A bad week that was actually good for the game

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By Davidde Corran, 3 Sep 2010 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: A-League, football, Newcastle Jets, Socceroos

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Has this been the first week where the A-League has overshadowed the build up to a Socceroos game? Unfortunately, though, at times over the last few days, I’ve found wading through the latest A-League news, opinion pieces and press releases a heavy task.

From the acrimony over last weekend’s contentious penalties through to the debate surrounding Gold Coast United reinstating their controversial crowd cap, it has all made for depressing reading.

The most alarming story for me this week was the news the Newcastle Jets players and staff weren’t paid last week and owner Con Constantine is struggling to meet his financial commitments.

A foundation club and former A-League premiership winner in grave financial trouble? This is the kind of story that can get even the biggest optimist down and make you wonder if the task facing the game is too much.

Yet, one look over the weekend’s A-League highlights, with the exception of those two penalty decisions of course, is invigorating viewing. Both Costa Barbarouses and Robbie Kruse scored goals of such quality, both in their application and build up play, that doubts begin to wade.

If we can ride out these early years of change, overcome the obstacles the game is both faced with and created for itself, then on the other side lies a final destination well worth striving for.

As we know, the challenges, from revolutionising the game at grassroots level to developing and maintaining a top class domestic competition, are enormous. Yet, I’d plead for optimism.

Things aren’t as bad as they could be.

I’m currently finishing up a three-week stint in the U.S. where I’ve been putting together stories on the Australians plying their trade over here and also the US World Cup bid team.

As always it’s been an illuminating trip, not just on the state of the game in America but also in comparing it to things back home.

First of all, with Central Coast Mariner’s withdrawal form the competition; the W-League may have received its first club casualty. Yet at least the W-League continues to hold its ground.

Things are so turbulent in the WPS here the future of the competition, at least as far as next season is concerned, is heavily in doubt.

While the women’s clubs are bleeding huge amounts of money, things are even worse in the now well-established MLS where annual club loses are in the millions of dollars.

I was skeptical a couple weeks ago when Danny Allsopp told me he thought the A-League was of a higher standard then the MLS. Yet after having attended a number of games since then, it’s clear to me the former Melbourne Victory striker is right.

This season, A-League games have regularly surpassed those of the MLS, a league that seems to be aiming to reach a level equal to that of the English Championship in both tactical and technical “sophistication”.

The US might have found more success then Australia over the last 20 years but I believe Australia is in a better position to develop into a football nation capable of winning the World Cup then America.

As US Soccer chief Sunil Gulati announced Bob Bradley’s contract extension as coach of the US men’s national team this week he spoke about the need to improve talent identification through to improving training and teaching techniques at the grassroots level. But what a task!

Don’t get me wrong, the game has come so far in the US it can be quite staggering at times (90,000 people to watch a Real Madrid friendly?!), but this country is so large and the football community so unwieldy, to develop a concrete and effective football system, from the grassroots on up, is almost impossible.

Meanwhile Australia’s size and economic strength is large enough to create a suitable talent pool but not so big that administrating the game becomes a logistical nightmare.

Quite simply, the task facing Gulati and US Soccer is even larger then Australia’s.

Back home mistakes continue to be made within the game, and these should be pointed out, discussed and then rectified I still hold out hope.

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The Crowd Says (26) | Page 1 of Comments

MVDave said | September 3rd 2010 @ 7:09am | Report comment

There are so many similarities between the development of the MLS and A League. Both leagues are run in a situation where media is limited and another code of football is more dominant. The MLS started with a bang in 1996 with crowds ave over 17,000. However after 5 years crowds were ave under 14,000 and some clubs had gone under. Now there are double the number of MLS clubs and crowds are back to an ave approaching 17,000. The league is continuing to expand and will have 20 clubs next season playing in their own stadiums (mostly). There have been 10 stadiums built specifically for the MLS clubs in the past 8 years with more under construction and planned. MV and MH have a new stadium this year. Adidas just signed a $200m sponsorship deal with the MLS etc etc. The key points being that the HAL should have been expected to have a period of consolidation after the early boom and this is exactly what has happened…same sort of figures and trends occurred in the J League. As the HAL comes out of this period of expansion and consolidates it will be much stronger particularly with the new TV deal in place.

