One sad aspect of following football in Western Australia is it often appears a case of deja-vu.
Cast your minds back to July 2014, and Perth Glory were in the news for abandoning their pre-season encounter with Sydney Olympic at Belmore Sports Ground.
At the time it was reported that the Glory were unhappy with having to warm up behind the goals, which they were forced to do as Olympic’s U16s were preparing to play a curtain raiser against South Coast Wolves. There was also allegedly issues in relation to exclusive use of the changing rooms.
Fast forward to Friday last week and Perth Soccer Club who are due to host the match on Wednesday evening between Perth Glory and a WA representative side picked from players in the NPL, received an email from the club stating that they wished to have sole access to the changing rooms and the pitch an hour and a half before the scheduled kick off.
Once again as with the game at Sydney Olympic a curtain raiser has already been scheduled and advertised, a game that will see Perth Soccer Club under 20’s play a WA schoolboys side. Kick off for this game is 5.45pm and the main game is due to start at 7.30pm.
Perth Soccer Club wisely advised the Perth Glory that they should contact Football West as they are the organisers of the game and that they have been chosen purely as a venue to host the game.
It will be interesting to see how this one pans out in the next 48 hours. It would be extremely foolish for the club to withdraw from this game, a game which would showcase Perth Soccer Club’s new floodlights; lights which mean that should they get a home draw in the FFA cup they can play at home and lease to other clubs.
It would be extremely foolish on so many fronts as the club has arguably done very little to connect with the local football community, and it needs to re-engage the public of Western Australia. To withdraw from a game such as this would leave yet another bad taste.
One other thing that may well prove interesting should the game go ahead, is whether the players and staff from Perth Glory accept that they will be charged for parking inside the ground.
Entry to the ground is simply a gold coin donation. All monies raised from the gate will be donated to the WA Cancer Council. Perth Soccer club obviously has costs attributed to hosting the game, monies they hope they will recoup over the bar. It is their intention to charge all patrons wishing to park inside the ground $5. Two of these dollars to go to the WA Cancer Council and the rest to allay staff costs.
The logical step if some players happen to be upset at being charged would be for the club to give each player $5 and say no more. Of course that is provided the game does go ahead with the Curtain raiser prohibiting Perth Glory access to the pitch and changing rooms an hour an a half before kick off as requested.
