I think the Socceroos need to play more games before the World Cup together than we have currently planned.
I think particularly that the A-League players should play as a team more together.
And I have a devious plan.
It is probably a pipe dream at this late date, but boy it’d be amazing if it was picked up by FFA.
It would be amazing even if part of it could be implemented.
The reason why we are not playing more games is that the rules for releases to national associations requires that outside of the allowed FIFA dates, a “club is not obliged to release a player who has been called up if the friendly match in question is to be held on a date outside the coordinated international match calendar. In accordance with Article 36 Paragraph 4, a player shall only be released to the national association if his club agrees to his release.”
But what if it wasn’t necessary.
What if we could bag two or three additional games outside of the FIFA dates, as well as whatever ones we organise inside the FIFA dates?
We should be trying for more games. Even if it won’t work, it’s worth the effort. And here’s how I’d make it happen, if I had the power.
Step #1: FFA asks the A-League to agree for clubs to release their Socceroos players to play two matches mid-week on a two occasions in January-March.
A-League clubs are very accommodating generally, as the success of the Socceroos leads to their success.
I think they’d go for it.
Step #2a: FFA sends release requests for all Aussie players. This would probably mostly be accepted in off-season leagues and rejected in active leagues. Hence we simultaneously do Step #2b.
Step #2b We send invites to play us to countries whose leagues are not currently in season.
(This also helps national associations to be onside so that clubs are less likely to object to step #2).
We seek to get an Asian / Nth American team to travel to us and agree to travel to a European opponent.
From a basic search of the season dates below (which may not be even correct), some of the leagues that could accommodate this could be:
Asian/American League examples
J. League (Japan) March – December
K-League (Korea Republic) March – November
Major League Soccer (USA/Canada) March – December
Uzbek League March-November
European League examples
Norwegian Premier League: March – November
League of Ireland: March – October
Russian Premier League: winter break from mid-December to mid-March
Bundesliga (Germany) (winter break of one to two months)
Allsvenskan (Sweden): March-Early April – late October-early November.
Now of course, there may be other reasons why these countries can’t send a team to play us, or may not want to, but there are probably others who could.
Step #3 Hopefully something like the following is arranged.
Warm-up game versus New Zealand in New Zealand or at home.
The first (warm-up) game and least optimal option (as we would want them to play higher-ranked teams), though a possibility, would be a box-office success at least.
We could play New Zealand, as there are far more A-League players in the All Whites First Side than in the Socceroos.
Against Mexico, they had 11/21 in their squad from the A-League, plus they could ask to field NZ-based players also.
Game #1 versus An Asian or CONCACAF opponent in Australia (eg. Japan, Korea, Uzbekistan, USA inter alia)
These would be a good challenge for us, except if we played Uzbekistan. We would also get any of our players playing in the countries out of season (eg. Japan, Korea, Uzbekistan, USA) to pick from also.
Game #2 versus A European opponent in Europe
We then use whoever we can get released of our European players (including ones from the out-of-season countries Germany, Norway, Ireland, Russia, Sweden) for this match alongside any Aussie players we can get released to travel to Europe to play a European opponent.
What do you think Roarers? Do you like the idea enough to contact FFA to push for it?
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