Can Kosta and co fix the A-League?
Forget the week that was because it's an insane feast of a Weekend That Will Be
It’s only one of the biggest weekends in the Wellington Phoenix’s history and wouldn’t you know it, they’re not the biggest A-League story of the day.
Not by a long shot.
“‘Betrayed the trust of their supporters’: A-League players arrested for alleged betting corruption,” screamed the headline of the Sydney Morning Herald story and it’s a doozy.
Three A-League soccer players are expected to be charged after police uncovered an alleged corrupt betting scheme directed by an overseas organised crime figure at a Sydney football club. Police allege a senior player at Macarthur FC was taking instructions from an organised crime figure in South America to organise for yellow cards to be awarded during games to make a profit. They allege the player paid $10,000 each to other players to manipulate the yellow cards.
New Zealand media have named All White Clayton Lewis as one of three men arrested, along with former Wellington Phoenix captain Ulises Davila and Kearyn Baccus, for a scheme that allegedly paid out hundreds and thousands of dollars in winnings to the crime syndicate.
A fourth player is being sought.
Investigators allege yellow cards were manipulated during [Macarthur FC] games played on November 24 and December 9…
All three were booked in the December 9 game against Sydney.
It has been a brutal year for the A-League, with clubs facing significant funding cuts due to a tanking broadcast deal, and a general sense the league has lost its way.
CODE Sports reported that the Australian Professional Leagues (AOL), which runs the A-League received just A$5 million in cash from its rights deal this season, despite it being announced as a $30m per year deal. This is due to production costs being factored in and Ten and Paramount+, the rights holders, coming nowhere close to meeting subscription benchmarks.
Interestingly, the league was “buoyed” less than three years ago by an injection of $140m in private equity from Silver Lake, and although that cash has been burned through, the US venture capitalists retain a seat on the APL board .
With Newcastle Jets owner-less and Perth Glory, one of the league’s blue-chip franchises, being sold for $1, you have to ask what Bill Foley and his partners at Auckland FC have actually paid $20m for?
Today’s news, while not directly related to the A-League’s financial woes, increases the sense of doom.
It is up to Wellington to provide a good news story, and I guess this is a start.
David Ball wouldn’t miss Wellington Phoenix’s A-League Men semifinal for the world, or a wedding.
The English forward revealed on the eve of the biggest game in the Phoenix’s 17-year history that he was supposed to be flying home to the UK this week to attend his brother-in-law’s wedding…
The Phoenix confirmed on Friday that the semifinal had officially sold out, with more than 32,000 supporters set to cheer the team on in the do-or-die clash.
Wellington v Melbourne Victory, Wellington, tomorrow 6.30pm, SS2
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
The Warriors are in all likelihood at least a week away from jumping off this runaway losing train, but the Magic Round will still throw up some intriguing questions, not least of which is how the Suncorp Stadium turf will stand up to eight matches across the weekend, because it wasn’t looking that flash for the Dolphins-Sea Eagles last week.
The Warriors might not be at the top of their game, but the NRL is at the top of its, with Sky this morning releasing figures that highlight the massive high league is on.
“Ten rounds into the competition, nearly 1.59 million New Zealanders have enjoyed matches on Sky Sport and free-to-air on Sky Open, a lift of 14 percent year-on-year. Plus, NRL matches were streamed more than 5.9m times, an increase of 19 percent on the 2023 season…
“Warriors matches are the most popular… with the Raiders game on March 22 attracting an audience of 469,800 people with a further 63,800 people streaming [it]. The Warriors v Sharks match on March 8 was the second most popular with 461,100 people watching and over 64,280 people streaming.”
Said Sky’s chief content and commercial officer, Jonny Errington: “There’s no doubt that the NRL is on a roll in terms of fan support, with interest in the competition increasing across all games, not just ones featuring the Warriors – although they naturally continue to command the largest audiences.”
The news comes just as Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’Landys is reportedly threatening to walk away from a deal to make a Papua New Guinea side the 18th team in the league, opening up the (slim) possibility that a second New Zealand side could be fast-tracked into the NRL.
V’Landys said he was prepared to walk away from negotiations with the federal government around PNG. “You play poker with me, we don’t bluff,” he said. “It is no done deal. We’ve got a few negotiating points that we haven’t quite got over and if we don’t get over them, unfortunately it won’t happen. It is D-Day today.”
… The NRL is seeking to secure an agreement from the government before formally taking any PNG proposal to clubs. Other bids from Western Australia and New Zealand have emerged, and provide options with less risk for the NRL.
That’s to come. For now, the top three clashes for Magic Round, all in Brisbane, all on Sky Sport 4, are:
Manly v Brisbane, tonight 10.05pm; Cronulla-Sutherland v Eastern Suburbs, tomorrow 7.30pm; NZ Warriors v Penrith, Sunday 3.50pm
Two New Zealanders are competing at the PGA Championships, the year’s second men’s major, although Ryan Fox (+1) and Kazuma Kobori (+2) will need to make a jump tomorrow morning to play in the weekend as the sodden course is in a forgiving mood. Xander Schauffele (-9) made a mockery of the course, while there are a number of usual, multiple-major-winning suspects lining up behind, including the newly divorced Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa (-5), Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka (-4), and Jordan Spieth (-2). Koepka leads the 16 LIV players in the field, while Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith, Martin Kaymer (-3), Patrick Reed, Dean Burmester, Lucas Herbert (-2), and Jon Rahm (-1) all on the right side of par.
