SBS Get WC 2010 and 2014 Broadcast Rights for Oceania and Farina’s Not Happy

April 6th, 2006 | by: Vlado |

In his opinion piece on the SBS website, Les Murray rips into Frank Farina and Frank’s whinging and whining about SBS being awarded the rights to exclusively broadcast the 2010 and 2014 World Cup finals tournaments.

When I heard the news about SBS getting the rights, I was wrapped. Great news that meant I, along with the rest of the Australian football viewing public wouldn’t have to subscribe to pay TV, or crash at someone’s place who has Foxtel, to watch the game we love, or have the coverage of the beautiful game butchered by one of the commercial networks. This however is merely a personal benefit, to me and other football fans, which is tiny in comparison to the benefit the sport in Australia will get as a result of the game being available on free-to-air TV. As Les said, SBS having exclusive rights was a “win-win for everyone”.

However, one Mr Frank Farina isn’t happy about it.

Les informs us that:

In a column in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, under the headline Game Deserves Better than SBS, [Farina] attempts to argue that the World Cup deal ushers in eight years of darkness for the game.

He begins his piece with ‘SBS likes nothing more than to deal in conspiracy theories’. But this from the man who once claimed, and still does, that he got shafted as national coach because SBS was conducting a conspiracy against him.

(One get the feeling that Frank doesn’t like SBS).

Les goes on to destroy each and every point Farina made in his column, but the pièce de résistance in Les Murray’s article was the following:

The minnow is Frank Farina, a failed coach now trying to make a career out of that failure, a man to whom the game owes nothing and SBS owes even less.

You tell him Les!

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http://store.worldcupblog.org Chris

I’ve watched SBS and Les Murray for years. Everything he says SBS has done for football in Australia is 100% true. It boggles my mind how Farina can possibly believe the tosh coming out of his mouth. I can only assume he is being paid by Fox to say these things. That’s the only way it makes any kind of sense.

The fact that SBS scored these broadcast rights is phenomenal. That the deal also includes the Youth, Womens and Futsal WC’s is icing on a very big cake. I remember watching the ‘86 World Cup on SBS. I would never have been able to see it otherwise. Same goes for all those years watching the *2 hour* Serie A highlight program every weekend.

SBS’s committment to football is unquestionable. And the station cannot be considered the forgotten stepchild of Aussie free-to-air channels. Farina calling it an ‘ethnic station’ borders on racism, and dances crazily in the Land of Stupidity.

Whether there was really a conspiracy against Farina as coach of the Socceroos is neither here nor there to this issue. Non-stop, live, uninterrupted World Cup football, free to air and with knowledgeable commentary is the only thing that matters and if Farina cannot see the benefit of this, then he’s more than welcome to move to England and pay BSkyB his money to watch the World Cup on a ‘mainstream channel’.
http://australia.worldcupblog.org Matt

In regards to Farina have a whine about people trying to get him out, I do remember a site sackfrank.com.au

That was actually quite funny.
It was started by one of the guys on the SBS World Game forums so perhaps Les copped some of the blame. Anyway, like the majority of football fans I am glad to see SBS getting the rights. When Seven hosted matches they had no idea and to hear Bruce McAvaney commentate football was a disgrace.

Go SBS!
john

Farina’s still bitter about what was fairly obvious shafting from SBS (Murray, Orsati, Foster and even the supposedly visionary Johnny Warren). I don’t think any neutral would disagree they had it in for him given he didn’t agree with their views. However farina’s comments re SBS getting the rights are ordinary given they do decent coverage – despite being control freaks!