All football fans in Australia agree on one premise: things must change as soon as possible.
Now, the problem is to identify what really needs to be changed. Should there be an aggressive expansion? Should we implement a second division with a promotion and relegation system? Should the league have a different format?
Strangely, there are few who demand greater integration with the Asian continent. That is quite necessary if you really want to transform football in this country.
There were high expectations when Football Federation Australia joined the Asian Confederation in 2006.
Finally, the project by which many passionate spokesmen of this sport – like Johnny Warren or Andrew Detre – worked so hard and made their dream become a reality.
Unfortunately, the FFA never could (or wanted to) benefit from this relationship. At a time when the Asian major leagues like the J-League or the Chinese Super League receive attention from a lot of the world’s media, the A-League still remains in the shadows.
Today, the relationship of Australian football with the Asian continent resembles a marriage in crisis. They live in the same house, pay the bills but barely talk to each other – and when they do, they speak in different languages.
The owner of Perth Glory, Tony Sage, has already made reference to this issue and has proposed a solution to this problem that many consider controversial.
Sage wants the A-League to expand into Southeast Asia, including franchises in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and even Hong Kong. The Glory owner’s reasoning is simple as the ASEAN region has more than 600 million inhabitants and a gross domestic product of 3,000 million dollars per capita.
In a few words, money and people who can attend the game.
Perth Glory. (Photo by Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images)
So far, Sage’s reasoning responds only to demographic or economic factors. But reading between lines, the premise behind this proposal is categorical. Football is on track to lose the battle on the Australian soil and, if you want to ensure the survival of the league as we know it, you must think outside the box and innovate.
This idea is not well received by the great part of the public. Even the presence of the Wellington Phoenix arouses criticism and bitter comments from many fans. But clearly, there is a problem that has to be solved.
What is the solution? Well, the answer is simple and has been said many times. The A-League needs a ‘plus-one Asian player rule’.
Most of the Asian competitions already implement this regulation (Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong) and has given positive results. But Australia systematically refuses to do so.
Let’s do a quick review. In the fifteen years that the A-League has been active, only 37 Asian players have been part of any of the teams (thirteen from Japan, eleven from South Korea, eight from China, two from Thailand, one from Iraq, one from India and one from Bahrain).
This is an infinite number if we compare it only with the 27 Spaniards who play or have played in the A-league.
The ‘Eurocentrism’ that prevails in the league has led many teams to hire players who, under normal conditions, could hardly be part of a professional staff in their countries of origin.
Just because someone has played in the Fulham or Genova Academy does not mean that they are necessarily eligible to play in the A-League. Meanwhile, the Thai Chanathip Songkrasin becomes a key player of the Sapporo Consadole and is on its way to becoming one of the best on the continent.
Needless to say, the J-League today enjoys great popularity in Thailand, a country with more than 68 million inhabitants.
Keisuke Honda of Japan (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Former A-League head Archie Fraser is one of the most important spokesmen of the strongest integration with Asia today. He is also one of the main candidates to take the reins of the FFA once the reign of the Lowy Family officially finishes.
This shows that there are capable people in Australian football who really have a vision for the future. A plan.
We only hope that they will be given the possibility to act and transform the sport.
Cooper BP
Roar Rookie
Fair enough, I was just thinking if the Chinese league tried to put an Australian team in their comp I think their would be heavy opposition to it from Australians. Your point on Singapore sounds good.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Beni How hard is the sport if anyone can walk in Bolt hasn’t got a contact , and if you watched his trial , he is not good enough for soccer Players with no experience are stars in other codes like American Mason Cox , by your theory , how easy is that sport
Beni Iniesta
Guest
I'd also suggest the A-League looks like a joke at the moment giving a spot to a runner on one of the lists. A marketing gimmick of course, and credit must go to the Central Coast Mariners for doing something out of the box. But seriously. How hard is the sport if someone with no experience can just walk onto an A-League list from another sport?
Beni Iniesta
Guest
Tony Sage must be stupid. Surely he knows that FIFA would never sanction a bunch of SE Asian teams joining the A-League?!?!? Why even come up with such a stupid impossible suggestion?
