Dear fellow A-League fan, it takes only a quick glance of the A-League-related articles on this site to realise the passion you have for this competition in Australia.
I also realise that you are desperate for changes and improvements to the way the sport is run in this country. I too want the A-League to be the best it can be, but when I consider all of the issues at play (in my own ignorant layman way), I cannot help but feel that your criticism of the FFA is a little bit over the top and unbalanced.
Firstly, consider the unique market the FFA finds itself in. There are three other competing football codes! While I am a thirty-something male with no children and disposable income, and can afford to go to 25+ games across football, rugby league and cricket each year, this is not often the case for families.
Rugby league and AFL in this country are giants. They have been around for over 100 years each, whereas the A-League is very much in its infancy. Whether it be the ratings of rugby league or the gate takings of the AFL, it is fair to say that a proportion of the income earned from those two sports is income lost to the A-League.
It is income that could be spent on any number of things to improve the game. Financially, the FFA are up against it in a country with a small amount of people.
The A-League should certainly dream big. It seems that it has now ascended above Super Rugby to no.3 in the country, but try as I might it is very hard to see the A-League matching the attendances of the AFL anytime soon (one of the highest average attended competitions in the world), or the viewership of the NRL. The new NRL channel Fox League become the most watched channel on Foxtel for the first time this week.
It is absolutely fair for you as a paying fan to expect high standards of our administrators, but respect must be paid to the extremely difficult situation they find themselves in.
Another of your common gripes seems to be scheduling of matches in the A-League. Again, consider the near impossible task the FFA have in developing their draw. The Brisbane Roar share a stadium with two other teams, as do Sydney FC.
Western Sydney are currently homeless but when they get to return to their new digs it will be with a housemate, and in Melbourne you have four, that’s right four, teams using AAMI Park throughout the year.
This is not to even mention Coldplay, Ed Sheeran et al. Sure the A-League could probably try a little bit harder to have some match ups a little bit more spaced out, but in the whole scheme of things, is this really one of the most pressing issues the game faces?
Because what is the actual supposed downside of this haphazard draw? Two derbies drawing massive crowds in the space of three weeks. Geez that is awful! Talk about taking the glass half empty approach.
Getting some new stadiums built is without doubt a crucial aspect of the A-League’s long term future, but being that this is not on the agenda for now (or anytime soon), you need to accept the reality of the situation on this matter.
Your criticism of the spacing out of match-ups goes hand in hand with the length of the season. Some of you think the season is too long, while others suggest the season should be longer. On the first opinion, is it not an AFC requirement that member’s seasons be 27 games minimum?
Being that you have ten teams playing each other three times for 27 games total, this seems an absolutely natural and reasonable amount of minimum games. I love sport, so I would have no problem with there being more games, but more games is likely to accentuate the congestion of match-ups as discussed above so it would appear as though the FFA are damned if they do, damned if they don’t on this front.
When you suggest the season is too long, you point to this season meandering on towards the back end this time around. I think this was more just a product of Sydney FC’s dominance this year. The race for the plate was essentially over ten weeks ago, but I doubt you were complaining about the length of the season last year when three teams were still in the hunt come the last round.
This is not criticism that can be in any levelled at the FFA in my opinion.
Which leads me to expansion, the golden ticket that could fix many of these problems. You have mounted a case for each potential expansion site at length on this site, so I won’t go over them again in any great detail.
What I will say is this. The task ahead for the FFA in choosing which two teams to bring in is an extremely difficult one, and one I’m fine with them deliberating on. Every prospective team is both exciting and problematic in its own way.
As you have said, if you bring in a third Sydney team, where do you find 10,000 new football fans that previously haven’t been turned on by Sydney FC or the Wanderers? Hobart is exciting, but there must be a heap of reasons why no other code has gone there yet.
The locational identity of the disparate southern bid has been discussed by you at length here. Gold Coast has been tried and failed, and still struggles to support teams in the other codes. A second Brisbane team could create healthy competition for the Brisbane Roar, but I’m weary of introducing a derby partner with no geographical differentiation (which is why the Sydney derby will always be the favoured of the current two for mine).
You get the picture I’m trying to paint (with very long brushstrokes, apologies for that!). I want expansion, and I want it yesterday. But the choice is a massive one that shapes the future of the competition.
