Brisbane Roar and Value Dental Centres agree to three-year deal for local community

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Brisbane Roar and Value Dental Centres

Brisbane Roar have confirmed that Value Dental Centres will be the club’s new Platinum Partner and back-of-shirt sponsor for the next three years.

The deal emphasises the Roar’s mission in putting community first, with Value Dental Centres committed to involving themselves by offering special services to the club.

Value Dental Centres is a company that was founded in 2016 and opened up their first centre in Brisbane City. The company’s HQ is also based near the Brisbane CBD making the partnership all the more congruent.

Value Dental Centres delivers major dental treatments such as dental implants, crowns and veneers, and wisdom teeth removal at significantly reduced prices.

Brisbane Roar Commercial Manager Charlie Mann expressed his happiness at securing this collaboration with Value Dental.

“We’re excited to welcome one of Australia’s most premium and innovative Dental practices to the Brisbane Roar family,” Mann said in a club press release

“Value Dental Centres is one of the most innovative and premium dental practices in the country, that are changing the landscape in dentistry and the health industry while keeping the cost of dental affordable for everyday Australians.”

The club has accepted this partnership in a bid to improve dental health education for their players and staff. There will be educational programs and awareness campaigns about the importance of regular dental check-ups, good oral hygiene practices, and preventive measures.

Kaz Patafta, Brisbane Roar Chairman & CEO, explained the Roar’s decision to partner with Value Dental.

“Dental health, though often overlooked, plays a pivotal role in our overall health and well-being. At Brisbane Roar, we believe that a healthy smile can bolster confidence, enhance performance, and lead to better interpersonal interactions both on and off the field,” Patafta added via media release.

“This partnership goes beyond the conventional sponsorship model, as it underscores our club’s commitment to the health of our players, staff, fans, and the wider community.”

Jonathon Munro, Value Dental Centres Founding Director, explained how the shared values of the two parties would contribute to their success.

“Value Dental Centres is predicated on the idea of challenging the traditional idea of what a dental practice should be.  From our first meeting with Kaz, Zac and Charlie, we were really excited with their vision for the club.  Similar to our vision, their enthusiasm and energy to challenge the status quo in order to take the club not only back to its former glory, but to take it well beyond that, is inspiring,” he added.

It became very clear to us how aligned we were not only in terms of vision, but in terms of values, and we’re really excited for this partnership and the opportunities to work together moving forward.”

This partnership is between two parties who share a lot of values, with the Roar in particular focusing hard on its commitment towards the local community, in which Value Dental’s services can help improve overall health.

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France’s LFP eye return of Ligue 1 to traditional broadcast platforms

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Image Credit: ESPN

The French Professional Football League (LFP) are hoping to again attract a traditional broadcast partner for the 2027/28 campaign, believing there is renewed interest in their domestic football media rights.

Ligue 1 – the top division of professional football in France and home to PSG, Marseille et al. – has been without a traditional broadcast partner since 2025 following a series of failed deals and the exhaustion of their potential partner market.

In place of a traditional broadcast deal the LFP launched its own direct-to-consumer platform, which presently carries all ten Ligue 1 matches each week. The platform has attracted around one million subscribers.

The LFP had hoped a return to a traditional broadcast partner could be on the cards from the 2029/30 season, however given their assessment that market interest has returned, they are expected to bring that tender process forward by two years. 

LFP Media chief executive Oliver Bramly believes the time is right to amend a situation that proved deeply unbecoming for a league as esteemed as Ligue 1 – considered, until recently, an indisputable member of Europe’s ‘Top Five’ leagues. 

‘Before I joined, the idea was to issue a tender for the period covering 2029 -2034,’ Bramly told SportsPro. 

‘But the reaction was that this was too far away. Streamers … [and] all the pay-TV platforms expressed a clear interest in a bid for the period between 2027 and 2032.’

‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime occasion to get a domestic league in a big market like France at an affordable price.’

