Every semi-regular A-League viewer has seen NAB’s ‘Future of Football’ advertisement, where they give predictions for Australian football’s future.
Most people who haven’t seen the ad would have seen ‘ten-year challenge’ posts on their social media feeds and would know how much things can change over a decade.
So, what is the future of football and, more specifically, what will football in Australia look like in ten years’ time?
Here are my predictions for the Australian football landscape by January 2029.
1. No A-League salary cap
The new, independent A-League would have realised that the salary cap is holding back Australian teams from becoming Asian powerhouses, and that it doesn’t stop minnows from struggling.
Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC rotate through ownership of the Premier’s Plate, so nothing has changed.
2. The finals series stays competitive
Although the Premier’s Plate is dominated by the Big Blue rivals, the finals series still allows the competition to stay competitive and have underdog winners, proving why it needs to stay part of the A-League calendar.
3. Second division kicks off
By 2019, the A-League will use the promotion-relegation system, with 14 teams in the first division and ten teams in the second division. The first division will include the following clubs:
Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory, Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne City, West Melbourne, Canberra, Perth Glory, Brisbane Roar, Newcastle Jets, Adelaide United, South Melbourne, Wollongong Wolves, Wellington Phoenix and Red Bull Gold Coast.
Meanwhile, the Second division will feature: Central Coast Mariners, Auckland City, Adelaide City, Hobart FC, Darwin FC, Brisbane Strikers, South West Sydney, South East Melbourne, Fremantle City and Sydney Olympic.
4. Melbourne City win silverware
By 2029, Melbourne City will have had at least one successful season, winning either the Premier’s Plate or the grand final, before selling most of the squad to Manchester City the next season, and making sure the club never dominates.
5. An NPL team will win the FFA Cup
With the great performances we’ve seen in previous FFA Cup tournaments, with Bentleigh Greens and Avondale as great examples, it shouldn’t be long before we see an NPL team perform a miracle and win the whole trophy.
6. A-League attendance records will be broken
By 2029, the highest ever A-League attendance will be 100,000, for a Melbourne Derby grand final at the MCG.
7. Red Bull join the A-League
Australia will become another home for Red Bull football, with the Austrian energy drink company reviving Gold Coast, using their resources to buy and produce young Australian players before selling them to Austria and Germany.
8. More A-League clubs will build their own stadiums
After the success of West Melbourne new purpose-built stadium, many clubs will be flocking to build their own stadiums, such as Sydney FC, Perth Glory, Brisbane Roar, Melbourne City and Gold Coast.
9. More indigenous players
A football club playing in Darwin will encourage indigenous kids to pick up the game and will be some of the more skillful players in the competition. Richer clubs will begin to set up academies in indigenous communities.
10. Women’s football will become much more popular
Australia to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup and win at least one of the tournaments between now and 2019.
11. Australia bids for the 2034 World Cup
After the success of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, and a successful World Cup for the men in 2022 or 2026, football will be in a golden age, leading Australia to bid for the right to host the world’s most prestigious football tournament.
12. Cheaper grassroots football
The FFA will subsidise grassroots football much more, with some clubs allowing kids to play for free.
PC Nonsense
Guest
Don't agree with most of your article to be completely honest. Problem with most of your ideas is that it is all dream stuff and not bedded in realistic business principles. The A-League needs to get more money in the door to make itself sustainable. A second division is pointless when you already have state based competitions who already tick that box. The state based clubs produce players, but we don't need their tiny fractured followings in a national full time pro competition. Afterall, the old ethnic clubs had their crack and had three decades go at the national soccer tit and looked how that ended up. BUST. Just keep growing the standards, put composite clubs in areas that can sustain clubs, not fantasy flags on maps like Darwin or Launceston. 12 to 14 clubs maximum in a decade from now and hopefully a larger audience to pay for it all.
josh
Guest
What on earth are you on about, WSW losing to the Mariners ? Do you even football ?
josh
Guest
Dunno why people have this opinion of East Sydney FC being a big glamour club. They think if they say something enough times it must be true. 12,000 members and they play in front of 11,000 people - reality doesn't lie.
