Australian football’s development is best looked at in phases. Phase one was ending the NSL, which was dysfunctional and inward-looking, though some great parts of football’s history came out of the NSL and the clubs.
Phase two was the establishment of the A-League. John O’Neill did an excellent job, and the first A-League season was an outstanding success.
Phase three was the development of the A-League and Australia football in general. This included the media deal with Fox, joining Asia in the FIFA groupings, and expanding the A-League.
Phase three saw the new media deal and recent development across the state associations, and the appointment of a new manager of A-League operations.
Phase four will be the next media deal, in four more years. What it brings will largely be dependent on how well phase three is managed.
But it’s time to reflect on what has been, and what is still to come.
The achievements over the last seven and a half years are many. Football before the A-League could not afford to bring European players back to play in a national match.
It had little to no media presence. The coverage was was generally of bad news. Today we have three broadcasters. SBS has the Friday night A-League matches and delayed Socceroos World Cup qualifiers; the ABC shows the W-League; and Fox has the A-League, Socceroos, and ACL matches.
The ABC broadcast all A-League matches online. FFA will have a budget approaching 100 million when the new media deal and other income is added together.
We need to thank a few people who have got us this far. John O’Neill did an excellent job in the establishment of the A-League. As for Ben Buckley, I was never shy to criticise his lack of media skills, his slowness in promoting FFA and football, and the terrible mistakes in the expansion teams chosen. But I also always said what he was doing behind the scenes was impressive.
Some of this back-room stuff involved developing national training programs, developing technical coaching standards, creating the pathways for the NPL, and for a future Australia Cup, and keeping the best talent we had in football rather than drifting to other codes.
Some of this work is only becoming obvious now.
The AFL experience brought by Buckley to developing and creating national standards and accountability, given the various political goings-on in the state associations, was impressive. Since 1955 the associations and many of the old NSL teams could not stand each other, so his work here must be commended.
Special thanks too to Lyall Gorman, who turned around the A-League in its darkest hour to date.
FFA have appointed Richard Sargent to Head of A-League Operations. Richard comes with 10 years of MSL experience, and years of experience in association football on Sydney’s North Shore.
I think FFA will introduce a knockout cup and a develop a relegation and promotion system. However, the promotion part will only take place when the A-League has more clubs than it has now.
Teams will be selected from the NPL using MLS methods rather than European methods based on the competition tables
How do we grow our crowd attendances and television ratings? We need media. I have been trying to make some sense out of the ratings to see where football stands.
Accepting we do play in summer, cricket is our main competitor. It is therefore interesting that Ben Buckley appointed the former marketing manager of Cricket Australia, whose role also includes scheduling of matches.
The A-League and football in general are particularly popular in the younger age group, from 18 to 34. Older demographics, particularly those over 50, do not have the same support for football.
It is interesting to note that football ratings have failed since the Big Bash started. The ratings for the cricket this summer have been falling, but are still well ahead of football. However the demographics were positive for football in Australia.
In the recent ODI match between the West Indies and Australia, only 39% of the audience was under 39. The total viewer numbers for the match were 243,000.
Two things stand out for me as we develop over the next four years. First the traditional codes have high viewership in the over-50 demographic. They appear to watch and just not turn off. For the future of football, it is important for us to work out how exactly to capitalise on our popularity in the younger demographic.
I hope the next four years deliver a considerable growth and connection with the football family.
We have a new media deal, a unified code, an excellent CEO, who has underneath him has two young guns from Cricket Australia and the MLS who both have football experience.
Finally, I must thank Frank Lowy. Mistakes were made, particularly with expansion, but we have Frank to thank for where football stands today.
