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Gold Coast United FC player Tahj Minniecon during the United A-league team's first training session at Southport on the Gold Coast, Tuesday April 7, 2009. AAP Image/Tony Phillips
What a state Australian football is in: the Socceroos are on their way to an historic second World Cup, while their long-term successors are stuttering in Egypt; and the A-League has expanded in size and brought along some world-class names. But crowds are evaporating quicker then Brendan Fevola’s career.
Australia has put forward a World Cup bid that is starting to look as hopeless as it is ambitious and there’s even the need to defend against perpetuated myths of ‘crowd violence’.
The Australian football landscape has become a drama filled paradox of soaring highs and relentless lows.
Following Tuesday’s announcement that there will be a second A-League team in Sydney things have become even more eclectic.
I can’t help but be excited by the prospect of a Sydney derby with a team from football’s ‘heartland’ (and I’m a Melbournian), but there’s no shortage of disconcerting surprises form the announcement.
Firstly why was Canberra strung along for all this time if Football Federation Australia were always going to go for a West Sydney bid?
Even if all they could muster was a half-baked package with few concrete plans.
The South Coast bid was all but ruled out due to it’s inability to find a stadium which met Football Federation Australia’s stringent criteria yet this successful West Sydney bid hasn’t even considered where it might play its games.
It’s an astounding set of double standards from the game’s governing body.
Of course, these two regions have been given a consolation prize from Ben Buckley.
Canberra will be an “obvious priority” for a 13th license.
Buckley explaining that Football Federation Australia “will be working with the ACT Government and the Canberra consortium to achieve this in an appropriate timeframe.”
Adding: “We will remain in close discussion with (the South Coast bid) regarding potential future plans for the South Coast including women’s and youth football.
I’m sure everyone who put in countless hours of their time in Wollongong and Canberra really appreciate that. It’s like being given a balloon instead of the giant teddy bear at one of those game stands at an amusement park.
Those games are rigged and you always end up leaving with something you never wanted.
Most significant of all is Buckley’s determination to continue expansion even further. The league is beginning to fail as it is. A landscape that involves dwindling crowds, an accelerating player drain plus the financial instability for a number of clubs is hardly fertile ground for expansion.
Sixteen teams works fine for the AFL where there isn’t the threat that the league’s best players will be lured away by larger salary packages.
Lets not forget the Asian Football Confederation’s directorate that all countries participating in the Asian Champions League must have leagues with relegation and promotion.
FFA would be better off focusing on the long term goal of instituting a second division, which should include the three areas that missed out on bids (Wollongong, Canberra and Tasmania), then the continued expansion of the A-League.
But let’s not even go there yet. Any further expansion would be like building the second story of a house before you’ve even secured the foundations.
The A-League must focus on sustaining and developing its quality not its size.
Football fans in Wollongong and Canberra have every right to feel aggrieved while the rest of Australia’s round ball lovers should be concerned.
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