A-League needs to boot FFA from ownership

Much has been made of Clive Palmer, especially over the past two weeks. I watched his interview on The World Game and as much as he rambled, he raised some great issues.

Some I have discussed with my mates for the past six months. If I had the power to run football at a national level, this is how I would do it.

The FFA needs to run independently of the A-League and vice-versa.

At this level, the FFA needs to be concerned with all the national teams. They need to make sure that all national team managers have the best players available to them at any given time.

It is such a shame that Ben Halloran and James Brown were not called up to the Olyroos. Given their effort this season, they have earned a place in the Olyroo set-up.

The FFA also needs to make sure that there are development programs in place to make sure that the young players continue to develop into world-class players. It is a great sight when Holger Osieck gives A-League talent a run with the Socceroos. The improved standard of play increases the quality a player can produce; at least that’s the hope.

Generally, we’ve seen this happen but players such as Ben Kantarovski and Mark Bridge have only gone backwards (but that’s an article for another day). Eventually, a Centre of Excellence needs to be built so that the country’s best players can concentrate on becoming even better.

Another thing the FFA needs to focus on is television deals for the national teams. The Socceroos and Matildas need television deals where they are able to get great exposure or easier accessible to the general public. Whether they are a combined package or separate, they need exposure.

This goes for any of our national teams, including the Futsalroos, Olyroos and possibly the lower age groups. Granted, some of those teams may not garner enough interest, so other means of exposure need to be looked at, like a highlights package of the most recent game for that particular national team or a delayed telecast on another day.

The final thing that the FFA need to be concerned with is sponsorship of its national teams. The money garnered from these sponsorships should be able to cover all costs associated with each national team, development programs and all employees.

Most importantly, individual FFA officials cannot be getting paid millions when the general consensus is that they are not doing anything to be improving the corporate governance of football in Australia.

The A-League needs to run independently of the FFA. It needs to be run by a board with representation from each club. The representative from each club shouldn’t be the owner. I would imagine that the owners would have enough to worry about.

The A-League would concentrate on garnering sponsorship. The money earned through sponsorship should be enough to pay A-League employees and marketing campaigns for the A-League. I would even suggest that if there is enough sponsor money, the salary cap of each club should be covered.

Clubs should also be able to allow clubs to get their own sponsors, irrespective of whether their sponsors could be rival competitors to A-League sponsors. The sporting public is smart enough to distinguish the differences. Toyota sponsors the AFL while Ford sponsors the Geelong Cats. They exist happily and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case in the A-League.

From here, the clubs should be able to implement academy set-ups and community partnerships. They need to be able to develop their own marketing campaigns and community links. I’m not sure what other clubs do, but I don’t see Sydney FC engaging well enough with the community.

As an example, the GWS Giants in the AFL are setting standards in community links and gaining new fans. They go into schools, they give kids backpacks which have rulers, stickers, a ball and other things. They even go so far as to give each child a personalised newsletter with the child’s name on it.

They also ran after school AFL clinics to teach kids about the basics of AFL for twice a week for 6 weeks. That’s how you get kids to love your team.

At the earliest possible point, clubs would also need to renegotiate stadium deals to be more football and club friendly. I would imagine that some clubs still suffer from poor stadium deal arrangements. Melbourne Victory have a poor deal with Etihad as do Gold Coast United and I believe possibly the Roar as well. At some point, clubs need to plan on building their own stadiums. That would be the crowning jewel of each club.

Clubs need to be allowed tobe managed on their own, without interference. These are just basics, simple things that should guide football on to the right path. The quicker the A-League is run without the FFA, the better.