Football in Australia has bucket loads of potential if run correctly, but that potential has never truly been capitalised on.
The FFA really need to knuckle down and work out the best way to keep growing the sport in the short term. The next 12 months will be critical in its journey, and below are six points (both short and long term) that the FFA must concentrate on right away.
New TV deal
This will be the biggest TV deal in the sport’s history. There’s no doubt that the game is worth more now than it was three years ago.
Broadcast revenue is where the majority of the game’s money comes from, so let’s hope it’s enough to keep growing and promoting the competition, not just to keep it afloat for another three to four years. If we stand still we’re going backwards.
Exposure is another big one, as it’s a massive key to growing the game. The A-League needs to partner with a commercial free-to-air broadcaster, even on a secondary channel like GO, Gem, 7TWO, 7mate etc.
A good deal for the code and a smart allocation of the potential funds would go a long way to improving the game. I believe CEO David Gallop’s time at the FFA will be heavily measured by what he can do at the negotiating table.
Allow for a proper football market
The FFA needs to allow transfer fees between A-League clubs without restrictions, making for an open football economy, just as we see in every other country.
The popular belief has always been that this would cripple the smaller clubs, but on the contrary, this would take the A-League and Australian football to another level. Yes, the more powerful clubs would, in theory, benefit by having the deepest pockets, and supposedly being able to sign the best young players in the country, but all for a fair and reasonable price in today’s market.
It would provide the smaller clubs much-needed funds and sharpen their focus on continuous quality youth development. And in an era where most or all A-League clubs are now building academies and have teams in state NPL competitions, this would be a massive win-win for the entire Australian football community.
The other one would be to banish the ridiculous $10,000 maximum transfer fees allowed from A-League clubs to NPL outfits for their best talents. This rule is archaic and keeps the old soccer/new football divide going. There shouldn’t be a maximum fee in place, but if it’s needed, I’m sure A-League clubs could pay local clubs up to $50,000 for their best young talents. This would be a fairer amount and a massive incentive for suburban and NPL clubs.
Marquee players
This topic comes up all the time and it needs to be addressed for next season. Obviously, A-League clubs can’t compete with wages in the MLS or the Chinese Super League, but football’s a worldwide market and there are many top players out there.
On our shores, having a couple of players with a recognisable name is still important. Tim Cahill comes to mind, and the FFA together with the clubs should be working overtime to make it happen for next season. I don’t think he’d dominate this league like many predict, but he’d give it massive dose of credibility to both mainstream and corporate Australia.
Having said that, yes, big name players that people know would be great, but real football fans would not be complaining if every club in the competition had players like Besart Berisha, Thomas Broich or Bruno Fornaroli in every starting XI. It’s about finding the right players, and they don’t all cost $3 million a season. Scouting and contacts are key here.
Second division
I don’t think this is something that’s on the cards right away, as I don’t think the FFA has the sufficient funds, but it’s the next step towards having promotion and relegation in Australia.
The FFA needs to start planning for this. Get a separate second division up and running, with both current and new teams being able to apply to be in the comp. Many of the old NSL powerhouse clubs come to mind, but also some potential new clubs could apply.
At this stage, promotion/relegation is a pipedream in Australia. I would love to see it happen, but financially speaking it’s at least a decade away, and that’s only if the game keeps growing both in popularity and finances.
Football infrastructure
It’s great to see that Adelaide have a great new training base at Playford, the Mariners have their centre of excellence, and Brisbane have just announced their new training base will be at Logan. These training facilities and academies are a must for all the A-League clubs and are way overdue.
Parramatta Stadium is being rebuilt as a 30,000-seater, which is fantastic for the Wanderers and the A-League. This is something that’s been lacking in the first ten years of the league, and hopefully this momentum keeps growing as the clubs and sport need it.
The FFA must also keep driving to secure better facilities for the sport’s grassroots clubs, where the numbers are huge and where investment and funding is lacking. Second tier grounds for competitions such as the FFA Cup are crucial for the sport.
Advertise and promote the league
This hasn’t been done for probably the last eight to nine seasons, or at least nowhere near well enough. This point is just as important to the competition’s health as the other five. It is a big reason why many people still consider the A-League and football to be a niche sport in Australia, because it’s never mass marketed to the general public.
The first season had a great TV ad with New Zealand rapper Scribe and everyone loved it. FFA spent decent coin on a marketing and advertising budget that year, but since then things have gone quiet. Did they think they’d made it to the big time?
Even the AFL, the biggest sporting juggernaut in the country, spends massive dollars on advertising every year. They know it is essential to keep the momentum going.
