A-League revival to be led by Frank Lowy
Roar Guru By johnhunt92, 10 Dec 2010 johnhunt92 is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- A-League, Ben Buckley, FFA, football, Football Federation Australia, Frank Lowy
Frank Lowy is an acute businessman and passionate football man, who this week gave the Australian game a confident shot in the arm.
Lowy emerged from the World Cup debacle strong and confident in a press conference in which he guaranteed the future of the game in Australia.
He defended criticism of his and Ben Buckley’s style management of the game and served it up to three of the FFA’s biggest critics (Zeljko Kalac, Archie Fraiser and Les Scheinflug).
Lowy had to do this quicker than he thought. The opinion of the World Cup bid had for too long been dictated by non-football journalists.
People like Rebecca Wilson, Graham Cornes and Andrew Moore, who have little or no knowledge of the game, were shoveling tripe to the public. Lowy returned disappointed but confident of the future of the game, promising the public he would get football back on track.
Even with falling crowds in the A-League, Lowy has reason to be confident in the game. Despite people like Wilson claiming this country has no passion for the game, 1.8 million registered people play football every week with more probably playing casually.
To put this into perspective, the combined participation figures of the Aussie Rules and Rugby League are 100,000 more than the population of Qatar. For a country that has apparently no passion for the game, these figures will give Lowy and the FFA board confidence in the game’s future.
The challenge now is to convert the grassroots passion to Australian football. The old soccer, new football divide is still strong with old soccer suspicious of the A-League.
In Australia, too many people are still running around in Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid shirts. These supporters need to be converted into wearing Adelaide United and Sydney FC shirts to give the A-League the fan base it needs.
That is the challenge for the FFA from now on because without old soccer, new football will stagnate.
However, with all due respect, Lowy still has time to start the conversion. He is still the best man to lead Australia’s biggest sporting code in terms of the rawest of participation numbers.
He has fought the detractors before and he shall do it again.
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- Explore:
- A-League, Ben Buckley, FFA, football, Football Federation Australia, Frank Lowy
December 10th 2010 @ 6:33am
Fussball ist unser leben said | December 10th 2010 @ 6:33am | Report comment
Thanks, johnhunt92, for a nice positive article to end the week. I never realised Kalac was a big critic of the FFA … on WFN he always seems very respectful to, and grateful for, the work being done by Frank Lowy?
Anyone, who has lived through the “dark years” (late 70s, 80s & 90s) for Football in Australia will agree that Football has never had it so good – the Game is at its highest ever profile, fans have access to quality games every week – LIVE and on tv – and our National Team is the darling of the Australian sporting world, with the “brand” having 100% awareness in Australia and respected around the globe.
The FFA’s development programmes are starting to churn out talented young footballers and, now that the systems have been in place for 3-4 years, this production-line is never-ending!
Now, there is only one more piece of the puzzle for the FFA … get football fans embracing and watching the A-League. Forget about the non-football fans – right now the priority is to sell our local professional league to people, who are already “football customers” – they don’t need to be converted or convinced about the Beautiful Game.
PS: I think I know what you were trying to say in relation to your comment about “the combined participation figures of the Aussie Rules and Rugby League” … but, I’m not sure if you worded it correctly? Perhaps, you did and I’m a bit slow this morning!
December 10th 2010 @ 9:05am
Nick said | December 10th 2010 @ 9:05am | Report comment
Yeah “the dark years” who produced the best footballers in australian history,bosnich kalac lazaridis zelic okon emerton culina schwarzer skoko viduka cahill popovic aloisi and many many more i cant think of right now. Lowy ruined his chance of a great league by kicking out the likes of sth melb marconi syd olympic melb knights and syd utd
December 10th 2010 @ 9:44am
Fussball ist unser leben said | December 10th 2010 @ 9:44am | Report comment
Nick – there is no doubting the quality of any of the names you mentioned.
But, I would opine that those guys made it IN SPITE of the Football landscape in Australia – not because of it? I have no doubt there were many many footballers, who were as talented – if not more talented – than some of the guys you’ve mentioned, who slipped through “the system” because there was really no system in Australia.
I’m staggered if anyone, who was actually alive during the late 70s, 80s & 90s thinks Football was better organised and better managed then than it is now. In fact, I’ve heard Kalac, Zdrilic, Foster, Bosnich et al categorically state things are much much better now … and those lads would have a reasonable idea.
