Tabla de contenidos para January 2017 en Australian FourFourTwo

Expansion is the biggest challenge facing the A-League and the FFA today. It’s central to the future of football in this country – and the reputation of the league cannot risk another mis-step like Gold Coast United. (I still maintain North Queensland Fury could have had a viable future... and can still, even if it’s not in this round of expansion.) As our in-depth feature starting on page 40 shows, there is a wealth of options available to the FFA – some admittedly better than others... but for every weakness in each major bid we profile, there is also a significant strength. Yet as we go to press, the buzz around town is that the two current front runners are a second team for Brisbane based on the Strikers’ bid…

1 NO THIRD INGREDIENT REQUIRED England Cheadle North West Counties Division One outfit Cheadle Town offer quite the selection of pies on a matchday. Obviously the non-league staple of meat and potato is available for any of the traditionalists present, but if fans fancy something different in their pie, the second option is totally different: potato and meat. Each pie costs £1.50, or as Cheadle might call it, 50 pence and a pound. 2 LOCAL GUNNERS’ SANTA CLAUSE Bulgaria Sofia Arsenal’s swathe of Bulgaria-based supporters had to get creative for their beloved team’s Champions League tie at Ludogorets Razgrad. Banned from wearing Gunners-related gear in the home end, they still turned up in red and white, wearing Santa hats instead. Pausing only to mutter “humbug”, Ludogorets’ executive director Angel Petrichev…

DENNIS WISE ASKED ME: “DO US A FAVOUR AND PUT THAT GUY IN THE STANDS...” I knew I’d made it as a player when I had signed my third professional contract at West Ham. My hero growing up was Franco Baresi. He was hard, he was tough and he was a leader. He put his head where a lot of people wouldn’t put their boots and I used to watch him on SBS on Sunday mornings in their recap of all the Italian football over the weekend. The funniest thing a coach ever told me was that you could never get booked in the first five minutes. It was Dennis Wise and he said: ‘Trust me, you can’t get booked in the first five minutes so do us a favour…

CANBERRA The sales pitch: Successful Canberra Raiders and Canberra Brumbies outfits suggest there’s room for an A-League club. And if the ACT Government can throw about $23 million to GWS Giants over 10 years to play a few games every season in the capital, then there’s definitely an appetite for pro sport. FFA contact: Not recently Backers: Capital Football says it’s not engaged in the process and former head of the A-League4Canberra bid, Ivan Slavich, has joined Central Coast Mariners as their business development ambassador in the ACT. Ex-Socceroo Andy Bernal says a Canberra A-League club is a good idea in search of the right people. It needs, he said, the FFA, ACT Government and some people with serious money to bankroll the enterprise. Ground: Canberra Stadium, Bruce (capacity 25,000).…

WEST ADELAIDE Founded: 1962 Alumni: John Kosmina, Stan Lazaridis, Graeme James Souness (6 games) Nicknames: Hellas, Westies League: NPL South Australia The sales pitch: Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler flew into Adelaide in November to discuss a future coaching role. The club trumpets its blue collar cred, unifying bid, footballing DNA and the mouth-watering prospect of a new blue v red rivalry. Vice Chairman Andy Haralampopoulos: “Adelaide needs a derby”. Foxtel, he says, agrees. Contact with FFA: Representatives met with then A-League boss Damien de Bohun last year. Backers: Haralampopoulos flies to the UK in December to speak with two clubs keen on globalising their brand, including Leicester City. West Adelaide is looking at a community-based model with share issues to fans. Ground: Coopers Stadium. The club is also building a…

“WE HAD TO PLAY THREE KEEPERS WITH TWO OF THEM UP TOP. THEY TRIED THEIR HARDEST, BUT THAT GAME WAS REALLY EMBARRASSING” There’s a wry smile on the face of Tomi Koski as he prepares to pose for pictures for FourFourTwo. Christmas is drawing near, and that can mean only one thing. Time for the weird photoshoots. “Last winter I was standing in one metre of snow, in the forest, with my full kit on,” he says. “And I was thinking: ‘I’m a footballer, so why am I standing here?’ But I’m used to it. It’s fun. Other clubs don’t get to do these kinds of things.” This evening, the players of FC Santa Claus are clambering into some elf costumes for a spot of training on a snow-covered pitch…

“Attacking midfielders need to play with happiness – dribbling at pace, making things happen” Hi Phil. You’re pretty nifty at beating defenders, so tell us: how do you do it? Hi. I always try to be quick in possession, whether that’s running with the ball, playing a quick pass or trying a trick. I often use my body to hide the ball and this is one of the things I enjoy doing the most when I’m playing. I really like to dribble with the ball, and that’s my role in the team. I try to find spaces for my team-mates. You have a very fluid dribbling style. Do you know where this comes from? Brazilian football has a unique style; we have happiness in our game. If you look at…

MALDINI ‘He’s just a legend in all departments – I can’t sum it up any better. He was a gentleman off the park, an absolute winner on the park and a champion professional – I haven’t got words to sum the man up. Whether it was not wanting to lose matches at training or his utter dedication to winning matches anywhere he played.’ RONALDINHO ‘He’s probably the most talented footballer the world has ever seen and he had skill that was scary, seriously scary. I even remember when he wasn’t playing with me at Milan, but when he was playing for Barcelona at the Bernabéu and destroyed Real Madrid singlehandedly and the whole stadium stood up and clapped him. Not many people in the world of football can get that…