William Doughty
Roar Rookie
I would say a possible pro/rel formula would be having requirements to get promoted like they do between Japans first and second division. In my scenario where there are 14 A-League teams and 10 second division teams, it would be very likely that not all second division teams are fully professional, and that some clubs would have poor attendances. I would say that the requirements for a club to get promoted would be an average attendance of at least 4,000 (That number would grow if they got promoted) and that they are reaching a salary floor, that could be slightly less than the A-Leagues current salary floor.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
EJ That rating is a Foxtel rating, which you can pick up on twitter. The incredible thing about the Saturday night game on FTA is that the ratings actually went down went it moved from SBS2 to ONE, which is quite a feat (as a general rule, all things being equal, you'd expect a commercial FTA station to rate more than SBS for the identical product).
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
Sometime is just wonder MF, do you look at the games that are on this week and go. Ok, Sydney vs Newcastle, Kogarah Oval, 5:35 PM. Sydney get around 12000 to 15000 at Kogarah, family friendly time. Newcastle have some fans in Sydney. Prediction: Around 14,000
EJ
Roar Pro
Also Mr Football, just curious on where you find out the ratings is there a website or something because im interested to know other games, Id also wish I could find out how the ratings would go if it was on a FTA channel, it is on 10 Bold each week but unlike the footy or bbl which is always on the main network channel like 7 or 10, the A-League is always dished off onto a the networks secondary channel like 10 Bold (previously ONE) or SBS 2 when SBS had the rights
EJ
Roar Pro
yes generally the 7-8K fans that rock up to Hindmarsh each week are passionate supporters and will follow it weekly, the rest of the fans who don't rock up only rock up when there is success or a final unfortunately, when Hindmarsh is full it is a brilliant stadium to be and one of the reasons why I love the reds and go to their matches regularly
Mister Football
Roar Guru
To look 10 years forward is always a difficult thing, but at least we can say that next season, the A-League will return to 11 teams, the high water mark it reached exactly 10 years earlier. We should view that as progress and as evidence that the game is definitely going in the right direction.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
EJ You might well be right on that score. The Wanderers are currently homeless, and struggling, even losing a game to the Mariners, so it's no surprise that hardly anyone turned up last night. But you'd hope a few Adelaide supporters would try and watch the game on Foxtel last night, given they are going ok, but only 28k tuned in, and that's a Friday night.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
You don't even have to go back 10 years, only need to go back 3 or 4 years to see some of the most outlandish predictions you are ever likely to encounter. But anyway, it's free to dream, and I encourage all soccer fans to keep dreaming.
EJ
Roar Pro
would love for half of these to come true, however, with the Aleague/FFA taking so long to introduce 12 teams I don't think pro/rel will be happening anytime soon unfortunately, would be good to see Red Bull take ownership of a club and wouldn't surprise me if they did, and it is likely that an NPL team will win the FFA cup, with one NPL team guaranteed to make it to the semis no matter what, it won't be too long before they become stronger and win the whole thing
EJ
Roar Pro
although I would love a second adelaide team and make an Adelaide rivalry here in SA, currently I don’t think the sport has the popularity in SA to hold two A-League teams, at least not until pro/rel starts (if it ever starts)
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Red bull Hahndorf
Admiral Ackbar
Guest
If Red Bull get involved they'll probably be used to set up a Brisbane derby or even an Adelaide derby (just think of all the German expats in Adelaide).
Maximus Insight
Guest
Well there is certainly nothing wrong with having a positive and ambitious vision of the future It would though be interesting to go back to 2009 and see what certain BTL contributors here were predicting for the A League!
Nemesis
Guest
A strong list of aspirations that would be embraced by all genuine football fans in Australia. The miserably, unhappy, usual posers on this forum will choose default "it can't be done, it won't happen" because that's all they do when discussing any positive vision for Australian football.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Clearly on such an array, closer to one end than the other.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Many leagues around the world do something similar, they've learned (belatedly) that end-of-season play-offs are very popular and produce good revenues. Even with your idea, the big clubs will put off P&R until the point arrives when they are so far ahead of the rest, like a Celtic, that there is zero chance of them ever having to worry about such a play off. They will not willingly put themselves in harms way, and once in control of the closed shop, they aren't about to open it up willy nilly.
Jordan
Guest
If and when pro/rel comes in, I don't think it should ever be automatic. The opportunity of a number of playoff matches involving HAL and Championship teams is a great opportunity for football in Auatralia. My preference would be 2 leg between last and second last in the HAL, a 2 leg playoff between 1st and 2nd in the championship, and then a final 2 leg playoff to decide if promotion and relegation is to occur for the following season. If no team drops after that, so be it it means the best teams remain in the top flight the following year.