In March, the LFP presented research that indicated 59% of 9.9million football fans in France watched Ligue 1 via illegal pirate platforms.

Article first appeared in SportsPro. 

Ernie Merrick: ‘There are many clubs that would be fantastic additions to the A-League’

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Ernie Merrick will be forever recognised as a key figure through the A-League’s golden early years. Appointed Melbourne Victory’s foundation manager in 2004 he led the club to not just silverware, but legitimacy and respect in a serious sport city.

A Scottish migrant and PE teacher by trade, Merrick was the youngest of the NSL’s managerial crop when he started with Preston in 1987 in the era of Thomson, Arok & Matic; when he finished with Newcastle in 2020 he was the elder statesman in the A-League age of Postecoglou, Popovic and Arnold.

For the places the game took him and all he achieved – including time as national team manager of Hong Kong – Victory supporters can comfort themselves in the fact that for whatever they feel towards Merrick and his iconic group of players, that feeling is mutual.

‘Yes, definitely,’ Merrick told Soccerscene Unfiltered when asked if managing Victory was the highlight of his career.

‘I think success is [fans] having identification with players, especially. We had Victorian boys playing for Victory.

‘That second year I was determined to have a complete pre-season. Archie Thompson bought me a birthday cake with 200 candles and said “Ernie, we’ve had 200 training sessions. We should celebrate this” – so he was looking forward to a big year, and we won the Grand Final 6-0.’

Nearing 20 years on, Victory and the A-League in general haven’t managed to drive forward as would have been hoped. Unsurprisingly that comes as painful to Merrick, as does the change in landscape regarding his other great passion and contribution in player development. 

‘I’m disappointed, as would most people be, that it’s struggled so badly. To me, there’s something missing,’ said Merrick of the current state of the A-League.

‘Those players we produced at the AIS and VIS went on to be the golden generation. Unless the league is fixed, there’s going to be ongoing problems with the financial status of things.

‘You just cannot earn enough money from selling a youngster, who you might get a million for, who then becomes worth several million in a few years if he does well. Maybe there’s a bit too much of selling players early.’

As someone who gave enduring service across Australia’s two domestic leagues, his voice holds weight in the consideration as to whether it’s time to now blend the, in today’s hyper-corporate landscape.

‘South Melbourne and Preston are two clubs that are perfect for the A-League, I think, down the track. They’ve set up, they’ve endured, they’ve been resilient, they’re playing good football and they’ve got a home base with a home crowd, which is far better than starting a club up from scratch.

‘All those players coming through those squads and the number of supporters they’ve got would be a huge addition. In Sydney too, there’s Marconi – there are so many good clubs around that I think would make a great addition to the A-League.’ 

Merrick also spent thirteen years as head coach at the Victorian Institute of Sport. He feels modern player development is an equation we still haven’t got right, post the closure of the AIS’ football program in 2017.

While many argue the move to club-based academy structures has seen Australia fall more in line with global practice while still producing players of quality, Merrick still feels there is merit in a national high performance program, in addition to club academies.

He was in the process of setting up state academies through the Member Federations during his time as Football Australia’s chief football officer from 2022-25. While the Victoria project was short-lived, academies in Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia continue to run, but it appears the broader expansion of the concept has been abandoned.

‘I think both systems should work [together] equally well. When I started with the FA program clubs thought they would lose players to us, but I didn’t take any of their players. We offered the opportunity of a high-performance program to other youngsters.

‘We could develop players completely; we weren’t restricted to playing 4-3-3 to combine with the way the first team were playing. We provided more of a rounded education, and good players can play in any system.

‘We managed to affect the coaches involved so they were up to date with the latest information on methods of coaching, etc.’

Catch the full chat with Ernie Merrick on Soccerscene Unfiltered: from being two-footed by a 15-year old Kevin Muscat to his enthusiasm for the future of the Socceroos, his memories of Wellington and Newcastle, and plenty more…

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