The A-League, salary caps, and the good old Aussie 'fair go'

[...] Sports Writer Award and the winning article, with 48% of the vote, was Millster’s piece The A-League, salary caps, and the good old Aussie ‘fair go’. A cracking piece of sports [...]

I think there is quiet a deal of misunderstanding regarding the reasons for an Aleague salary cap. Australia, in world terms, is a relative small commercial market that our professional sports are required to fit within. The history of our sporting codes is littered with clubs that have fallen by the wayside through being spendthrifts, in particular the over spending on player salaries. A salary cap successfully manages to avoid this situation, as is demonstrated by the longevity of the majority of both AFL & NRL clubs, which I’m certain would otherwise not have been the case. A salary cap by default evens out a competition with it’s limitation to advantage any club if they attempt to “buy” a competition. And in doing so by the way, put the financial viability of their own club at risk. The only purpose of the player draft system used by the AFL is to spread talent across the league’s clubs. The salary cap is for the longevity of those clubs. We are not alone, with major sporting leagues in the US having caps as well & it’s no coincidence they also have very similar sporting demographics. In a nutshell, the salary cap is in fact a survival cap. It will increase at a slow pace, but the increase will never be unlimited as it’s directly aligned with the financial growth & sustainability of the league. To what level it can grow is a question that may be answered by looking at one of the most successful leagues in the world, our own AFL. It is extremely wealthy, making the incomes of other Australian leagues look minor by comparison, but still limits it’s salary cap to what is seen as sustainable. It is presently $7 mill.

It's certainly a fair point about what would happen to AFL if the top 150 players were over in Europe. Exactly the same as soccer. It'd be a lesser standard local comp. HOwever - the reality is that there are no higher standard/paying comps overseas for AFL players to go to. It's both a massive advantange and a disadvantage, but in the Australian context at present - I believe the AFL is advantaged by it's percieved 'weakness' of NOT being 'international' (professionally). Socceroos vs Japan, might rate the house down. Depending on time slot, etc. And just what the game means. HOwever, just as a heap of people stop and watch the FA cup, or the Superbowl or the final of the RUWC, just what that means is another question. A bit like Becksmania in Sydney which seems not to have benefitted SFC - as yet. But - certainly - the Socceroos are a marketing tool for the game - in some respect - depending upon the accessability of the 'key personnel'. Consider that Lucas Neill could be a major household name....except we never see him in Australia. We do however see Brett Lee, LEyton Hewitt, Gary Ablett Jnr etc etc. The Socceroos with a Euro strength base are an interesting phenomena, especially if socceroos commitments in Asia increase further. What good is playing mid-winter in Europe and then jetting to KL for a game in hot sticky humidity. The ACL and Pan Asian as yet have zero profile. Last year the ACL was a bit of a flop esp for Ade Utd and for SFC the main benefit was that they started to show something. However, perhaps when the season gets into sync with the A-League winner, that'll make some difference. But - in reality, even less people will care about Ade Utd playing some team from Indonesia or Thailand than will care about Ade Utd playing MVFC. They are invariably unpronouncable names that would take 2 generations to become househould names - other than perhaps Urawa Reds. HOwever - to line up against AC Milan...... The main factor with the thrust into Asia is less about public recognition and more about sponsor value - I'd have thought. cheers, off to the 'G 2nite 4 the hit & giggle......3 hours, just like going to the footy on a Friday night.