Tenash
Guest
Tenash
Guest
Fuss thanks for that ignore my other post. I hadn't read this comment before posting
Tenash
Guest
Fuss Ahh... Sh~t this is confusing ! What u say seems reasonable & likely But my confusion stems from their press release in it they say that they will convert current SBS 2 into an HD channel which will broadcast Aleague & other new & cool programs for 16-39 demo have u read that specific press release ? Will there be 2 seperate chs as SBS 2 & SBS HD ? All this confusion cld have been avoided if SBS would have just listed the channels for Aleague
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Tenash On Twitter, SBS has categorically stated that A-League will be broadcast LIVE every Friday on: 1. SBS HD and 2. SBS Two SBS2 is Standard Definition digital that everyone will have; SBS HD is only available to people who have a High Definition TV. I've been informed by SBS there will still be 4 different channels on SBS: SBS HD: Ch 30 (which will be a simulcast of a mix of programs from SBS1 & SBS2) SBS2: Ch 32 SBS1: Ch 33 NITV: Ch 34
Tenash
Guest
No worries Fuss its good enough that u admitted your mistake (confusion really) to clear another of your doubts - theres no such thing as SBS 2 HD at present but what i understand from SBS press release yesterday is that they will RE-LAUNCH SBS 2 as an HD channel from April 1 & only this channel will broadcast Aleague there won't be 2 seperate channels as SBS 2 & SBS HD from April 1 hope that clears it up
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
My apologies, Tenash. But, let's be clear ... there is no such thing as SBS2 HD. A-League will be shown on: * SBS HD (Ch 30); and * SBS Two (Ch 32)
Tenash
Guest
hmm... It seems that i was right & someone was wrong. ( looking at u Fuss ) Aleague won't be on SBS 1 !
Tenash
Guest
mid firstly i don't trust 1 survey of what, a 100 or so people? Then u still don't get my pt do u ? What i'm proving by stats is that cricket is just as popular as any other sport & other programs on TV in every demo including 16-39 yrs so if football is as popular as cricket in the 16-39 demo as u say, then football is also equal to AFL,NRL,etc i hope u finally get my pt.
Midfielder
Guest
Sav I bet you anything you like I have posted on a huge ratio positive things about Football's history and the achievements of the NSL... pre the A-League starting... I have long been a critic of much of the management of the NSL ... long been a critic of the model itself... have often commented that football started in around 1870 in Australia... and have written articles on associations ... My problem has always been with the games management and I got stuck into Ben Buckley a lot too... Google the Stewart & Crawford reports into Football ... For heaven sake the head of the NSL was bared from being a company director and holding most public offices .... Check out the Paul Okon and St George Bank transfer ... FFS the NSL could not even afford to bring the national team home and asked players to pay their fares at one stage... There is a huge difference between saying the management were hopeless and everyone involved in the NSL was hopeless .... I challenge to find a post I have made as you often claim where I have a go those involved other than the heads of the NSL..... or the model itself .... BTW football stated well before the 50's & 60's and its you who are being I suggest dis-respectable to the achievements between say 1870 & 1950 ...
nordster
Guest
Well tbf its the zionist bit that offends arabs more than the jew part, thats my experience anyway...being a non zionist jew i do ok...but frank is both so yeah props to him!
Midfielder
Guest
Tenash Heavens mate ... cricket is on FTA Football is on pay the rating can no way be equal... You keep missing the point ... IN NO OTHER AGE DEMOGRAPHIC IS FOOTBALL EQUAL TO Cricket, AFL & NRL.... NEXT how and what should FFA do with this information... But to the gist of your question .... Pkill Rothfield some time over the last month published a report prepared by one of the worlds top organisations that gather information... http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/football/the-buzz-a-leagues-reverse-swing/story-fndb5nmd-1226557780607 His article was aimed at the cricket heads and started how can football with a fraction of the media, be equal in the under 34 demographic to cricket.. Part of what was said from the article... You'd think cricket would be the runaway winner. After all, from the time TV was launched in Australia in the 50s, cricket has been pumped into Australian lounge rooms on free to air and became a "must see" when Kerry Packer starting running the show.The heroes of the game have been in our daily lives every summer since. Lillee, Chappell, Marsh, Border, Waugh, Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting and now Clarke. Fathers have taken their sons to the cricket and continued the national obsession with cricket, or so you'd believe. Despite the A-League being just eight years old and having never been seen on free-to-air TV, the code is now neck and neck with cricket in the market share of "avid" male fans in the 18- to 34-year age group. Think about that for a moment. The round-ball game and cricket neck and neck. How could this be possible? This season we've seen record TV audiences for the A-League on the back of unprecedented mainstream media coverage driven by marquee signings Alessandro Del Piero, Emile Heskey and Shinji Ono and local heroes such as Archie Thompson and Brett Emerton. Plus, the start-up phenomenon of the Western Sydney Wanderers.
