How Foxsports can help re-energise the A-League

It’s been a crazy old week or so in the world of the round ball. After the beauty of Barcelona’s dismantling of Real Madrid came the beast in Zurich, as contrasting a pair of football occasions as you are ever likely to witness. Lionel Messi at the Nou Camp, a total mess at the Blatterbox.

Soon came another unedifying effort from Kevin Muscat, followed by the usual defence from his friends in the football media, then the mandatory slap on the wrist from the governing body.

In truth, Muscat’s clenched fist was probably the last thing on Ben Buckley’s mind after the failed World Cup bid prompted renewed calls for his head.

Add the referring error that led to Muscat’s blow-up, the error by the same referee 10 minutes earlier not to award Carlos Hernandez a second yellow for encroaching on a free kick, the error by Muscat himself in missing the header that lead to Matt McKay’s injury time equaliser (the latter two points conveniently ignored in the post-match discussion), and there were bungles all over the place.

Xavier Doherty, Marcus North and the Ashes selectors had nothing on football.

Thank God Messi was around for us to keep the faith.

Meanwhile, those most faithful to the local game began to look forward, in the knowledge life will go on, but only after a spot of calibration.

Perhaps the best discussion on the state of the game featured on Tuesday night, on Foxsports’ Fox Sports FC, or ‘The Club’ as it’s also known.

Skilfully stirred by Simon Hill, it featured some cracking debate from Andy Harper and Mike Cockerill, two guys who have cared much for the local game, and for a very long time, well before the word ‘blog’ even existed.

It was passionate and proud, as the panel moved from the failed bid through to such topics as the future of the Fury, the apparent need for a knock-out FFA Cup, the botch-job that has been the West Sydney Rovers, the concept of a marquee pool, the best time to position the season, the need for Lowy’s funds, among a procession of other subjects.

The real pity was there wasn’t a wider audience to take in the discourse. Such moments of “where are we at” are ratings bonanza’s for rugby league’s Footy Show.

But for a couple of exceptions, and I’m reminded regularly about Fox’s obsession with ex-players by disgruntled readers, the Fox football team do an outstanding job in covering the local game.

Whether it’s through the sharp work of ball-by-ball commentators Brenton Speed or Hill, the analysis of Harper, Paul Trimboli and Mark Bosnich, or the quick wit of Adam Peacock, in the main they do a great job, with hours and hours of the round ball.

That’s not to mention the obvious cash injection Fox made ahead of the second A-League season, remembering they paid absolute peanuts for the first season.

But how many football fans know about the great coverage?

Devoted football fans, like this correspondent, do. But what about the casual observer?

In a way, the team at Fox share something in common with the A-League. They have a product worthy of a wider audience, but lack the means to sell that message.

Whether through lack of marketing or limited reach, both products are hidden.

It’s a vicious cycle. The lack of free-to-air coverage means the league gets no oxygen and limited opportunity to sell itself, while this lack of interest in the league leads to less knowledge of Fox’s work.

The outcome? Both become less relevant, and that, at least to this observer, appears to be what’s happening.

So how can Fox help make the A-League, and conversely itself, more relevant, you ask?

It was a subject, not surprisingly, left out of their great debate on Tuesday night, so I’m broaching it here.

My thoughts on this were shared in a recent article on The Roar when I wrote:

“But with the game buried on pay TV for at least a couple more years (Fox could help its own cause and that of the league by on-selling a game a week – Friday night – to OneHD, and the FFA could help by facilitating such a move, if it isn’t already) and the honeymoon with the mainstream press and broader community well and truly over, there is much rebuilding to be done. Foremost is the need get the mainstream media on side, manage the message in a proactive and honest way and get some of the goodwill back. But that will take plenty of know-how and attention to detail.”

So I was pleased, no end, to hear former A-League head Archie Fraser utter the same sentiments in an interview with The World Game earlier this week:

“The competition needs to be promoted properly and there needs to be a renegotiating of the TV rights deal with Fox which allows a free to air component. While the contract isn’t up until 2013, deals are renegotiated all the time and if the FFA thought it could land a World Cup and only ended up with one vote, surely it can go out and tweak a deal which has left the code hidden from a great majority of the public,” Fraser said.

“The promotion just hasn’t been there also. People don’t know the A-League is even on. It’s become almost invisible to anybody who doesn’t watch Fox Sports TV.”

To expand on my September statement, here’s a model I’ve been mulling over, especially since the Zurich single vote, which I believe would be a win for competition and a win for Fox, providing some much needed oxygen (no mention of gas or oil here!!!) for both.

Provided, of course, there is a free-to-air network out there, most likely One HD or SBS, willing to be part of the deal, it would feature a Friday Night Game of the Week, which would remain live on Fox and be slightly delayed on free-to-air.

A weekly free-to-air game, at say 8.30pm, featuring one of the better games from the round, would provide a great lead-in for the weekend, and part of the deal should be that the free-to-air network not only promotes the league, but Fox’s coverage of the rest of the weekend.

To save on production costs, the free-to-air channel could feature the Fox commentary, with their own panel, before and after the game, to give it a bit of independence.

The devoted fan would likely tune in to the live Fox coverage, while the casual fan gets a taste of the A-League on free-to-air and starts to engage with the competition.

Soon, he or she may well be enticed to sign a Fox subscription.

For the FFA, such a deal should be paramount. People need to know there’s a product, and that it’s good.

By promising Fox two or three live games a weekend from 2013 onwards, as part of a new split deal with a free-to-air network, the FFA could ask them to share at least one game a week with a free-to-air network over the next couple of years.

Otherwise, the FFA might have nothing to sell in 2013, and Foxsports, even if they get the A-League for peanuts at the time, might have very little to cover.

This is a crucial period and a key deal, and all involved must get it right.

In many ways, the well-being of the A-League depends on it.