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How times change. That’s the phrase that comes to mind when reading, listening and watching the discourse surrounding the current search for a new Socceroos coach.
Why that phrase? If we cast our minds back to the heady days of 2005 and recall the climate of the time, the Socceroos were the bedrock upon which the game was built.
The A-League was developed as part of a major reform, but there was no question the A-League was second fiddle to the main act.
Then-FFA CEO Jon O’Neill said as much in his now often quoted ‘rainmaker’ commentary on the state of power relations within the football fraternity at the time.
There is now an utter irony of the fact that Ange Postecoglou and Graham Arnold were two men hounded out of the national set-up in ignominy, and now are being heavily touted as the men desperately needed to save the Socceroos from humiliation.
This reveals one of the first power-shifts to occur; the esteem in which these two coaches are held has found salvation and been transformed through their respective A-League clubs.
One image which sticks in my mind was the scene at the end of the Adelaide United versus Melbourne Victory match, of Ange Postecoglu geeing up the healthy contingent of highly jubilant Melbourne fans who had once again made their way to Adelaide.
The panelists of ABC’s ‘Offsiders’ program presumed this may be Ange’s way of saying ‘goodbye’, as Gerard Whately put it, presumably before be moves onto ‘bigger and better things’ as the Socceroos job is presumed to be.
Perhaps that will prove to be correct, however the scenes hint at much more as to what is occurring within the game’s power structure.
Part of the answer lies in the fans themselves.
That is to say that such scenes – usually featuring the team’s players and the fans – are becoming an increasingly regular (and even exclusive) feature that emphasises the distinction between the A-League and the Socceroos and points to the power shift in fans’ focus.
This difference was all too clear earlier in the year, as the atmosphere at Oman qualifier in February and the all-important June World Cup qualifiers versus Jordan and Iraq was a pale imitation of the atmosphere and vibrancy found at many A-League games.
Central Coast versus Western Sydney match in Round 1, along with the Adelaide versus Melbourne and Western Sydney versus Wellington fixtures in Round 2, are good examples.
Perhaps this is why, in the midst of the nation facing the concern of not qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, FFA CEO David Gallop felt confident to say not qualifying “wouldn’t be a disaster as far as the round-ball code in Australia was concerned.”
Where fan trends lead, other trends follow.
Free-to-air coverage of the A-League is something of a watershed moment for football, so the ratings trends of SBS in particular will be interesting to follow.
The ratings for the inaugural free-to-air match between Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets garnered an audience of 166,000 metropolitan viewers and 243,000 overall when we consider regional viewers.
Initial reports trickling out at the time of writing suggest the Adelaide versus Melbourne fixtures garnered similar numbers.
While this pales in comparison to the 1.5 million who watched the Socceroos qualify for the 2014 World Cup on free-to-air, the national team matches are generally one-off matches, whereas A-League games are achieving their ratings on a week-to-week basis and are regular season games.
How free-to-air fares for much-anticipated marquee fixtures, such as derby games and finals matches, would prospectively compare to the ratings for many of the Socceroos’ matches.
Of course none of this even begins to scratch the surface of the potential benefits of the A-League clubs competing in the AFC Champions League if that competition continues to refine itself and can realise its lucrative potential.
So what will be next?
There is still a feeling the FFA look upon the A-League as a reserve pool of sorts that is there to support its main Socceroos act.
The FFA have named the candidates and while haggling over compensation is expected, the clubs are nevertheless expected to fall in line.
But the scenes of Ange Postecoglu in front of the adoring masses of Melbourne fans, comments attributable to Graham Arnold and the seas of red and black that decorated Pirtek stadium on the weekend hint at slow change in the football power-dynamic.
It is hard not to feel it is now very much a case of the FFA needing the coaches (presumably as an ‘economic’ option) and the Australian coaches in question don’t necessarily need to be within the FFA set-up in order to advance their careers.
I wonder about the day when a top Australian coach decides that the damage to their reputation in taking over a job riddled with the dangers of being ‘set up to fail’ is not worth it.
Additionally, the A-League clubs may fall into line this time if an Australian coach does indeed get the nod, but surely the day is not far off when, in a similar scenario, the FFA get the ‘Crystal Palace treatment’ from increasingly powerful ‘franchises’ that aren’t afraid to assert their increasing power relative to that of the FFA.
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