Andres Iniesta seems about as likely to end up in Australia as Cristiano Ronaldo, but that doesn’t mean A-League clubs shouldn’t consider marquee players.
There has been some confusion over who exactly is stumping up the $3 million on offer for next season’s so-called marquee ‘war chest’, however AAP journalist Vince Rugari stated on Twitter that the funds will come from Fox Sports as part of their broadcast deal.
Some fans have already suggested Fox holds too much sway over the competition, but the reality is that without the host broadcaster, there’d be no A-League to begin with.
And an extra $3 million to spend on some star players is nothing to sniff at.
The only problem is it’s barely enough to buy even a half-decent house in Sydney, let alone sign some of the world’s most recognisable footballers.
That fact was brought into sharp relief by the news that Rakuten-backed Vissel Kobe – the Japanese e-commerce giant also sponsor Barcelona – are willing to pay Iniesta an astronomical $AU40 million per season to move to the J.League.
Perhaps Iniesta could just find himself some cheaper digs in Gosford instead?
Or maybe A-League clubs will just have to keep being creative when it comes to trying to lure foreign talent to our shores.
Which makes it hard to understand why so many clubs are so hell-bent against implementing the 4+1 rule to ensure one visa player comes from Asia.
Not only is it a slap in the face to the Asian Football Confederation, it smacks of a desire to preference lazy recruiting over employing some scouts and actually figuring out who’s who in Asian football.
Want the name of a single Asian player who could do a job in the A-League, without costing the earth and who has the potential to turn into a cult hero?
Mike Havenaar.
But figuring out who Havenaar is, let alone picking up the phone and having a chat with him – he speaks English, of course – would require an A-League coach to do more than simply throw their hands in the air and exclaim “it’s all too difficult”.
So it’s surprising more A-League clubs haven’t made use of Lou Sticca’s services and his extensive contact book.
Sticca, of course, is the agent who brokered the deal to bring Alessandro Del Piero to Sydney FC, and he followed that up by procuring Shinji Ono for the Western Sydney Wanderers for good measure.
(Image: Peter McAlpine)
He knows what it takes to get star players to Australia – Sticca was also behind Dwight Yorke’s move to Sydney FC – and I asked him a short while ago what needs to be done to help revitalise the A-League.
“A-League club owners need more control over their investment, and the much-discussed independent A-League must become a reality,” Sticca told me.
“Once owners feel they have more say in their own future, and crucially more of the revenues that the A-League generates from TV and merchandising, then they will regain the confidence to invest more into their clubs and teams.
“It is the owners that ultimately have to feel confident about their future so they can invest in big-ticket items such as genuine marquees.”
And when it comes to marquee players, Sticca believes we haven’t seen enough big names down under.
“In 13 years of the A-League, we have had only a handful of genuine marquees,” Sticca said. “Yet hundreds have been categorised as marquees (Australian, youth, international) and devalued the original concept of what a marquee player should be, and more importantly what a marquee player should do for the league.”
And the scattergun approach to signing marquees shows no sign of dissipating now that the FFA has panicked over dwindling attendances and TV ratings.
The question remains: is signing marquee players a good idea or not?
I think the A-League needs them. But with so few funds available, it’s clear any potential signings will be moving here for the lifestyle and not the money.
tommo
Guest
"A-League can survive without world famous marquees" LOL Yes survive for how long? TV ratings down. Match attendances down. At some stage TV will not bother as income via subscribers or advertisers will be gone. " NRL and Victorian Rules have their own media departments to spin, spin, spin" With FIFA money can't they create their own department. Stop blaming other sports for their success.
tommo
Guest
Marquee players come out here every years in July. Big crowds for those exhibition games then back to rubbish players in the A League a few weeks latter
jupiter53
Roar Pro
Fair enough. ADP certainly had star quality, and at his best was absolute top quality. I would hope that actually seeing Iniesta in the flesh would show the A League audience what a true great still close to the top of his game looks like. I would also hope that the interested general population would quickly realise their chance to see a player at a level way above anyone else to have been seen in Australia since Maradona. But this is all futile speculation unless Iniesta has some personal or charitable reason to come here; there is no way we could make a financially competitive offer
chris
Guest
Pete its too late! Its expanding as you sit there typing.
chris
Guest
Goes both ways Sam
chris
Guest
I did say "star quality" and the simple fact that there are many more Italians in Aus than Spaniards. Obviously Iniesta is 5-6 years younger than what Del Piero was when he came out and logically is going to be at a better level than ADP was at.
