A-League Football, A-Leaque Soccer, Australia : Aussie Football, A-League Australia

Thursday, October 05, 2006

FFA ban Moore

Would be skipper Craig Moore was banned by Football Federation Australia from Australia's upcoming game against Paraguay on Saturday at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium. The Newcastle United defender will also miss the Asian Cup qualifier against Bahrain next Wednesday night after being asked to be excused form the squad following his suspension.

Good to see the FFA is still in amateur mode with their Big Stick theory.

Not so long ago, the FFA decided to ban Viduka form club football after his well documented non arrival to help Leeds try to avoid relegation having been away from the club, to be back home with his father who was recovering from a stroke.

Viduka was banned as the FFA set about drawing a line in the sand.

Great idea, no more would Aussie football or its association be considered insignificant on the world football stage.

However, Zeljko Kalac was excused to stay with his then club as they tried to avoid relegation from the Italian Serie A.

Different rules for different folks it seems. There's other examples from the same fixture but i couldn't be bothered going into detail, theres plenty on the Moore incident to write about yet.

A couple years pass and not alot has changed, Ironically Viduka is excused this weekend because his wife is due to have the couples second child, while Moore has been banned for arriving late and the non arrival at a specific function.

It seems the FFA are a one trick pony with the big stick again making an appearance this week.

FFA chief executive John O'Neill said he made the decision to suspend Moore.

O'Neill said, "His reasons were that he'd been to the races on (Tuesday) afternoon, had gone out to dinner with some other players, he stayed up quite late and had some trouble getting to sleep, eventually took a sleeping tablet, and slept through and missed the plane and therefore missed training,"

"Craig's a very senior player, he's been playing for the Socceroos for a very long time, he's a player of some status, he knows the rules and missing the plane, sleeping through and missing training is not consistent with the behaviour we expect of the Socceroos."

Lucky nobody died. Fair dinkum, the game is on an upward spiral in this country and some people want to rule with an iron fist, over a nothing incident. So the boy slept in, big deal.

But then, O'Neill comes from a rugby background where they tend to get drunk in public and cause all sorts of problems, regularly, maybe it's then little wonder he is a little over exuberant with the punishment handed out to Moore.

Moore being fined and playing in Brisbane is more positive for Aussie Soccer than him being banned for sleeping in.

A bloke travels half way around the world, and officialdom simply hasn't a clue. Make no mistake, he should be punished. You just have to work out, what you feel is fair punishment for somebody who has transgressed once in a 10 year career for his country, which has seen him, on countless occasions, risk his career and livelihood to represent Australia.

It's amateur hour.

posted by Footballer at FFA ban Moore

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