Ben Buckley must go!

In light of our recent stance-taking on Sunil Gulati's chairmanship of the USA program, I think it is only fair to look at how other countries are doing as well.

Let's start at the front of the alphabet and look for troubles. We'll knock off some who don't matter along the way. So Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, and Armenia are out. Angola has probs, but nothing unusual for African FAs. Argentina? Well, they hired a fat, cocaine-sniffing ex-player for a manager, but at least they get their players. Australia? Oh yeah, this is more like it.

Some kid named Bradden Inman (so obscure he doesn't have a wiki yet) has caused a bit of consternation Down Under because he declared that, if called up, he would gladly choose the soggy Scots over his native Australia. His reasoning should be familiar for those of us that saw what Vedad Ibisevic had to say about playing for America--no one has tried to recruit Inman for Australia.

Inman moved from Australia at 14 to go into the youth system at Newcastle. His initial hope was that playing for the Magpies would help him get into the Australian team, but that appears to be a no go. So, when Scotland called him up for a youth match last month, Inman has happy to put on the dark blues and now says that he would take a call up to the Under 21 squad, which would lock him out of Australia's team forever.

Now, I don't know if Mr. Buckley is the one to blame here. Football Australia, the official FFA site, lists him as the CEO, a position roughly on par with Gulati. If he is indeed the head, then he should bear the blame for failings in scouting and contact. My proposed solution for both Bradley and Gulati is pretty simple. It seems that they could both do much better if they just consulted the "I" in their respective rolodexes. See? Problem solved.