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Last week, the A-League’s Operations Chief Archie Fraser resigned his position in order to focus more specifically on handling the triumvirate of Queensland based A-League clubs. Naturally, this has left a vacuum that will need replacing.
This is coinciding with some increasing disquiet within the football fraternity regarding football and the A-League’s governance culture, and the lack of football knowledge in particular.
Traditionally, this role has usually been filled by a mate or “sidekick” to the CEO of the FFA, John O’Neill had Matt Carroll (a compatriot from Rugby Union) and Ben Buckley brought in Archie Fraser from the AFL.
But football and the A-League is now at the point where a change needs to be considered.
The demand is two fold: on the one hand, there is a need for the A-League owners to have their own voice and someone to advocate their point of view and represent them and their interests.
On the other, there is also a need for the A-League clubs with their deficit in football club knowledge to be competently advised on how they set up their structures and operate.
Through the combination of Crawford report recommendations and AFC Pro League Committee requirements for a separation of the national league from the national association there is the compelling momentum for this separation to occur.
However, this simply is not practical at the moment given the A-League cannot stand on its own two feet financially, and probably won’t be able to until the new football TV rights deal is signed.
Putting aside suggestions that an absolute separation of the national and league associations can be problematic for football in a given country, the A-League can move in an autonomous direction through the A-League chairmen being given more influence on who gets selected for the position.
The A-League is now out of the startup phase, and there is a need to decentralise many elements such as websites, kit manufacturing and merchandise, to allow for a diversification of revenue streams.
The A-League clubs need to be given more power to differentiate their “franchises” from other “franchises” and forge a more distinct organisational culture, and thus, club identity.
The A-League Operations chief should now be a person with comprehensive football experience, be able to advise clubs on developing competent and progressive football scouting networks, football departments and on how to understand and relate to traditionally minded football fans.
People from other Australian sports may understand the local sports market generally, but they do not necessarily understand the local football fraternity or the global football fraternity and its culture and traditions.
The result is that our clubs have silly monikers and logos and they struggle to handle the problems experienced between the cultural expectations of football fans and stadiums who have regulations traditionally not conducive to football culture or staff and officials not experienced.
An example of how I think the A-League would do well to be guided is through a discussion from former MLS Chicago Fire CEO Peter Wilt, with the MLS and A-League having many similarities in their style of operating environment.
Wilt outlines his philosophy in two articles on U.S website, Pitch Invasion. The first article covered his philosophy.
Some clubs tick more boxes than others, but is something the FFA would do well to think about as well because their attitude to the fan-base leaves something to be desired.
An example is a preference of a generic sports fan group (the Fanatics) over dedicated football oriented fan groups such as the GGArmy, which has the result of stifling opportunities for fan institutions and a football community to develop.
Needless to say, some A-League clubs would probably have higher attendances if they took a leaf out of this approach rather than thinking of fans as “spectators” who are purchasing an “entertainment product”.
The second part covered “how to not lose fans and alienate people”, something the A-League clubs and the FFA would do very well to think about following two seasons of declining average attendance for the league.
Many fan experiences have been pointedly negative.
The FFA renegotiates the Roars leasing deal with Suncorp stadium to save a purported $500,000 a year, but they do nothing to improve fan experience, notably reflected through Roar fans documented negative experiences with Suncorp staff.
Many football fans see themselves as a constituency and rely on the FFA to “stand up for them”, evidenced in the Gold Coast crowd cap saga.
Whenever there has been negative news stories on “crowd disturbances”, the FFA have not stood up for the fans but instead reacted to media hysteria through supporting policies that exacerbate negative fan experience.
Going to an A-League “blockbuster” game is hand in hand with attending a “high risk” game and the climate at these games ceased to be positive and enjoyable a long time ago.
Ironically, the drop in crowd numbers correlates with the FFA’s post season 3 “security review” that involved no meaningful engagement with fan groups.
This is a contributing factor to falling crowds but has not been focused on in the same way that pricing issues have, for example.
A competent A-League operations chief should have the ability to negotiate economical leasing arrangements with stadiums utilising the FFA’s authority.
Similarly, they should be able to negotiate regulations and regimes with stadiums that are conducive to football culture which in turn enhances the point of difference.
They should be able to constructively advise on how football crowd movement (how they flow through stadiums) and behavioural patterns are naturally different to other sports, so fan experience is positive and fans remain consistently engaged.
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