Asia next for A-League expansion

I was talking with Perth Glory's CEO a few weeks ago, and he told me that the standard of venues in Perth outside of NIB Stadium is laughable, which is why it's difficult for Glory to hold a Community Round match, a la Central Coast playing at North Sydney Oval. He did mention Glory was looking at playing pre-season games in Singapore, as Bernd Stange is now the Singapore national team coach.

Ah so is this Gallop applying the FFA's WC bid proposed work arounds back to the HAL?? Can't help but chuckle that Gallop who led for sometime the 'unacceptable/clubs at risk' rhetoric against the WC bid and rejected the FFAs propsals - is now heading the FFA and it seems they can't even stop for the Asian cup. Ah well. Oneday there'll be a great book written with interviews from AD, DG, BB and some govt folk. For now I see the irony in this.

That is true - which is why my only qualification on all of this is logistics. It may supply be too far with current transport technology. However logistics notwithstanding - it is a live option.

I respectfully disagree that it is "pure fantasy" Fuss - but I absolutely agree with your suggestion that DG is simply a genius and this is all part of a broader 'psychological war' with other codes. That, my friend, is more likely!

I answered your question in the first paragraph of my post - "for a range of cultural, geo-political and football economy reasons". Both of these are small, island nations with developed economies, recent (and complex) Anglo heritage, similar parliamentary systems and educated, economically mobile, English (as an official language) speaking populations. In football terms they experience a range of barriers to development and Australia has a long history in both places of working in football - not to mention our long association in regional and global political forums and trade relationships. If you think that Hong Kong would choose the CSL over the A-League simply on geographical terms you do not understand Hong Kong and you certainly do not understand China and the development of each of these places relative to one another. The world is much more complex than a simple map can demonstrate - and I chose these two countries for very specific reasons. Your pontificating not withstanding

Yep, those all work as venues pre-Asian Cup break imo, but there's also Parra Stadium and Etihad, neither of which are hosting Cup games.

There should definately be a break for the Asian Cup. For the two weeks before the tournament games should be held only in Perth, Adelaide, Wellington, Central Coast and 2 neutral venues - e.g. Launceston & Wollongong.

Agree wholeheartedly. We have large population centres without much representation such as those towns, plus Geelong and large areas of Melbourne and Sydney a long way from where the A-League teams operate out of. The whole point of this league is develop our players and build the game in this nation. It is ignorant to have Asian sides involved also due to the FIFA laws plus the cultural differences on matters such as gambling on games and feigning injury. More teams in Melbourne and Sydney for mine.

A long winded, but unfortunately necessary repost from my comment on the other article on this: Expanding A-League clubs into Asia, at any point in time, is an absolutely ridiculous proposition. Other nations have their own leagues, and there is no logical reason for a Singaporean club to play in an Australian league instead of the S-League, or for a Malaysian club to play in an Australia competition instead of the Super League (and no, I’m talking about professional leagues, so Wellington have a perfectly logical reason to play in the A-League since the New Zealand league is amateur). Thankfully, I am 99% sure this is just De Bohun employing an (albeit very strange) tactic to increase the league’s profile with absolutely no intention of carrying out Asian expansion. In regards to the Asian Cup, there is a simple solution- simply tighten up the schedule and have a month-long break during the Cup (and we need a break- let’s not distract from the Asian Cup by continuing the A-League season). It’s not at all difficult to solve the Asian Cup problem; for example I threw this draft schedule together in about ten minutes: R1- 10-12 October R2- 17-19 October R3- 24-26 October R4- 31 Oct-2 November R5- 7-9 November R6- 14-16 November R7- 21-23 November R8- 28-30 November R9- 5-7 December R10- 12-14 December R11- 18-19 December R12- 22-23 December R13- 26-27 December R14- 31 Dec-1 Jan R15- 5-6 January (Matches played at Asian Cup non-host venues in preparation for tournament) Asian Cup- 9-31 January R16- 6-8 February R17- 13-15 February R18- 20-22 February R19- 27 Feb-1 March R20- 6-8 March R21- 13-15 March R22- 20-22 March R23- 27-29 March R24- 4-6 April R25- 11-13 April R26- 18-20 April (Additional round spread across season with five Wednesday night matches) EF- 25-27 May SF- 1-3 May GF- 11 May With all their resources, it’d be very easy for the FFA to devise a workable fixture list for the A-League while having a break for the Asian Cup.

