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Pressure on Ange and the A-League All-Stars to deliver

14th July, 2013
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Roar Guru
14th July, 2013
23
1479 Reads

There has been much said about Channel 7 buying the telecast rights for the upcoming matches between the A-League All-Stars vs Man Utd, and Melbourne Victory vs Liverpool.

Like many supporters I’m thrilled with sell-out crowds and a commercial channel interested in a friendly, and essentially meaningless, pre-season football game in the middle of the AFL season.

Of course, the commercial reality is that Seven are paying for the EPL gun teams, but those gun teams are here to play ‘us’ so it’s clear the A-League has come a long way.

However, I’m nervous about the potential outcome of such high profile matches for the A-League.

I’m not worried about the obvious potential of Channel 7 to botch the entire telecast.

We know that they have no expertise whatsoever in football; add breaks mid-match would not be a surprise; there will be no end of mispronounced names and uninformed commentary; and we may even get drivel comparing soccer unfavourably to AFL, especially if somebody goes down following a head-clash or late tackle.

Let’s be clear, if Channel 7 makes a hash of proceedings it will simply reinforce already held views among football followers that they should never have been trusted with the coverage in the first place.

It won’t hurt Channel 7 or their viewership, and as long as their commercial partners’ adverts hit the airwaves, their commercial partners won’t care much about the coverage either.

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The issue that makes me nervous is the real pressure that now lies on Ange and the A-League players to perform.

This is not LA Galaxy revisited – the last visiting football team to be covered on free-to-air TV. Give or take, you could argue that the A-League is on a par with, or not quite off, the MLS level.

In a one-off match against an MLS side, I’d back a top A-League side to hold their own and look reasonably solid.

Win or lose, I’m confident that a curious or semi-interested viewer would be left a good impression of what the A-League has to offer relative to that competition.

Manchester United and Liverpool are entirely different beasts.

I doubt that anybody expects the All-Stars or Victory to win their respective matches, but there is a real need for Ange, the All-Stars and Melbourne Victory to perform and perform well.

Playing in front of full stadiums and on free-to-air makes these ‘big’ games.

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If the A-League teams perform poorly it will provide ammunition for the naysayers, the Euro snobs, the undecided, and the football knockers to denigrate the A-League and the playing standard of our premiere football competition.

The Channel 7 AFL wags will say they should have stuck to the AFL, the Euro snobs will say ‘I told you so’ and SBS will be left to ponder how to talk up their new free-to-air coverage of the A-League for next season.

There will be no leeway given that the A-League players are pre-season and unprepared; after all the EPL are out of season as well.

The knockers won’t make allowances that the All Stars are without some of their brightest stars, either withdrawn or on national duties.

Melbourne Victory is without Thompson, Milligan, Rojas (and to a lesser degree Flores and Traore). Let’s not forget that Victory struggled during the regular season when their key players were missing on national duty.

A poor showing, and especially if we see two poor showings, will be a serious negative for the A-League as a whole.

Granted, it won’t affect the supporters who have followed the A-League and made it so successful in recent years, but it will cast a cloud over that success and hamper the continued growth among those who are not yet converted to the local game.

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While these games might otherwise have been pre-season friendlies with nothing riding on the outcome, the free-to-air telecast has ramped up the pressure several notches on Ange and his support staff to ensure that the All Stars and Melbourne Victory treat these matches with serious contemplation.

Regardless of what the matches mean for the visitors, the home sides will not have time to indulge in ‘wow’ thinking, distracted by the hope of securing Robin Van Persie’s or Steve Gerrard’s shirt.

They will need to bring an A-game on the night(s) because they will be playing for all of the A-League.

Theirs is an opportunity to show the broader Australian public that the A-League is a creditable level and we are more than capable of putting on a good show against quality opposition.

These matches provide an opportunity to put a big tick mark alongside the A-League’s name when the free-to-air moguls are looking at future broadcast rights of one-off fixtures or the entire regular season.

The matches could provide a boost to SBS’s potential audience on the back of a good A-League showing.

Channel 7 has the luxury of botching the matches with no consequence. Ange and the players don’t have such a luxury. A win isn’t necessary, but a grand failure would be a major set-back.

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On the up-side, a first class performance will heighten everyone’s awareness as to what the A-League can offer and give us another surge of interest and anticipation for the new season ahead.

Let’s all hope that the A-League put on a special performance.

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