South looking for new General Manager

Here's the official site link. And here's the Seek lisiting. What follows is an absolute piece of crap analysis of the situation.

A newly or (re-)created full time paid position? That's big news for a club in our position. Another attempt to make this position work? Even bigger news. The last paid general manager we had was a Maltese bloke back in 2006. I bought my first ever membership from him, with bonus scarf (I know, the shame of not doing so for the previous years I was a fan - but it was a complicated situation) and then apart from memory seeing him run around like a little bit of a headless chook at the opening home game, never saw him again.

And there of course have been others who have filled this or similar positions, such as that of the CEO - though being a complete industry/workplace noob, I have next to idea what the difference is between some of these job descriptions. Anyway, some people have fond memories of the work Mark Patterson did back in the late NSL days. Current PFA chief Brendan Schwab reportedly tried and failed to do something worthwhile with the mess he found, but was thwarted allegedly by the very people who'd hired him. And there's probably been all sorts of actual South fans who have of course tried working in that environment and been burnt and have become bitter about everything and everyone to do with the club. Or something.

Which makes me wonder if a South fan really is the best person for the job. Isn't there an old adage about not mixing work and pleasure? Maybe. Are there actually any soccer people or people who know about enough about Australian soccer with these skills in Victoria who at the same time don't hold a grudge of some sort against the club? That being said, this job isn't only about soccer,, because there's also new money, operations and opportunities which need to be dealt with.

And where's the money coming from? Is this person going to be expected to, in some way, pay their own way? That is, doing such a good job that part of the revenue they bring in is their wage? No, that would be a little silly. That would mean then that the club will soon have enough or has budgeted enough that they believe they can afford this - and they must also believe quite strongly that the need will soon be upon us to hire such a person.

And while the argument could (and will and already has been made) that we should spend excess money on better players or improvement to other areas, I reckon the thinking behind this move is to hire someone who will end up both saving time and money for the club, as well as running our expanded (potential) commercial operations well enough that we also start raking it in a bit, and more efficiently too.

Now I don't know what the situation is with Green Gully and their pokie club operation, but I doubt that it'd be run by one or more members of the football committee. It's a job that requires both a certain amount of expertise as well as free time. Some of the less brain addled (or more accurately, trainspotting type) readers out there may recall that former CEO/GM or something of the FFV Tony Pignata, when he came out with his version of the V-League, had a permanent/full time general manager as one of the prerequisites for participating in said possible revamped competition.

All I know for sure is that the old member/patron model is unsustainable - and that ripping off juniors and their parents ain't gonna be much of a replacement, given the voting powers they've been granted of late and the chance/willingness of them to use that power. You're not dealing with illiterate wogs any more. So if we are going to go down the road of being responsible for and making use of a commercial operation in order to create a sustainable future as well as create the cultural environment that we are moving forward into a position where we can p;ave ourselves in the best spot to take advantage of whatever may come in Australian soccer, than why the hell not? Hire away!

Me and Brendan Schwab have a bit of a chat

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.