The FFA doesn’t have a war chest of cash to spend on advertising like the AFL and Big Bash League do, but it needs to get smarter with its advertising, starting with the people who already play, understand and love the game.
There’s a huge junior player base whom they haven’t even touched the surface with. Things like targeted promotions with junior clubs in their cities, giveaways, throw in a few free tickets here and there, it’s all part of it.
We now have a good on-field product, it’s competitive, watchable and very marketable, which can’t be said for all 11 seasons. We’ve all enjoyed seeing the product grow and improve from day one. But it’s now the off-field incompetence or constant standstill that’s letting the game down, in many instances it’s crippling the game and not allowing it to thrive. That needs to change.
There are many more points I could go on with here, but I’ll hold some material back for future posts. Do you agree? What would you do differently or implement today if you were the FFA?
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Sorry work got to my head all day and played with my wording. Was more agreeing that one season, when they hopefully decide to implement pro/rel, that could be a simple way to do it, without creating more franchises, or new competitions out of the blue.
Patrick Effeney
Editor
Gentlemen... This is a little petty. WCR is a solid Roar contributor who's a fan of multiple sports, like a lot of us on the site. Judge by the content of their comment, not their name or which sport they usually comment on.
Kurt
Guest
It would almost be like a soccer fan and avowed hater of Australian Football taking an almost obsessive interest in the use of performance enhancing drugs at Essendon FC and posting endlessly about it on the AFL tab. Fortunately however such an idea is completely farfetched...
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
"One day you will realise this is not Europe" C'mon mid. It's time to drop the euro cringe thing with pro:rel., we've moved well past that now.. You know for a fact that we are basically the only country in ASIA, yes ASIA (not Europe) that doesn't have pro/rel.. For the record I'm not a euro snob who is pulling this pro/rel thing out of my ar5e. It's an AFC directive.,whether we can manage it or not is another completely separate issue. But it's what our asian bosses expect of us. This has zero to do with Europe.
asanchez
Roar Guru
Hi guys, Thanks for all your comments. As the new 4-year strategic plan was announced today by the FFA, it looks like a couple of my points will be implemented straight away, being the FFA actually helping to invest in marquee players, and it also looks like they're going to start advertising the league from next season. This is all being done now as a knee jerk reaction, to make sure that season 12 is a great season for the league, and that in turn will help the FFA to get a good TV deal for season 13 on onwards. As I've said in my article, both helping to fund marquee players and advertising the league should be done year in year out, and not as a last ditch measure. Now I know many people on this forum have mentioned some or all of these points before, but I think they all need to be implemented, not just 1 or 2. And we're at a critical juncture of the league's existence, where I believe either some of the these get at least looked at or implemented very soon, or the league runs the risk or going backwards. I know some say that the league has started going backwards already, but I don't buy that. We have a very close league this year, most of the top 6 clubs can still win the title, and there's some very good players playing in the A-league this season. I just think we need to celebrate our strong points better and sing and dance about them more to the general public. The marketing of the league and it's players just needs to be reinvigorated and ramped up, as the game has many great stories to tell, the FFA just isn't getting that message across well enough. Sure finances come into it, but that must improve. There's also been a few comments on here about my wording, and it's very simple with me, I've never called the sport soccer, others do and that's fine, no issues there. But I've grown up calling the game football and to me it'll always be football, I'll always call it that. Obviously I understand there's other codes in Australia, but they all call themselves football, no sport actually owns the word exclusively, so not sure what the big deal is. Clearly some people have nothing better to do! Cheers guys.
marron
Guest
More hits than EPL articles. Let alone la liga or bundesliga.
marron
Guest
We will find out a bit next season as WSW are forced to move out of the west to homebush. 10 games at the Olympic stadium and 3 at skoda or spotless or whatever latest sponsor... place won't know what's hit it.
Punter
Guest
The Wookie, I seen some of your articles on Australia's game being played in other countries, you do so in the AFL tab & I wish you nothing but good wishes. In my travels around the world in Europe & Asia mainly, the only times I hear anyone discuss AFL is someone with a strong Aussie accent. Now would I jump on your articles to tell you otherwise, but why would I, you are doing a great service to your sport of choice by discussing the imprint your sport has around the world. You are talking about a sport. Yet we have the likes Dean & other AFL supporters who love coming on the Football tab telling us that football is not no 1 in this country. Now I can assure the AFL would be over the moon to have a competition 1/10 of the A-League anywhere else in the world.
