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This Thursday marked the conclusion to a series of events oddly reminiscent of the old NSL.
From a license being stripped and the future of a club in doubt, to the forced introduction of a completely new franchise, it’s been an interesting time to be a football fan in Australia.
In theory, the introduction of the A-League was to usher in a new era of stability and sustainability for football at national level.
But despite a reformed governing body with its new politically correct name, Football Federation Australia continue to make the same mistakes that plagued the reign of Soccer Australia; namely ill-advised ventures into high-risk markets.
With confirmation that Gold Coast United has officially folded, yet another national sporting team has been left to die by the hand of the FFA; the second in as many years.
The state of the A-League at present resembles something of a cheesy sports-horror B-movie where – cue suspenseful, deep-voiced narration – “to be relegated… is to DIE.”
This contempt shown toward the passionate football fan cannot continue.
Whilst the contributing factors in each club’s demise differ, absolute responsibility remains with the FFA. Any error of judgement on their part is augmented by the fact that top-level Australian football exists only within a closed, single-tier with teams only they allow to compete.
Football in this country is undertaken on their terms, under their control, and only they can be held responsible for its failures.
So how do the Australian football bosses intend to offer a viable national league, if fans need to be wary about supporting their team lest it no longer exist tomorrow?
To misquote a completely unrelated sports film, “If you build it, they will come.” In terms of football in Australia, if you create a team, representative of a region as a whole, the fanbase will follow. And with Western Sydney, this is precisely what the FFA intend to do.
By adopting a “one city, one club” policy at the A-League’s inception, the FFA established a successful national league; not entirely via their own marketing brilliance but by stripping existing teams from the national stage and redirecting that disenfranchised support toward a single new club.
With their somewhat generic outward appearance and lack of prior affiliations, even the previously excluded supporter demographics were able to support the new clubs without apprehension.
When Melbourne Victory was formed, it was tasked with the responsibility of uniting supporters from an intensely divided football landscape, and it did so by being as generically Victorian as possible – right down to its cheesy, pun name.
And when the FFA made the decision to award a second A-League license in Melbourne, it did so safe in the knowledge that the present team were consistently drawing crowds in excess of 20 thousand.
In the current scenario however, the team with a monopoly over the support of four million Sydneysiders at present struggles to draw half that number.
Will a new team in Sydney’s West do any better?
The problem with Sydney FC, for all its successes, is that it has come to represent more of the affluent East and inner city than the greater metropolitan area as a whole – from the opera house adorning the club crest, to the location of its home ground and the abrupt name which incites a similar supporter identity crisis as Melbourne of the AFL.
Simply put, the FFA had created a far more exclusive club than intended and as such failed to reclaim the support of much of the culturally diverse West.
A new team in Western Sydney however will be in prime position to succeed where Sydney FC has failed – uniting the divided support of one of Australian football’s most successful and historically significant regions.
While we may find some supporters defecting from the current Sydney team, a far greater number will be dragged into the A-League fandom, finally able to connect with a club after having being left for so long without a truly representative team in Australia’s top tier.
For all of Football Federation Australia’s recent misguided ventures, with Western Sydney they’ve gone some way to redeeming both themselves and the professional game in Australia.
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