Wise Old ElfC
Guest
Australia has not been the problem in relation to Asia. Asia has been. 1. The AFC sells its tv products to Fox Sports for a couple more shekels than they would get to have it on FTA TV. By being on regular tv, Asia teams would start to become recognised by Australian soccer watchers. 2. AFC Champs league is hard to follow because it is out of season. The A-League is done when it really gets rolling and it is not shown on tv so it is not seen. Its a hidden league. 3. Australian soccer watchers are OVER Asia. The Asian teams at national level are not that great standard wise and rely on underhand tactics to get results. This grates on us fans. We only tolerate it because of the Socceroos. 4. By having more Asian interaction if it was ever permitted by FIFA and AFC would become a death spiral for soccer here. It is hard enough to get enough away fans to A-League as it is without pushing the travel distances even further. 5. My wish would be that we joined CONMEBOL instead of AFC.
MarkfromCroydon
Roar Pro
I remember when we had Surat Sukha playing for us, I thought he was a pretty handy player. Apparently his family didn't like Melbourne. Part of the problem is that some players from Asia, and their families, find it hard to settle and live in Australia and adjust to the culture here and would prefer to either stay at home or go and play elsewhere in Asia.
AusSokkah
Guest
Most South East Asian nations are football mad, though that tends to be directed at European Leagues like the EPL and La Liga. There's definitely a sense of Eurosnobbery when it comes to local leagues tend to be less supported with most averaging between 4000 - 10000 per game. There would definitely be opposition for most leagues trying to grow their own products, and with the AFC located in Kuala Lumpur it may be hard get it across the line. Singapore would probably the only city/country where it would work, their local league is poorly supported, football is very popular but considered a low priority when it comes to pursuing a career. They have actually had a team playing in the Malaysian league in the past to help develop their national team and considering that it's an English speaking western style country, it may actually be one place that would work.
Cooper BP
Roar Rookie
Do these Asian countries have their own domestic leagues? Because if they do there could be opposition there about the A-League coming in trying to take its place.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
yes, with the Phoenix and thus 'seemingly' supporting an Oceania team. we do appear to be a bit of an outsider
Matt H
Roar Guru
Why would we want to do this? Shouldn't we be scouting for more Jamaican sprinters?
At work
Roar Rookie
Excellent idea Waz, I think the only way we can entice clubs to use the +1 Asian quota (if it existed) would be to make it exempt from the cap. So teams could then have up to 3 marquee players if they chose to.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
As long as we continue to take up WC spots which some view as belonging to real Asia sides, then we will always be viewed as a troubling outsider in some quarters.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
You can see in the Super Rugby, two Australian teams get good ratings, an Australian team playing a non-Australian team, and it's always lower. Although with the Warriors in the NRL, their ratings appear to be ok. The value proposition is whether places like Singapore and Malaysia will pay for TV rights to the A-League if a team from there is in the A-League, but I can't see Australian audiences getting excited about playing a club from Singapore or Malaysia.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
I like the idea of a south East Asian competition, but I feel it’s too expensive and would not get a lot of fans interested
Kangas
Roar Rookie
We can’t afford the Asian players wages
Kangas
Roar Rookie
I think the Sydney and Melbourne clubs should be signing some Vietnamese and Chinese stars to tap into their large population . However I do think that top Asian players are too expensive for the a league and the author needs to consider this as the reasons .
Adam Owsinski
Roar Rookie
I agree, Ange also bought up this fact in his book. Perhaps the FFA should treat Asian players as domestic, so they dont take up visa spots and this small gesture could be a small start to blossoming that Asian relationship. Considering we're in the Asian division we really do need to make more strides in Asia somehow and show we're apart of the team and that we're not a troubling outsider.
Fadida
Guest
I tend to agree with the comments above. A really well written article but Asian players are generally too expensive, though I'm sure with scouting there would still be some bargains. It'd be interesting to see how crowds responded to an A-league game v an Asian opponent. I'd expect the dip that the Jets get for the Phoenix, but would increased tv viewers offset this?
Waz
Roar Rookie
Around $180k-$200k buys you a 150+ appearance, 30 year old La Liga grade player.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Agree with waz. The thing is, $400k per annum might buy you a decent European (say, lower end Eredivisie, or recently retired Serie A player), but the Asian player you get for that money will be mediocre because they are getting good wages in mediocre leagues.