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Melbourne Victory's Archie Thompson is challenged by Brisbane Roar's Craig Moore, during their round 9 of the 2009 A-League season, being played at Ethihad Stadium in Melbourne, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009.(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
In all the debate and discussion surrounding A-League based Socceroos candidates needing to look overseas to keep their World Cup dreams alive, the most frustrating aspect is how it all could have been avoided.
The move to start this season in early August, ending in March, was short sighted in a World Cup year, unquestionably.
But there are other clear reasons why the A-League season must realign itself from 2010-11 onwards by delaying its season start til October and ending in May.
In addition to avoiding a similar scenario in World Cup years, an October to May season could potentially avoid some of the mistakes of this current season.
Overlapping with the AFL and NRL season is inevitable, especially as the competition expands to twelve teams in 2011-12, but as this current A-League season showed, starting when the AFL and NRL are heading into their finals’ series makes it extremely difficult to gain much in the way of traction, and that limp start to the season in terms of awareness carried on through to the summer.
Surely, therefore, it’s better to overlap at a time when the momentum is with the A-League as it heads into its culminating stages, coming off its strong summer period and having a full season behind it.
It has a better chance of holding its own in the press when there is something at stake, particular against AFL and NRL seasons in their early stages.
Starting in early October is the optimum scenario. It’s something that the Bathurst 1000 race and spring racing carnival enjoy – happening in the immediate aftermath of the AFL/NRL finals when there is a vacuum in Australian sport.
There are other benefits to this move:
– Allows for a longer pre-season build-up. There would still be the possibility for clubs to try and attract overseas clubs to tour in July, while playing pre-season friendlies against fellow A-League opposition or even some form of a pre-season tournament in August and September (an FFA Cup, perhaps?).
This would fulfill the requirements for an eight-month minimum season as required by the AFC for Champions League consideration and help build-up to the season start.
– The A-League can benefit from a correspondence with the European season. Surely there would be some sort of benefit in having, for example, the A-League Grand Final on the same night as the FA Cup.
– With five Asian Champions League group stage fixtures in March and April (based on the 2010 schedule), the A-League clubs involved in the tournament will be in prime condition.
It could make it more difficult to sort out ACL qualification from Australia, but those issues would not be insurmountable (if required, ACL qualification could be awarded at the end of the season in March/April, rather than at the end of the finals series).
The success of holiday fixtures (averaging over the 10,000 crowd mark in the holiday fixtures just past) also shows that more can be crammed into December and January months if need be, particularly in December.
With FIFA international fixtures and the Asian Cup (in 2011) in January, in addition to ACL commitments, the FFA needs Fox Sports to play ball and allow simultaneous matches midweek so this option can be better utilised over summer.
We’ve already seen this season that the August start intrusion into the AFL/NRL finals didn’t work for the A-League.
It’s time to try intruding at a time when the momentum is with the A-League.
It’ll also mean we avoid the possible exodus of A-League Socceroos in 2014.