The A-League's salary cap has outlived its usefulness

"cant run their competitions properly " is purely subjective. What matters is that we have a league where clubs have a chance to compete and players have a chance for opportunities to play. What matters also is that you have a competition where teams can actually play good football and be remembered for it. The great Real Madrid, Benfica and Ajax sides, the Celtic and Liverpool teams (I have no love for either club believe you me!) that held sway over their leagues for about a generation, etc were all respected and remembered for the quality of their football. The clubs that rise up the football ladder and become successful at whatever level are usually the ones with the smartest management. The A-League is not rewarding ambition or smart management.

So you want only 2 to 3 clubs to have a chance every year of winning the A-League? If you cant see how the salary cap prevents that then you are clueless How you get the ranking of expert is beyond me - you clearly do not have a clue about Football around the world If you think having the same team winning the competition every year is the best outcome you must be delusional Just because that's how Europe has ended up because they cant run their competitions properly doesnt mean that's how the A-League should be run The bigger question you should be asking is wh

There'll be no chickens left anyway, so I see rolling the dice as the only option.

And yet they bought Brexit. A most peculiar country, although I loved living there.

The likes of Nakata, Nakamura, Ono, Honda, Kagawa, Okazaki to name a few. Im sure Japan is doing alot better than us to not ignore them.

Redondo- Thanks for the link. It made me smile somewhat for the statements made by the coaches at the Academy are almost word for word the same as I heard in an interview with the then Australian Director of Coaching 43 years ago on the same subject "How to coach kids". Most of those ideas did not come from a fertile mind in football they were the result of an extensive psychological investigation into how kids from 6 - 16 should be taught sport, undertaken at an educational establishment in England of all places,and guess where they found it hardest to sell their findings? yes,you've guessed right,-----in England. Cheers jb.

Completely agree with you Mike. My one concern is that owners will still not be eager to invest much money and that their salary budget will largely stay the same.

Maybe jb. My understanding is that John Aloisi was employed on the basis of a recommendation from Ange Postecoglu. It was fair enough you'd think, to act on that. But as to youngsters, I have much greater faith in them than I do the aged players we keep putting out. The young left back is handling the time he's been given well, and so top the young strikers. I don't think we should have high expectations when we give them a few minutes here and there, which is how it goes mostly. Did you see the 18 year olds in the ACL last night?

When there are dynastic teams in football as there have been in years gone by - think Real Madrid, Benfica and Ajax winning European Cups - people aren't going to complain too much about it, especially when the said teams were fabulous to watch. Football is about telling a story. Things like promotion and relegation, cup runs, Europe, clubs finding a will and a way out of anything, those are stories that are told across generations.

JB - it’s a bit cliched but it’s all about outcomes and I can’t find any decent explanation as to how the FFA is tracking the outcomes of the curriculum. Does it have any measures to track progress against? On a related point, you might have read this article already - some great detail about skills and playing to win in young age groups at the Schalke academy. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/12/schalke-04-academy-leroy-sane-ilkay-gundogan-manchester-city?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Redondo - Thanks for the reply. Where you and I differ is that IMO football in Australia has suffered from a lack of application to information readily available. There is little doubt that the FFA set out to improve that situation in 2007 when they hired the Dutch master coach to write a "grand plan" for our future. What the exercise cost over the next 7 years I would hate to guess and poses the question,what did we get for our money?. To the best of my knowledge we did get a nicely prepared document (at huge cost) containing advice that was readily available to us as far back as 1975. The next question is how widely is this document now being used at the grassroots level of our game ? that being the deep seated aim,and hope, of the future,or have we just seen another huge "gaffe" taking place at a great expenditure. Cheers jb.

I understand what you are saying JB but there's a step change between something being freely available and the same thing being formally documented, endorsed and then pushed out across the sport. There are huge benefits in having a ready-to-go approach available and applied consistently. It doesn't really matter if the approach is old news as long as it's still good news. Personally, I think the curriculum incorrectly de-emphasises the acquisition of individual skills and that really needs to be corrected.

redondo - You have asked me a question and I will attempt to answer it. The National Curriculum (ours) was started in 2007, a Dutch coach ,Rob Baan being commissioned to write out the overall plan. By 2009 he had finished, and he retired after a long career in football. Before he left he no doubt was instrumental in suggesting a compatriot of his be employed by the FFA as Director of Coaching and it came out that, as the new man thought the content of the original document was above the football intelligence of those grassroots coaches the original document was aimed at, the new man decided the Curriculum had to be re-written in simpler wording. When this document was finally released it came to the notice of many in the coaching community that the suggestion contained therein was in fact information that was widely available back in the 1970's. By now many were asking when improvement could be expected and some of the answers and suggestions were ridiculous to say the least. I have a local magazine article written in 1975 describing in detail how kids should be introduced to the game and I think you will find that the Coerver System and perhaps Byers, because they are franchises in their own right, it can only be assumed the FFA of 2007-2011 did not want to lose control of such a potential dollar earner. The original retiree from our Curriculum has since appeared in India doing the same job for that country's Federation, and his nominee D of C, has also departed the scene via a Sydney FC directorship and a top job in football back in Holland. Hope this is of some interest. jb

