Right Direction – A Podium in London?
Trying to restore a once proud and successful sporting nation to former glory is an extremely tough task, and it is a brave administrator or coach who takes on such a task.
One such job which would be comparative to being the England football manager, or the Springbok or All Black Rugby coach would have to be taking on a similar role with Indian hockey.
Jose Brasa had a go, so too did Rick Charlesworth – current Kookaburras coach – and now his former roommate Michael Nobbs is in the hot seat. As is always the case when you hold the top job, there are many who have thrown mud at the Australian coach. Yet he appears to be making headway, and India are playing some exhilarating hockey.
They may have disappointed at the London Invitational tournament, and the team’s confidence took a bit of a knock, which was evident in their opening game of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia when New Zealand thrashed them 5-1. However last two nights they showed that they are a spirited side with some true artists in their side. They fought back from 2-0 down against Great Britain and in all truth should have won, if they had been more ruthless in front of goal. Great Britain scrambling to hang onto a 3-2 game to win the game.
Last night however they were magnificent; magnificent in spite of some very dubious umpiring, which may well have been a result of a vociferous home crowd cheering on Malaysia. At one point India only had nine men on the pitch with two having been issued yellow cards. Malaysia too must be given credit for the part they played in a game that would lift hockey viewing and participation if it could be replicated by other nations. Both teams showed high levels of skill, pace and commitment and entertained all who witnessed the game.
India are not yet back at the top of the tree, but it appears that they are heading in the right direction. Encouraging too is the spirit within this side, no prima-donnas, just a close knit group with no ego issues who are determined to do well. IF they can replicate their Olympic qualifying form in the rest of the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament and make it to the final, they could well be amongst the medals in London, their first since 1980.
Foreigners would Help Australia.
Western Force fans will no doubt be welcoming the news that the club has secured the services of Sias Ebersohn from the Cheetahs to play at fly half for the next two seasons. They will also be keeping their fingers crossed that he makes it onto the park something compatriat Andre Pretorius was unable to do in a Super Rugby fixture. The number ten shirt at The Emirates Western Force has not been one that has been filled effectively since the clubs inception, for all manner of reasons.
It is interesting that such an announcement was made this week, almost a week to the day that former coach John Mitchell, while in Perth with his Lions side stated he felt that the Australian franchises should be allowed to employ more foreign players.
There are many who applaud such a move believing that there are two benefits from such a move. It would help raise the profile and the standard of the Australian Super 15 Franchises, and at the same time young Australian players would benefit from playing alongside some of the best players in the World.
The one word of warning that we would issue is there should be a criteria that the incoming players should be required to meet. Australian rugby simply needs to take a look at what has happened with some of the imports who have made the journey to Australia to play in the Hyundai A League. Regrettably the the A league has witnessed far too many players whose careers are well and truly over in Europe heading down under in order to prolong their careers. One thing that some players in the A league have looked at is to come and play in Australia in a league with one game a week because physically they could no longer manage the glut of games in Europe; there is no way that this would be an issue in Super Rugby, as you would have to be in peak condition in order to make it through the season.
Ebersohn is a good recruit for the Force, and the Australian game could benefit from more of his ilk. It would also benefit from a second tier competition being resurrected, but we will leave that discussion to another day.
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A Matter of Choice?
Sport has a great habit of polarising opinions and the news that W-League Champions Canberra United have give dual international Ellyse Perry and ultimatum is on such topic.
Perry like many of her Southern Stars and Matildas team mates is immensely talented at more than one sport. She has been so good that she has represented Australia at Cricket and Football and attended World Cups in both sports and has a winners medal from cricket.
Apart from being talented, Perry is the perfect athlete to be put up for the media. She is articulate and intelligent as well as epitomising the cliched image of an Australian woman, tall and blonde.
There have been many who have felt that this day should have come sooner, and that Perry was fortunate that the governing bodies of both sports allowed her to play two games that fight for her time every Summer, yet the Football Federation of Australia and Cricket Australia saw the massive publicity she generated. Whenever there was a story about her achievements in one sport the other benefitted indirectly.
One cannot really criticise the move taken by Canberra United CEO Heather Reid, who has admitted the pressure was coming from W-League coach of the year and Championship winning Jitka Klimkova, who was “trying to build a much more professional football culture and she needs players fully committed to football”.
Perry’s cricket commitments often forcing her to miss training and also games last year.
No doubt there will be other W-League clubs keen to sign Perry if not just for her footballing prowess but also for her ambassadorial attributes. The trouble is wherever she does end up there may well again be feelings of resentment that she is still permitted to play two sports.
