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What do you think the A-League will look like after the EGM?

20th September, 2018
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20th September, 2018
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There was an air of familiarity around Sydney FC’s progression in the FFA Cup, but will everything change after the FFA’s extraordinary general meeting on October 2?

On paper this looks like it could be one of the best A-League seasons yet.

Several clubs have made shrewd signings, others continue to get their back-room affairs in order, and there’s a sense that the gap between the competition’s best teams and its worst won’t be quite as large as in recent campaigns.

There are plenty of reasons for optimism then, and watching the FFA Cup quarter-finals on Fox Sports on Wednesday night, you wouldn’t have been left with the impression that Australian football has more than its share of problems.

Simon Hill was his usual articulate self, co-commentator Scott Miller offered some fantastic insight – more on that later – the ground looked reasonably full and Avondale looked like world beaters when Liam Boland scored a quick-fire brace in the second half.

And while Sydney FC laboured to their 4-2 extra-time win over the Victorian part-timers, their crosstown rivals Western Sydney Wanderers were putting a careless Melbourne City to the sword 2-1 at AAMI Park.

Bobo of Sydney FC

Bobo of Sydney FC celebrates a goal. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

All things told it looked like a fairly routine night in the annals of Australian football history.

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But what happens in two weeks’ time if, following the EGM, the Congress reforms are passed and the current FFA board is thrown out on its ear?

Worse still, what happens if FFA blocks the Congress reforms and FIFA suspends Australia’s membership – putting the Socceroos’ Asian Cup campaign and the Matildas’ World Cup campaign in jeopardy?

What does the A-League even look like without Football Federation Australia?

Talk to A-League clubs – in private, at least – and you’ll discover just how much resentment is festering below the surface over the fact they have little say in the day-to-day running of the league.

And that might be a trivial complaint if it weren’t for the fact that many A-League clubs have felt for years that the constraints of the competition are costing them money.

Not trifling amounts of money either, but rather millions of dollars in lost revenue, licensing fees, salaries paid and all the other associated costs that come with running a professional football club in Australia.

If you want to know where the push for an independent A-League is coming from – and it’s worth remembering that a professional football league separate from its governing body was one of the key tenets of the Crawford report – look no further than the current clubs.

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However – and I think this is an important question to ask, despite some interpreting it as a defence of the FFA – can the ten A-League clubs generate the sort of money brought in from broadcast deals and sponsorship agreements that the FFA has helped procure since 2005?

The winds of change sweeping through the game suggest they’ll be given a chance, but it’s only natural to wonder exactly what they would do differently to take professional football in Australia to the next level.

Roy O'Donovan

Roy O’Donovan of the Jets. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

They’d hopefully start with expansion – and the absurdity of the situation our game finds itself in was rammed home by Miller’s incisive commentary on Fox Sports on Wednesday night.

The one-time Newcastle Jets coach didn’t miss an opportunity to say something insightful, and it soon became clear the 36-year-old boasts one of the sharpest minds in the game.

What’s he doing next year? Coaching in the Victorian second division, of course. The lack of opportunity at the top level of the game is just one reason the A-League needed expansion years ago.

But there are always going to be vested interests, as the redoubtable Bonita Mersiades demonstrated in her excoriating takedown of Sport Australia’s concerns over the Congress Review’s Working Group report.

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At the end of the day, we all want what’s best for football. But what does that look like?

And more importantly, how do you think this impasse will affect the new A-League season?

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