As a Foundation Member of Central Coast Mariners my opinions have been written and broadcast live on ABC radio 92.5 on a regular basis. The Club belongs to the fans . It is OUR Club. The owners, the mangement and the Coaches are all transient. The fans remain. Therefore the fans should become shareholders my suggestion is $500 a share. A bye next season is a farce. Also where are theAsian players in the A-League? Yes, there is the brilliant Honda but there must be many more then we wouldn't have to see the same players just going round and round.ppp

Redondo What you say is very correct. If we go into where the basic fundamentals of the game have changed we have to examine the tactics of the game very carefully, for tactically the game is always in flux. Here are a few examples. 1945-50 Touring Russian teams introduced players constantly swapping positions whilst playing a game. This was christened "organised chaos". 1950 -55 The great Hungarians showed what could be done by using formations constantly changing when in and out of ball possession. 1955-60 Brazil changed their highly successful 4-2-4 to 4-3-3 and still dominated world football. 1960-70 Tactical innovation was now rampant and England won the 1966 World Cup playing without recognised wingers. 1970 -75 The Italians dabbled in a system that almost sent the game broke in that country as fans voted with their feet. 1974-80 Holland emerged as a "johnny cum lately" world power in football due to an amalgamation of some of the changes listed above. Since then we have seen "systems" copied ,not always with the best results due to the standard of the players being asked to perform. Will this constant change ever stopped?. Not as long as we have coaches who think they know better than the other guy. We must watch with bated breath. jb.

I have been touting the benefits of a similar structure to this for a while, but it needs more franchises to be viable for most fans who prefer the 'tried and true' home and away season. However, there are some real positives to this model. Every Saturday night could be the marquee 'cross-conference' fixture of the weekend, with an example of Sydney FC (north) playing the Victory (south). Friday night could play host a South Conference derby game between Melbourne City and West Melbourne. Sunday could be Woolongong against Canberra in the Southern Conference, followed by Central Coast against Newcastle in the Northern Conference. More derby games, more tribalism, more fan engagement and more blockbuster games to sell to TV stations. I think it has merits.

The problem has never been the notion of a salary cap. The problem has always been in the exemptions and different contracts on offer, and the implementation of funds by club managers and coaches. Most other codes overseas that have salary caps have some form of required compensation in order to attain the services of a player from a rival team, be it a trade or fee. In this sense, with the absence of a draft system like in America, there absolutely has to be transfer fees between A-League clubs. It is only fair, and I think we can all see that. Beyond that, I would look at the American leagues and particularly the NBA to add some more wirnkles to the contracts that allow clubs to be rewarded for their player development. Something similar to the 'Bird Rights' exemption, whereby a club can exceed the salary cap to sign a player that has been at the club for 3 years could work. One specific example I was close to would be when the Roar had to choose between Broich and Berisha for marquee wages. Something similar to Bird Rights would have given the Roar the opportunity to sign Broich as the marquee and pay Berisha what was necessary to retain his services, as he'd been at the club for three years. Those that call for the abolition of the salary cap aren't quite aware of their own hypocrisy. On the one hand, they complain about meaningless and noncompetitive games at the end of the season, but on the other are more than happy to watch both Melbourne clubs rail the rest of the competition for the majority of the season. Sport is definitely dog-eat-dog, but this would be more akin to two foxes in the hen house, and given half a decade, there'd be no chickens left.

Theoretically, you are correct, but my feeling is the existing clubs will obstruct from as long as is feasibly possible to push out any thought of P&R well, well into the future, and even then, it will by a system which means they have less than a 1% chance of ever getting relegated.

The coaching staff didn't add nothing but those great Dutch players had plenty to start with, mostly learned at home in the Netherlands. Would I be right in saying you think the National Curriculum doesn't emphasise individual skills nearly enough? And that's where Coerver or Tom Byers would be sensible additions?

Redondo - You are not the first in Australia to fall under the spell of "Dutch Football". I smile when I read the names you mention, for it is some time now since Sniejder ,Robben and Van Dyk plied their trade in their homeland,not to mention the mighty three who played at AC Milan for years and of course Verkamp who played for so long at Arsenal. Are we to believe that the coaching staff employed at these top class clubs added nothing to these player's performances.???.Probably the greatest influence on young Dutch players can be traced to a man very seldom mentioned in Australia, Wiel Coerver ,who, in the early 70's, recognised that there had to a better way to teach kids the basics of the game. He developed a system called the "Coerver Method" and set about to create a franchise system which has been adopted my many around the world.The first notable graduate from the system was Boujevin Zenden,who, after honing his skills in a five year stint in Holland at PSV,moved to big clubs all over Europe like Barcelona, Liverpool and Chelsea. and made the World Cup team in 1998. Remember the date of Coerver's introduction,early 1970's. and add to that the Australian experience when a coach brought from England was "hung out to dry" by lack of funds. He came here,bringing small sided games on small pitches to Australian junior football,the year? 1973. Cheers jb.