THE INTERVIEW: Bruce Djite on all things A-League

The World Game continues with a regular feature in which we talk to a key figure in football and establish his views on important issues in the game.

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Bruce Djite in action for Adelaide United. (Getty) Source: Getty Images Asia Pacific

Adelaide United striker Bruce Djite is not only one of the best players in the A-League, he is also one of its most active participants off the field.

His roles include being an executive member of Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) and an ambassador for anti-racism charity All Together Now. The A-League's Erase Racism round will be held this weekend.

Djite tells what is working well in the A-League and what needs fixing, why Football Federation Australia (FFA) should take players' views into account more, how tough a survival battle it is for coaches, why he loves the Spanish influence at Adelaide United and how happy he is for Tarek Elrich with his Socceroos call-up.

What do you really like about the A-League at the moment?

The level of competition. The intensity of the games and the quality of players we can attract to the league now. The quality of players is fantastic and the game is very entertaining for the fans. The numbers look to be projecting in the right direction in terms of memberships and stadium attendances and the like, and the standard of football and fan engagement are definitely some of the best parts of the game.

What about areas that need fixing? Is there a particular area that concerns you at the moment?

Infrastructure is zero. I mean, Melbourne City are building a fantastic facility that's going to set the benchmark and they'll be able to attract players a lot easier than other clubs, no doubt, because of the facilities they'll be offering, but generally speaking clubs lack infrastructure - they don't have any. Players are getting changed in the changing-room and then driving to the training field. They're changing fields regularly, just to find a field that's available. In terms of infrastructure it's still very amateur. You've got your Melbourne Victorys, your Melbourne Citys now, Sydney FC train at Macquarie Uni as a base, so there's the odd club that has a base, but in general terms there's a lot of renting going on and a lot of temporary fields being used. There's no infrastructure in the league and the clubs haven't invested in that.

Is that because they can't financially, or they're not identifying it as the priority it should be?

You'd have to ask the owners, but from what I can see you've got clubs that have been around for 10-odd years now and still don't have infrastructure. You can rent a place for 10 years, but if you've got the capacity to buy a place you're much better off doing that because then you start to build assets and assets build value and then if a club from overseas wants to come and acquire your club, a la Melbourne City, and invest millions of dollars in it, you can build margins on that.

So I don't understand why they wouldn't have the infrastructure. I think it's something clubs are working on, no doubt. I think they've been bleeding heavily the last few years, so they've been trying to shore up their balance sheets before they start to build infrastructure, but I think that's a short-term view. I think, from a business model perspective, you build infrastructure and, yeah, you've got red ink, the balance sheet's not looking good, you've got a lot of leveraged loans or you're losing $2 million a season, or whatever it might be, but you're putting money in this infrastructure so you're building equity.

A business doesn't just start and you're cash-flow positive. Sometimes the capital expense is the most expensive thing. You start a restaurant, you do a fit-out and your balance sheet's not looking too healthy because you've thrown all this money in, but over time it starts to come back. Melbourne City, with their facilities, are on the path to becoming the biggest club in this country, no doubt, over the next 10 years. Right now, no, but they've laid the foundations. A lot of clubs are built on stilts.

Is there any racism in the game, either on the field or coming from across the fence?

Not that I've heard. It's actually been pretty good for me in the years that I've played here and not just in Adelaide, but everywhere. For me, football is very healthy and very multicultural. It's actually a good sort of template for society and we could use it there.

No doubt you're aware of what happened after the recent Sydney derby at Pirtek Stadium, with the Sydney FC player, Aaron Calver, being slapped by a Western Sydney Wanderers fan in the grandstand. Such incidents appear isolated, but an incident like that would concern you, wouldn't it?

Of course. Player safety has always got to come first and foremost. I don't know what the security is like there, but maybe they need to ramp it up.

Does FFA ask players for opinions enough in areas where players can obviously help with opinions?

No. I get no correspondence from them. I have some friends work there whom I chat with every now and then, off the record as mates, just talking ideas and stuff, but, no. Things could be done a lot smoother, I think, if they talked to the players.

The Spanish influence at your club, coming via the coaching staff and imported players. How do you like it?

Yeah, it's fantastic. They've made a big difference with their contribution and while I know my position on the foreigners' quota, if I could have more Spaniards I would (laughs). They're that good.

You would have noticed the changing face of the coaching line-up in the A-League in recent years. The coaching quality has increased and it's very hard for a "mug" to get a job as a coach in the A-League these days, which is good, wouldn't you agree?

Yeah, certainly. Only 10 jobs going, so it's one of the rarest occupations in the country. If you don't give a good account of yourself it's very hard to get a second chance. I think the life of a coach is harder in Australia, because in Europe there are more clubs, or you can go to another country - there's a lot more choice. But in the A-League it's a tough gig. Someone's got to finish first and someone's got to finish last and you've just got to make sure your recruiting is spot on, your tactics are spot on and your man-management is spot on, because at the end of the day things can fall on the coach really quick.

Your teammate, Tarek Elrich, was recently named in the Socceroos squad for the matches against Germany and FYR Macedonia in Europe. How happy were you to see him recognised like that?

I can't remember the last time I was so happy for a colleague in the game. He's been so good, he's been so consistent, I can't remember the last time he had a bad game. I don't know a player in the A-League who deserves it more.

You could maybe say Aaron Mooy, because he's been outstanding as well, but In the A-League you're looking at Mooy and you're looking at Elrich, really. Tarek's right up there. He's definitely one of our best players this season. It's a well-deserved call-up. Ange Postecoglou is not someone to just hand caps out and I really do hope he gets to play, because he can play left-back, he can play right-back and he's very good on the ball. That possession-based, attacking, right or left-back, overlapping sort of game works perfectly for Tarek and I've got no doubt he'll do very well over there. He's very comfortable on the ball and lot of those players in the squad he would've played with before, growing up and in Australian under-20 and under-23 teams, stuff like that. It's a fantastic achievement and I couldn't be happier for the guy. To be honest, it couldn't happen to a more generous and nice guy. He's one to sacrifice everything for anyone but himself and it just motivates me to see a guy like that get selected for the national team.


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8 min read
Published 18 March 2015 2:55pm
By Greg Prichard
Source: SBS

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