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Is a football league measured by the quality of the those at the top or by those at the bottom? This is a key question for the future of Australian football.
Should the potential super clubs of the A-League be restrained by the capacity – or lack thereof – of its weakest links?
It seems many sports fans in Australia have been conditioned to the idea of socialism in competitive sport. In the decades dominated by rugby league and Australian rules, it’s been an easy sell that equalisation is the only way to go. After all, there are no international benchmarks to compete with.
Socialism, according to the famed Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, “works on the emotions, tries to violate logical considerations by rousing a sense of personal interest and to stifle the voice of reason by awakening primitive instincts.”
The “personal interest” in equalised Australian sport is that of the cartel club not wanting its place in the league challenged by outsiders. And the underperformer who wants to rig the system to restrain their competitors, and give themselves a turn at winning what are largely becoming lottery sporting leagues.
In football we have another possibility. The joys of inequality.
An unequal league structure allows for unrestrained ambition at the top, while maintaining accessibility at the base.
A more openly competitive, unequalised, and most importantly deregulated, league serves to broaden the number of weaker clubs that can be engaged. Right now, there are a limited number of areas that can be served under the current economic model.
Lower the bar for entry – and better yet make it a competitive process on the football pitch via the rough and tumble of promotion and relegation – and the net can be cast much wider. Equalisation shuts the door on many new areas which will never get a look in as the level playing field is forever beyond their reach.
Unequal sporting league structures are much more engaged with a wider range of catchment sizes than equalised ones. This is undeniable.
In Australia, as football has chipped away at the established order, more and more locals have been exposed to the hyper competitive (but unequal) football leagues around the world. And they like what they see.
Since the establishment of the A-League nearly a decade ago, the FFA have tried to tread the middle road. Combining a partly equalised approach with some flex to allow growth for larger outfits. But this pact has its flaws.
Mises believes we “must choose between the market economy and socialism. They cannot evade deciding between these alternatives by adopting a middle-of-the-road position, whatever name they may give to it”.
In our case, it lives under the banner of the attempt to create a level playing field. But this is merely an anchor on the ambitions of the potential super club.
Clubs like Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne Victory and even the Smurfs of East Sydney have possibilities in world football that outstrip those of the mid-sized franchises. And that’s not even considering the smaller clubs at the state NPL level.
Which is a key point in fact. For as long as the A-League pursues the mixed economy, part equalised model, football here will never be able to engage the entire football pyramid. The game will forever have a disconnect, where the clubs at the base hit a glass ceiling, while the franchises in the top flight will not be exposed to the competitive dogfight of playing to maintain their first division status.
Football in Australia is selling itself short. Partly due to historical shackles and small world thinking, but also due to an ideological socialism that has infected competitive sport here.
“Liberalism and capitalism,” as Mises puts it, “address themselves to the cool, well-balanced mind. They proceed by strict logic”.
It’s time to shake off the chains of equality and reach much higher. Why settle for middle of the road?
As the late Johnny Warren said, football here will only be going places when we step out on to the global stage looking to be the best and to dominate. Just as we have done in other sports, albeit in a much limited scale compared to football.
We won’t get there by defining our potential by the weakest, only the strongest.
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