But he had a few things to get off his chest.
For starters, Poyet wasn’t happy about having to come to Sydney FC’s Macquarie University training base to perform his press duties instead of heading to Allianz Stadium, where his team will face them on Thursday night in the second leg of their AFC Champions League 2 quarter-final. He thought it was disrespectful.
“It’s the first time I do a press conference away from home in the training ground of the opposite team. At any level,” Poyet said.
“It’s very strange. Normally, you do it at the stadium. They asked me yesterday, I didn’t like it. I don’t think it’s a common thing to do. I don’t know if you do it here in Sydney or in Australia, but it doesn’t work like that.”
The formalities had been twice rescheduled and relocated due to wrangling over the condition of the pitch at Allianz Stadium, which came under fire – not for the first time – after last week’s NRL clash between the Roosters and Broncos, and was then chewed up by a Super Rugby match a couple of days later. There are also concerns in football circles over how it will hold up ahead of next week’s crucial World Cup qualifier between Australia and Indonesia.
Poyet had taken a particular interest in the surface because Jeonbuk had been controversially forced to move their home leg against Sydney FC to another city – a two-hour drive away – due to the AFC’s concerns over the state of their stadium.
We’re talking about the other side of football. The politics, the decision-makers … that don’t have a clue. And we pay for it.
Gustavo Poyet
“I’m really looking forward to see[ing] the pitch of Sydney tonight. Really looking forward,” he said. “Because I was not able to play at home for a really unfair and stupid decision. So I hope it’s spot on, the pitch tonight.”
The decision to move the first leg, Poyet speculated, was made because an official who had travelled from Indonesia had made the trek to Jeonju, where the club is based, and decided it was too far, and too cold.
“He probably thought, ‘Do I want someone from the Asian federation, the commissioner, to come [all the way] here? No – I make a report, and we play somewhere near Seoul,’” Poyet said. “Because our pitch is in perfect condition to play. I mean, not top-level like in Europe, but it’s in perfect condition. And we were not allowed to play at home because one guy didn’t want to travel.“
As such, after Sydney FC won the first leg 2-0, Poyet said he believed the tie was compromised.
Gustavo Poyet during his time playing for Chelsea.Credit: Reuters
The one-time midfielder had nothing but good things to say about the Sky Blues and their tactical superiority compared with the teams he said he’d seen in South Korea.
“It was a great game. I learned a lot about Sydney Football Club on the day. But I want to play fair. And it’s not fair,” he said.
“If your pitch tomorrow is worse than our pitch at home, what is the outcome? Why is it fair?
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“Even this one [the press conference] is not fair. You wouldn’t be able to do this today to a top manager in Europe, because I train at 6 o’clock tonight. At 5.15pm [should be the] press conference. That’s the real thing. The rest is all arranged by someone who doesn’t want to move twice but make us move twice, because now we need to go back to the hotel, and in three hours we need to go back to the stadium. Because of someone who is not involved in football.
“We’re talking about the other side of football, the side I don’t like. The politics, the decision-makers … that don’t have a clue. And we pay for it. The fans pay for it.”
As for the game on Thursday? Poyet acknowledged that Jeonbuk would have a difficult time overturning Sydney FC’s 2-0 advantage, especially since they’d brought with them a depleted squad, and that they were tired from the long trip from Korea.