Michael C You make a lot of sense in what you say. Two very important points you mentioned are one about 74% of Hal supporters at capital city games also attend AFL or NRL games. So the FFA marketing of you can support North Melbourne and Melbourne Victory enjoy both has worked as a marketing tool. The reasoning behind the idea is some people just like sport and the and are happy to go winter and summer and if they happen to clash on the same weekend in winter will go to the game which most hangs on but more than likely AFL & NRL. The A-league by appealing to people who enjoy watching football will pay huge dividends and also increase the marketability of the Socceroos. Second the lost of the best overseas, how this is handled in the long term will be a difficult problem, I am not sure how its done. The FTA issue is interesting I am sure the Socceroos would rate the house down, my guess is a Australia V Japan match in a world cup qualifier would be close to the most watched show in Australia over a year. However I do not think the A-League is ready yet and it could do more harm to go FTA right now. This was the mistake union made with the ARC by putting a weak product on national television, and thereby telling its sponsors nobody cares did a huge amount of creditably damage to union. Another point not that well understood outside football is, the A-league has two external competitions to go to after the A-League. Thus more than any other code making the finals is important not just to make the finals but to join in the other two competitions. These being first the top four in the A-League will soon go the Asian Champions League & second the top two to the Pan Asian games. Your point on do we want the A-league as a training ground for the national is no. Our best will forever be based overseas and the Socceroos will forever be a squad of about 60 based in Europe and Australia. The A-League needs unlike the pura to pay its way. Help develop and train lots of players as part of a process of winning the A-League or Asian Champions league. Interestingly you raised the point of the AFL not to loose players overseas etc I have often pondered if the best 13 players in each of the 16 AFL teams left today how would that effect the league. The NRL over the last three years is having a problem with English Super League clubs trying to buy players. Not sure of the answer but it would be interesting to see if you could replace the top 200 players.

Here I am midfeilder! (forgive me, I have perhaps rambled on a bit,in between deep thought on work issues). ---- first, I'll clarify my perspective I must say that I really am not a fan of soccer. It's too negatively geared a game for my liking. Goals are too hard to come by, and invariably the proportion of goals via mistakes is almost greater than goals via attacking quality (especially in the HAL). I'm not fan of off-side, especially given that half the time it's called incorrectly, and the other half of the time it's just an ugly cowardly 'trap' that makes the attacker look silly because he was actually trying to do something positive...... My interest in the HAL is more around the general interest in the Aust sporting market place. Just as I figure that people with a similar view would find other competitions intereseting if for no other reason than to learn, and sometimes learn more about their prefered code by means of relative comparison. ----- right -that qualification out of the way: I reckon - 8 teams. Need to be consolidated. Need to get 2nd tier established and bedded down and get everybody 5 years down the track and financial sustainable. I recognise some people complain that the 21 round season is too short. (they should work harder, the 22 rounds in AFL is almost too long and I know not have the NRL manages players over 25 rounds plus SoO plus meaningless internationals etc). I reckon that there's a narrow window now to insert a couple of new teams. But, all the talk I've heard is more from QLD/NSW. Which firstly intensifies the 'war' with NRL and ARU and basketball - - and further in a sense benefits the AFL as the 'niche' competitor in the capital city markets rather than fighting the regional 'land battle' that the others are fighting. Already, the HAL is a bit like a NSW invitational league. THe ARC in RU was hijacked by the NSW power brokers who weren't willing to let themselves be excluded. It seems the HAL is going down the same path potentially. Bring in Wollongong, West Sydney, Canberra, Gold Coast etc........and retain only one team in Vic, Sa, WA etc. That doesn't cut it. Note though, in Vic - where does the next team identify itself. Already, MVFC claims Melbourne, Victory as a play on Victoria, and the traditional 'Big V' white on navy blue that is the symbol of VFL/AFL SoO traditionally. The MVFC has effectively cornered the market. I see the HAL as perhaps reflecting basketball. In suffers by comparison to the US, as HAL suffers to EPL etc. 20 years ago basketball was going to take over. It still has large participation, and guys like Bogut in the US, and the Boomers well ranked and competitive. But - it's seemingly peaked, and found it's niche. Soccer will be interesting to observe. Is it going to be like the US where for many it's just a 'safe' game for the 8 yr olds. I know Craig Foster has spoken of the need to convert the kids from 6 months a year, 1 night a week into 10 months and 3 nights. I don't know if that'll be possible in such a diverse market as Australia. But - talent identification and elite talent pathways must play a part - I presume that was part of why Ben Buckley was poached from the AFL. The HAL is about to increase costs via the 2nd tier comp. Club lists will be longer and travel/operational expenses greater. So, phase 1 of increase revenue is already being swallowed up. BUt this is the key area, talent development, talent pathway. What happens then. Do people really expect Australias best to stay here? I reckon for ever that if able - players will head to the EPL, or Serie A etc. Is it really expected that the 'best players' can be retained? I would only expect that IF for example the top 3 clubs were regulars in 'internationl club' competition. And that you'll get by removing the salary cap and allowing MVFC to gain real benefit from 22K members. Let them have a mortgage on a ACL rep slot. For me, I like the concept of local teams NOT wasting money on buying in players from out of their area just to win a premiership - I rather that they represent a community. I prefer that sports is played by lovers of the game rather than just career choice aspirationalists. I should then prefer the A-1 to the F1 in motor racing. I'm at cross roads re my AFL, my club, North Melb, I supported them moving to QLD. As, what does the suburb of North Melb represent anymore? Since the draft, the club is more just a team. You no longer develop players via the Under 19s and ressies. The salary cap at least means that no club can just call on the wealthiest person who delivers them all the best players. The salary cap means that clubs have to work effectively, and develop their squad as best as possible. But - this may only really work in an enclosed environment. In the AFL we don't lose players overseas. At present we can bring out some Gaelic kids, if that were reversed, then who knows. So - the main pressures on salary cap are external to the game itself and the retention of players. That's not the case for the HAL. Socceroos - - like future Aust cricketers, do you want Pura cup teams focussed on winning the comp, or developing players for Aust representation. My Vic Bushrangers in recent years have been successful at the former and crap at the latter. Either the HAL is a 'competition' unto itself, or it's a development league. Either way, it'll be hard for it, in the next 10 years at least - to pay what would be needed to be the home of most of the socceroos. Let the HAL just evolve to what it will be. Let it get it's foundations in place first. I.e. the 2nd tier and financially stable clubs. And if it increases in number of clubs, or rounds, who knows. TV coverage wise, it's highly unlikely to go FTA. (is that so bad a thing?). And sits nicely on pay beside all the other soccer product, of which there is no shortage - from around the world - which begs the question of how much demand there would be from Foxtel to 'pay' for more games each weeek and more rounds that may simply overlap too much with the AFL and NRL. Maybe - just maybe - by going to summer - the HAL has allowed itself to find a decent niche - but may not be able to grow out of that niche - - a bit like basketball. Btw - Greg - don't forget, that many HAL followers are AFL members during the AFL season. The soccer in Melb is a chance for people who during the regular AFL season go their separate ways - who then can go together as a group to the soccer. It's not their 'A' game, or 'A' club, but it's nice. In Perth, they'll have trouble turning to the AFL if they aren't already, Freo and the Eagles can't fit many more in. The Eagles have a waiting list for members nowadays. Certainly though - the 'delusions of grandeur' that some have for the HAL are based on under rating the competition in the Aust market place and sometimes over rating the soccer world outside of the top half dozen leagues.

