- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Generally, the consensus among the football community has been that the A-League needs to move to independence for it to grow.
By distancing itself from the FFA, the A-League would be allowed to divorce itself from an organisation that has been conflicted between its need to support the non-professional (grassroots) and national teams versus the need to grow a professional competition.
The release of the Australia Professional Football Clubs Association (APFCA) blueprint for an independent A-League on Wednesday morning has given us our first look into what an independent A-League may look like – and it has raised a number of concerns within the football community.
The document provides a window into the thoughts of the club owners, with a lot of information on how they see the future of the competition. Several of the suggestions within the document though will be controversial and sure to ignite serious debate.
Some of the more worrying recommendations made in the document are;
Increasing the visa player allowance
It is a recurring theme through all professional leagues around the world as to how many international players you allow per team.
National football bodies worry that the exclusion of young players from their own country impacts their development and impacts the overall development of players for the national team.
The fact that the APFCA see the current level of foreign players as too low and want to increase it further should be a concern to all Australian football fans.
It is laughable that the document tries to sell the idea that increasing the bench size to seven will actually increase the minutes that an U20 player would receive in the A-League.
What it will do is see a lot more of our young players riding pine, watching imports instead of receiving minutes in a competitive environment.
There is no doubt that increasing the visa player allowance would increase the quality of the A-League – but at what cost? Do we really want to lock out more of our young players?
Increase the split of the current TV right money that is provided to the A-League
The blueprint makes a case that the current split of revenue between the FFA and A-League is unfair. They argue that currently up to 35 per cent of the current broadcast deal is being used for non A-League activities, and they propose that this amount should be reduced to 10 per cent to reflect the true percentage of non A-League content in the deal.
This alone would remove approximately $9 million per year from the FFA.
However, this is not the only financial impact to FFA budget contained in the document. If we also take into account the removal of A-League sponsorship money, merchandise money and A-League finals gate receipts, the impact will be much greater.
A quick estimate would see the FFA move from a $135 million organisation to around $30-40 million. Of course, many of the expenses the FFA now incur would also disappear.
Player salary, marketing and competition costs (including many staff) would all move to be an A-League responsibility.
You would also expect an organisation that is losing somewhere around 65-75 per cent of its revenue to also have to significantly reduce its executive remuneration as it downsizes the team.
However, the revenue and costs around the national teams will not change. The current Socceroos collective bargaining agreement means that, once you deduct players costs, coaching and support costs, travel, stadium costs only a small amount of revenue from Socceroos matches remain for use elsewhere within FFA.
Our other national teams will continue to need funding to compete on the international stage.
So where will the vast majority of FFA revenue be derived from to fund these activities once the A-League is spun out? From the grassroots of course
Currently around $9 million of the FFA’s revenue is collected from grassroots players via a national registration fee, a fee that has not change significantly since the A-League was introduced.
There is little doubt that, with the loss of the A-League money, this fee will need to be increased to help fill the funding hole that will result. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable guess that it will at least double (and may increase even more than that).
The A-League paying a dividend or licence fee directly to the state federations rather than the FFA
This little pearl was a complete surprise to a lot of people. It effectively is suggesting that the A-League bypass any licence fees that it would pay to the FFA and divert that money directly to the state federations. It is hard to see this move as anything other than a bribe to the state federations to support the proposed structure that the APFCA is proposing.
The benefit of it is questionable, however, any money directed to the state federation would likely only mean that the FFA would need to introduce charges to recoup the revenue.
It would likely have a disastrous impact as it further erodes the relationship between the FFA board and the state federations.
It is worthy to note that no estimate of the size of this payment is discussed within the APFCA document. One of the biggest areas that will need to be agreed to when the A-League does moves to independence will be the size of this licence payment.
Moving forward, it will be the only revenue the grassroots of the game will receive as income from the A-League so its agreement is critical to the long term success of football in this country.
Allowing A-League clubs to sign a full squad of academy players
On the surface, this sounds great; more young players in A-League clubs means more elite development. However, it is worrying this suggestion comes with no discussion on how grassroots clubs would be compensated for the loss of these players.
(Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)
An increasing criticism of the current A-League environment is the total absence of reward for grassroots clubs development of young players. The absence of any discussion of this within the APFCA document is worrying as it is an area that needs addressing before the A-League is spun out into an independent league.
It should be noted that the document does contain the view that the W-League should be expanded as quickly as possible and supports the continued operation of the youth league. At the same time, it clearly outlines the APFCA cynicism that a second tier of football is on the horizon or even possible in the medium term.
The establishment of a second tier and the introduction of promotion and relegation to and from the A-League cannot be left to an organisation that’s sole vested interest is the continuation of the current situation.
Any deal for an independent A-League must include provision for this decision to sit outside the independent A-League Board, otherwise it is difficult to see how it will ever happen.
The blueprint is, of course, only the view of the A-League owners and the other stakeholders will hold differing or even opposing views on many of these items. But the real question is how much of the decision making will be left to an independent board and how much can be written into agreements to ensure the ongoing benefit of football at large in this country?
Football in this country cannot afford to get this wrong.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.