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
Isn't the $3M coming from Foxtel, not the FFA. Nice try, but lets resist from blaming FFA for everything Pip.
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
Ditch Victory as well while you are at it - for cheating in the grand final Lee. Woooo hoooo Pip, Pip hooray.
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
Independent of what? The FFA needs to remain but has to allow representatives of the club owners and administrators onto the FFA board, management teams and working groups. They need to be real football people who have had experience with running football clubs, not another bunch of independents who don't have skin in the game. Lyle Gorman would make an excellent FFA CEO and replacement for Gallop, who has had enough time in charge now. In the offseason after the World Cup would be an excellent opportunity to make a fresh start.
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
And the new Western Sydney Stadium . . .
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
$3 million is peanuts and worthless for a wold famous marquee these days, wouldn't even buy you a 30 minute press conference with Ronaldo and his agent. Spend the money on local communities and getting local people and kids to the games like Lawrie McKinna did. How much would a few free A-League tickets for local junior clubs cost? A billboard on a local main road? A-League teams visiting local schools, McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, Bunnings etc and running free football clinics and goal shooting competitions. Partneships with local licenced clubs, businesses Football talent competitions and gala days, ladies days (all ladies free entry), pink T-shirt days. A-League scholarships. Etc., etc . . . Geez, do we need to do their jobs for them?
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/expansion-bid-secures-24-million-backing
Rolly
Guest
Problem with fox sports it has such a small audience it is hinderng the game .over seventy percent of the population does not subscribe to pay tV .thats a huge junk of the audience that never sees our game .the game needs expesure its not getting it with the game being tied down to pay tV .secondly none of news limited print media support our game .you would think if fox sports had the best interests of the game at heart it would make sure that its print media like the courier mail the daily tele and so on would actually cover the game better .show it more prominently in their their newspapers instead its impossible to find anyhting on the A league in news limited print media .news is not bankrolling the game their must be bucket loads of money in it for news limited otherwise they would not be involved in our game the game needs FTA and streaming service like fetch tV not fox sports .
Pauly
Guest
Too busy trying to be the Kerry Packer of rugby
Fadida
Guest
Nonsense LE. A ridiculous conspiracy theory
Fadida
Guest
Agree CC, clubs need to do more
Waz
Roar Rookie
and there it is: “Only in the bizzaro world of Australian football fans could the broadcaster that has bankrolled and promoted the competition over its life be the “bad guys” Fox Sports have made millions out of football, they haven’t “bankrolled” anything - they’ve purchased the rights to broadcast a product and made a handsome profit out of it. Time they behaved that way, let’s drop the “bankrolled” narrative, it’s false.
Matt
Guest
You are onto something Lee, or instead cut down the teams further and have them play during halftime/drinks break as an alternative crowd entertainment for real Strayan sports. ;-p
LuckyEddie
Guest
FOX bought football because it needed a summer filler in it's TV guide. FOX also realised that football is the only game that could challenge their 'big' products AFL, NRL and Cricket. So they did what all big companies do when they see something that is going to upset their plans, buy it out for a small price and then basically shelve it. The last thing FOX wants is for HAL to be successful and prospering, to them it just fills a bit of space in summer and is now no threat to their business plan.
Waz
Roar Rookie
err, just make the A League independent and see what happens. Anything the ffa do now is doomed, only an independent A league will work.