What is football? What does it mean to Australia and what does it mean to the world? The FFA seems to know. ‘We Are Football’ were the brave words chosen to lead the A-League into a new season and with some early success.
It’s been a tough run for football in Australia. From confirming fans to confirming the name, challenges from other codes in the over-crowded Australian sporting landscape has seen football fail to live up to its potential.
The ‘sleeping giant’ of Australian sport has remained so for a while, however recent moves from the sport’s governing body suggest the game is waking up to the challenges and expectations of sports fans in the modern world.
Looking past the recent few years of the A-League with low attendance and lower media coverage the league still manages to struggle against the major codes.
It is not vanishing like the AFL faithful suggest nor is it on the verge of dominating Australia’s sporting landscape despite suggestions by Craig Foster. The game for a while appeared to remain stagnant.
Hard work by the FFA has consistently been cancelled out by the fans’ poor reactions, the media, FIFA (by handing the World Cup to Qatar) and even by themselves, evident in the last year’s seemingly non-existent marketing campaign.
It had been argued that the FFA had its priorities wrong, focusing in the World Cup bid rather than the A-League and that simply they didn’t believe in their product.
However things are beginning to change. The signings of Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton have got people talking about the league at a time when AFL and NRL usually dominate our televisions and newspapers.
But more subtle progress has been made. Clubs like Gold Coast and Newcastle have started to interact with their communities, a valuable step towards bridging the gap between A-League and grassroots prior to the imminent FFA Cup.
Slow progress is uniting Australia’s football community.
‘We Are Football’ answers many questions, emphasising football’s ability to bring people together in a way no other sport can.
This is the ultimate goal of the FFA and the A-League, to grow the game and expose more people to its charm and character.
Football won’t become Australia’s number one sport overnight, but positive steps are being made to ensure its growth.
TheBeautifulGame
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Kasey
Guest
W11, you do understand generational change don't you? The people that make the decisions in the government at the moment have been born and raised in a time where the Aussie Rules/cricket dichotomy was the unchalenged king of the sports field. They will be making decisions for likely the next 10-20 years. Besides, even from a financial POV. you can fit almost 2 football fields on a big ARF/ricket oval and the last thing we should wat to see is 'less' sports facilities, smaller playing areas for kids. The powers that be can build what they like, but the evidence suggests that the kids will form and gravitate to the terams they want - not what they are told or directed to, which overwhelmingly means football these days. Once the teams have been formed, the school then uses its sports funds to provide the facilities, Goals, nets, kits etc to support those teams. Football is a big growth sport and as the FFA gets more money in its coffers to support the game as the AFL has been able to do despite that sport not having the same growth potential as footbal, then the changes at the graassroots will really begin to take effect.
william 11
Guest
Still build new schools with oz rules/cricket pitch , no Footbal fields
asanchez
Roar Guru
Nice article. I think the A-league is going places. It's season 7 and we are bringing in Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton. That's fantastic news in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully in season 10 we can be bringing in your Robbie Keanes, Thierry Henrys, Freddy Lungbergs and your Rafael Marques instead of them going to the MLS. Ultimately that's where the A-league would love to be positioned in a few years. But overall, our young league is going through a natural progression at the moment, with it's future looking very bright in my opinion. I think this will be a landmark season for the league, for many reasons; - marquee and well known players coming in (Emerton, Kewell, Fred, Miller) - much better on field quality, such go up another notch from last season - some genuine marketing spend and strategy behind the league and it's promotion - better start time to the league, should give us some clear oxygen with the media in the summer months - smarter all round scheduling of fixtures by FFA I think will see record all time crowds, and TV audiences this season, and like Midfielder I believe we will get a landmark TV deal. Not sure about $500m but I'm 120% sure it'll be alot more than the current measly $17m per year. I don't think people realized just how much the WC bid took away the focus (money, people and other resources) off the A-league from the FFA. I still remember the promotional video for the first season, the paint on the walls, that cool rap song. That video was a huge success, and it shows what can be done if the focus is solely on the A-league and it's promotion.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Why can't you see the NT? Or do you expect the NT to play all home matches in outer western Melbourne? ;-) EDIT: I see what you're saying - the NT is not on FTA TV? Well, even prior to the Foxtel deal, very few NT matches were broadcast - from memory it was only certain "bigger matches" (e.g. v Israel, Argentina, Scotland, Uruguay). I don't recall seeing any of the Oceania qualifiers on FTA TV apart from matches v NZ
Axelv
Guest
I live in outer western Melbourne and both a) and c) are a failed criteria, There is no soccer clubs around here, plenty of cricket and footy (AFL) clubs, I don't have Foxtel and no-one I knows has it. Missing out on a lot of football and can't even see my own national team that I have followed closely and have been obsessed about for over 12 years.
