Competition in holding pattern as growth spurt beckons
By Guy Hand, 8 Aug 2008 Guy Hand is a Roar Pro
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Now established as a legitimate part of the Australian sporting scene, the A-League enters its fourth season with at least one eye on season five.
That’s when the eight-team league will be boosted to 10 with the introduction of north Queensland and Gold Coast teams – the first step in a two-stage expansion plan for a competition which has cemented soccer as a serious player among Australia’s football codes.
“Since it commenced three years ago, the A-League has cut through in the busy Australian sporting landscape with average crowds, viewership, membership, media coverage and profitability trending upwards each season,” Football Federation Australia CEO Ben Buckley said.
“The attractiveness of the competition is clearly reflected in the level of interest in our expansion plans.
“FFA’s view is that the A-League has the capacity to be at least a 12-team competition.”
For the upcoming season, the competition will remain at eight teams, and the improvements in player quality and competitiveness look set to continue.
Current internationals Edmundo Zura (Ecuador) and Jose Luis Lopez (Costa Rica) join champions Newcastle and Melbourne Victory respectively, and former internationals Charlie Miller (Scotland) with the Queensland Roar and Amaral (Brazil) at Perth Glory add further to the A-League’s cosmopolitan flavour.
The repatriation of Australians from abroad also continues, with ex-Socceroos Michael Thwaite (Melbourne), Jon McKain (Wellington) and Frank Juric (Perth) returning for the new season.
Then there’s arguably the competition’s highest-profile recruit ever – former Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Bosnich.
Bosnich, whose career was derailed by drugs and depression, has shown plenty of promise in his return to competitive football with the Central Coast Mariners during the pre-season cup.
In a competition which has already attracted Dwight Yorke, Juninho and Romario in its short history, Bosnich shapes as the most intriguing and watchable A-League signing ever should he stay long-term.
The season kicks off on August 15 with a grand final rematch between the Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners in Newcastle – a game likely to be another explosive confrontation after a highly-charged grand final last season.
The Jets won the match after a penalty denied the Mariners in the dying seconds, before Central Coast goalkeeper Danny Vukovic hit referee Mark Shield to earn a long ban from the game.
Both clubs could be among the front-runners again.
But the tight nature of the league is set to continue and perhaps become even closer as two of the competition’s strugglers – Wellington and Perth – have made significant moves to strengthen their playing staff.
There have been significant off-season departures – perhaps the two saddest Adelaide United youngsters Bruce Djite and Nathan Burns, two of the brightest stars in Australian football lured overseas.
Brazilian star Juninho has left Sydney FC as has Socceroo Mark Milligan, but the glamour club has been the most notable to muscle up with local talent in Socceroos John Aloisi, Simon Colosimo and Mark Bridge.
Off-field, administrative tweaking continues which is likely to help improve the competition further, especially in years to come.
Clubs can now sign an under-23 marquee player, who can be paid up to $150,000 outside the salary cap, as well as a marquee overage player.
The salary cap has been increased by $100,000 to $1.9 million, while a national youth league will provide an outlet for clubs to grow their own young talent as well as keep fringe players fit.
The season will culminate in a Saturday night grand final on February 28 next year.
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Michael C said | August 8th 2008 @ 6:24am | Report comment
I saw this effectively an FFA press release – - presented as an ‘article’ in Fairfax yesterday afternoon.
Talk about a fluff piece.
Well, if the A-League want’s to base it credibility on a 40 yr old and well passed it Romario, or a 36 yr old Bosnich – - – then, ’nuff said really.
Expansion wise, well – we know the AFC requirements that the FFA might be pushing towards – - which will require perhaps a level of expansion that may or may not go one bridge too far.
For now though, we know the upward trending of crowds was based mostly last year on Wellington Phoenix compared to the previous Auckland NZ side. It’ll be interesting to see what happens this year.
Koala Bear said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:14am | Report comment
Guy,
great article and I endorse all you have written.. As well as the mounting interest of media outlets sitting up and taking notice.. The Anchor man on channel 7 network, introducing the Football match, Australia v Serbia 1-1; had said at the introduction that, Australian Football has arrived at the Olympics .. This is quite a huge step forward for Network 7, to now announce that Australian Football now means FFA; where as before in the past, it always referred to it as “Socca” . I congratulate the network for taking this bold and rightly so initiative; of recognising that the Olyroos are Australian Football on the World Stage, and not Marn Grook. Although Marn Grook (Grooky) has a place in Australia, it is not Australian Football.. Australian Rules Football maybe, but not Australian Football; I shall affectionately call Marn Grook “Grooky”.