Introduce two more success stories like the Wanderers, and the A-League is invigorated for years to come. Introduce two like the Northern Fury, and you can forget about your 13th, 14th, 15th or 16th teams anytime soon. The decision is one that should be well thought out and considered. There is no particularly obvious choice.
The FFA has a lot of work to do. But I just cannot bring myself to level too much criticism at this point until they have been afforded a reasonable opportunity to act on these imperatives. They have said that the two new teams will most likely come in for the season after next.
Therefore, strap yourself in for another problem-riddled season before anything is done. If expansion does not come to pass at that time, that would be the time for criticism. Until then, enjoy the action on the pitch!
Yours truly,
FFA apologist.
Real Mister Football
Roar Rookie
Hey Ben, you might be right but I think free to air tv days are numbered. Look at channel 10, they're slowly dying and will probably lose the BBL. I think in the next 5 years or so the majority of people's tv viewing will be on some kind of paid subscription.
Ben
Guest
I would be concerned with the new big bash tv deal and expansion. You need to get on free to air TV asap. No sane person could argue with that
Realfootball
Guest
Thanks for contributing the piece, Jordan.
Jordan
Guest
Hi All, Thank-you for all the responses, I actually didn't know it was published until this morning when there was already 27 responses. In the whole very constructive and a good spectrum of opinions. I understand that my piece could be taken as a list of excuses. I guess to a certain extent that it is. I like everyone else on here expect firm leadership and action from the FFA, but I guess I am willing to be slightly more patient. I would expect that at least something is going on behind the scenes right now regarding expansion and I notice another article on here this morning with Greg O'Rourke announcing that improvements will be made to scheduling. As I said, they have already told us next season will feature 10 clubs, so with a view to season 18/19 I think you will start action on expansion start to heat up very shortly (being that this season starts in roughly 18 months). In the meantime, be cool. The FFA might appear to be sitting on their hands currently but I think what good they have done has to be recognized also. The introduction of the FFA cup, introduction of the Wanderers, the TV rights deal (which I think is a good one all told) etc, Time will tell in the next two years if change of personnel is required to take football in this country to the next level, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer.
Waz
Guest
We are not unique. There are countries around the world that make football work with greater challenges than we have. The "we are unique" has become a BS excuse to hold on to power. The USA is "unique" but naming a go of it; Russia is "unique" geographically but survives. It's become an excuse not a statement.
FootOverHand
Guest
I have been watching quite a bit of Japanese football over the last three years, it's good in the off season and a good warm up before watching A League.
FootOverHand
Guest
Wow, I never knew it was on youtube!! Cheers mate, I'll have a look at your other reconmendations, Yeah same for me, there are advantages to shift work :)
MarkfromCroydon
Roar Pro
The Argentine league has been free and on youtube for the past 4 (I think) years. Unfortunately, the contract has just been terminated, there's been a major crisis in Argentina with the t.v rights and the league was actually suspended for months. You can still watch it on the tv publica website and telefe free and live, but I'm not sure whats happening after August with the superliga coming in. For the Brazilian Serie A, and Paulista and the Colombian Primera and Copa libertadores, you have to search the internet when a match is on, but you usually manage to get a stream, usually on youtube. Otherwise there are full match replays online on the day of the game, and it's pretty easy to not see a result and watch the replay if you can't watch it live. The only problem is a lot of matches are on anywhere between 5.30 and 11.30 in the mornings (which was fine at my old job, but a struggle now) so I'm watching less live and basically watching replays now.
FootOverHand
Guest
http://www.thepeckingorder.com.au/tpovision/
Nemesis
Guest
Mike Cockerill has written a piece that is parallel to my post - it's time for FFA to understand that football is King at Grassroots & find ways to link Grassroots to the ALeague. The FFA Cup helps. A National 2nd Dvision would increase the grassroots connection. Promotion & Relegation across the entirety of Australia will be the final link. Full story: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/football-federation-australia-can-thrive-where-the-australian-rugby-union-has-failed-20170415-gvlogn.html
Caltex & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
Let's just say they are Australian Football fans. We learnt to play our football in Australia. And we want a real domestic league to succeed. We as a family (my family) supported Australian Football when it was called Australian Soccer. We have seen most, to all, the best old time greats play in NSW---the likes of Joe Marston, John Watkiss and the Warren brothers (same grass roots Sydney Earlwood soccer club). Admittedly, their knowledge of A-league players may not be anywhere near as good of those who write on this website, but make no mistake, we love Australian Football, support it, and want to see it grow. Would you call that as being a casual sport fan? Maybe it is; I would like to think it's more than that.
