Football commentators in war of words
FOX Sports Robbie Slater calls SBS commentator Craig Foster 'racist' after his newspaper column questioned an Irish coach.
- Published by David Knox
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A war of words has broken out between SBS football commentator Craig Foster and FOX Sports commentator Robbie Slater.
In his Sun-Herald column, Foster questioned Melbourne Victory’s decision to appoint Northern Irishman Jim Magilton as coach.
Foster (pictured) said the appointment harked back to Australian football’s ‘‘historical reliance on Britons’’.
Slater let fly with a tirade via several tweets on the weekend:
Ok here goes . I am sick of the continual attacks and in my opinion racist comments from @Craig_Foster on British people his article in / Todays sun herald in my opinion is a racist column and it is beyond me how he continually gets away with these vile articles ./
British people have made a massive contribution to the history of our game and continue to do so just. It is surprising / That you dislike the British so much because after all they gave you a career playing in the guess what . The championship .
He also suggested Les Murray, Haul him / Into your office and tell him his comments are unacceptable after all he does work for the excellent multi cultural channel SBS…..
In any forum, if you fail to formulate a cogent argument & personalize the issue you have already lost. Opinion is the lifeblood of the game.
Thankyou for all the comments today. Whatever the mechanism or spark, I’m always delighted to see the important issue of coaching debated.
Whilst some of the comments yesterday were very serious & warrant further action, I’m pleased an important issue is given oxygen for debate.
He also told The Age, ‘‘The utterly inappropriate use of the word ‘racism’ is something about which I am disappointed about.”
‘‘It is an important issue in our game and should be treated far more respectfully … This demonstrates a complete incomprehension of the issue.”
16 Responses
I have enjoyed SBS’s football coverage. But there is a nasty edge to it.
Foster’s style of criticism is very personal and negative. He loves attacking coaches that are in a vulnerable position. And linking their failure to their personal qualities.
The current top coaches are Graham Arnold and Ange Postecoglu. He has attacked them very aggressively in the past when they were in a weak position.
I think Slater’s comments were more of a reaction to his behaviour and attitude over several years, rather than to one article. There is a lot of built up animosity.
go Melbourne Victory!
I agree with Slater, while Foster is pasionate about the Spanish/Dutch way, but all too often he is very negative about the British game and almost chokes on his own vomit when he has to say something positive. Fozzies constant barbs and negativity do underline a deep dislike of all things British as per Slaters response. I have stoppeed watching TWG on SBS cos of Fozz.
They do all the spanish and south american games on SBS so les Murray can pronounce them(and insists his staff do the same) as per their translation, always have found that odd, when Les an Hungarian, Angolised his name!
Poor article yes (there may or may not have been better choices as manager but at least I know who Magilton is), but saying it was racist and dragging out the past (the incident in Tahiti) was disgraceful.
“The utterly inappropriate use of the word ‘racism’ is something about which I am disappointed about.” About… about…
it’s a battle of who thinks they are the definitive football network in australia rather than any actual meaningful commentary. sbs were p*ssed off when frank lowy ditched them for fox sports run by murdoch/packer and took some old time sbs staff with them. it’s a battle of princesses rather than theories as fox sports pushes its mainly british sourced content and sbs counteracts with mainly euro based content. ignore both and enjoy whichever style you like though I recommend brasilian and croatian leagues if you get the time. both very different but entertaining.
@James, The English game may not be technically superior but at least it gets the ratings and bums on seats for its often end to end play. The A-league would kill for just a quarter of what the Premier League has to offer.
Yes I thought football was a boring game, until Fox Sports started showing games from all over the world and am now hooked on it, even so much as to become a member of Watford. I do agree they are over paid and is the sole reason why clubs are struggling financially, unfortunately it is a global game, unlike AFL so they cannot intoduce a salary cap, as not all the conferances would accept it so the big money owners would just buy up others clubs that don’t have salary caps and the big money players will just follow.
AFL iwould be the best game, but no Promotion/Relegation means that the lower end clubs will never do anything to play better to avoid the drop as they don;t have to, so the final 8 0r 9 games can become pretty meaningless.
The beauty of soccer is if you are not avoiding relegation, you try to qualify in the top six so you can play in the European Cups
col ‘the most boring game on the planet ‘ A yet not only do you choose to clink/read the article but you even decide to comment on it.
Slater needs a reality check. Football (soccer) in Australia has for so many years has had a British coaching philosophy that has got the sport no where. Robbie Slater is Australian but loves the English football, of course he’s going to get angry everytime someone has a bad thing to say about his beloved English long-ball, defensive styled boring game they play and the coaches they bring out here. Foster at least is trying to bring some change, but if this sport doesn’t change it will be and always be a minor sport in Australia.
@col, have you ever heard of the term troll?
I watch him on the World Game on SBS 2, and he has always comes across as negative towards to Aust Football and anyone associated with it,he never agrees with his fellow panellists as well I think he wants to be part of Fox Sports Football Coverage, but is held at SBS where the only time they commentate games is at th World Cup.
Craig Foster seems to think he is the one and only authortive voice in Aust Football
Ah Soccer or Football what ever you call it , the most boring game on the planet and the most overpaid so called sportsman on the planet , no one man let alone a team is worth that much money , so many clubs are in poor financial shape anyway.
And why wont they allow video referees so they can cheat , like they always have.
I know it detracts a bit but thats my opinion.
I don’t think Foster’s comments in the article are racist. Slater is overreacting. How does relying on “Britons” put them in a bad light? There’s no remark that is offensive to that group of people.
I understand where Craig Foster is coming from but he is very narrow minded himself. Craig thinks everyone should play like the Spaniards. “Barcelona this, Real Madrid that…” Yes good in theory but you also need billion dollar investments these days to bring in this type of technical quality which the A-League clubs simply don’t have. Wake up a bit Craig! He talks the talk but why don’t you start coaching youself if you feel you can solve the problems of Australian football!