The player drain is now without doubt the biggest concern for the A-League and all the other issues – crowd numbers, style of play and franchise development – can be traced back to this exodus. While it can never be stopped, measures can be taken, and quickly, to slow this trend.
Firstly, it is important to understand why players are abandoning the A-League in droves.
The J-Leagues “Asian berth” has shaken up the Asian football market and the ramifications are being felt around the confederation.
The money on offer in Asia far exceeds what the A-League can offer.
With two new franchises next season, the FFA has increased the salary cap from $1.9 million to $2.25 million.
It still pales in comparison to Asia and it’s naïve to think money is not a big reason why players are rushing out the exit door.
The salary cap has ensured a competitive and level competition, but it needs fine-tuning and tinkering so it won’t result in the A-League becoming the new EPL in which only a select few clubs can buy a title.
It is time to significantly increase the salary cap to not only reward those clubs who have made significant progress on and off the field, but also encourage the rest to work harder to do so.
Increasing the amount will allow A-League clubs to compete with their Asian rivals, while maintaining a cap will avoid the EPL scenario developing here.
Expanding the marquee system to include more than one player could also be another solution. The restriction of the current system is obvious in North Queensland with Robbie Fowler taking the marquee spot and the club facing the challenging task of enticing Socceroo Scott Chipperfield within the restrictions of the cap.
However, despite being “promoted” to the marquee position at Newcastle, Joel Griffiths was still tempted overseas.
At a time when our national coach has on the record stated he believes training sessions in Europe are better than playing in the A-League, players know overseas spells will help their development, and with the security of the A-League to fall back on, a viable and stable competition when compared to the NSL, the risks of venturing overseas are limited.
In this regard, slowing the player exodus is about more than just money.
The A-League still needs time to develop and the further exposure clubs have with Asia, the more games played, the better the A-League will become and the more sponsors enticed to fund the show.
However, there is still much groundwork to be done at the coaching and youth levels to ensure a better football culture develops so that in years to come, the quality of the A-League can’t be disputed and is on a par with our Asian neighbours.
There are also deeper issues at play as to why the drain must be stopped.
While watching Adelaide United play in front of a slightly disappointing crowd, a friend noted just how much the squad has changed since last season and will change again next with an ever-revolving door of players coming and going.
On the other side of town Adelaide, farewelled 522-game NBL and Adelaide 36ers legend Brett Maher, with a sell out crowd witnessing his final home game.
Franchises are built on the blood, sweat and tears of such heroes. That is the Catch 22 of the world game. Stability and loyalty are tested given the global opportunities available.
Players will always look to Europe, the biggest stage of the world game, but there is something wrong when our local stars are being tempted away in such big numbers to Asia.
FFA, this requires your immediate attention.
Footbal Person
Guest
This is an old article now isn't it. No matter, the player drain has already been cloged, now it seems they want to stay wich is delightful.
Alan Carr
Guest
Dear Adrian, As a regular reader of your articles, this one really piqued my interest. I am a passionate supporter of the A-League and the budgets these teams have - relative to overseas teams - completely limits them when it comes to generating enough pulling power to bring overseas players home. That's not to say the league lacks talent. Infact I think in many ways it is a lot more interesting than it's overseas counterparts purely because the commitment is to the game, not to the pay cheque. But there is a fundamental problem with how the governing body of A-League soccer is running the game, and I think it can potentially have greater effects than it is now as soccer becomes more and more mainstream, and the overseas club seek to extract more talent from us. Keep up the good work. Allan.
josh
Guest
agreed
jaymz
Roar Rookie
One thing the FFA can do is implement the asian berth rule, i would even go one further and have an asian marquee (non aussie obviously) to force clubs to look at some high quality asian imports
Midfielder
Guest
This will solve the problem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXQg7Oir1Bg
Whiskeymac
Guest
All clubs and leagues lose players eventually. Hardly any player stays at one club for life - there are exceptions (Maldini, Giggs) but generally the players have a right to go wherever they want and to earn what they can - maybe the clubs should tie them down to better contracts and capitalise on transfers more. The money this generates will benefit the game here... and, in agreement with Pippinu, the FFA seem to be doing a good responsible job. they seem to have a solid business plan to work off and aren't knee jerk reacting to stories that players like Griffiths or North are being lured overseas (and who knows if they will last or end up like Elrich did?). Surely the hope is that the FFA is concerntating more on the issue that for every North going there's a Ryall, Minniecon or Gan being developed.
Lazza
Guest
Hopefully the next TV contract will help. The league is under capitalised but we should be able to match the Asians and the 2nd tier Euro leagues in the future. Currently the FFA get about 17m a year, the next contract is supposed to yield 100m per year? With the financial crisis it may not be as much but still an improvemnet on what we have now. We should only lose the very top talent. The only positive is that a lot of youngsters are getting an opportunity to show their worth.
megatron
Guest
The smaller clubs won't be able to survive that. It's a shame because the league can't afford to lose these players. Part of me wishes they wouldn't be so greedy and would stick around to help the league.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
This issue has been done to death lately. Money is the root of all evil. As others have said, Joel Griffiths was a marquee with the Jets, and yet he has been wooed to wherever he is going. If you're losing your marquees, that tells us that there ain't enough money to fix the problem in the short term. The FFA is probably correct in concluding that it has to rely on a slow upwards trend in raising overall club revenues - to be honest - what more could they possibly do?