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In 2000, Australia played Paraguay at the Sydney Football Stadium. Around 10,000 people attended and Ray Hadley and Phil Gould made fun of soccer.
The NSL was beyond a joke – inept, inward-looking and ruled by self-interest. It was so bad that I stopped going to watch the Northern Spirit and returned to watching the Blacktown Demons in a lower league.
Nick Greiner came along and appointed Ian Knob to head Soccer Australia. I have always believed they both had the view that the only way to save football was to let it destroy itself, then rebuild from the ground up.
Similar thoughts had been expressed by Johnny Warren and Les Murry at times.
I think Les wanted the existing teams within the NSL to become what they were not, or maybe could never be.
Ian put Soccer Australia into bankruptcy to ensure the old power blocks could have no influence.
Johnny Warren pleaded with Frank Lowy, as did John Howard, to step in and take control. Warren always had the big picture – join Asia, leave Oceania, a smaller national competition, better coaches.
It is said that Johnny Warren laid out for Frank Lowy the blueprint of getting into Asia, making three World Cups, and having a strong national domestic competition.
Johnny’s favourite saying in his last months? “I told you so.”
These last three months have been pivotal in Australian football’s development.
With planning, research and discussion, the National Premier League and Australia Cup have been announced.
This means that for the first time since 1955, football has clear pathways from the park to the national team. Adding to this is increasing development and take-up by private schools.
As a fan who has always acknowledged the enormous mismanagement, corruption and bias, it is so pleasing to finally see structures in place that, if not perfect, are at least workable and have a national focus.
While I acknowledge football’s own errors, the bias against football in the mainstream media in the past has been beyond belief.
Lies, and ignoring big stories, almost as if good football news was not to be reported. It’s like our history never happened, as it was never reported and passed down.
Frank Lowy picked up the challenge to attempt to develop football for a third time.
Last week, I had to pinch myself. Daily reports about football in mainstream papers, all A-League and Socceroos matches broadcast on the ABC radio platforms, all matches broadcast on pay TV, one free-to-air match on SBS.
On Friday, five of the back seven pages of the Sydney Morning Herald were about the A-League. On Sunday, ABC’s Offsiders dedicated over half the show to football.
The A-League is broadcast live on TV in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, the USA, England, Italy, Hong Kong and a few more I have forgotten. It is broadcast to another 65 countries in highlights packages. It is available via a paid streaming service for those who don’t have it on TV.
Our media deal in dollar terms is 20 percent of the NRL and AFL, although we have only 10 teams with 23 players to a team. If you analyse the media deal in terms of player numbers, the A-League deal is much closer.
The AFL deal is say $240 million per year spread over about 750 players, or $320,000 per player. The NRL deal is about $220 million over 530 players, or $415,000 per player.
The A-League is 40 million over 230 players, or $174, 000 per player.
When viewed on a per player basis, the A-League is much closer to the other codes than a superficial reading of the media deals reveals.
For the first time, ABC Radio provides mainstream broadcast media support of football. Fairfax and News Corp’s traditional paper systems are now highlighting football.
As the daily papers slowly die, their online presence will survive. At this level, football is becoming more an equal.
Last week I saw daily reports, listened to a match in my car, saw a match free-to-air and watched a free-to-air one hour pre-round show in Thursday FC.
I hope Frank Lowy is around long enough to see what football looks like in 10 to 15 years.
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