j biinnie
Guest
pete4 -Not a bad suggestion but with the FFA & the 10 existing clubs struggling somewhat to establish themselves, both financially & geographically as an area identity, I think your second division (with promotion & relegation) is a long,long way away from becoming reality. Even 1 of the 10 you suggest for the top league is still a pipe dream but I suppose one has to say GCU,despite having their own unique problems, at least have a 3 year start on any newcomer who may emerge from the not so large throng.That takes us back to the original plan for the HAL, an 8 team competition to showcase our absolutely best players using good marketing strategies to lure the massive latent support base behind them as area representatives.Of course this did not happen & that's when "mistakes" began to appear in the decision making by the FFA. Expansion (despite some clubs still struggling with the basic requirements) took place with the lame excuse ,we need more games. Lets look at another avenue where that could have been achieved AND brought the wider football community into the fold,the original plan.Let the 8 teams play each other 4 times ie 28 games but let them play 1 "home" game in close proximity to their home town ie Brisbane Roar play a game in Ipswich, Toowoomba, Caloundra or even Noosa, thus allowing their 'home" fans the opportunity to "follow" their team while at the same time "spread "the gospel.There are those who would criticise this as being "boring" etc. etc. but I bet the locals in those towns would not think so.Is it in the too hard basket? After all Wellington have partly proved the concept pulling double figures to games in Christchurch & that is more that 100 kilometres away.Maybe it should be looked at in a new strategic plan after all expansion demands the "finding" of at least 24 players of top standard if that standard is to be maintained & that in itself is no easy task.jb
pete4
Guest
I think 12 clubs is the right number until we can afford a second divison. It appears West Sydney and Canberra will be the next 2 in a next few years. Down the track I hope we could have 20 clubs: 10 clubs in A-League 1 and another 10 in A-League 2 but only when we in a financial position to do it. This would be my ideal scenerio: A-League1 - Adelaide United, Brisbane Roar, Central Coast, Sydney FC, ,Perth Glory, Newcastle, Melbourne Victory, Melbourne Heart, Wellington, West Sydney. A-League2 - Canberra, Gold Coast, Sydney 3, Sydney 4, Melbourne 3, Melbourne 4/Geelong, Brisbane 2, Adelaide 2, Perth 2, Wollongong.
brendo51
Guest
Interesting that after the last year with Fury going under we still are hearing noise about expansion http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/canberra-wants-aleague-berth-by-2013-20110916-1kdb5.html People underestimate the lure of a 12 team league to the FFA and their deal for the next media rights. IMO I think we will have a good year this year and I can see Canberra and West Sydney again being on the table for 2013. Whether its the right choice is debatable though. B
Midfielder
Guest
Just on the next Football deal I posted this on Yellow Fever http://yellowfever.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15914 ... sums ups my thoughts and for me football next media deal is over 500 million ...
TJ
Guest
Author, just bag Craig Foster some more because all football people hate one of the games most prominent voices in Australia. That's all the football community seem good at recently, hating the FFA like you mention or hating Craig Foster or someone else who is contributing to the game. When the self-loathing and foot shooting ends, football will start to have a voice in what you call a crowded sporting market. Couldn't agree more with that
Soccerlogic
Guest
Just found your facebook page! Great article btw should have mentioned something about foxtel though.... http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Beautiful-Game/162258400489092
pete4
Guest
Kasey - the FFA will get a better TV deal this time around without doubt regardless of what the knockers out there say. The Socceroos and the A-League have proven ratings and basically Fox Sports is paying peanuts when you consider $17M a year to get both live and exclusive. It's just a question of how much more the FFA gets per year... and this is where Buckley earns his money. Most clubs currently have a deficit of around $1.5M per year but expect this to go to break even should we get a better deal
Lazza
Guest
Let's just be patient and I'm sure we'll follow a similar path as the MLS and JLeague. Start off with a bang, have a few lean years as the competition settles down and then emerge stronger than ever. There's going to be a lot of interest this season with Kewell and Emerton returning and hopefully, a nice TV deal down the track.
j binnie
Guest
So far everyone has commented on this article favourably and that can only be good for everyone's opinion but there is one little error I would like to point out and stress to "beautiful game". Football at HAL level does NOT compete with other football codes in Australia,that being one of the major reasons for "summer soccer" being established around 1990 in the NSL. The move was aimed at taking our top football out of direct competition for fans with it's own & the other codes, at the same time releasing the huge number of participating families & players involved in junior football & lower leagues as a potential market for our "top" teams to aim their marketing strategies.Now in the consequent years (21) it is nice to note that at last we may have teams,BG mentions Newcastle & GCU, join up with Melbourne Victory (despite the cross town rivalry introduced by FFA) Adelaide United and to a lesser extent Perth Glory in their attempts to unite the football community behind their local identity in the HAL.Brisbane Roar should be added to that list for with last year's results behind them they will never get a better chance.jb
Rangaraider
Guest
Johnno I think you meant comment on the World Game site...
Kasey
Guest
pete4 I think this year is a make-or-break year for the HAL in terms of getting a better TV deal. With the potential positives in the off season (increase in standard every year since s1, Tinklers revolution in Newy, Gold Coast finally bothering to engage, Harry and Emo stealing plenty of column inches inthe middle of off season) then there realy isn't a reason for football fans to fail to get out and support their team. I think at th end of this season we will know with a lot more certainty the position that football finds itself in. Are we moving towards stability or are our clubs drowning in debt? Is there a big enough supporter base to support 10(or more) fully professional clubs in a nationally televised competition? Lots of questions should be answered by the wind up of season 7. If the indicators are good, then FFA will be in a better position to strike an improved TV deal.
Tmills
Guest
I agree great article! At some point every actor has hindered the a-league, the FFA have neglected it, the mass media has unfairly represented it, the football media has attacked almost every change, the clubs have failed to do there job and sometimes put fans offside like with the five k likeout, and the fans of the game have done it no favours by failing to turn up and sometimes acting in ways not even the football community agrees with. Yet the game has grown and no one (accept the people of townsville) has been more excited for the start of the A-league season since season one. There are so many things going right this year with club recruitment media excitement etc that this year all we have to do as football fans is enjoy and bring as many friends to games as possible!
pete4
Guest
Like I keep saying a good TV deal will fix a lot of our problems (not all). We simply have never had the money of the other codes enjoy and the FFA run 9 National teams, A-League, W-League and NYL on basically nothing when you think about it
MelbCro
Guest
Unnecessary comments removed. Stop 'playing the man' here MelbCro or you'll be moderated. Thanks, Roar Mods.