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Remember just a couple of short weeks ago, six in total, when a dream run by Western Sydney Wanderers saw them become the first Australian team to win the Asian Champions League (ACL)?
I wonder if the Wanderers themselves remember it after what has transpired since?
Last season’s runners-up are yet to win so far this competition and are wallowing in last place.
The things that have made Western Sydney so successful in their short history (it is hard to believe the franchise are only three years old!) have gone missing this season.
The unity between club, players and fans is rapidly dissolving with the players and club already at loggerheads.
While the fans still support the players, they are quickly becoming disillusioned with the way the club is being run by its directors.
By winning the ACL, the Wanderers qualified for the Fifa Club World Cup in Morocco where they will take on Mexican champions Cruz Azul FC.
If they can defeat Cruz Azul, the Wanderers will take on European super club Real Madrid.
Qualifying for the tournament secures Western Sydney $1 million (USD).
The Wanderers have proposed to pay their playing roster 10 per cent of that total ($100 000 USD).
Split between the entire squad, the prizemoney works out at around $5000 a player.
While we wouldn’t sniff at that, for the club to keep $900,000 on top of the prizemoney they received for winning the final, doesn’t seem fair and the players are not happy.
They are threatening to boycott the Club World Cup if the club do not come up with a fairer proposal.
If the Wanderers go on to beat Cruz Azul they receive an extra $500,000.
Even if they then lose to Real Madrid, they will receive another $500,000 in a play-off for third and fourth.
The winners of the Club World Cup receive $5 million.
It would be a brave man to think the Wanderers could beat the dust out of a rug at the moment.
Even so, they have secured the $1 million already.
Western Sydney have said to the players they want to use the money to fund a new academy and training centre.
While this is a great idea and the players would benefit from the training centre, they feel under appreciated for the ACL heroics.
When Adelaide featured in the Club World Cup, players received half of the total prizemoney.
Players all around the country have shown their support for the Wanderers players via social media.
The unrest at the Wanderers isn’t just this pay dispute.
Their poor domestic form can be attributed to a number of issues which include an “ACL hangover”.
A number of key players have been allowed to leave the club in the off season.
Inaugural players such as marquee signing Shinji Ono, Youssouf Hersi, Jerome Polenz and club captain Michael Beachamp have all left the Wanderers.
These players were the heart of the Wanderers and letting them all leave at once has been a disaster for the team.
I don’t know if it was head coach Tony Popovic’s decision or a board decision, but the Wanderers will want to enjoy their 2015 ACL campaign because they won’t be having one in 2016.
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Still talking soccer, manager of English Premier League giants Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, has really outdone himself this time.
Chelsea had started the current season unbeaten before losing 2-1 to Newcastle, much to the enjoyment of a few Geordie supporters I know.
Instead of saying something along the lines of “the run had to come to an end at some stage” or “we didn’t play our best today”, Mourinho has tried to deflect the blame on an unlikely target - the Newcastle ball boys.
He has tried to say the ball boys were part of a time wasting strategy which cost his team a chance of levelling the match and that there is no place for that in top level football (soccer).
This is the same guy who went out of his way to block two Liverpool players when they were trying to get the ball back in a very important game towards the end of last season.
It seems like the Portuguese manager has a real problem with opposition ball boys.
Last season he told a Crystal Palace ball boy “he could get punched” for time wasting in a game Chelsea lost 1-0.
The self proclaimed “Special One” seems most adept at dodging blame more than anything.
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The Australian cricket team got back on the horse, so to speak, yesterday when they started play in the first Test of a four match series against India only days after the funeral of Phillip Hughes.
It was a lion-hearted effort even before a ball was bowled.
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As a wanna-be golfer, I know how much it means to a player to shoot a hole-in-one.
I have never achieved the feat but it is something all golfers dream about.
Last week, 67 year old Canberra golfer Jim Jackson began play at the Capital Golf Club complaining of back pain and finished with two hole-in-ones in the same round.
The chances of that happening are approximately 67 million to one according to holeinoneregistry.com.
Jackson said he was elated at getting the first one and in disbelief when the second one went in.
After enjoying the second hole-in-one of the 14th hole, Jackson proceeded to shank his tee shot into the greenkeepers shed on the 15th tee.
Golf can be funny like that.