Football Federation Australia will reveal next season's A-League grand final date within a month "in a bid to avoid this year's stadium fiasco," according to Davutovic & Smithies of the HERALD SUN. A-League side Melbourne Victory has hinted that the Melbourne Cricket Ground "would be a more suitable venue this weekend," while Sydney FC has branded the Australian Football League "a disgrace" for refusing to vacate Etihad Stadium. Sunday's grand final "looms as the first all-member affair at the 30,000-capacity AAMI Park." Victory's 22,000 allocation is "just shy" of its membership tally while Sydney FC (12,000 members) will be offered just 3,500 tickets. The MCG, which was "pencil booked" for Friday night, "was at one stage the favoured venue for a Victory-Sydney FC grand final." Victory execs were reportedly confident 70,000-plus fans would have attended the MCG, "but FFA wanted to persist with Sunday" (HERALD SUN, 5/10). Davutovic & Smithies reported in a separate piece Sydney FC CEO Tony Pignata said the AFL must be "scared" of football "not to have agreed to move the Bulldogs-Dockers game." Pignata: "I'm from Melbourne, I follow AFL and enjoy the footy -- just as a lot of the fans who go to the game will be AFL followers. But I just don't know what the AFL are scared of, really it's a disgrace that they wouldn't agree to move the Bulldogs game." Pignata said the AFL and the Victorian government "had to share responsibility for limiting football's end-of-season showpiece." He said, "I think FFA did as much as possible -- maybe the Victorian government could have done more to put pressure on the AFL. It just looks like AFL are scared of football. I know we're a rising force but we're all for coexistence. There are four codes in this country and we have to work together" (HERALD SUN, 5/10).
