Firstly, it shows that there has been a close-knit bunch of fans prepared to give up an enormous amount of their spare time to keep SU alive. For any fanzine to go five years is quite an achievement. For a national fanzine to survive is truly astonishing (but thatís enough soapboxing for the time being).

Secondly, it suggests there is no shortage of worthwhile incidents to document. In the case of Studs Up, which has tended to revel in highlighting the inadequacies of the game and its administrators, we have always had an abundance of material to work with over the past five years.

But just lately we have become so nauseated by the way soccer is handled in this country we feel we have no alternative but to request the resignations of a number of senior officials, and there is no better place to start than at the very top.

So, with not a great deal of regret, we respectfully request the immediate resignation of Basil Scarsella.

Unfortunately the ëmoderateí chairman who took over when David Hill decided to play politics of a different variety has hardly put a foot right. He ignored the opportunity for Soccer Australia to play a leading role at the International Soccer Expo. He left Raul Blanco exposed to all sorts of innuendo while the national coaching position was on the frontburner at the exact time we couldnít get our overseas based players back to play the reigning European club champions.

Oh, and we shouldnít forget his passive role in the Brazil tour scandal.

But worst of all, he has overseen the shambles that has become the 1999-2000 National Soccer League season.

It would be too simple to say that Basil hasnít got the guts to make the tough decisions. After all, he was elected to be a ëmoderateí and provide a calming influence after the Hill tornado.

Unfortunately, all he has done is oversee the gradual disintegration of the board, a further drop in overall playing standards, the slow death of some of the leagueís member clubs and continuing debacle surrounding our national team programme.

The Adelaide Sharks saga marked a new low point in Basilís (non) leadership.

We can only conclude that his South Australian roots must have acted as a blindfold because everyone else has seen the writing on the wall for months.

The Sharksí adminstrator, Bruce Mulvaney, was sceptical from the start, and it seems that even the original application to re-join the NSL had an illegitimate twist to it. By early September when the first payment in the scheme of arrangement had not been made, Basil should have swung the axe.

The pathetic sight of West Adelaide hanging on by a thread and the unwillingness of Soccer Australia to get the scissors was detrimental to the image of the league, and certainly a worry to any potential sponsors.

Then, of course, the second payment wasnít met. Still, SocAus refused to intervene, and yet when the plug was finally pulled a mere week before the season kicks off, Mr Scarsella seriously entertained overtures by the South Australian Soccer Federation regarding getting a ënewí team up and running over the weekend.