Soccer: Cranky Franky's wounds rubbed Roar

Frank Farina has been sacked by the Roar after his second drink driving conviction. Photo / Getty Images

BRISBANE - In sport, timing is everything. And, as Frank Farina will attest, not just on the field.

The coaching career of Queensland soccer's former golden boy is in tatters after being sacked by the Brisbane Roar following a second drink-driving charge last weekend.

The Roar board's decision to tear up Farina's contract has sparked a messy legal stoush over his severance package and also provoked a frenzied local debate over whether DUI is a sackable offence.

But, let it be read, Farina was not solely given his marching orders for blowing 0.12 or 0.09 - he has disputed the reported police reading - on his way to training at Ballymore on early Saturday morning.

If the charge had been made just a week before, the strong chances are he would have been pulled into line, told to attend alcohol management counselling, fined and allowed to keep coaching.

The problem for Farina - who believes he's been made a scapegoat for the ills of the cash-strapped club - was that seven days earlier, his team's worrying discipline problems were laid bare at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium.

Playing defending champions Melbourne Victory, containing former Roar whiz-kid Robbie Kruse, Brisbane produced one of the dirtiest displays seen in the five-season history of the A-League.

The targeted Kruse was fouled seven times, often with his former teammates standing over him and delivering ugly verbal sprays.

The Roar conceded four yellow cards in the match, and also had senior players Danny Tiatto and Charlie Miller suspended in the aftermath.

Renowned firebrand Tiatto gave a one-fingered salute to the partisan Victory crowd in the first half before his misbehaviour was "topped" by Scotsman Miller, who struck Kruse from behind in a terrible cheap shot in back-play.

Farina strongly denied any premeditated plans to ruffle Kruse's feathers, and neither put Tiatto or Miller up for their unacceptable actions.

But he was seen as culpable after failing to pull offending players, some of whom had taken verbal shots at a well-respected local journalist at training, into line earlier.

In a season where the growing discipline problem had been allowed to get out of hand, Farina's charge highlighted the worsening cultural problems at the club and was seen as the last straw.

The seven-man Roar board, also worried about falling crowd numbers impacting on their strained financial standing, quickly jumped to restore order.

After suspending him indefinitely on Sunday, an apologetic and remorseful Farina felt his fate was sealed before fronting the board on Monday night.

The coach, who originally indicated he'd abide by their decision, was angered by the board's proposed meagre severance package, and demanded to be paid out his AUS$250,000-per-year contract, ending in 2010-11, in full.

In his Courier-Mail newspaper column on Friday, Farina accused senior club officials of abandoning him with actions that exposed a lack of leadership skills.

"People in other sports who have made a similar mistake have been given another chance, but not me - all of a sudden I became a leper they couldn't wait to get rid of," he said.

Farina, who delivered Brisbane's sole NSL title as Strikers player-coach in 1997, had his Roar contract extended by two years just last season when he led the Roar to third for the second successive year.

In those two years, the Brisbane club was the most consistent in the competition but failed to crack it for a lucrative Asian Champions League berth after losing preliminary finals to Newcastle and Adelaide.

During that time, Suncorp Stadium drew the second best crowds in the competition behind Melbourne but attendances have dropped off dreadfully in 2009-10 after an increase in ticket prices.

A record low 6,433 turning out to the round four win over Central Coast while less than 9,000 attended Sunday's M1 derby with Gold Coast United.

While Roar officials are adamant Farina must pay the price for his unacceptable mistake, and were outspoken on drawing "a line in the sand" on the club's discipline problems, there's no doubt there is some benefit in the gamble to sack the popular coach.

Replacement Ange Postecoglou's salary will be substantially less than Farina's. But it remains to be seen whether a compromise can be reached on an exit strategy which is currently headed for the courts.

The on-field problems are now left for Postecoglou to address.

Before being appointed, the former Young Socceroos coach left no doubt he'd take responsibility for such actions.

"If a coach doesn't take responsibility for that, then who does?" he pitched.

"When a team I coach crosses that line, they represent me and they represent the club - I'm the one who is in charge of that, I'll take responsibility."

- AAP