This is an interesting article. I find it contains one correct point of importance: that the current A-League cannot expect to produce a club with an international reputation, because the evenness of the A-League means that no single club will be strong enough to do well in the ACL on a regular basis, nor even perhaps on an occasional basis. Otherwise I am sceptical about many things in this article: * It is true that Scotland, England and Italy are each dominated by a clique of clubs and that interest in these leagues does not seem to suffer for it, but that is because football is by far the number 1 sport in each place. In Australia it is not, and thus the only way that interest in all clubs, and thus the competition as a whole, can be maintained is if all clubs are competitive. The supporter of Aberdeen has no alternative but to support Aberdeen. The supporter of Perth Glory will turn to AFL if the Glory are perennially rubbish. * The salary cap is not an instrument to stop clubs from spending but rather is an instrument to stop them from overspending. The salary cap is not higher simply because the game doesn't generate enough revenue to make it higher. In an ideal world there would not be a need for a salary cap, because CEOs would not spend beyond their means. But human nature is such that people do tend to spend beyond their means if they are not constrained. In European leagues there does not need to be a salary cap because there is always another club to fill the void left by every Leeds United. But the A-League would collapse were clubs to overspend. * Someone wrote above "The A-League cannot hope to prosper when a side like Melbourne can’t hold on to a genuine prospect like Kaz Patafta because they can’t match what Benfica can pay him to play in their youth team." But how much would the salary cap need to rise for the A-League to hang onto players like this and David Carney? The answer is way too much. * I am at a loss to understand how having a couple of "super-clubs" in the A-League would be better for the development of Socceroos than the current situation of 8 even clubs (with 4 very even clubs at the top). Let's say Australia's best players were concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne. Firstly, this would be a more limited pool than currently. Secondly, the only good competition these players would get would be when they played each other, which would be not very often. It's a no-brainer that the best thing for player development both in terms of numbers and quality is to have an even competition where week in and week out there are no easy matches. In summary, the way to increase the amount of money in the A-League is to increase revenue, not to do away with the salary cap. And the way to increase the standard of the best players is for the entire competition to raise its level, not for all the best players to be concentrated into super-clubs.

