The A-League's bleeding of players must stop

And you support manU ? noLiverpool, NO WAIT BARCELONA. a-league is on par with most leagues ,the global standard is not the prem league standard.

HAL is rubbish. It will never be a great league or even a good league. Stick to the foreign leagues lads.

Less than 10K at an A-League final last night. It's me unBEARable... We are happy with it, as Bluetounge stadium was surrounded by bush fires.... laddie, Lowy Jump ... ??? :lol: He's too busy with the 2018 world cup preparations and accepting trophies from the Yanks in America .. However, when you do decide to jump, can you have a relative of yours put it on Youtube.. I would love to see it... :lol: ~~~~~~~ FIFA the real 1 and Only Master ..

unBEARable Less than 10K at an A-League final last night. How very very very dismal. Maybe Frank Lowry is standing on that ledge

Laddie, are you still standing on that ledge .??.. Jump God damn it... :lol: I have a dream... ~~~~~~~~~~ FIFA The real 1 and Only Master ..

unBEARable, What a waste of a life

Ben of Phnom Penh, and Das, Agreed...! and to say finally Pimbo and I have a point of view that we both can agree on... My dream .. as a still living old Senior Australian Citizen .. To be still alive to witness an Australian Born National Manager with a home grown National Football team to win the 2018 WC on Australian Soil... That's my dream ... Starting from the beginning of watching the Socceroos playing in the 1974 World Cup in West Germany .. ;) ~~~~~~~ KB

Here's Pim Verbeek prospective about australian players leaving to join Asia. He see's it as not a problem at all. I think this is one of the few things that KB and Pim can agree with. Goal: Your own country, the Netherlands, is so small but so often produces brilliant players and coaches. Asia, with over a billion people, still looks to foreign influences in its football, particularly in coaching. Is there a solution? PV: With all due respect to the Asian coaches and culture, we shouldn’t forget that in the Netherlands we started playing football in around 1890. For us, football is in our blood. I saw my first professional football game when I was three because my father played in the Dutch professional league. But that’s not just the case for me but for everybody in the Netherlands. Where we live, we see Belgian football, English football, German football, Italian football all at the right moments, in the evening or by day, so football in Europe is so much a part of our life and here it is just starting. It will take a little bit more time. Here in Australia, for me it is very similar to the Dutch league; we don’t have the money, we will always lose our best players and we will always have to produce new players, young players and make them better players. We don’t have the money to say “he’s not good, let’s buy another one”. We need to look at how we can make them better. That’s how we think in the Netherlands and that fits very well in Australia as well. Goal: So you don’t see the exodus of Australian players overseas - particularly to Asia - as a problem? PV: No, because if you see it as a problem then you have a problem, otherwise it’s not realistic. In the Netherlands we have some big clubs with the money to pay but in the end, every player wants to play in England, Spain or Italy, not necessarily for the money but for the leagues. That is what is going to happen here. The question of whether we should be happy with our players going to the other Asian leagues, I can understand it, because of the new experience it presents. The money is better but whether they will be a better player, that’s what we’ll have to find out in the coming years. I know how difficult it is to play in the K-League because it’s a tough league and the J-League and even the Chinese league is coming strong again. Goal: Do you think Australian players are better off playing in other Asian leagues? PV: As long as the league only lasts for seven months here then the other Asian leagues have an advantage. The J-league starts in March and finishes at the end of December, it is a league with tough games, a lot of games, a lot of travelling, it is a different story than over here and the Korean league is exactly the same. It is a tough league because of the intensity and the media attention. Here it is still “nice”; on page 9 there is something about football but in Korea there is something about football from page 1-10, every day. OK, you probably can’t read it and that’s the good part but there’s always pressure, you can feel it on the shoulders of the clubs, the coaches and the players. So mentally, it can be good to another country but football-wise, Adelaide showed that the A-League is not that bad at all. Yes, we will lose our best players from here but there’s nothing I can do about it.