“THE FANS WERE GOING MAD. IT WAS AMAZING - AFTER A LONG, HARD SEASON, WE HAD ACHIEVED WHAT WE WANTED.” 3 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 2 DERBY COUNTY Pride Park, April 13, 2009 THE LEAD UP ‘It was Easter Monday and we had played on the Friday at home and won, and we knew that if we won on Monday that we would basically be mathematically secure in getting promoted, bar losing by 20 goals.’ THE MATCH ‘It was a quick turnaround in games and it was a nice hot day - we had about 6000 travelling away fans so the stadium was full. We’d had a great season and we had a great team, so we always knew we were capable of turning it around. I think we were 2-1 down…

The sales pitch: FFA have agreed to keep Wellington Phoenix in the fold, so now it’s time to do the job properly and give the Kiwis a derby. Early attention has fallen on ASB Premiership and multi title-winning side Auckland City which is the only Oceania team to ever reach the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup. Chairman Ivan Vuksich has made “tentative inquiries” about raising capital. Backers: Operating budgets for most of the domestic clubs in the city sit around the 600k mark with little in the way of sponsorship. Ground: An unknown. City’s Kiwitea Street is smack bang in suburbia, with a modest capacity of 3,500, including terraced seating for 250. Eden Park at 50,000 is too cavernous for most A-League needs. Timeline: A-League boss Greg O’Rourke…

Get your head up Before you receive the ball, get your head up and look around, 360 degrees, so that you have an image of the whole pitch in your head. Look for the runners As a creative player, your job is to create chances. To do this, you need to look for players in front of you and anticipate the sort of runs they might be making. Be brave You need courage to play the final pass. Sometimes there is a risk of losing the ball, but the reward could be setting up a goal for the team.…

“THREE YEARS AFTER TRIALS WITH SVEN’S BENFICA, I WAS LOADING VEGETABLES ONTO TRUCKS. YOU NEED TO BE PERSISTENT TO SUCCEED” CLUBS 1988-92 Hogaborgs 1992-93 Helsingborgs 1993-97 Feyenoord 1997-2004 Celtic 2004-06 Barcelona 2006-09 Helsingborgs 2007 Manchester United (loan) 2012 Raa 2013 Hogaborgs COUNTRY 1993-2009 Sweden MANAGERIAL ROLES 2010-12 Landskrona 2014 Falkenbergs 2015- Helsingborgs FourFourTwo has arrived in Nordic Noir territory, just a few miles north of the setting for TV crime drama The Bridge , and there is a sense of foreboding in the air on this autumn afternoon in southern Sweden. Henrik Larsson is in the final weeks of his second season as Helsingborgs boss – a campaign that will eventually end in relegation with fans confronting the manager and his son Jordan at the…

Evesham United were drawing 1-1 with Frome Town in the FA Trophy when Ashley Williams (not that one) launched into a last-minute tackle on Frome’s Clayton Green. “He made a meal of it,” says the still-peeved Evesham midfielder. “He squealed a bit.” Williams was sent off and then stormed off. The issue was that the pair are, or were, best friends, and so Williams had agreed to drive Green home. All the way to Wales. He didn’t ditch him in the end, but he didn’t give him time to change, either. “He rolled up in just a pair of shorts that were soaking wet,” laughs Williams, “so that broke the ice.” Was the journey a bit frosty? “Nah, it was comedy, really. The first thing he said when he got…

450 Players training every week, from Under-6 level all the way up to the senior team 80 ACRES Of brownfield industrial site redeveloped to help create the City Football Academy 16.5 Pitches at the City Football Academy 19 Ground staff employed to look after those pitches and the playing surface at the Etihad Stadium 7000 Full capacity of Academy Stadium GEOGRAPHICAL SPLIT OF ACADEMY PLAYERS 7500 Number of people who worked on the construction of the City Football Academy and the surrounding area 80% Proportion of water needed to irrigate the pitches that is provided by a water tank under the City Football Academy 190m Span of the bridge that connects the Academy Stadium to Etihad Stadium 74% GCSE pass rate for City players at St Bede’s College, seven points…

PERTH II WA has unearthed so many footballing gems that the mining boom seems never ending. There’s plenty of talent to go around for Perth Glory and another A-League club. The sales pitch: A booming population of more than 2 million, high levels of immigration and a big surge in first-generation football fans make Perth ripe for rivalry. Traditional AFL areas like the western suburbs are producing some of the biggest football clubs. WA state side, the Black Swans, would form the nucleus of a second A-League side. Backers: Football West is running with the ball and wants to set up a community-based club with revenue feeding back into grassroots football. Contact with FFA: Chairman Liam Twigger touched base with the FFA just prior to the Socceroos 2-0 win over…

Lukaku & Bolasie Everton team-mates Romelu and Yannick communicate on the pitch using African language Lingala. Who Dares Wins We’d quite like to see a few Premier League footballers on the TV show that puts folks through SAS training. Nathan Burns Back in the Roos and looking like Messi on a disappointing night against Thailand Saido Berahino West Brom sent their out-of-favour striker to France to undergo a rigorous four-day fitness programme. Coach bans The A-League is going to run out of managers on the sidelines if they keep getting banned for criticising referees. Smoking A new study has found that tobacco consumption causes hundreds of genetic mutations in human DNA – so stub it out.…