Many many thanks for that. As I said before my closer observation of the organisation - as distinct from the game in general - only started around the time of Nogorotto / Knop / etc (ie late Soccer Australia) and into the Crawford Report era. Also, though I now live in Sydney, I spent most of my younger years (after moving from France) in Perth and then Canberra so am only catching up on the traditions behind Hakoah, Olympic, etc. What a complex history - I can certainly understand the motivation of the mono club founders especially in that era. Anyway, that is a massive help. I've asked the guys to forward you my email so we can talk more about this wihout boring the troops here. Your comment about the Kerry Packer conversation is particularly interesting. My football knowledge may be in its infancy but my business knowledge isn't and in a 15+ career in corporate strategy I have observed that it takes a particular brand of numb-nut not to take very seriously any idea that the late Mr Packer may have floated. I imagine, without knowing many details, that the Packer-Lowy relationship could be the subject of an encyclopedic book in itself!

Millster Where to start, he's a go anyway, I will try to keep it as brief as I can. After WW2, people involved the mass immigration from Europe wanted something to do and cheer on the weekends. Football seemed a natural way to go. The football teams that played at the A-League level of the day were association teams. The association were district based much like they are today. The associations were run by volunteer ANGLO's of the day who had just been through the war (as had the immigrants) and carried the Australian value system and attitudes of the day. The skill level of the associations clubs was poor when compared to the skill levels expected by the immigrants. A point often raised is the immigrants were new and held no real power in the associations. Additionally there was a belief that the associations were poorly run. Many immigrants also pined for some company who could speak their own language and discuss things of social values. The associations did not provide this. An understanding is needed at this stage around funding, the associations where in the main not rich and could not pay players much money (remember we are talking here of 1945 to 1954). Whereas many of the immigrants had a lot of money to spend, when compared to the associations. In 1955 a number of the more wealthy immigrants established a new football competition often based on the region from which they were born, thus you had teams like St George Budapest Hungarian team, Meltra Eagles - maltase team, Apia - Italian team, Pan Halenic - Greek team, Olympic - Greek team, Croatia - Croatian team and so on and each state capital did the same. As an aside Frank Lowy formed a club called Hakoah – Jewish team To be running in 1955 took some planning in the immediate proceeding years. So between the war end and 1955 a number of well funded teams were formed paying more money and various players were being pressured to leave the associations and come and play for their countries team in Australia. The new teams had more money better coaches and their owners had areal passion for the game. In essence a Superleague type war of the 1990’s by rugby league. The associations were totally unprepared, outclassed, and through, their crowds dropped and they could not compete in any real sense and within a year fell over. The new league had one problem in that it had no national body and so the national body of the day refused to work with it. Essentially not as I understand it calling on the new league players to play for Australia. However they also went broke and just limped by. Then the new league found by not being part of the national association they were not subject to FIFA rules so players were signed from Europe of real class with no transfer fees being paid to their old clubs. European clubs complained to FIFA, the new league was outside FIFA’s control so FIFA simply banned Australia from international football. Unlike superleague and world series cricket the new league never offered the hand of friendship back to the associations, as they believed they had nothing to offer. The new league had decent crowds for about two years then they slowly dropped off, and many of them folded with only a handful still around today. Whereas the associations have grown stronger and are still their today. If ever a sporting decision was made with great spirit and goodwill but without any understanding of what they had established it was the 1955 revolution. They isolated football to a ethnic game, lost the natural understanding and connections the associations had to the sporting media, if fact had the associations telling the media how bad it was. Gave rugby league and AFL a free kick at its own expense. FIFA let us back in during the sixties and only after we settled the old transfer fees. Finally and google Crawford report for details the entire structure collapsed under its own incompetence and corruption. Yet the associations just grew stronger and built the foundations that Frank Lowy is using to develop the A-league and it’s ironic that Frank was a big mover and shaker in the establishment of the new league. As an aside to the above and to further illustrate the madness of the old NSL administration, after his success with world series cricket, Kerry Packer called in those that ran football and said he could do to football what he had done with WSC. He asked for only one thing he would form the teams and where they played i.e. no mono teams and they told him to F off and they could do it. As a further aside Millster, a reason put forward by many for why your beloved Flying Circus is not drawing the crowds is because they are playing and run just like polished up Hakoah. Hope that helps mate, I have so much more but time / work etc, drop me and email with your contact details through the Roar and I can give you a call if you want to know much more.

