Brendan Schwab, before he was top of the heap at the Professional Footballer's Association, was a briefly CEO of South Melbourne. Tonight, he was on the SBS tv program 'Insight', which has a live chat component after the show. I skipped the show (partly because I was watching the Colbert Report, and rescuing Hartlepool from a 2-0 deficit against Lincoln City to finish 2-2), but I did join the live chat. All but one of my questions got through (it's a fairly poorly moderated operation), and I wasn't surprised about the one that didn't get through because it referred to a semi-apocryphal story about Brendan's time at South and his relationship with former president George Vasilopoulos.
I didn't bother asking about so called injustices inflicted on the ex-NSL clubs, because there were plenty of other emotive posts that got through, and I sure as hell didn't reckon they would get answered - there were a couple of other blokes as well doing the love chat thing - you can read the chat transcript here. It's fairly interesting, mostly in what gets answered and what doesn't - some searing questions on the legal status of certain player agents seemed to be ones that Brendan would have liked to avoid. One of my questions got answered - I also borrowed one from a mate of mine without his knowledge, to see what would come out of it - nothing as it turned out. Here's the record of my correspondence.
[Comment From Paul]
How is it that clubs can get away with charging $400+ for junior soccer, and equivalent auskick only costs about $65?
[Comment From Paul]
When will an independent A-league commission be established?
[Brendan Schwab]
Paul - the A-League independent commission is not on the table at the moment. It was an important recommendation in the Crawford Report. However, the current FFA Board runs both FFA and the national league. It is unclear if FFA intends to fully implement the Crawford Report but, at this late stage, probably unlikely.
[Comment From Paul]
Last season, the Football Federation Victoria raised over $400,000 in fines and penalties - it is appropriate that a state federation is reliant on these fines to keep in the black?
[Comment From Paul]
Why is the FFA still raking in the player levy which was set up to bail out the old Soccer Australia?
[Comment From Chips]
Excellent question, Paul. Still there and rising. Disgraceful.
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