Frank Farina

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Frank Farina (born September 5, 1964 in Darwin, Northern Territory) was a player and, latterly, a coach of the Australia national football (soccer) team, the Socceroos. He is a member of the Football Federation Australia - Football Hall of Fame.

He spent part of his childhood in Papua New Guinea and grew up in Cairns, north Queensland and went to school at St Augustine's College. He won a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1982 and played in the National Soccer League for the Canberra Arrows the following year.

Farina went on to play for some of the major NSL clubs of his era, including Sydney City and Marconi-Fairfield (now Marconi Stallions), and also acted as player-coach of Brisbane Strikers in the 1990s. During this time he also enjoyed a successful career in European football.

He played in the following leagues:

• Jupiler League (Club Brugge - selected 'Best Foreign Player' in 1991 and finished topscorer of the competition in 1990)
• England (Notts County F.C.)
• Italy (A.S. Bari)
• France (RC Strasbourg and Lille OSC)

After helping Brisbane to their first NSL title in the 1996/97 season he returned to Marconi, before becoming coach of the Socceroos in 1999.

Farina helped Australia to important victories over the likes of Brazil, France and England, and good performances in the FIFA Confederations Cup and OFC Nations Cup.

[edit] Controversy and departure

Throughout 2004, Farina became the subject of media pressure, as his team were criticized for not showing an increase in tactical cohesion over time. Farina became agitated with the SBS football correspondents, accusing them of running a witch-hunt against him.

Not only was Farina under pressure due to tactical concerns for the Socceroos, but he was widely criticised for not breeding younger Australians in the Socceroos squad. The main point in case was the win over England in a friendly. Despite the win, many sections of the media argued that Farina should have given some gametime to the younger players in the squad (much like Sven-Göran Eriksson fielded a new team in the second half). Joey Didulica attributed his reluctant decision to play for Croatia over Australia to Farina's unwillingness to select him for any Australian squads. Such was the distaste for Farina, a website was launched calling for the sacking of Farina. However, as soon as Farina vacated his position, the website www.sackfrank.com was disbanded.

In 2005, after an unconvincing 2-1 win over Iraq, Farina was involved in a terse post-match impromptu corridor interview with SBS reporter Andrew Orsatti. After a series of three/four worded answers to a series of questions, it was alleged by both parties that the other instigated a fracas. Farina was reportedly upset when the Football Federation Australia ordered him to attend anger management sessions after the this incident.

Although Farina signed a four year contract extension in December 2001 to take Australia to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he departed by 'mutual consent' on June 29, 2005 after his team lost all three games at the 2005 Confederations Cup. He cited a loss in confidence on the part of the FFA chairman Frank Lowy and CEO John O'Neill. He was replaced by the Dutchman Guus Hiddink, who in 2005, lead Australia to a successful 2006 World Cup Qualification campaign. Ironically, having blamed the Australian media for having a role in his downfall, Farina is now employed as a newspaper columnist and often does interviews about Australian football on talkback radio stations. More recently Farina had been linked to two managerial roles in Australia with Sydney FC and a proposed new team in the A-League competition, based in Townsville. More recently however, with the departure of Queensland Roar coach, Miron Bleiberg, Farina has been named as the new manager of the Roar.

[edit] External links

• (English) FIFA Confederations Cup website - Profile of Frank Farina

Preceded by: first recipient	Oceania Player of the Year 1988	Succeeded by: Wynton Rufer
Preceded by: Raul Blanco	Australia national football team manager 1999–2005	Succeeded by: Guus Hiddink