Having said that, I totally admire and I will NEVER forget the enormous contribution that was made those involved with football in those years. These 1st generation migrants from the British Isles, continental Europe, the Middle East and South America taught my generation how to love & respect the game.
December 10th 2010 @ 10:15am
MELB KNIGHTS said | December 10th 2010 @ 10:15am | Report comment
Fussball ist unser leben
I tend to disagree with what you . Your mate Frank Lowy said to all owners who began the A- League that all will breakeven in 5 – years
Fact
North Queensland on the verge of collaspe
Sydney FC ( Sydney City Sorry no ethic clubs but he can have A – league Hakoah in disguise and Brisbane Roar with a dutch background to I have to continue )
All the the clubs are running in the red .
Your stating that it was all doom and gloom and the dark years . Go back to your hisory books and see the factory production line of players that the NSL produced . I don’t see a MARK VIDUKA coming out of the A – League.
With the A-League it is a cheque book menality ( MONEY BUYS RESULTS) . Whereas in the old NSL you had four sydney teams giving youth a chance to play top level…
Your putting a lot of faith into frank who walked away in 1984. Said in the Daily Telegraph that he will walk away from soccer and never come back…
Why doesnt Frank Lowy make soccer a state of origin concept like rugby league and respect old soccer and let them have a B – League. Then you would see soccer old grow.
It is Frank Lowy way – FFA rebranded – FFL – Frank Football League….
December 10th 2010 @ 2:44pm
Derby County FC said | December 10th 2010 @ 2:44pm | Report comment
Nick and Melb Knights
At the end of the day football would not be in the position it is in without the NSL (it could be worse now without it and it could have been a whole lot better too) and you can moan and fluff about ethnicity in disguise, really it’s only you guys that care. But those players that you mention were fantastic but lets not kid ourselves, they would have come to the fore either in the A-league and the NSL, they were freaks of talent.
Every single league at every single level in every single country has nurtured talent and the a-league will too, it’s just a matter of time. Don’t think that the NSL was any more special than anywhere else and talent certainly hasn’t stopped being born in Australia just because the NSL is no longer the top domestic competition.
December 10th 2010 @ 2:50pm
Nick said | December 10th 2010 @ 2:50pm | Report comment
Agree 100% with melb knights, and i also do recall lowy saying in in the 80s he will never be involved with football again in Australia, i wish he would have kept his word
December 11th 2010 @ 8:34am
MELB KNIGHTS said | December 11th 2010 @ 8:34am | Report comment
But Derby County but didn’t your mate frank lowy say to all who joined the a-league that they would breakeven in 5 years. Now their all in massive debt to their necks.
The way the MLS got formed in Amercia they embraced the old soccer and welcomed the new soccer supporters. The is the main reason why it did grow
The problem that lies here in Australia that the A-League is focusing on welcoming the new soccer supporters. Now the old soccer got kicked in the guts and kicked in the state league to be forgetten.The FFA has no history past 2005…
Derby County how long do we have to wait before it gets better . The overheads are high and debts are growing..
December 10th 2010 @ 10:47am
johnhunt92 said | December 10th 2010 @ 10:47am | Report comment
Checked the version i have on word Fussball it has been edited wrongly it should say
To put this into perspective that is just above the combined participation figures of the Aussie Rules and Rugby League and 100,000 more than the population of Qatar
Dont know went wrong
December 10th 2010 @ 11:14am
peeeko said | December 10th 2010 @ 11:14am | Report comment
i would not put too much reliance upon the huge levels of soccer participation. Its pretty much the same as America where lots of little kids play soccer because it is deemed safe but they all follow other sports and give up playing soccer once they are in their teens.
December 10th 2010 @ 11:36am
Fussball ist unser leben said | December 10th 2010 @ 11:36am | Report comment
In Australia there are more registered football players – male and female – at every age group from kids to seniors.
In Victoria – the heartland of Aussie Rules – every year there are reports of another Aussie Rules club in suburban Melbourne and/or country Victoria that has folded due to insufficient registered players. And, even clubs that are surviving have been hit hard by lack of interest and have to field fewer teams.
By contrast, football clubs (indoor and outdoor) all over Australia cannot cope with the demand – there simply are too many people, who want to play football. Anecdotal evidence suggests netball, basketball, volleyball, touch football & indoor cricket are also showing increasing participation rates, whilst Aussie Rules shows a constant decline.