Will they be on the right side of the most shocking merger in sports history? It’s not looking as rosy now, according to McIlroy. “I would say my confidence level on something getting done before last week was, you know, as low as it had been.”
PGA Championship, Louisville, tomorrow 12.40am, Sunday-Monday 4am, Sky channels
Forget tonight’s action, tomorrow’s triple-header is when Super Rugby’s bloated playoff permutations will become clearer. And that’s really all I’ve got to say about that because if I was to snidely mention the fact that a team with a 2-9 record still has a decent chance of qualifying then I could be accused of being a broken record - and we wouldn’t want that.
It starts with eighth v fifth, then third v 11th, and finally first v seventh.
Fijian Drua v Reds, Suva, tomorrow 2.05pm
Brumbies v Crusaders, Canberra, tomorrow 4.35pm
Blues v Highlanders, Auckland, tomorrow 7.05pm, all SS1
I know we’re a country of basketball nuts more than we’re ice hockey fans, but you have to believe me when I tell you that the early rounds of the NHL playoffs dump all over the NBA in terms of drama and storylines. Going further, it’s when you get to the playoffs that you realise just how few NBA teams are set up each year to genuinely challenge for a title.
One of the storylines driving the interest in the NHL is the all-Canadian Western Conference semifinal between the Vancouver Canucks and storied Edmonton Oilers. The Canucks lead the best-of-seven series 3-2. The Montreal Canadiens were the last team from north of the border to lift the Stanley Cup, way back in 1993, the Jurassic (Park) age.
The Canucks had a great chance of ending that streak when they hosted game seven of the finals against the Boston Bruins. The match ended in a civic riot, which ESPN has given the 30 for 30 treatment with I’m Just Here for the Riot to be released next month. It looks wild.
Edmonton v Vancouver, Edmonton, Sunday TBD, ESPN+
Talking of storied teams short of titles, it is difficult to reconcile the outsized influence and value of the New York Knickerbocker NBA franchise with its lack of success. Valued at US$6.6 billion, the Knicks are a mega-franchise, second only behind the Golden State Warriors ($7.7b). The most notable difference between the franchises, apart from the coast they reside on, is that Golden State have won four titles in the past 10 years and the Knicks, well they’ve won two titles, total, and none since 1974. They haven’t made the finals this century. They’ll look to close out their East semifinal against the Indiana Pacers (value, $2.9b).
Indiana v New York, Indianapolis, tomorrow 12.30pm, ESPN
David Nyika has found himself on a stacked undercard for a clash that has shades of heavyweight glory days. Unbeaten Nyika (8-0-0) meets German Michael Seitz (12-0-0) in what should be the biggest test of his nascent pro career. With all due respect, as they say, very few people are splashing out on PPV for his fight. They’re all handing over their visa details for Tyson Fury versus Oleksandr Usyk, a unification fight that feels years in the making.
Under the headline, Fury v Usyk clash a reminder of the epic days in heavyweight boxing, Donald McRae writes: “Just days from this rare unification contest, there is a real fascination in a clash between two contrasting champions. They will never match the magnitude of Johnson and Louis, Ali and Frazier, but Fury and Usyk are gifted fighters. Fury’s outrageous personality transcends the limited confines of boxing today, while Usyk rises up as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance and hope during a ravaging war with Russia. The winner will restore some clarity and order, if only briefly, to the madhouse of boxing.”
Tyson v Fury (plus undercard), Riyadh, Sunday 10am, DAZN
Arsenal fans will want a split-screen to keep one eye on the Emirates, another on the Etihad (there’s a very Middle Eastern theme to that sentence). That anxiety is unlikely to be shared by Manchester City fans who, flushed with more success than they would have dreamed of a generation ago, will simply expect a big victory that will render results elsewhere as irrelevant.
Meanwhile, Liverpool fans will tune in to farewell their beloved manager Jurgen Klopp - whose legacy will be eight trophies in nine years, heartfelt letters and a pie with pickled ingredients - and wonder wistfully what might have been if the injury bug hadn’t bitten so brutally.
Manchester City v West Ham, Etihad Stadium; Arsenal v Everton, Emirates Stadium; Liverpool v Wolves, Anfield, all Sunday 3am, SS 2, 3 & 4.
There is a veritable feast of fast cars and bikes this weekend, with the Indianapolis 500 qualifying on Sunday (3-9am) and Monday (7-10am). Sunday sets the field 13-30, which the Kiwis Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Armstrong will be aiming to avoid, while Monday has a last chance qualifier to find positions 31-33, a preliminary qualifier to determine 7-12 and finally a top-six shootout.
The F1 roadshow moves to Italy for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, some 30 years after Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger died at the same track when it was known as the San Marino Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Supercars moves to Perth, with Richie Stanaway (4th), Matthew Payne (5th) and Andre Heimgartner (8th) the best placed of the New Zealanders.
The Giro d’Italia continues and I’ll continue to make do with YouTube stage highlights, as Tadej Pogacar looks indomitable.
Suncorp had the women's State of Origin last night too, so that only adds to a heck of a workload for that sometimes-suboptimal surface.
How's this for a solo try, though?
https://www.twitter.com/NRLWomens/status/1791046987405459646
Any thoughts on discussing the rise of the NZ National Basketball League? Goes from barely getting some games "broadcast" on Stuff to full coverage on Sky. I'm based in Wellington and Saints games are packed every game, and looks like other arenas are filling up too. It's one of our most popular high school sports (more than rugby) so wonder if there's some momentum building here? Still small steps but it's something