The Moot Point

By Joe Russo

Waratah Cup

On Wednesday I attended the Waratah Cup fixture between APIA Leichhardt and the Macarthur Rams.

After a thrilling 90 minutes of play, the game was locked at 3-3 before going into extra-time. APIA eventually won 4-3.

The pity is that more spectators are not going out to watch these magnificent games and that the Waratah Cup – basically Football NSW’s midweek cup competition – is struggling to gain its fair share of publicity.

However, the FFA’s initiative to incorporate a cup-style competition across the nation can only be a good thing. APIA Leichhardt’s Honorary President, Mr. Tony Raciti, certainly has no doubts.

“The FFA’s decision to have an FA Cup-style competition in the future will be a great success,” he said.

And so say all of us.


Pararoos

Now here is a team that surely doesn’t get much publicity and is certainly worthy of a mention. The Australian Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Team, known as the Pararoos, have been drawn alongside Brazil, Netherlands and Spain in Group A of the 2011 Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA) Football 7-A-Side World Championships.

The event will be held in the Netherlands from the 17th June to the 1st July. Good luck and enjoy it, from all the team at The Football Sack.


Great initiative in Victoria

Another great initiative in football, in amongst all the doom and gloom, comes from Victoria and the United Through Football program.

So what’s all this about? The program will support over 3,000 participants in finding a football club to call home.

Hundreds of new arrivals to Australia from Horn of Africa nations will take part in celebrations this Sunday to highlight footballs role as a vehicle for community integration and social harmony. Congratulations to all involved.


Full Marks to UNSW

The first University of NSW Football United scholarship went to Teresa Yuol, a young 17 year old Sudanese refugee who lost both her parents when she was nine.

The Football United scholarship is awarded to a young football player from a disadvantaged background. The overall aim of Football United is to encourage students to do well at school despite their difficult backgrounds.

According to a recent article, some 2600 students from 48 different ethnic backgrounds across Sydney come together on a regular basis to play football under the Football United umbrella. The UNSW scholarship gives one of them a chance to pursue tertiary studies which may not have been possible otherwise.

We wish Teresa all the best at UNSW this year and once again marvel at the potential for football to do good in this world.


Concentrate on the Hyundai A-League


Finally, one has to wonder what all the fuss is about with FIFA and our World Cup bid. Some six months on and given that FIFA is arguably the world’s most difficult organisation to get any sort of corporate governance and transparency from, it’s time for the FFA to say that enough is enough.

Forget about possibly re-bidding for the 2022 World Cup. Who wants to be part of something so tainted? Australian taxpayers paid millions to fund the original bid and what did we get in return?

On the subject of FIFA there is a movement, changefifa.org, which has an Australian presence. Here is what they had to say via twitter:


“Around the world, the game's stakeholders are fed up.

“@Change FIFA, a social media movement, is working with people from around the world to help change that. It is widely recognised that FIFA is not capable of reforming itself so the only solution in such exceptional circumstances is to call on governments around the world to intervene.”