Perhaps, AFL fans should start playing the game instead of merely sitting on their backsides being spectators?
December 10th 2010 @ 11:39am
Midfielder said | December 10th 2010 @ 11:39am | Report comment
peeeko
You may be surprised how far football has come in the US… they formed a league very similar to our own … it almost when broke then did some things alittle different and are on many counts the number 3 yes number 3 sport in the US … more would rate them as number 4 behind Gridiron, Baseball & Basketball….. however for the first time the player numbers in football was more than Basketball (2005) and in large parts of the US Football outrates Basketball…
The last repoert I read when something like this … don’t hold me to being exacte here…
Gridiron ….. 15
Baseball …… 7
Basketball …..3.5
Football ……… 3
I have no idea what these mean other than in the US it was a report on national sports viewing…. the belief is that if football overtakes Basketball who rating are fallings then much of the media and focus of many universities will move towards football … Baseball is also on the decline in ratings … I think because like Basketball it is totally overplayed.. like almost every night is another game…
Crowds are currently averaging around the 18.5 k mark which is not that bad…
But nothing can touch Gridiron whick is still growing in ratings … also maybe because they have a limited season in terms of matches…
December 10th 2010 @ 1:03pm
Lazza said | December 10th 2010 @ 1:03pm | Report comment
Great post Midfielder regarding sport in the States. So many people here comment on the States without having the slightest idea what’s going on.
The NBA lost $300m last year and the owners are demanding huge salary cuts from the players. Baseball continues to lose fans and ratings with the average age of spectators reported to be about 65? I think that was a bit of a joke but it’s not too far from the truth. Americans don’t seem to have the patience or attention span required for the sport any longer.
You are right about the NFL but it’s not without some major problems as well. Namely, the crippling and horrific injury toll ( i.e. broken spines) in the sport. So many stars are not playing and the league is seriously considering ditching or modifying the helmets. Players have started using helmets as ‘weapons’ to injure other players so some major changes are afoot. The average NFL career is about 2-3 years and contracts are not even guaranteed because of the high number of injuries. No wonder so many parents in the States put their kids into football. Now they have a professional league and quality national team to aspire to as well.
December 10th 2010 @ 3:00pm
Bristler said | December 10th 2010 @ 3:00pm | Report comment
No it is not a great post, it is probably the worst post I have read on this site. Having spent a significant amount of time in the US I can confirm that Association Football is nowhere near the popularity of the big 3. Participation is obviously strong (approx. 24 million was the last figure I heard), but the ratings are not even close to the major sports. I would imagine those numbers posted are ratings figures, but they certainly questionable, and as you have not provided the report, should not be included in any argument. In any case NBA ratings are up over the last couple of years compared to the previous decade and if you think Assoc. Football will overtake Basketball in colleges you clearly have no idea about US sport. The NBA loss figure is spread across all of the teams and is in large part due to absurd ticket prices and massively overpaid players. Baseball ratings certainly are on the decline but the sport is so entrenched in society it will always hold its position. It is all irrelevant though as American Football is so dominant that nothing approaches it (and it has nothing to do with the short season, even the two day NFL draft outrates most other sporting events in the US.
PS I would be impressed if you could name even two places where association football outrates basketball (assuming Seattle is one, which is only because the NBA team left town in terrible circumstances and the local population is angry at the league).
December 10th 2010 @ 4:19pm
Midfielder said | December 10th 2010 @ 4:19pm | Report comment
Bristler
No mate the figures are right sorry if this is not how you see things…
To be totally honest the Football figures are in the South American migrant belts and in these areas the figures are quite high whereas in other parts of the US football is not shown…
Basketball has an across the country appeal… football has a limited appeal… however the % quoted are spot on…
If you look at Australia you could say the same about both AFL & RL rate very high in their homeland states but quite poor in their non homeland states…
So yes football is becoming a major sport in the US …
December 10th 2010 @ 4:41pm
Midfielder said | December 10th 2010 @ 4:41pm | Report comment
Bristler
This is worth a look…
December 10th 2010 @ 6:42pm
Bristler said | December 10th 2010 @ 6:42pm | Report comment
You still have provided NO evidence of one place where football outrates basketball as you claimed. It certainly doesn’t in LA, which has a huge immigrant population, nor does it in Houston, Miami, San Antonio or Phoenix, the other major cities with large immigrant populations. I don’t care if football becomes a major sport in the US (it already is) as there is ample room in America for all sports, but don’t exaggerate and post nonsense. To be honest I doubt you have spent much time in the US as if you had, you would certainly be aware of the current situation. There is no doubt that football’s big advantage is the international game as Americans are obviously very patriotic, but don’t read too much into that youtube clip; the Gold Medal hockey game at the 2010 Winter Olympics drew higher ratings that all of the US FIFA World Cup games (and most non-NFL sporting events), yet no one is suggesting that hockey will supplant baseball and basketball in the American sporting consciousness.