Realfootball
Guest
Far too proactive for any one at FFA, in any case. They might think about throwing someone under a bus, discuss it, call for expressions of interest from bus drivers, consider other options, nominate a time frame for doing it, then ask for more time... but they would never actually do it.
Realfootball
Guest
All reasonable points, but you don't address the elephant in the room - a systemic failure of leadership. I can't help but feel that this article is a list of excuses. It doesn't matter how you fail or why, the only thing that matters is the end result. Where is the vision? Where is the strategy? Gallop was reactive NRL head, now his limitations are being visited upon football. Who knows what Lowy thinks or is doing.
Nemesis
Guest
Sounds like your brothers aren't Casual Fans? They're keen football fans. They're just not keen on the ALeague. I define casual fans as people who don't have interest in the underlying sport, but will tune in to watch if it piques their interest. My opinion: apart from ALeague Melb & Sydney Derby & the Grand Final, casual fans won't ever have interest in ALeague. People who do have interest won't be casual fans, they'll be keen football fans.
Nemesis
Guest
"Who here watches the Colombian league, or the Romanian League." Australia's time zone makes it difficult to watch anything other than East Asian football. Some Sth American football is played at a decent hour on Sunday mornings, but most is not. For most of the ALeague season, 8:00 pm matches would kick off (European time) at 9 am (UK) to 1 pm (Russia). Now with Europe on Daylight savings, the times are even more favourable. ALeague matches that kick off on Saturday at 8pm or Sunday at 7 pm equate to 11 am Saturday or 10 am Sunday in the UK. Easy viewing. The big market for ALeague viewing will be the East Asian (particularly Chinese) sports betting market.
FootOverHand
Guest
I like Sth American football, I watched every game of the Copa America, whilst only a game here and there of the Euro Cup, it's a bit hard to watch actual Sth American leagues, how do you watch it? High scoring games are pretty unique to our league, a lot of people like to bet on A League because of it and then find they enjoy watching it. There was a blog by a Spanish fan of the HAL who explained why he fell in love with the A League for this very reason, I tried to look for the blog, but I can't find it anymore as it was written maybe 3-4 years ago. I have come across quite a fair amount of eastern Europeans who watch the HAL and quite a few Sth East Asians - Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and even a few from Japan and Korea. The thing is it's from not the most moral of ways to watch football, or from betting sites like bet365. Even if the FFA sold at a cheap price at first (similar to the EPL), it promotes it and grows in popularity and then you can get some good deals, imagine we got the equivalent of SKY NZ x 4, individually it may seem small, but together it mounts up and could grow in the future.
saul
Guest
Mike Cockerill's article today is the perfect response to this article " FFA'S challenge thrive where Rugby and the ARU has failed"
Caltex & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
We need to go back to this comment of yours “ALeague will never provide glamour, hype & celebrity.” Different generations, had different football experiences (because of circumstances) in the late 50s and 60s. My elder brothers, played and followed football as youngsters, as I did, and followed Rugby League as spectators. Although, their passion still, and will remain with Football, they will also tune into games of today's NRL. I can tell you this, in their time, as Football followers, of their generation, they were very knowledgeable football personnel. Two of us, out of three brothers played for semi professional football clubs and the eldest a football referee (grass roots, NSW Soccer association) in the then, NSW Soccer Federation. Older generations, are lounge room spectators these days. This does not mean they can't hold a reasonable discussion about Australian Football History or appreciate the modern game of Football.
Nemesis
Guest
Not sure if this is true, Caltex. The Casual Sports Fan is neither knowledgeable about sport, nor interested in substance. They're interested in events - big name concert acts, sport events, etc. Yesterday we had two highly competitive, entertaining, end-to-end A-League matches. But, these matches will never draw the Casual Fan unless they're aimlessly flicking channels during the game. And, I don't buy into the theory that Casual Sports Fans are watching AFL & NRL in huge numbers. If they are watching in huge numbers, then it means the committed AFL & NRL fans are much smaller than quoted.
Neil
Guest
What you are saying is true, it is a wonder football has survived in this hostile market and I believe is the strength of the playing numbers that has propped it up in the face of adversity.