Canada and the United States are very much akin to Australia and New Zealand. This isn't a relevant example in terms of Asian expansion, only NZ expansion.

Looking at it from outside (Asscoiation Football is not my first sport but one I take some interest in), this underlines to me that there appears no real direction on what the FFA wants the A-League to become. Is it supposed to have clubs which are able to compete with Korean and Japanese clubs, and become a true high level competition which it is viabole for Socceroos to play in? Is it to be a competition taken to the people and including regional cities? Is it to be an Asian powerhouse by including smallr (if sometimes larger) Asian nations? Where does NZ fit into the picture, as a non-Asian confederation antion? To me it can't both be a high quality, and therefore high cost, league to compete with the big two or three Asian leagues and include regional cities. At least not if it wishes to retain a salary cap and some form of hope among all the clubs. It could go down the path of European leagues and only have a few teams capable of winning the title (titles with finals counting as a separate trophy and a cup coming in). That works in Europe and other parts of the world, where there are no competing sports of note and where there is a long history of such a competition. Neither hold true in Australia where multi-sport fans prevail and people have become accustomed to at least somewhat equalised leagues. Smaller clubs may well fall away very quickly if hoped for fanbases feel their team is never a chance of winning anything. Is the A-League to be elite, with few clubs limited to major centres only, or is to be a league of the people which will mean lower costs and therefore quality but greater accessibility to those in regional areas. Or something else? The biggest problem I see with the A-League is that the FFA don't seem to have made that strategic choice about which form of growth they want. To some extent it should be possible to expand geographically and improve the quality (both through better coaching, second tier and and youth structures, and a higher cost base) as greater revenues come in. But at some point a path has to be chosen. Without that strategy known planning expansion, if any, is impossible to be sure of. Already some areas have proven to be too difficult for the time being. A focus on developing a high quality, high cost, league would mean that areas such as Townsville and Hobart must never be considered. Regional areas, including the smaller poorer capital, could never sustain the expense of such a league, and further teams in the major cities would also be limited. However, an elite league is a viable proposition and improving the quality of what is in place now, including higher costs to both buy and retain better players, is certainly a solid option. It is quite possible they have done so and I have missed it, as it doesn't need to be a public proclamation, but the FFA must make the call now on which way they will go. Only then can any future bid be made with any certainty over what the A-League is aiming for. A decade from now will potential bidders need to be able to raise $6m a year or $30m? $6m may well be possible in Darwin or Geelong or other places, $30m is probably not.

Gallop or Buckley,a major difference. And the Nrl threw Gallop out " reason " not bullish enough.

Every away trip to an Asian team would be an 8 hour plus flight... assuming it was possible to get direct flights. Although it might only be one trip a year so not totally impossible but it would need deep pockets for the Asian club to come here 10 or 11 times per round. that would be a big ask.

To be honest, it already is the "Australiasian" League with New Zealand included. But further expansion into South East Asia and the Pacific might be possible

Why would HK or Sing want to join the A-League??? Singapore already have a team in the Malay league (The Lions) If HK were to put a team in another league, surely they would opt for the CSL where there is more money, a better standard and far stronger cultural ties oh, and that the likes of Evergrande is about 200km away rather than 7500kms. It makes zero sense.

Ironically that's what the people in Perth & Darwin say :)

Agreed, this is just a reminder to the business world that the A-League has amazing possibilities. Gallop is a shrew operator, no doubt.

Not in time lines ...

It's a long, long way from Australia to Asia. Sure we're next to each other, but there's a whole continent of nothingness between Australia's biggest city and Asia's nearest big city. In geographical terms it makes much less sense than, say, an ASEAN league with various teams from South East Asia.

I'm marvelling at the genius of David Gallop. Expansion into Asia is pure fantasy, but by simply getting Damien DeBohun to drop the line casually, we get to further drive home the unique opportunities that exist for AUS football. David Gallop is on the warpath - he is, by far, the smartest sports administrator in AUS. He's taken Football from a very low point, to getting anyone to believe anything is now possible