December 10th 2010 @ 6:52pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | December 10th 2010 @ 6:52pm | Report comment
In the USA, TV ratings for the 2010WC increased by 41% over the 2006WC
The 2010WC Final between Spain & the Netherlands was 24.3 million – 15.5 million on ABC and an additional 8.8 million viewers watched Spanish-language coverage on Univision.
Has there been ANY sporting event that produced higher TV ratings in the USA … when the event did NOT feature a single citizen of the USA?
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/13/world-cup-final-ratings-2_n_644127.html
December 10th 2010 @ 7:25pm
Bristler said | December 10th 2010 @ 7:25pm | Report comment
The Italy-Brazil ’94 Final drew a higher rating; although the 2010 game had more raw viewers, the ’94 game had a higher share, which is what matters.
December 10th 2010 @ 6:59pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | December 10th 2010 @ 6:59pm | Report comment
A very insightful article on how the “soccer” culture is transforming in the USA.
Soccer in the States today bear little or no resemblance to 1994 (USA World Cup) …. Then it was primarily “bandwagon” effect, today it’s a soccer-educated audience. They know and appreciate quality soccer and will engage and consume it when presented with it.
Source: http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2010/06/26/america-gets-ready-for-greatest-ratings-day-in-soccers-tv-history/
December 10th 2010 @ 7:39pm
Midfielder said | December 10th 2010 @ 7:39pm | Report comment
Interesting article and what I liked was they had written off the bandwagon effect and accept many people will watch the WC but never be football people…
Have a look at this David Letterman youtube could come straight out of Ch 7 in Melbourne ..
I have long argued that it is our management of football that will win or loss the day for all Fozzie going on about playing the beautiful game it is still management that will make the right calls we hope to move the game forward…
December 13th 2010 @ 11:43am
DiCanio said | December 13th 2010 @ 11:43am | Report comment
Why is everyone bending over backwards to appease Bristler. Who cares if he lived in the USA. Simply saying NO, THATS NOT EVIDENCE… when it is… whatever mate.
December 10th 2010 @ 11:49pm
GavinH said | December 10th 2010 @ 11:49pm | Report comment
Are fussball and friends just trying to argue or are they missing the point.
Yes, there is a relationship between playing numbers and commercial support of soccer but I bet it is a weak one as peeeko assumes.
I’d say about 90% of my friends are rugby over soccer fans. But i’d say about 75% of the guys I played rugby with started playing soccer a young kids….
I can think of 1 guy I know who still plays rugby for fun even though I know hundreds who are fans/viewers/paying spectators etc of the game.
I play social soccer with my brothers team and I never play (tackle) rugby but it doesn’t make me want to go and join a soccer team supporters club.
I watch the odd champions league soccer game but it has nothing to do with whether I’ve played some 7 a side soccer recently.
A large percentage of my american friends actually played soccer and probably watched the world cup but I doubt they’ve been to a MLS match and they are all big college football fans.
So its great that youngsters are out playing soccer if for e.g. they don’t want to play contact football but if you are banging your head against a wall saying ‘there are all these kids playing soccer but no support for the teams it’s all frank’s fault’ then I think you are wasting your time.
December 10th 2010 @ 11:47am
Fussball ist unser leben said | December 10th 2010 @ 11:47am | Report comment
Thanks, JohnHunt – that’s what I thought you had in mind!
December 10th 2010 @ 11:44am
Midfielder said | December 10th 2010 @ 11:44am | Report comment
I have a feeling that Frank althrough is a great business man … he no longer has common touch of a battler … football is a working class game and needs grassroots solutions and suits however well meaning don’t understand how to connect to the football family…
My tho’s are Frank..should be in charge but take a less hands on role you get the feeling he wants to make to many decisions …
December 10th 2010 @ 1:58pm
AndyRoo said | December 10th 2010 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
Plus one Midfielder.
