In "what will widely be regarded as a forced backdown," Australian national men's football team coach Ange Postecoglou has retracted comments he made on Tuesday about the "ugly pay row" between Football Federation Australia and the players' union, Professional Footballers Australia, according to Michael Lynch of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. On Tuesday, a "clearly exasperated" Postecoglou criticized both FFA and the union "for treating the national team like a political football." But by Wednesday, FFA "had put out a statement signalling a major climbdown by the Asian Cup winning coach, a man hugely popular with Socceroos fans and regarded as the right person to guide the nation to a fourth World Cup in succession." Postecoglou said, "As a senior employee of Football Federation Australia I understand that my comments were inappropriate. I appreciate that I need to take sides on this issue. The commercial performance of the Socceroos brand directly affects the amount of investment in the match schedule, technical developments and sports science staff." Postecoglou "amplified his feelings at a pre-match press conference later on Wednesday." He said, "I think my intent yesterday was to talk about the football. I guess I have created another day of headlines. Maybe I should have tackled it a different way, but as I said we are 24 hours away from a World Cup qualifier. ... Do I have fears about tomorrow night being a distraction? No, the players have been superb as they always are, so it shouldn't be a problem." Tim Cahill, who will captain the team in the absence of Mile Jedinak, added, "I think it's obvious that we don't need this in camp and what the boss does is protect us from everything on the outside" (SMH, 9/2).
