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David Gallop celebrates one year in charge of the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) this week for which he deserves at least a new car from Frank Lowy.
Considering the mess that has haunted the NRL this year, he may just be tempted to send a nice thank you note to Australian Rugby League Commission Chairman John Grant for sacking him.
In Gallop’s first 12 months in charge, the Western Sydney Wanderers had a fairytale debut season, the three marquee signings flourished, the new TV deal guaranteeing free-to-air local football has been an early success and the Socceroos qualified for their third World Cup in succession.
It has been football’s best year since the 2005-2006 season, which saw the launch of the A-League and the Socceroos qualify and make the last 16 of the World Cup.
Now Gallop is going for the jugular with his statement this week that the World Game will soon become Australia’s Game.
With A-League attendances and TV ratings rising, 200,000 more playing the game and discussion about Australian football at an all time high, Gallop has every right to take the wave of good publicity and fire a shot across the bows of rugby league and Aussie Rules.
However, the real test of how far the game has come in Australia has yet to come.
While 1.9 million people playing football is a great number, it doesn’t reflect the huge drop off the game gets from 14-17 year olds.
From personal experience, my local league has a thriving under 8s, 10s and 12s competition but the numbers drop away at under 14 and under 16 level and the senior competition is ageing dramatically.
Some choose Aussie Rules or rugby league, while others just give the game away because they lose interest.
This is something Gallop will have to address if he wishes to get the game to the top.
While the A-League flourishes, a lot of the good publicity comes from Western Sydney playing well and the pulling power of Alessandro Del Piero, Emile Heskey and Shinji Ono.
Western Sydney are playing well and attracting 20,000 this year but if they go through a bad patch, will the Wanderers still be the hottest ticket in town?
As Gallop would well know, Sydney is very fickle when it comes to supporting sport and the test of popularity is not when sporting teams are strong but when teams are struggling for form.
Also, the three marquee players are closer to entering retirement than entering their prime.
When they hang up the boots, will the crowds continue to grow or will the theatre goers find a new way to entertain themselves after resisting conversion?
And with the Socceroos likely to enter a rebuilding phase after the 2014 World Cup, will the fans still continue to rally behind the national team even if the rebuilding process is long and painful?
People say the game no longer relies on the national team’s performances but I do not believe that.
National identity is very strong in all the big football nations of the world and when their national teams suffer, the game itself suffers.
In a country where the game is still recovering after years of mismanagement, can the FFA whether some tough Socceroos years with the A-League?
I don’t have the answers as I am obviously not a clairvoyant, but the future of football still looks murky.
David Gallop and his team have done a lot of good work but there are many hurdles still to overcome before football is this country’s number one code.
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