jbinnie
Guest
Savass - Do not group me with Midfielders comments,or anyone else's for that matter. You have obviously missed the whole point of my words by saying I was stating everything was bad about the NSL.I did not say that. I ran an NSL team for over 3 years (in the good early years) and saw much on the field of play that was great for the game, and it was not until management decisions began to water down the quality of the product that the NSL began it's long drawn out death wish to oblivion in 2004,but it was evident as early as 1982 that there were problems in how,not only the league,but the game, was being run in this country.That is why FL walked away,and did not return until the "game" had to go "cap in hand' to him and plead with him to try and resurrect it from the ashes.He has done so and anyone who tries to compare how the HAL is run (and I have been one of their biggest critics),with the absolute shambles the NSL became by 2004 knows absolutely nothing about the workings of football club managements or management of the game itself. jb
Savvas Tzionis
Guest
You and your mate Midfielder should stop with the anti NSL stuff. Just look at Midfielder's opening salvo in his piece. In his upside down world, the development of football STARTED with the END of the NSL. Do you understand how illogical that is?!! And it is ridiculous Pol Pot style ideology which proclaims that NOTHING was good in the past.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Tenash Michael Ebeid Tweeted: @michaelebeid "confirming that all @SBS A-League matches from next season will be on SBS HD. @FFA @TheWorldGame" SBS HD provides the SAME CONTENT as SBS 1. SBS HD presents the content is HIGH definition; SBS1 presents content in Standard Definition. But, it's the SAME CONTENT: same programs, same advertisements .. SAME EVERYTHING! SBS2 is Standard Definition it is NOT High Definition. There is no such thing as "SBS 2 HD" as you have suggested - it does NOT exist. But, to be clear, LIVE A-League will be on THREE CHANNELS: * SBS HD (Channel 30): High Definition * SBS1 (Channel 3): Standard Definition * SBS2 (Channel 32): Standard Definition I'm sure even the biggest whingers in AUS will find it hard to complain about this ... but, I'm sure some will.
Cameron
Roar Guru
Wanderers could possibly become the success story of the year for sport/sports team in Australia! Win Premiers plate and grand final and possibilities will be endless, but as they say "there are many a slip between a cup and a lip."
Tenash
Guest
Fuss i may be wrong but my post was based on what i read on the official twitter account of SBS MD - @michaelebeid he says that they will launch SBS 2 HD on 1st April this year & this channel will broadcast Aleague IF you're on twitter check it out. Please clarify it for me, if i have misunderstood it.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Tenash I'm afraid you're WRONG. SBS's Managing Director has publicly stated today: "We're delighted to confirm that all our LIVE A-League matches next season will be broadcast on SBS HD" SBSHD = SBS1. The games will also be broadcast on SBS2.
Tenash
Guest
pete there's nothing wrong with that channel specifically but the point is that its a digital channel if u look at the daily tv ratings u will realise that digital channels don't have the reach of the main channels top programs on the main channels have over 1m viewers while top progs on digital channels have around 250k-280k viewers
Titus
Guest
Promotion/relegation.
pete4
Guest
Tenash - why is it bad news? What's wrong with that channel?