World Cup hero Mathew Leckie hopes the chaotic fallout to the A-League’s resolution to promote the grand last to the NSW authorities doesn’t take the gloss off the Socceroos’ efficiency in Qatar.
Leckie, who performs for ladder-leaders Melbourne City, was bombarded with questions on Tuesday as backlash over the deal, which can see the subsequent three A-League grand finals in Sydney, reached fever-point and followers threatened to stage a walkout at Saturday’s derby with Melbourne Victory.
As Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro stop his position on the Australian Professional League’s board as a direct results of the choice, and reigning premiers Western United declared they didn’t get a say and weren’t supportive of the transfer, Leckie was loathed to voice an opinion.
Still basking within the glow of the Socceroos’ efforts to make the ultimate 16 on the World Cup Leckie, who scored the lone aim in Australia’s essential pool match win over Denmark, mentioned it wasn’t as much as the gamers to determine the place the grand last must be performed.
“My personal reaction was, there wasn’t one, it is what it is. It’s not in our control,” he mentioned.
“I understand the frustration for the fans but it’s out of our control really and as players is not something we should be focusing on. We have a long season ahead, and first foremost we need to get ourselves in a position to be even talking about it.
“We want to be in that equation to be playing in the final, so we’ll work hard to put ourselves in a position to make a grand final, but there’s no guarantees, so we are going to focus on the football.
“I think our role is to play football and achieve things on the field, not the off-field stuff.”
Leckie was hopeful the fallout didn’t backfire amid efforts to grab on the Socceroos’ World Cup success and “grow the game”.
“I don’t think so, everyone has their own opinion on the situation. I know people are upset now, which is completely understandable,” he mentioned.
“But I’m hoping, which as I said when we first landed back in Australia, our achievements over in Qatar inspire young kids to want to have a career in football and grow the fame. Fans grow football.”
But these exact same followers are those who’ve threatened to walkout on Saturday’s blockbuster A-League derby between Leckie’s Melbourne City and Victory.
Leckie’s Socceroo teammate, Marco Tilio, mentioned full stands “increase our performance” and urged anytone fascinated by a walkout to remain and help the gamers, who didn’t make the choice in regards to the grand last strikes.
“The fans are frustrated … we want them there,” he mentioned.
“We can only focus on what we can and the most important thing in fans in the stadium and that increases our performance.
“For me personally, I don’t think being a young player I need to get involved in these decisions.
“It’s out of our control. There’s not much we can do about it as players.”