I don't think you can compare the A-league with an other league in the world. For starters we only have 8 teams where as every other league has at least double that. We also play our games during the off season for other Asian leagues, therefore we're about a year out of sync from the rest of Asia when it comes to the ACL. I like the idea of a salary cap at the moment whilst the league is still relatively new but I'd like to see some compensation given to teams who make it into the ACL so that they can keep the same team together as much as possible.

Hi Midfielder Thanks for the response. First, just to assure you that I'm not pro-SBS and anti-Fox or vica versa. I'm actually not involved at all... unless you count being a very mediocre over 35's player in the NSW Sunday league, and a rabid PSG and Sydney fan as involvement :-) So while I used Les's editorial as a starting point for my comments, and in general greatly respect him, I hope what I said came across as somewhat independent of his overall views on the world off football. My writing is simply motivated by my passion for new football. And I totally agree with Lowy about playing the cards we have. In fact I vote with my feet and go to as much A-League as I can. But just as a hand of cards can develop through a player's choices, so we can carefully and gradually change the "hand of cards" that football has in Australia for the better with time and wise decision-making. My writing is not about radical change, nor about going back to some old ideal, but just my humble views as to how we might want to play our next few cards. (Ok, that metaphor has been flogged to death now!) I genuinely need some education though. Can you give me the history of 1955, the mono clubs and the FIFA exclusion. My interest and knowledge of Australian football started about 35 years later (~1990) and so I totally defer to your knowledge of that history. Cheers mate.

Whatever the answer,clubs need to find a way to keep good players for an extra season if the team qualifies for the Asian championships.This means some sort of performance based financial reward system Once an A League team plays in Asia ,they first and foremost represent Australian football. Melbourne for example are not the team of last season, because some well performed players that got the team to Asia have moved on. It is vital A League clubs have the opportunity to present the local competition in the best light. Clubs therefore need some financial incentive to retain those players responsible for the Asian opportunity.Perhaps this means the top teams are not only playing for a premiership, but also the right to pay some players outside the salary cap the following season. In time all clubs would benifit, because the better the performance in Asia, the greater the media coverage .Plus gate receipts at home would increase as more people watched a special match.A simple performance based financial incentive would generate greater awareness , more money from sponsors, and in time more money for players. Asia is the A Leagues Holy Grail . Give the clubs a some help in the form of a little incentive, and who knows , we might be a contender. .

