T20 cricket has been stealing the A-League’s thunder over the summer and there’s nothing the A-League can do about it.
So if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Instead of stagnating in the ratings with 11-a-side, why not make up a new format?
Let’s take a few rules from other forms of the game and apply them to a full-size pitch.
Futsal, five-a-side, six-a-side, beach soccer and arena soccer all have rules that could be applied to a new form of the game. Maybe it could be called Thunderball.
Reduce the number of players to eight-a-side.
Drop the offside rule and replace it with a shooting D or semi-circle like five-a-side.
Bring in hot substitutions to keep players fresh and the pace of the game high.
Have a timekeeper to prevent time wasting.
Divide the game into 15 minute quarters and add music and lighting effects like arena soccer. Loud commentary in Spanish over the PA system would also help.
Bring in Samba dancers like they have in beach soccer.
If the scores are level at full time throw in all the spare balls from around the outside of the pitch for five minutes of multi-ball like Jimeoin has suggested.
If you have any doubt about the changes I’ve suggested just check out the video below. Now just imagine that kind of experience at ANZ during the Sydney derby!
A new tournament?
Once these changes are made we could have a pause in the A-League and have a short tournament of 16 teams during the Big Bash season. A group stage with four teams in each followed by knockout rounds. It’ll be an absolute goal fest.
The purists will hate it but the casual fans will love it, just like T20.
I think it should take off quite well, don’t you?
At work
Roar Rookie
Martyn50, Anon - You guys just don't get it do you. The level of arrogance you display in your comments that we should change the rules of football to entice more AFL supporters beggars belief.
Nemesis
Guest
IF the grassroots football community decide to embrace ALeague = Great IF the grassroots football community do not embrace ALeague = No problem. Keep playing the game. Keep watching overseas leagues. Keep following the National Team. Keep engaging in ALeague discussions on social media & ignore the discussions for the sports you do watch. Winning over grassroots will take a generation. May take 2 generations. There's no rush. 12 years ago, ALeague was nothing. Even I, as a football fan, didn't have much to do with it. TV revenue was $750,000 per year. Now, 12 years later ALeague TV revenue - just from PayTV - will be $56,000,000 per year. Every day on social media people who don't watch ALeague want to talk about the competition. This doesn't happen with AFL or NRL. No one who doesn't follow those comps goes there each day to engage in conversations about a sport they don't watch. The sporting world has changed in 12 yrs. In 12 more years the sporting landscape in Australia will be unrecognisable to what it was in Jan 2005 before ALeague started. Will the local Crash & Carry Ball sports survive? Probably not enough room for 3 Crash & Carry Ball. I'd forecast the only international Crash & Carry Ball Sport will eventually take over & the other 2 will be similar to curling & hurling.
steve
Guest
The grassroots level represents 1+ million Aussies? As has been pointed out to you numerous times, its the very large majority of these grassroots supporters that you often spruik that couldn't care less about the A League. This is Soccer's problems in Australia, the grassroots have little to no interest in the country's top competition. Its not the AFL or the casual sports fans or the posers as you like to call them that is the problem, its soccer's own grassroots.
c
Guest
racially intolerant buddy go away
Nemesis
Guest
So what? The professional level of Football in Australia represents 200 Aussies. The grassroots level represents 1+ million Aussies. But, if you think the pro level of sport is the indicator of a sports' health & strength, no problem. That's probably why some sports are now recruiting adults who have never played their sport because those people who've never played the sport are considered better prospects than kids who grew up playing that same sport since they were kids.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
I note that this is the answer to everything posted here. And yet at the professional level, the game is not.
northerner
Guest
Let's be clear here. I'm not defending your opinions, Anon, because I don't agree with them. But I am defending your right, and everyone else's right, to have opinions and to speak freely about them.
anon
Roar Pro
Thanks, mate. I'd like to think Australia is a tolerant place, and sports fans have moved past the days of having a national sporting league divided along ethnic lines. Having a Melbourne Croatia in your national league is as crazy as having a Melbourne Sudan or West Sydney Lebanon in the A-League in 2017. Even today the renamed Melbourne Croatia (Melbourne Knights) pander to ethnic identity on their logo by including the coat of arms from the Croatian flag, and using the Croatian colours to form the basis of their uniform. If anything the FFA should ban the Melbourne Knights from competing in the FFA Cup for pandering to ethnic divisions and intolerance.
punter
Guest
Mister Football's point stands, a little less aggression on this board would be most welcome by everyone. At the end of the day, we’re all football fans, and we’re here on the Roar because we love football & feel no need to change for someone who's passion is not for this game. Just reminding you biggest game in the world.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
northerner's point stands, a little less aggression on this board would be most welcome by everyone. At the end of the day, we're all sports fans, and we're here on the Roar because we love sport.
northerner
Guest
That is exactly what I'm saying. "Go back to where you came from" has an unequivocal meaning. No ifs, ands, or buts. And all the weasel words in the world won't change it.
jamesb
Guest
Thunderball? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia6-5gC5ArM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Nemesis
Guest
You're kidding? You're equating bigotry in politics & society telling people they don't belong living in Australia, with telling someone who doesn't like football to go back to watching the sport he likes? Unbelievable.
Martyn50
Roar Rookie
"the world’s most widely watched and most widely played team sport" World yes. Australia no. Take your head out of the sand and look around, and see that soccer in Australia is going nowhere. Change for the better or die out like the Dinosaurs. Other sports have adapted. Afl HAVE afl9'S. NRL have 5 or 7 aside and touch rugby. Maybe soccer could change it's scoring system?
northerner
Guest
"If you don’t like football the way it is, go back to where you came from." Really? so now we're channeling all those delightful political groups of the past and current century that didn't/don't like people who don't think just the way they do? I've got news for you, pal. We're in the 21st century and people get to have different opinions about literature, music, art, politics, religion, and yes, even sports. And no one should be told he has to go back to where he came from because he's not the right colour or the right religion or because he doesn't happen to fit in with your view of what sport should be. This is a pluralistic society: learn to live with it.
anon
Roar Pro
You play the internationals under FIFA rules. A T20 player can change their style of play to test cricket. I'm sure a soccer player can adapt to what is a slight variation.
SVB
Guest
AFL bogans throwing bananas is also acceptable in anon's world. That will be part of his new game to create 'excitement'.
Mick H
Roar Rookie
"Loud commentary in Spanish over the PA system would also help." Hahaha, fantastic.
Nemesis
Guest
anon. Everything you said in the above post demonstrates you know nothing about how football is administered. As I said, if you think you've got a winning formula, you and your mates can start your own competition. I'm sure there will be billions watching your new sport within a few years.
Nemesis
Guest
@Anon if you don't like Football, walk away. Here's a thought: why don't you and your friends start your own sport with all the suggestions you've made? No doubt it will be hugely popular and you and your friends will be the leaders of a new global sport. You wonder what planet people are living on when they think the world's most widely watched and most widely played team sport needs to transform. If you don't like football the way it is, go back to where you came from.