December 10th 2010 @ 1:48pm
Rellum said | December 10th 2010 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
Don’t know if this has been mentioned elsewhere but the Rovers have been officially canned. For me that is a good first step in cleaning up the mess.
December 10th 2010 @ 3:20pm
johnhunt92 said | December 10th 2010 @ 3:20pm | Report comment
As mentioned in the article Midfielder I feel its all to do with the divide in our sport and nothing to do with Lowy’s riches. Too many football fans wear European shirts, support Sydney Olympic and Adelaide City and don’t have an interest in the A-League (My Dad is one). Converting 20-30% of those to A-League would just make so much of a difference to the A-League crowds and TV Ratings.
December 10th 2010 @ 3:38pm
SportsFanMelb said | December 10th 2010 @ 3:38pm | Report comment
The argument about registered kids playing a particular sport does not translate to a successful professional league when they are adults. Basketball has huge numbers of kids playing their sport but it is an absolute rabble, when you don’t have a team in Sydney or Brisbane for a period of time with a population like AUS you know your league is second rate.
What the football community needs to realise is that it is a very long way behind entrenched codes like AFL, NRL and ARU and that these codes are the top of their game. In the case of NRL it is regarded as far superior to UK and with the Super Rugby comp it is also regarded as far better than the Heinken Cup in Euro. The AFL has the same benefit as NFL in the States, in that is is uniquely Australian.
The A-League is never going to be more than a breeding ground for the next gen of youngsters before they head off to Euro and some over the hill players looking for an easy pay day (Dwight Yorke, Robbie Fowler, Mario Jardel etc). If they can get their heads around this and market the game to people properly about watching the next crop of players starting their careers they could become a sustainable league with continuing interest. Telling Aussies it is the world game and we should love it for this reason is never going work.
The league cannot simply rely on just Lowy to lift the game from where it is now to where it wants to be, it will need supporters to back their local teams. If they want kids wearing a SFC or MV top instead of Man U or Real Madrid maybe try and not charge 120 for a replica shirt.
December 10th 2010 @ 5:56pm
Nick said | December 10th 2010 @ 5:56pm | Report comment
Football is dying a slow death in australia due to the exclusion of the great nsl clubs
December 10th 2010 @ 7:46pm
Ben said | December 10th 2010 @ 7:46pm | Report comment
Football was effectively dead in Australia prior to the A-League and creation of the FFA. As much as people like to harp on about the NSL, it was merely a semi-professional league of mostly poor quality, albeit with some exceptions (Melbourne Knights in the 90s and South Melbourne a few years after had some very good teams with great players, with the Wollongong team of the last couple of years of the NSL being a very good side aswell). The move to full professionalism and yes, the decoupling of clubs from their ethnic foundations has helped propel the game into the mainstream consciousness.
December 10th 2010 @ 7:50pm
Midfielder said | December 10th 2010 @ 7:50pm | Report comment
Please Nick the great NSL clubs did what to grow the game…
Tell me how they helped the associations develop there coaches and junior football at association community park teams… tell me how they set up an independent bias free player selection program… tell me how they got their matches all of them broadcast each week…
I could go on forever …. but in closing did the NSL clubs ever offer anything to the association competition that had been running for about 80 years before they came on the scene… and in a super league war tried to destroy the associations… please understand football was around long before the NSL… many seem to think football only began with the NSL… Football had a proud history before the NSL …. show some respect for what pre dated the NSL and I may agree … But the NSL took control of football and lead it down a path of miss management / corruption / ineptitude / nepotism / bulling / …. and you want the A-League to fail to bring back the mighty NSL and all that it stood for…
Nick in the words of a famous song … “Come Together”" as a united force we have some hope…
December 10th 2010 @ 10:00pm
Nick said | December 10th 2010 @ 10:00pm | Report comment
Midfielder and ben you are both dreaming to think the 2 sides will come together. in leagues around the world if a team gets relegated to lower divisions their supporters continue to support their team. they just dont jump ship and support a different club thats what the ffa is trying to do
December 10th 2010 @ 10:18pm
Midfielder said | December 10th 2010 @ 10:18pm | Report comment
Nick
Not asking you to jump ship… simply saying the world of football in Australia has changed … there are new rules and new power structures and some aspects of the running of the NSL teams was very poor and the structure they worked in was a joke… meaning don’t change teams … bring your team into the new tent .. the old tent has fallen down and standing there hoping it may get put up again is foolish … just move with your team and embrace football not a failed management structure of a past era..