Sorry Millster, I am one of SBS's biggest supporters, and Mrs Football has done a lot for the game. But Les is like the private school system in rugby a huge Asset, but also presents a number of issues that hinder the growth of football. Les cannot accept as Frank Lowy put it, we have to play with the card we have not the cards we want. Les to this day sings loud and proud the great take over by the mono clubs in 1955, which resulted in almost 50 years of poor media and a how do you describe the old NSL management, it is even insulting to use the word management. But yes that is what 1955 did besides getting Australia kicked out of FIFA. Another point Les seems to forget and it has I think to do with the other side of the 1955 revolution (i.e mono clubs Vr Association football) is that associations who are well run and have build the games junior base organised the rep sides and provided all the basic training for all the players in Europe now. The associations essentially build football to where it is today in spite of all the mismanagement and negative press. Further until the last about 5 weeks the The World game show on Sunday afternoons run over three hours used to give the A-league maybe 5 to 10 minutes and then mainly critical. What stopped it was numerous football forums around the country criticising SBS for spitting the dummy over having lost out to Fox in broadcasting. Essentially SBS’s treatment of the A-League had turned once devoted and loyal followers to bag out both SBS and Les in particular in very strong terms. Les wishing for a way football is viewed does not consider then need to further advance the code, that football is still in a tedious position compared to the other codes, that by the standard of the other codes football receives very little TV money, is not considered in his arguement. So to suggest that Sydney and Melbourne should be super clubs is Les not accepting the sports market in Australia and wishing to copy a European model which is clearly unworkable in Australia and would be insanity to even try to introduce. Millster compare football four years ago and today, wake up les is my call and join the new football and leave the Hellas teams of yesterday year and as Mr Dylan says in the times they are a changing " Get out of the way if you can't lend a hand”.

The irony is that, and I've predicted this elsewhere - the A-League should never be seen as a pseudo EPL, or even a contender against the AFL or NRL. I know one Simon Hill back in 2005 kept on about 'Smell the fear'. At the time he seemed to direct a fair degree of his tirade against the NRL media (and they certainly have their share of media in bed with them - although some of these relationships have had their volatility if we count Telstra). At any rate. Smell the fear pertains much more to the ARU. I know the ARU started their own demise by engaging in a top down management approach and over inflating salaries against the NRL competition. As it is - Wallabies apart - the main vehicle for the ARU is the Super 14s. Effectively 4 teams realistically from 3 states (4 cities) that represent Australia in an international regular competition. Surely this is the model the A-League must evolve to. Give us 3 'super' clubs - MVFC, SFC and Roar. Forget the regional fodder teams, they can't compete and to try to - is just folly. And then send these 3 'super' clubs into an Asian 'soccer super league'. And, then, it would offer something akin to the Euro Champions League. It'd at least cease the complaints about the poor standard and that it's not the EPL, not Serie-A or Bundesliga. For now, the irony is that with Ben Buckley in charge, the FFA (Franks Football Assoc) has deigned to copy the AFL with respect to running a club competition. And that's fine for now. But that should only be temporary before the split, and the rest can return to the soccer equivalent of the now defunct ARC. Btw - I've never been a fan of private ownership - I reckon some of the 'clubs' must ensure to become member based clubs rather than just 'franchises'. But - maybe I just like the AFL model (and Green Bay Packers) too much in a world of over corporatisation & commodification of sports....

It would seem to me that the Salary Cap is a no-brainer. The A-League cannot hope to prosper when a side like Melbourne can't hold on to a genuine prospect like Kaz Patafta because they can't match what Benfica can pay him to play in their youth team. The future for Australian football doesn't look good when all supporters have to watch is well meaning but limited players like Spagnuolo, Vargas and Caceras taking on old crocks enjoying a final pay day like Juninho, whilst those with even a hint of world-beating potential travel half way around the globe to play reserve team football in Europe. It's also difficult to get 'rusted on' as a supporter of any franchise when the threat of your 'club' being taken away at a season's notice because the league has decided it's marketing penetration isn't big enough on the Gold Coast means that your team is up for relocation to Carrara next year. Like all made-for-TV sport (and let's not forget that without Fox the A-League is nothing), there's an air of superficiality hanging over the tournament that prevents most idle observers from getting really involved.

Millster I enjoyed Les article yesterday and yours is part of the debate. My thought is that internal competition is an important part of developing the football culture at this stage. The comparison with Scotland is a bit misleading, fans of clubs outside the big 2 have promotion and relegation, cups, EUFA cup qualification, the chance to knock off the big boys ands a century of supporting culture that all crerate interest and binds them to the club. We need to get fans rusted on to our clubs before we make it open slather. I do not believe Australian football fans will support a team that has no chance of success and that is what we will have if we do away with the cap. At some stage in the future we should look at the cap but as part of a package of revenue sharing because in my view the league s greater than the sum of its parts. Cheers Mick