I'm with KB on this one. The biggest talent drain has always been at the point where 15 year olds have to choose between sports and have gone with other codes/tennis/cricket due to the fact that they provided surer grounds to succeed as a professional athlete. A number of young kids have stepped up from the Youth League this year and a number more are on their way. There will be a period where demand and supply won't meet due to the supply lag however over the medium to long term this is exceptionally good news for Australian football as the increase in professional options increases the attractiveness of the sport for our young athletes. I believe the quality of the local game will improve due to these developments, not decline, as more talented kids choose football for their professional careers.

Phutbol I think Millster or Midfield have pointed to the Bundesliga in the past where they have a quasi-cap linked to your revenues. So if the team with the most revenues has double the income of the team with the least, that would essentially equate to the top team having double the cap available to it than the lowest, with everything in between. The sounds like quite a fair system that also works to keep clubs financially responsible, while offering incentives for clubs to get bigger and better (which doesn't exist at the moment). Mind you, where there is a 2:1 ratio, I'd expect that team to have a much better roster. On the other hand, a team spending only 10 to 20% more than a team, is not necessarily going to beat them every time they meet on the park - I reckon that much is certainly true (whereas a gap of 20% in a game like AFL is massive, and you'd put your house on that team winning every time).

I think there have been some transfer fee to get players from state leagues - I think FFA has a 3k cap meaning if the A-league offers a transfer fee of 3k the state league clubs, then they must accept the bid. There is no transfer fees for clubs overseas. However, Melbourne may become the first with Carlos Hernandez.

I guess to keep the operating costs down. Most of the money we get from the ACL and CWC will probably be used to cover the costs of playing in the ACL and running the youth team. Running a professional football team isn't cheap and if you can avoid paying transfer fees then I'm sure it goes some way to keeping the club stable. Question - have any A-League clubs paid a transfer fee yet?

Kazama Obviously I need some brushing up on club policy - why is that the case? Would that change when the money from ACL and CWC comes in?

The 'super club' argument could be mitigated to some extent by capping the richer clubs at a % above the poorest club. Example: cap is 60% of total revenue but also capped at a maximum of (say) 30% above what the lowest club makes. So Melb = 10mil turnover = $6million cap but if say Jets (lowest revenue) = 5 Mil turnover = 3Mil cap, then Melb's max spend becomes 3Mil + 30%= $3.9 Mil. the limits could be adjusted but thats just one option. still better than a fixed cap. Someone already said that some clubs dont spend the max cap now so there is already inequality in player payments. There is also the argument that just because you have the most expensive player roster, doesnt mean you automatically win. I'm sure better coaching, conditioning, and tactics must come into it somewhere. Within reason of course, which is what a formula like the above provides.

Dave: "Can any of the Adelaide bloggers tell us how ticket sales are going for the semi v MV" Not good from what I've heard. dasilva: "I believe we didn’t pay Blackburn a transfer fee for Griffiths" It's club policy not to pay transfer fees. It's (one reason) why we didn't get Mori for the first A-League season.

Pip - No half arsed amateur comp in the land of any description would allow a team to bring someone in just for the finals. so how do you describe the KFC big bash domestic 20/20 tourney??? quarter rrrr's'd??

Pip I think most competition restrict transfer between clubs and have a dedicated transfer window. However they can't stop free transfer of free agents and I believe we didn't pay Blackburn a transfer fee for Griffiths. But yeah - if the replacement players rule wants to be credible then they should cap the maximum wage to equal the wage of the injured players. If not then there's no point of having a salary cap.

Das some teams obviously don't want to fix it! In which case - scrap the all the restrictions, rather than have teams work out ways around them. No half arsed amateur comp in the land of any description would allow a team to bring someone in just for the finals. If you guys can't see that that's a problem - we are clearly on a different planet.

Interesting point Pip but l guess not a great deal that could be done about it. Can any of the Adelaide bloggers tell us how ticket sales are going for the semi v MV Maybe Midfielder can advise uson the expected crowd v QR. 2 capacity or near capacity crowds and it wouldn't seem much harm done by the break. BTW Good to hear SEN broadcast in full KM's airport interview before leaving for Adelaide.

THere could be a restriction where the replacement players should have the same salary as the players they are replacing. That will fix up any loop holes However the question is - Do we want to fix it?