Punter
Guest
Casper, you can believe what you like. I don't live in West Sydney, nor do I follow West Sydney, however I do work in West Sydney & I do drive around the city, I read papers, I talk to people at work, in pubs, cafes. I see people working around, I see bumper stickers. I see WSW merchandise everywhere (I feel sorry for those wearing it or talking about them), but I see & hear nothing of GWS, it has no presence. I see people walking around with Swans caps, I see people with Swans merchandise, but GWS (for all it's budget, playing the best AFL players in the world every week), nothing!!!! Sorry mate, not trying to upset you, but AFL massive in AFL heartland, outside, niche sport, Swans, been around for awhile but GWS, the presence in this city is nothing.
FIUL
Guest
The level of interest in local Aussie football issues from people who tell us they don't watch local Aussie football & don't like local Aussie football is just extraordinary. Strange how our low-quality Aleague competition, that no one in Australia cares about, fascinates the football illiterates. No other sport on The Roar attracts as much negativity from outsiders, who have no interest in the sport. Aleague is not the best-in-the world but it sure attracts interest on The Roar as if it is.
SVB
Guest
Yeah, Casper we are all fretting over GWS. I mean you just mentioned how they will blow WSW out of the water right now so it must be true. Has nothing to do with indifference right? Maybe you should look up the word 'sarcasm' to understand it all.. You totally missed the point of Punter's post anyway.
marcel
Guest
Isn't Aussie Rules just a laugh designed to keep cricketers fit in the winter?
Casper
Guest
RBB - In case you didn't notice, I am responding to Punter who mentioned the AFL. For a team with no relevance. it seems like Western Sydney people spend a lot of time fretting over them.
AR
Guest
Quiet Wookie. Either praise futtball unfailingly or get out. That, and raise your right arm for Donald Trump.
AR
Guest
I think far too much is made of this "best comp in the world" point. People generally watch a sport because: - they like it. - their family likes it, and their grandparents liked it before that. - their kids like it and have easy access to it. The speculative academic debate of "best league" vs "5th best league" is phooey in my mind. When the Perth Wildcats get crowds of 15k it's because people in Perth like basketball and like their club - not because the NBL is the 4th, 7th or 10th "best comp in the world".
RBBAnonymous
Guest
Can you please discuss AFL in the AFL tab please. You are wasting our time. You have no idea how much disdain there is for GWS in Western Sydney. They have no relevance, but I seriously hope they stay as long as possible so that the AFL can pump millions more into what i know will be a losing venture. The sooner you move this team out to Canberra the sooner the AFL will see a profit.
Casper
Guest
Punter - you talk about WSW as if they are some sort of sporting goliath. They average 14k in a 20k stadium. GWS will blow them out the water in the coming years, just like the Swans do with Sydney FC.
marron
Guest
Mate if I was reading an article about the MLS and the author said "for American football to progress" I'd know exactly what it meant. Like in this article, where the article is not calling it "Australian Football", it's not a proper noun, it's a descriptive term meaning "football in america/Australia". Nobody is trying to create a new world order in which the game is called "Australian Football". Blainey, like many others, makes the mistake of seeing codification as a point in time before which football didn't exist and after which different codes existed in isolation. That's wrong. Football was going and being experimented with for many years before. Attempts to create universal codes, such as at Cambridge in 1848, resulted in rules that had lots of similarities. Wills and Co were a product of that time; what they did may have been the first to gain a longterm foothold but it wasn't something that "Australia" created; it was similar to other attempts - so much so that even into the late 19th century British soldiers etc could play against Melbourne sides without too much hassle. Of course, their attempt developed - over the next 50 years - and in isolation - into a game we'd recognize today - a unique game, an Australian game, and one I have no problem with calling "Australian Football" (although it has always been aussie rules to me). But the line that says "this game was invented here in isolation, we were the first"... it's not accurate. That's a rewrite of what was actually happening.
15 metres is needed for a mark
Guest
So you would be ok with soccer being referred to as "American football" in America? or is that different because American football...you know the one invented by Americans for Americans is more glamorous and powerful than Australian football? AFL stands for Australian Football League...so for this blogger to call soccer Australian football doesn't make sense. Your argument does not resonate with me at all sorry to say Ian. We will have to agree to disagree. If you bothered to read Blainey's book you would realise Australian football was codified before soccer, before gaelic football, before rugby league. It is also a unique football code - surely you must agree on this? It is the only one with a combination of high marks, 60-70 metre goals on the run, and handballs. Let me guess, there is a tribe in southern Gaul that invented that sport before the Australians. Yep, ok. Nice way to rewrite history.
Punter
Guest
The issue is the top tier competition in football is rightly name, because there are 100s of competitions, the top tier in the others well in truth they are also close to the worst or one of the worst as well!!!!