Can the A-League be the EPL of Asia?

 
dasilva Roar Guru

By dasilva, 8 Feb 2009 dasilva is a Roar Guru

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Years ago Craig Foster derogatively referred to the A-League as the English Premier League of Asia. Although he meant that as a negative comment, about our style of football, I argue that we can become the EPL of Asia, in a good way.

Afshin Ghotbi believed that the A-League could be a hub for ambitious Asian footballers aiming for a big break to get into Europe and that eventually the A-League could become the best league in Asia, attracting the best talent.

Unfortunately that ambition is still a way off the horizon.

Our sponsors still don’t pay enough money to match that ambition; the Socceroos are still subsidizing our leagues; and our wages are half or a third of Asian counterparts in the J-League and K-League.

However, with a bit of ambition and foresight I believe that we can make some steps towards reaching that goal.

Right now, when the sponsors are bidding to represent the A-League, FFA or the individual clubs, despite ACL participation, they are primarily doing this to reach the Australian market.

Unfortunately, a lack of population has limited the business scale, and as long as A-League remains the way it is, it will never compete financially with the big Asian clubs.

However, there is one option that so far hasn’t been explored: the South-East Asian market.

Imagine if Adelaide United’s great run to the finals of the Asian Champions League was captained by Thai Datsakorn Thonglao and spearheaded by Indonesian Bambang Pamungkas?

Players like Bambang are rock stars in their own countries and I’m quite sure a similar scenario will pique the interest of these countries and open the A-League up to a very large market that has not been explored by any major Asian countries.

Those countries may take an active interest in the A-League and we may convert some fans to support an A-League club.

The prospect of going into any South East Asian country, like Indonesia, and seeing the locals wearing an A-League top with their star local player on the back of the shirt is not impossible. After all, many Australians ended up supporting Leeds United due to the exploits of Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka, and perhaps an A-league club could do the same with a Suree Sukha of Thailand and an Erol Iba of Indonesia.

If the South East Asian countries take an active interest in the A-League and watch it in large numbers, suddenly the TV rights value will increase. Similarly, the value of sponsorship for the A-League and their individual clubs will skyrocket.

The more money in the A-League, the more we can pay the players, and perhaps this ‘crisis’ of the exodus of players to Japan and Korea may be avoided.

We can then aim to attract the best Asian talent in the same way that the EPL attracts the best talent in Europe, as Afshin Ghotbi envisioned.

Perhaps we can then make Craig Foster’s fears of becoming the EPL of Asia come true.

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