~~~~~~~
KB..
True Tah said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:26am | Report comment
KB,
who was commentating on the Olyroos game?
Q: if rugby ever got accepted to the Olympics (which I hope it doesn’t) would the Australian team be the Olybies?
Koala Bear said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:55am | Report comment
True Tah,
If you watched the telecast last night it was the good looking young man with dark brown hair that fronts the 7 sports program. I don’t honestly know his name (Rugby man I think) but I shall tune in tonight and make a note of it.. And announce it to all tomorrow, or as soon as I find out.. Unless someone know and posts it up before hand..
Olybies, Yes, Yes, Yes.. I would love to see an Olybies 7s compete in the Olympics and why not? I would be cheering on..
~~~~~~~
KB
jimbo said | August 8th 2008 @ 10:50am | Report comment
KB and TT,
the presenter was Matthew White, who used to be on Ten and is a Mexican and an AFL widget.
Don’t know who the match commentator for the game was, but sounded like he was out of his depth and not there physically or mentally. Every second phrase began with “not much happening . . . ”
Apparently Ray Hadley (NRL Champion) did an excellent job of calling the game live on radio, but didn’t listen to it.
I thought the Olyroos did remarkably well and what about the Zad kid scoring a goal and what about the Mohegan hair do?
MC
can’t help yourself, just have to jump in with negatives about A-League marquee players.
Would be interested in discussing the AFL international and world-class players in your AFL competition, but can’t seem to be able to identify any.
BTW you forgot to mention that AFL has much bigger attendances than A-League.
Koala Bear said | August 8th 2008 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
Jimbo,
Mathew White an O’Marngrook advocate saying “Australian Football has arrived at the Olympics” … It’s working..!!!!
Johnny Warren, you told us so..
~~~~~~~
KB
Pippinu said | August 8th 2008 @ 2:48pm | Report comment
I like the developments re the salary cap – that’s the way it has to keep going – a little gradual loosening with each new season.
Add $200,000 next season, and have a 3rd category of Marquee, say, attracting an Australian home from overseas with a cap of whatever it is.
Michael C said | August 8th 2008 @ 3:39pm | Report comment
KB -
It’s ‘football’ on the Olympic schedule. There’s no ambiguity. It’s still a frivolous compromise tournament.
Pippinu -
they gotta be careful, if there’s supposed to be 12 teams – and then a potential B-League – - – the costs need to not be rising too much too soon………however……I’d have thought the most important thing is the ‘marquee’ categories and increasing the capacity of the wealthy clubs to spend as big as they can reasonably afford – especially for international club tourneys.
Koala Bear said | August 8th 2008 @ 3:54pm | Report comment
Comrade C,
non more so frivolous as the Grooky international Cup; 10 nations series.
~~~~~~
KB
True Tah said | August 8th 2008 @ 3:58pm | Report comment
KB et. al,
in terms of P & R, which seems to be a necessity for Australian soccer to progress, which leagues are the best examples for FFA to follow? People seem to want to compare HAL to EPL and its associated structure…I think that this is not the best approach, it takes 3 hours to travel from London to Manchester by train.
Given Australia’s geographic circumstances and population distribution, I would have thought some good examples may be Russia, Brazil, USA, Canada, Kazakhstan and China, these are big countries with large distances in between.
I know in Brazil, the bulk of the population is concentrated in the southeast – Sao Paulo, Rio, etc, and therefore the bulk of the top soccer clubs are concentrated here, the sparselessly populated northeast which is a huge area is not represented. In fact, it was only until fairly recently that Brazil had a national comp, prior to this, it was based on state leagues.
Im not sure about US, Russia, Kazakhstan and China, how does it work there? Are the clubs profitable? In the professional rugby union competition in Russia, the clubs are concentrated in and around Moscow and in Siberia, and the distances are massive, and I would expect soccer being a far more popular sport in Russia to have pro clubs all over the country, making travel even more daunting.
Are the FFA looking at using Russia as like a blueprint for us, because I think it fits Australia best, but no one seems to compare Australia to them.