Entries Tagged 'David Beckham' ↓

If the Melbourne Victory reach the finals of the A-League, they might be in the running for a spot at the first-ever Pan-Pacific Championship in February. Four teams will compete in the tournament, to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

One Australian team will play the MLS Cup Champion, the Houston Dynamo, while David Beckham and the LA Galaxy will face the J-League’s Gamba Osaka.

Details on how the Australian team is selected are somewhat vague. The A-League website states that “an Australian side that will qualify on the basis of results from the Hyundai A-League finals series.” You’d assume the Grand Final winner gets through, right?

But the A-League Grand Final is to be played on the 24th of February – a day after the Pan-Pacific Championship kicks off. As a result, the loser of the preliminary final will get to compete in Hawaii.

Pretty sweet consolation prize, if you ask me.

An article in the Australian today says that Sydney has won the bid to play David Beckham and Co. (aka. the LA Galaxy). The game’s set to be played at Telstra Stadium on November 27.

Sucks for Melbourne, who had been contending that we should get the game. No doubt we would have been able to pack the Telstra Dome for a game like that. But Sydney has won it.

Even more infuriating than that, though, is what Sydneysiders had to say about it all. George Perry, the CEO of Sydney FC, said:

“Where else would you play the game but in the best city in the world and against the best club in the country?”

Or check this out from NSW Premier Morris Lemma:

“Sydney is now the undisputed home of football in Australia and the fans have responded magnificently in recent times.”

Undisputed home of football? Best club in the country? What enormous boulder have these blokes been hiding under?