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The FFA's next TV deal must share us the money

Roar Guru
11th September, 2016
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The W-League should receive a hefty increase in funding from the FFA (Image: Peter McAlpine)
Roar Guru
11th September, 2016
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1732 Reads

Football Federation Australia (FFA) has commenced negotiations for its next broadcast rights. While all football content controlled by the FFA will be potentially available for broadcasters, the A-League broadcast rights are the major item for sale.

Let me preface this opinion piece by stating that this is not a discussion about the quantum I expect the broadcast industry in Australia to pay for rights to broadcast local football. Such issues have been discussed before and I’m sure they will be discussed again. Rather, this is an opinion piece to stimulate a wish-list for how to spend the broadcast revenue, if there is a significant increase.

The current broadcast rights, which expire in June 2017, are worth $40 million per year, with Foxtel and SBS the two major broadcasters.

It has been reported the FFA is optimistic about doubling the existing broadcast deal, with the figure of $80m per annum often mentioned.

For the purpose of this discussion, I will assume this report is accurate and the FFA will receive $40m additional revenue per year from the next broadcast deal.

This is how I would like the FFA to share the $40m additional funds from the next broadcast deal.

I want the $40m fully spent on three broad football bases:
a) A-League: $13m (33%)
b) W-League: 8m (20%)
c) Grassroots football: $19m (47%)

Together, these three football groups cover every Australian who has an interest in Australian football.

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A-League
From what I have read, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the FFA and the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) includes a clause that the A-League players will be entitled to one-third of any increase to the broadcast revenue.

Even if this is not true, I still think the A-League players should be entitled to such a share of additional broadcast revenue, given the players drive the A-League product and the A-League product drives the value of the FFA’s broadcast rights.

With this in mind, the A-League players will receive an extra $13m in total from the new broadcast deal. The current A-League salary cap is $2.6m per club, so this would result in a new cap of $3.9m per club.

W-League
The W-League currently has nine teams. Only eight of the ten A-League clubs have a W-League affiliate, with Wellington Phoenix and Central Coast Mariners not fielding teams in the W-League. Canberra United, who are not part of the A-League, does have a W-League team.

It has been reported that the W-League salary cap is currently $150,000 per club but there is no salary floor, so this figure is rarely reached.

I would like revenue from the FFA’s next broadcast deal to significantly transform the W-League as follows:

a) W-League to increase to ten teams with the Central Coast Mariners fielding a W-League team
b) Each team to play every opponent once at home in an 18-match season
c) Salary cap to be $900,000 per club, with the FFA fully funding the W-League salary floor of $800,000 per club with each W-League player being paid a minimum of $40,000 per annum and squads of 20 players.[4]

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Grassroots football
For this discussion, “grassroots football” refers to all football played in Australia outside the fully professional A-League clubs.

For the 2015 financial year, the FFA’s operating revenue was $103,137.The FFA’s published financial statements do not itemise how much is invested in football at grassroots level, but anecdotal evidence suggests the FFA’s investment is insignificant.

With this in mind, I would like a development levy to compensate grassroots football clubs in Australia who produce players for the A-League. Grassroots football clubs outside Australia will not receive any compensation from this levy, since the FFA should not be responsible for grassroots football outside Australia.

The levy would be imposed on all A-League players, but fully funded by the FFA; it will not be an additional expense for the clubs. The levy would be additional to each player’s wage, so the players will not be disadvantaged.

The levy would be determined by each player’s annual wage:

Wage under $400,000 p.a.: 5 per cent levy
Wage over $400,000 p.a.: $20,0000 levy

While the total A-League salary cap will be set at $3.9m per annum (as described above), this includes players who were developed overseas, so I will assume that the total impact on the FFA will be no more than 5 per cent of the salary cap even allowing for wages of marquee players, who will be outside the cap.

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The levy for each player would be then divided across the clubs where that player was registered between the ages of 13 and 17. For each year a player was registered at a grassroots football club in Australia, that club will receive 20 per cent of the levy that attaches to that player. If a player was registered with a foreign club, nothing is paid for that year.

So, for the elite A-League players who earn more than $400,000, each grassroots club that helped develop them will receive $4,000 per annum. If the club developed the player for all five years, that club will receive $20,000. This can become a significant source of income for grassroots clubs who produce multiple A-League players.

Even if the increase of $40m per annum broadcast revenue has been over-inflated, I would still like to see 100 per cent of the increased revenue from broadcasting being reinvested into the three bases I have identified.

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