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- rovers2011 said | September 3rd 2010 @ 9:20am | Report comment
  
  thankfully the long term view is something the league and FFA has embraced … just not the (now occasional) doomsayers who want to death-ride the game here, for their own variety of reasons i guess.
  
  the real shift that excites me about football debate in Australia now is its becoming more focused on that stuff happening on the pitch. For a long time many of us fans called for change in the governance and business-side of football… sometimes i think we can all still get a little preoccupied by that aspect of the game. Habit i guess.
  
  So yep Davidde “Things aren’t as bad as they could be”
  
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AndyRoo said | September 3rd 2010 @ 9:07am | Report comment

Interesting remarks about the standard (I never watch MLS) I would be interested why that’s the case.

I wonder if they have the same coaching requirements (licensing wise) because that seems to be a factor in the A league this year

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- Axel V said | September 3rd 2010 @ 2:48pm | Report comment
  
  Same, i Would have thought that the MLS would be on par with the J-League or something. From what i’ve seen from highlights, MLS looks very open and exciting. Some A-League games have been like that this season, but then u have a first half like Sydney FC vs Mariners, dull and terrible. Second half was eventful though!
  
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Fauntleroy said | September 3rd 2010 @ 9:24am | Report comment

That period when MLS clubs were going under, before eventually findings it feet, is where the A-league is at right now, and probably will be for the next 3-4 years. Plainly, some of the clubs now in the competition, won’t be around in a few years time. Whether they be replaced by new entities servicing the same area with better deals and better administrations, or fresh clubs in other regions, remains to be seen.

Is this a bad thing?

One view is that the FFA should do its best to assist clubs and keep them afloat. Under the current administration, where the FFA exercise significant control, perhaps this is right. The other view, is that competition and market forces should rule. Survival of the fittest means that the smartest, most innovative, and most football passionate administrations will eventaully thrive. This is how it should be. In 10 years time w’ll most likley have 5, maybe 6 of the ‘original’ A-league clubs. Where the remainder will come from, who knows.

In the end each city gets the football club it deserves.

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Rellum said | September 3rd 2010 @ 10:56am | Report comment

It has been a very heavy week for an A-League fan. Since the league mainly exists in the free speech environment of the internet, it does get very old for me that every day I check the football sites it is dominated by stories and discussions on crowd numbers and clubs falling over. Forums seem to be full by people who are convinced that 5 or 6 A-League sides are just days away from folding. Then there are all the forces that want the A-League to fail. Fans of old NSL club fans, AFL zealots who see it as the religious calling to bring the game down, media interest’s gleefully pointing out the leagues problems, in fighting. It is a sad state of affairs that SEN is the most pro A-League media outlet at the moment.

I don’t know if these people who think a club is going to fail just because they have had one set back have ever achieved anything in life, but these problems are obstacles’ to overcome, you don’t give up because of one issue. You find solutions to problems and move on. Some obstacles are bigger than others and take more effort and time to fix. For the A-League the biggest issue is Clive Palmer and youth development. Crowds will take one or two generations before they start to approach AFL sides. Young fans of today will have kids of their own, and then those kids will have kids and so on. The A-League is a massive undertaking and it will take a LONG time to become stable.

For me the only good football news I have personally have had this week is the signing of Borriello for Roma. I really don’t want to have to rely on my overseas club for all my positive football news. We should be happy that the league is getting under peoples noses enough that they need to bring it down.

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- Stevo said | September 3rd 2010 @ 12:03pm | Report comment
  
  Completely agree with Rellum. The focus has to be on the both the shorter and longer terms. I believe that the game has a lot of general support in the community but we need to lift standards so that the excitement factor they see watching EPL etc can be replicated locally. Fans draw fans and a crowd draws a crowd – but only if we have a good product. I think this year we are seeing some of the best football since the a-league started. And we shouldn’t under estimate the contibutions from the imported coaches. Fury is a revelation, and last year Pheonix were great. It’s very competative in HAL and that’s the way it should be. We just have to recognise that every year won’t be a great year but we should stick with the long term plan of grass roots involvement and development – something GCU hasn’t done very well it appears.
  
