Can the world game become Australia's Game?

We can all see the A league going from strength to strength in recent years. Gallop's comments aren't a revelation, but are necessary to promote the huge potential growth trajectory the FFA is embarking on. I've no doubt it will become the major professional code in Australia, possibly in not much more than a decade, which is quite astonishing. The key indicators as always will be the size of the media deal every 4 years. The FFA is expected to more than double their deal next time around, that would start to give it serious muscle. Another 4 years and they double again and suddenly presto you are up there with the big boys. That is a year 7 year timeframe. Another 4 years beyond that how big do you think football will be in Australia and across Asia ? Well the likely answer is 11 years from now it will be huge here, also bolstered by a massively expanded Asian market and quite likely at the point of overtaking the other codes...

Yep, as the son of British migrants who grew up in the 70's watching the great Liverpool sides on the ABC (often the only game you could watch) I will always love the Pool and will always tune in for the big games and closely monitor their progress each week - however - its a no brainer for me. I knew this shift had occurred at the game at the MCG last year when I showed up in Navy and decided that, despite a lifetime of waiting, I would not sing YNWA. I absolutely loved hearing it - but it would not have been right to participate,

A very sober and reasonable 'vision statement' for the game. No hyperbole - just strong, but steady growth. The demographics are deeply on the side of Australian football. The people who need to understand this (FFA, TV, press etc....) demographic bomb all know this and the last people to get it will be the people who's entire identity (NRL/AFL fans) / business model (tabloid media) is predicated on the status quo being protected. A lot of work ahead - but the demography is as plain as the nose on my face. This is not a sprint and the FFA rightly acknowledge this between bouts of media strategy driven hyperbole.

I appreciated his honesty. He has nothing to apologise for or prove to anyone. He is as mad as a hatter, but he loves the game and he has been a stable owner. I was pleased to see his future ambitions and sense of responsibility for any future ownership transition. Fair play to him. You don't have to like him - but you have to respect him.

If City can establish themselves a bit more in Melbourne, and the Roar keep their huge growth continuing this season, and new clubs are placed in Canberra and Wollongong, something interesting will begin emerging. Football will be beating AFL in Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra, Wollongong and you'd imagine North Queensland when expand back up there. Football will be beating NRL in Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Central Coast and possibly Wollongong. And yet the A-league still hardly gets the attention it deserves?

Don Quixtoe... tilting at windmills .. football is half of all world sport AND growing .. so its going to level of competition never seen before ,, each wold cup shows this ... But this can only happen in football as it is the most complex game in terms of skill tactics ,,, and due to the numbers playing .. the top Footballers leave all other pro team sport athletes for dust ... no comparison .. its just the math :)

EPL is larger than the NFL .. Man U the biggest club... thats because its the most popular football league in the world...NFL biggest sport in the US .. used ot be the biggest, but globalisation mean no domestic sport can be this .........more money in the EPL

Always is a very long time. If anyone had said 30-40 years ago that the Swans would regularly be the most followed team in Sydney, you would've been met with howls of laughter or that a Football derby would get more people to the Sydney Football Stadium than any other sport in that year, a similar response would have ensued, but here we are in 2014 with exactly that scenario. Sydney has indeed become a diverse sports city and who knows what will happen in 30 years.

100% With you there Fuss, if we're known by name then we're doing our job as football fans.

When it comes to choosing between EPL games and a big local game like the Sydney or Melbourne Derby, the choice is easy for me. I choose the game that affects me. I am an AU fan. It matters nothing to me if Kun Aguero scores a ha trick in the Manchester Derby. *thats* kind of like a high end art gallery. It's pretty to look at, but I have no emotional connection to it so it just doesn't matter to me.

Australia has been like this for 50-odd years, yes, but it is only in the last 10 years that football under Frank Lowy has got its act together. As can be shown by the growth of the attendances of the A-League and the TV ratings of the FFA Cup, football not being a basket case anymore is a game changer.

You love it when something bad happens in league? Interesting mentality

Mmm, the multicultural argument. You realise Australia has been like this for 50 years. Good luck

I was forced to watch the sydney derby on delay. After I finished the game i flicked the telly on to City v Tottenham, in spite of the 'world-class' players the Sydney derby was a far better spectacle, with a far better atmosphere, and a far better pitch. The crowds the last two rounds have been absolutely incredible - i'm aware this will fall but perhaps we have picked up a few eurosnobs already!! Melbourne City look to open the second level of aami park today which is bloody exciting too!!!

Post of the week asanchez

Thanks Fuss. I put down 30 players squad sizes because once all our A-league clubs have teams playing in their own state leagues, some players in that 30, particularly the younger players have the access to play at state level also. And if were gonna have 35 odd game seasons, plus FFA Cup, plus Finals and plus ACL, some teams could end up playing 50 games. So teams will need more depth, otherwise once 2-3 starting 11 players get injured, that side drops off dramatically. The other thing I forgot to mention, and it's now become the most important thing for the code right now, is the TV rights. This is what will keep our code growing quickly, particularly in the short to medium term, and get the sport to where it needs to be. I predict that our next TV rights deal will be $80m-$100m per year, with possibly a commercial FTA station coming on board, for at least 1 game per week, like a channel 10.

Great post, asanchez. I like all your 10 year forecasts apart from .. - squad sizes increased to 30 from the current 23 I'd like all squads for every football competition - everywhere in the world - to be set at 23. This would prevent talent being warehoused.

What is this rubbish? Production (GDP) = consumption (C) + Investment (I) + Government spending (G). This is not some undergraduate simplification ... each of these variables is closely tracked. I have a masters degree in Economics. You are talking conspiracy theories. Would you take a home loan in US dollars and take on the currency risk for the A$ dropping in value? Why would anyone else? What you are talking is bunk. And I am not even going to get into the national debt thing. I don't know what conspiratorial blogs you have been reading, but, mate, stop it! That stuff you wrote is recycling the diatribe of someone in a bunker in Montana, stocked up on canned food and wearing a tin foil hat.

Yep, that's a good comment.

It isn't that important for soccer/football to be the number one code in Oz. Democratically, it might not be a good thing for one sport to dominate every market on the planet. In Australia, it is enough for football to compete well with the other codes, to the extent where certain media outlets no longer feel that they have to undermine the game, and all codes stop taking shots at each other.