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Sydney FC's Simon Colosimo tackles Gold Coast United's Jason Culina during round 23 of the A-League at the Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Jan. 17, 2009. AAP Image/Dean Lewins
In a time of crisis, critical analysis and informed opinion are required to delve into the issues that are causing that crisis. At this time of crisis, the A-League, FFA and football supporters need to listen to the likes of football pundit Craig Foster.
Few sporting pundits are as divisive as Foster, the result of his impassioned pleas for Australia to adopt a more aggressive football strategy and his controversial views on other football codes.
Fuelled by the flawed perception amongst the football community, particularly with diehard A-League fans, that there is some sort of bias against the league from SBS having lost its “home of football” title to Fox Sports, Foster is a popular target, particularly considering his forthright views on the league’s standard and quality, let alone the emotion in which they are presented.
These critics of Foster are, however, missing a key point and showing an overbearing protectionism of the A-League that is doing it no good whatsoever.
Rather, Foster is exactly what the A-League needs.
At this time of expansion and stagnation there needs to be serious analysis of the direction in which football is going, particularly at such a critical juncture with the A-League’s clubs’ financial sustainability in question and the World Cup bid reaching its culminating stages.
Informed opinion, no matter how forthright, is desperately needed in an environment which has so visibly stagnated, particularly in a country where football remains a niche sport, continues to suffer obvious growing pains and, most importantly, lacks a wide reaching mainstream football media educated enough to critic and question accurately, separate to the melodrama and bias of the Rebecca Wilsons of the world.
The game needs for voices such as Foster’s to speak up for the alternative is allowing the rulers of the game to take the sport in a wrong direction with no independent voice calling them out on the errors of their way.
(While we are at it, a nod to former Socceroo Zeljko Kalac and his forthright opinion on A-League coaches)
Foster’s latest offering on The World Game’s Shootout feature is a case in point.
He outlines the following points on the A-League’s development:
– Capital driven rather than market driven approach not working.
– No direction on clubs’ football development from the FFA. John O’Neill’s lack of football knowledge meant the A-League’s birth lacked football development, despite commercial success.
– Community support is a fundamental pillar of a football club and it’s lacking in the A-League due to lack of support.
– The FFA should have considered expanded into Melbourne and Sydney sooner, perhaps from inception, as it’s sustainable due to the market size.
– Stadium deals and sizes debilitate finances and atmosphere.
– Leadership vacuum at the FFA – Ben Buckley’s leadership isn’t strong enough in the current climate, lacking a strategy in expansion areas, weak response to rival codes and is making the same mistakes.
These aren’t fallacious points.
These are the realities of the situation faced by the game. These are the informed opinions of a highly respected former player, commentator and an executive for five years with the Australian Professional Footballers’ Association (APFA).
They should be highly sought after and valued, not derided based on a false perception.
Meanwhile, Foster’s position as football’s premier pundit is likely to be cemented when he releases his highly anticipated book.
Fozz on Football is set to be released in May, and will be heavily promoted during SBS’s World Cup coverage from June.
According to the publisher: “Foster will explain the game and how Australia can develop to become a serious threat to footballing nations.
“He will explore the national styles of various influential countries and how that translates into a game that people love.
“He will also look at how the game in Australia is played, the goalkeepers and strikers, the past and the present, and importantly how Australia can maximize its opportunities.”
It will undoubtedly be as controversial and divisive as his work on SBS, but with valuable opinions and lessons nevertheless.
And that is the key point that is lost by the critics of the Fozz.