One of Australia’s greatest football exports, Mark Viduka, has given a rather controversial interview to sports network ESPN Australia.

The former Leeds United, Celtic and Newcastle United striker spoke about many of his former Aussie teammates in a less than flattering way, pointing out some unknown facts regarding his football career.

Furthermore, when asked about his opinion of those sitting at the Football Federation of Australia Board of Director, the Croatian-born star used the term “clueless”:

“You have people running football in Australia that don’t have a clue about football,” Viduka stated.

“They don’t want to get older players involved, who actually have that experience, who have been in those situations in front of 100,000 people. When the s–t hits the fan, what are they going to do?”

The veteran player went on to remark about certain incidents that occurred inside the Socceroos camp during the 2007 Asian Cup, that until today remained unknown and eventually helped him make his decision to stop playing for the team.

“I think some people came to that Asian Cup thinking more about themselves, more than the national team,” Viduka pointed out in regards to the situation.

“I think Lucas Neill came to that Asian Cup at that stage not in a good state of mind because of the fact that Graham Arnold had offered him the captaincy because he wasn’t sure I was coming to the Asian Cup or not. Once I was at the Asian Cup either (Arnold) wasn’t brave enough to tell me that I wasn’t captain anymore, and I felt Lucas Neill was sulking the whole Asian Cup, through the preparations for it… and it affected other players. I think Lucas tried to undermine me. His priority was to be captain – more because of his other activities off the pitch rather than on the pitch stuff. That’s my opinion. That was the main reason I stopped playing for the national team.”

When asked if he regrets his decision to quit the team, Viduka was adamant: “No. Because my problem was that my generation of players that I grew up with were a different breed to the new generation, and, to be the honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the new generation of players. A lot of them were more interested in how many deals they were doing on the side, through sponsorship and getting their heads on the television, than actually playing for the national team.”

During his tenure at Leeds United, the centre forward made a great duet with fellow Aussie legend Harry Kewell, yet, as Viduka admits, their relationship outside the pitch was non-existent.

“At Leeds, it got to the point, if Harry and I were in the sheds by ourselves, we wouldn’t even look at each other, it was that bad. I had a problem with (Kewell’s agent) Bernie Mandic. Bernie was my agent when he took me from Celtic to Leeds, but … I severed ties with Bernie. I think maybe our relationship at Leeds wasn’t that good because – and I can’t say for sure – I think that affected the way (Harry) viewed me. We last spoke in 2013,” Viduka said.

When asked about Australia’s game against Italy for the 2006 World Cup round of 16 that was decided on an injury time penalty kick, the former Socceroo seems confident in his opinion: “It definitely wasn’t a penalty. Lucas went for the ball and (Grosso) played the leg. It happens and there’s nothing we could do.

Had we got to extra time, maybe we could have won. Or the luck of penalties? Football is full of drama and that was another chapter.”

In response to Viduka’s opinion’s regarding youth development -with the former star noting that there’s too much of a gap between the grassroots and the A-League- FFA chairperson Chris Nikou pointed out that there’s very little that can be argued with during a press conference on Monday.