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Adelaide United’s historic quarter-final win over Kashima Antlers in the Asian Champions League following their 3-0 demolition at the hands of Sydney FC has brought up an interesting question: should the FFA rearrange the A-League schedule to assist Adelaide United make history in Asia?
Adelaide’s performances in Asia represent the reputation of Australian football and the A-League. If Adelaide go on to win the title, this will be a great boost for Australian football, and Australia will most likely have a strong case in increasing their representative for the ACL from two to four.
We will win prestige and increase our standing with the rest of Asia, which may open up business opportunities and Adelaide United may actually break even from participating in the ACL. On face value, everything points to doing what we can to help Adelaide do well.
Nevertheless, on The World Game, Mark Bosnich was quite adamant that Adelaide’s schedule is fine and not to reschedule the game.
The reason is that this emulates what teams from Europe have to go through. Manchester United, for example, played an important match against Liverpool followed by a European game against Villarreal and then on the weekend played a crunch EPL match against Chelsea.
These types of schedules are normal for sides in Europe. To be able to perform well in Europe you must have the professionalism, fitness, depth and ability to handle these tough schedules and do well. The manager must be an expert man-manager to pull it off. To be able to do well in Europe and in the domestic league is an incredible achievement and yet this is what is expected from players and clubs.
Should we try to emulate these conditions for our players? Instead of spoon feeding Australia’s ACL team, should we raise the bar and say this is what’s required and we have to lift our game to reach that level? If Adelaide falls away due to tough scheduling then is it tough luck and you must learn to balance the two competitions better in the future?
Playing for the Socceroos often involves playing for Australia in the middle of two domestic matches, especially on a single FIFA or friendly date. This means to play for the Socceroos it is expected that a player must be able to play three matches in a week. So the tough ACL schedule may benefit in the long-term in preparing players for the long slog.
Nevertheless, in my opinion, Australia is not ready to handle this tough schedule and we should reschedule A-League matches to help our ACL team.
Our restrictive player squad size (maximum of 23) and salary cap puts us at a disadvantage with other nations. You can’t hold Australian teams to the same standards of European teams due to these restrictions.
However, in the future when those restrictions are gone and Australia is able to compete on an even playing field, letting our clubs sink or swim will be beneficial in the long run.
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