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Art Sapphire said | September 3rd 2010 @ 3:20pm | Report comment

The main difference between MLS and A-League is that the MLS pay for the majority of the marquees wages and not the individual clubs.

The MLS club has a salary cap $2.55 million.
A player like Henry receives a $355k from the Red Bulls and other few million are paid by the MLS.

This basically means if you take out the marquee players like Beckham and Henry MLS squads are the same if not weaker in terms of quality compared to an A-League squad.

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- Giggsy said | September 4th 2010 @ 3:30am | Report comment
  
  way to get it exactly backwards. i have an idea. how about you have a clue what you are talking about BEFORE you open your yap.
  
  MLS teams have a salary cap of 2.55M. that amount is paid by the league itself and not the clubs. the clubs share 30% of their ticket revenue with the league. this along with national TV and sponsorship money is what is used to pay this.
  
  a marquee palyer or DP is a player for whom the first 335K of their salary is paid under the cap (ie by the league) and the rest of the salary is paid for BY THE CLUB.
  
  but hey. getting it exactly 100% wrong isn’t all that bad right?
  
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- Jeff from Seattle said | September 4th 2010 @ 6:12am | Report comment
  
  Your final point is valid, but you’ve got the particulars backwards. The league pays the $2.55 million. Clubs are allowed up to three players that partially don’t count against the salary cap. (They call them Designated Players, which is a bad choice of names in my opinion.) The first $355K of their salary goes against the cap and is paid by the league. Anything over that is paid directly by the club. So the bulk of the contracts of Henry, Beckham, Donovan, etc is payed by the club.
  
  So a club like New York with three DPs has 3 x 355K, or about $1 million of their cap tied up in 3 players. That leaves only about $1.55 million for the other 20 or so players on the roster.
  
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  - Art Sapphire said | September 6th 2010 @ 5:01pm | Report comment
    
    Thanks clearing up that up Jeff from Seattle, much appreciated – giggsy should learn some manners
    
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moo cow said | September 3rd 2010 @ 4:27pm | Report comment

Having watched only three games from the MLS in the past six months I said to myself it was about on par, but the A-league is quickly growing so it probably has surpassed it. We may have surpassed them on the field but off the field we are a joke in comparison, I really no team folds.

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Rellum said | September 3rd 2010 @ 9:52pm | Report comment

Then again, when you watch the drivel that was served up in gosford tonigh it is hard to fell positive for the league. Hoping tomorrow is much better.

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salecanard said | September 4th 2010 @ 1:07am | Report comment

I’m an American who watches the A-league (thanks, ESPN3) and MLS, and don’t see the difference Messrs. Allsop and Corran do. Maybe they’re paying a little too much attention to DC United? Just to fill you in, DCU is sniffing at setting the all-time lowest point season record in MLS. They are total crap.

Watch some of the good teams, if you have the chance. My Real Salt Lake play a very attractive style of attacking and possession football, as do the Columbus Crew. Also at the top of the league table are the LA Galaxy and FC Dallas, which are very good, but play a more defensive game.

I wouldn’t put MLS on the same level as the J-league, but it’s certainly equal with the A-league.

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Ian Whitchurch said | September 4th 2010 @ 1:36am | Report comment

Salecanard,

And thats not a bad place to be. The A-League and MLS are decent grade footy leagues … they are AA ball at least, with the better teams hitting AAA when everything goes right.

And thats a better plan than trying to be in the majors when you don’t have the funding.

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Rageman said | September 4th 2010 @ 1:48am | Report comment

Allsopp?Ummmm . . . do you remember the former A-League MVP Fred? He also went to DC United and was a bit player at best, which is pretty much where Allsopp seems to be also. I’m an American that loves watching the A-League but I put it below MLS when it comes to level of play. It’s still a young league and will have it’s moments both good and bad. Once the league starts importing more South Americans, then you’ll see the level of play leap forward.

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