It’s becoming almost ridiculous now. Refresh your page on any football news site on the net and another Australian player is heading off to north Asia. Sasho Petrovski, Mark Bridge and even that great flop John Aloisi are all rumoured to be mulling over offers to go to the Chinese Super League.
Before you know it, there’ll be no players left.
But Football Federation Australia even today (and I know, just having done a radio interview with one of its bods as a guest) is still sticking to its guns, talking of financial responsibility and persisting with this delusional idea that lifestyle considerations are going to bring in good foreign players to make up for the good local ones we’re losing hand over fist.
It can’t go on unchecked. There has to be a correction. A circuit-breaker.
I wrote about the importance of something being done a couple of weeks ago on The Roar and in that short time the urgency of the situation has only ratcheted up to critical.
While the intention of the cap remains noble it is completely out of kilter with what is required to take on these avaricious Asian clubs.
The FFA wants a “sustainable model” in place for all the clubs but what is the point of sustaining a competition that has no decent talent left? What use to anyone is a “level playing field” if all the players on it are ordinary?
The fans aren’t stupid. They want to see the best players in the country and if not given them will turn away from the game. They want to see their clubs fight tooth and nail to keep the best players, not keel over like shot horses the moment an Asian club opens its chequebook.
To that end, FFA, please allow clubs to pay wage bills as a fixed percentage of their total income from all sources of revenue.
It was suggested by a reader on my World Game blog and I think it’s a great idea. If it means the A-League has a new superclub, likely Melbourne, then so be it. It’s a way to reward success and keep good players in the country while also encouraging clubs to explore new revenue streams so they too can spend more on quality players.
There’s also the obvious (to me, anyway) contradiction of bidding for a World Cup and positioning ourselves as the most capable nation in the region to host such an event yet being demonstrably incapable of thwarting these concerted player raids by showing some backbone of our own.
What’s the plan, FFA?
The more players that go, the weaker our competition becomes, the less likely we are to win an Asian Champions League, the less likely we are to gain those extra Asian Champions League places, the less money goes into the game, the less chance we having of winning the right to host the World Cup.
Everything is interconnected.
A few years ago the people running the game in Australia said the key to the future of Australian football was a healthy and viable domestic league. The hope was to make our A-League as much a popular success as the Socceroos.
The Socceroos are gaining in popularity but the A-League, in many ways, has gone backwards. The imbalance can be arrested but it’s going to take some concerted effort and some fresh thinking.
The question is: Is the FFA really on the ball?
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Scott B said | February 6th 2009 @ 4:20am | Report comment
Agreed,
I doubt however that many would be complaining if the players where going to England, Spain, Italy, Germany or France (1st divisions) or even Holland or Belgium. Getting to my point. The A-League is not of a good enough standard for players to go directly into top European starting line-ups. The current situation only puts the league back further. Money over ambition?
If any of the players moving to North Asia become regulars in the Socceroos team this will only promote the process.
The league will remain poor. Any players that perform well will be bought/sold directly. It’s only business.
Koala Bear said | February 6th 2009 @ 7:37am | Report comment
Jesse,
I wouldn’t fret too much; it will soon settle down and with the 8 new kids that came through the ranks for SFC last season will be around for a few years yet before they go overseas.. Then a new lot will come through … I think the conveyor belt is working fine now with the NYL in place .. They are full time very good young professionals, and they are showing that they have as good a technique, skill and enthusiasm as the ones heading to China .. Admittitly not paid as well as the Northern Asian lads .. However, the kids in Australia have proven they can out perform, out play, the established old brigade that are heading overseas.. I think we need to identify our very best youngsters earlier and tie them up before they are scouted by the top Asian clubs .. So if a youngster impresses earlier he can go but at least the club can get a return and develop more promising youngsters out there on the fringe.. But let us have a look at the German model of player payments, maybe it is worth investigating for the future…
~~~~~~~~
KB
Pippinu said | February 6th 2009 @ 10:13am | Report comment
The circuit breaker will arrive – by stealth.
CCM led the way last season.
We now have Adelaide signing Rostyn Griffiths for the finals to replace Spagnuolo, who has a scratch and has only started in three games anyway (what happend to the idea of the Youth League?).