It would be a shame for either sport to lose such a talent. There are other examples of dual international in women’s sport around the world, however many of these are in Winter and Summer sports, rather than two in the same season. No doubt this issue will be debated long and hard and polarise opinion, but at the end of the day the decision will come down to Perry herself, and we wish her luck reaching what she feels is the right one.
All in a Day’s Work
The news may well have slipped past many of our regular readers but a week ago England’s most senior first class cricketer Mark Ramprakash bagged a pair. Incredibly this was only the third pair he had bagged in a 25 year professional career.
Ramprakash who played in Western Australia for University started his professional career in 1987 and was capped by Middlesex in 1990. HIs feat has however also managed to gain him an entry into the record books.
There have been 694 instants of batsmen being dismissed for nought in both innings in English first class cricket, but Ramprakash is the first to suffer the ignominy of a pair on the same day’s play!
For those who are interested Mick Norman of Northamptonshire was out twice for nought to the first ball of the innings playing against Glamorgan in 1964; Another unwanted record.
Will Richardson Re-Locate?
Cricket fans across the globe are happy that former South African Dave Richardson is the new CEO of the ICC. Having stepped up after ten years as the ICC’s General manager he will understand the workings of the organisation as well as the politics. Richardson is also a former lawyer so will have no doubts as to the procedural side of running Cricket needs to be above suspicion.
Many have questioned the reasoning behind the ICC being based in Dubai and currently located in the middle of a dusty building site which one scribe described as “an outbuilding on a forgotten industrial estate.” It will be interesting to see if during his tenure he tries to re-locate Crickets headquarters to a more traditional location, or at least to one where the nation plays Test Cricket.
Feeding Time? No.
There was much gnashing of teeth as the Perth Glory’s decision to form a relationship with a sole state League club started to unfold. First there was the lack of clarity as to how this relationship was going to work, with it eventually revealed it was a sponsorship deal.
Not the Footy Show hears that it is not just the other State League clubs who are concerned about the arrangement, and the whole issue was raised behind closed doors at Perth Glory recently.
Apparently clarity was sought as to whether Inglewood United was officially being used as a feeder club for Perth Glory. With key personnel in the room greatly concerned that if it was there were players currently wearing Inglewood’s colours who would never be close to being offered an A League contract, and therefore the wrong message was being conveyed to the local community.
It was agreed that Inglewood was not an official feeder club and that the arrangement between the two clubs was beneficial in other ways to both parties.
One would have thought that that would have answered all of the concerns, but it is understood that a request was made that this fact be minuted so that everyone could refer back to it should there be issues in the future to the contrary.
Too Sensitive By Half
In life there should always be the freedom of speech, on the proviso that the speakers realize that they must never make defamatory comments.
For too long we have seen coaches and players fined for criticizing referees and umpires even when television replays may well show that they were in fact correct. One of the reasons we always liked the female tennis player Gigi Fernandez, was she turned up at a tournament and handed over a cheque for several thousand dollars to the organizers, who puzzled asked her what this was for. She advised them she was paying now, as she was sure that they would fine her for something during the event.
Sadly now we are witnessing sporting organisations shutting out the media simply because certain journalists or media outlets have criticized them for errors that they again have made. In fact one administration has gone to great lengths to gag a newspaper and one of its writers.
These moves are not good for sport and they are not good for the fans. Do the fans seriously want mediocre reporting that is biased to only telling the story the clubs want? Sadly we are heading down that path and the fans will be the ones who lose.
Another case in point where these issues have to be looked at arose recently in England. Cricket’s often labeled ‘bad boy’ Kevin Pietersen was fined UKL2000 by the English and Wales Cricket Board for comments made via Twitter about Sky commentator Nick Knight. The ECB described his fine as being the result of comments ‘deemed prejudicial to the ECB.”
Now Twitter has raised many issues and personally we question whether players and coaches should be ‘tweeting’ during a game, but surely if commentators are able to air their opinions, the players and coaches should be allowed a right of reply?
Pietersen’s error it appears was to take aim at an individual. Teammate Jimmy Anderson recently also had a pop at Sky Sports when he wrote in his newspaper column “ Cricket Commentary must be one of the hardest jobs in the world. It is the only way I can make sense of how many of them talk such absolute guff.” Anderson received no fine for his comments.
He may have a point as many ex players are to be honest dreadful commentators, while others crossover to such a role superbly.
The point is though we expect our sports stars to be role models, but surely part of that should be showing children that they must stand up for what they believe is right when they have genuinely been wronged. To regularly try and silence those who speak out ultimately causes more tension and resentment. It is time the gags on players were lifted and some of the administrators on both sides of the fence grew up and took what is often fair criticism.
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June 1, 2012 at 11:45 am Leave a comment