December 10th 2010 @ 10:12pm
Midfielder said | December 10th 2010 @ 10:12pm | Report comment
I posted a while back that Frank in the world he moves is to far removed from community park clubs to be in a position were he could understand what motives and or guides the Football family…
In my very humble opinion the answer lies with the associations and the community park clubs that make up the grassroots.
The associations have massive players numbers and are managed largely by well meaning volunteers.
The community park teams are normally run by committees of local volunteers… most of the volunteers are very decent hard working folk reflective of their local community… they organise coaches, allocate training spaces, kits to the teams etc…
It is the committee members of the various community park teams that talk to the football family… it is these people FFA need to speak to … but not by email or web site link…
The park club committees and the associations don’t trust the old NSL teams as all they ever did for them was raid there rep sides and tell them how stupid they were….. FFA have done SFA for these committees accept ask for heaps of help in gathering a giant data base…
My guess is Frank has had little to do with the associations nor with their half million players nor their committees nor does he understand many of the troubles they have or the resentment many feel as being a tool for FFA to gather information…
For this reason I would love Frank to stay and do the kiss and hug the government of the day and be there for many of the big decisions but leave the day to day running of the game to people like Lyal Gorman who understand football at park level and have extensive experience with associations…
I have always believed those running Football in Australia (including SBS) have never tried to fully understand how the associations work and then build from this very solid foundation a workable structure…. to often the fractured NSL teams and the failed structure they created is what is looked at…
December 11th 2010 @ 8:41am
MELB KNIGHTS said | December 11th 2010 @ 8:41am | Report comment
Midfielder
Here you are saying that the NSL took control of football and lead it down a path of miss management / corruption / ineptitude / nepotism / bulling / …. and you want the A-League to fail to bring back the mighty NSL and all that it stood for…
WHAT ABOUT THE A- LEAGUE DON’T YOU SEE THE MISS MANAGEMENT- CORRUPTION – NEPOTISM AND BULLING THAT FRANK LOWY’S YES MAN ARE DOING TO THE GAME..
Please here you are saying how wonderful the A – League is you have a good look at the FFA. One man is controlling the organisation and its his way or the high way…
December 11th 2010 @ 8:57am
punter said | December 11th 2010 @ 8:57am | Report comment
As Winston Churchill once said, ‘Capitalism is not the best society to have, but it’s the best we have’.
December 11th 2010 @ 9:48am
Midfielder said | December 11th 2010 @ 9:48am | Report comment
MK
If you read my post directly above your’s you will see I have a real go at Frank as well… FFA is not perfect not by ant means and still has a long way to go….
Structurally system developed by Soccer Australia of which the NSL clubs were a large part of was full of errors. That is not saying everything about every team was wrong or bad or that they did no good… If fact most of the best aspects of Australia’s football history comes from the NSL era… so to if we are honest most of the bad bits…
The solution as I posted above is to create a structure that brings the associations and their district based community park teams into football.
For me I would love each of the NSL clubs to be adopted by an district association and for both sides to see what the other brings ….
No one either at Soccer Australia or FFA have connected with the football family at grassroots … and the reason is because the district based associations and there community park clubs that the grassroots play have been ignored for years… In fact for many years the old Soccer Australia openly attacked the Associations…
December 11th 2010 @ 12:30pm
MELB KNIGHTS said | December 11th 2010 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
Well midfielder you have long way before the old soccer supporters come and join the A- league and not enough time..
The debts are high and so are the overheads ( eg to hire the SFS ) . From day one of the A-League Frank Lowy and his yes men should of got it right…
I do agree some the supporters of the NSL were way out of control. But the NSL had better youth system set up then the current A-League and gave the youth experience . Under the old NSL you had 4 Sydney teams to give the youth a chance to get experience now you have one ..
Please understand this Frank Lowy treats his A-League like Westifields. If the business/sport not making any profits he will walk away.. History does repeat as he did walk away in 1984 with his Sydney City and stated in the Daily Telegraph at that time that he will walk never way to never to return….
Midfielder have a B-league and have the A-league( different seasons) and create a state of origin concept like they do in rugby league . Then only then we can give union , rugby league a run for their money ……