Next season, we’ll have GCU nursing 3 or 4 no hopers with migraines, and they will be forced to bring in players from the EPL and Serie A as “injury replacements” to play just for the finals (maybe a couple of games beforehand).
The circuit breaker in full bloom.
StiflersMom said | February 6th 2009 @ 10:43am | Report comment
The last thing I want is a Scottish Premier league where the two richest clubs battle for the title each year and the rest are battling for a distant third. The abolition of the salary cap will also mean the abolition of some clubs. If every club was owned by a Clive Palmer it would be OK but some are trying to archive a profit, although Con seems to make his profit by selling players.
Rather than a knee jerk reaction Jesse, maybe a variation on the 3+1 rule? in our case 5+1 so we can have 1 Asian player who does not count as a visa player but also is outside the Salary cap, that way we can buy a player as good or better than we lose. What do you think?
dasilva said | February 6th 2009 @ 11:00am | Report comment
A little flexibility in the salary cap is needed.
Every international cap (iirespective of nationality) gets a certain exemption from salary cap.
HAving said that – only about 3 clubs are using the entire salary cap – melbourne, adelaide and one other team, perhaps sydney. The rest team salary is below the cap. So I;m not too sure raising the cap would stop the raid as the other clubs don’t have the finance to go above the salary cap anyway.
Joel griffith is poach despite his entire salary is outside the cap. I think this issue can’t really be solve except just accepting we are the 6th best league in Asia.
dasilva said | February 6th 2009 @ 11:01am | Report comment
Stiflersmom
FIFA 6+5 rule prevents having 6 foreigners. At best we can have 4+1
Kazama said | February 6th 2009 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
The removal of the salary cap would bring create a top-heavy league where two or three all-powerful clubs battle for the silverware every season but the rest of the teams are left in the dust. Maybe with all of the tradition in Europe fans are happy to support teams that will never win anything, but here in Australia fans demand success and that is why the cap is in place, to give all teams a chance of winning the toilet seat.
I’ve raised the Joel Griffiths point before as dasilva did above – how can we say that it is solely the salary cap holding back the A-League when a marquee player, exempt from the limitations of the cap, heads to China?
Another point I raised on this topic was that the K-League has no cap, their teams dwarf ours in terms of player payments, yet they can’t stop their best players from going to Japan or Europe.
There are two options – 1) continue with the current plan and accept our place in the international pecking order or 2) scrap the salary cap, allow the A-League to become dominated by the ‘haves’ and see what happens.
Option #2 might keep all of our best talent here but it might also cause the league to collapse in a very short space of time if they are all at one or two clubs. Jesse makes the point of the fans wanting the best – well I think most fans would still be unsatisfied because only two or three clubs would have the best players. The risk in this scenario is the remaining clubs going down in flames like the NZ Knights. IMO the A-League is Australia’s last chance to have a professional football league. It dies and there will be no resurrection like there was when the NSL went down. So to remove the cap is a big call. Every possible outcome needs to be carefully considered and analysed in terms of probability before proceeding.
If I am wrong for supporting the cap, that’s fine because what I write won’t ultimately change anything. In this case I am quite happy to merely be some idiot with an opinion and a forum to voice it in rather than the guy calling the shots. I wouldn’t want this pressure on my shoulders.
Pippinu said | February 6th 2009 @ 12:46pm | Report comment
People
Why are we concerned about one or two clubs dominating proceedings?
To have 80% of the comp battling it out for 3rd place is nothing to fear. To aim for 3rd place is not an admission of failure, it’s a noble quest under the circumstances. Accept your lot in life.
Leave the important silverware to those who are most deserving!
Pippinu said | February 6th 2009 @ 12:48pm | Report comment
Kaz
who needs a cap when AU has worked out a brilliant loophole!
Make sure a nothing player has a bit of a scratch and then bring in a ring-in from overseas just to play in the finals!
Victer said | February 6th 2009 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
Salary cap will remain for the next ten years that’s for sure. The problem is we seem to be developing a trade surplus with players to the overseas market, and there is only so much talent in the state league’s to choose from. It’s time for the FFA to realise that it needs to have a 5+2 rule for foreigners. That way teams who have qualified for the ACL will have more of a chance to choose three quality foreigners and one quality Asian player to take with them to the ACL. Not to mention more expansion will drain the local pond even more. We need more access to overseas players to cope with turnover efficiently.