Will an independent A-League actually work?

I think right now is the absolute worst time to be hinging the success of a footy club on a real estate development.

I can recall during the 2010 WC there was a soccer fan site set up on the banks of the Yarra, and Collingwood's Harry O'Brien and Daisy Thomas did a dribbling challenge against the Victory's Adrian Leijer and Leigh Broxham (both recent Olyroos as the time). Harry and Daisy won the challenge with ease.

Maybe Goodes

Nemesis - I hadn’t seen that and it’s good to hear. Re the Paul posts: his patient and then his response both show how, as a nation, we excel at cultural cringe.

Tell your patient she's ignorant. Australian kids have the talent, but don't have enough chances to play Melbourne Victory's assistant coach last season was Carlos Perez Salvachua, a man who has worked with top level youth players throughout his career, particularly during his time as a youth academy coach at Real Madrid. When he was asked about the quality of youth footballers in Australia he said: "Australia has good players, technically like in Spain, at under 16 they have the same technique as players of Real Madrid under 16. But for me, the competition is the problem. There are not enough games. When one player of 16, 15, 14, is playing in Spain, he is playing minimum 35 games every year. They [the top level kids, the equivalent of those in A-League clubs academies] play also in the national team, so maybe it's 40-45 games every year. In Spain you are maybe 12 years old, not only in the academy of Real Madrid, but a small club, you are starting the competition in September and finishing in May and June. Nine or 10 months training, four times a week, playing one game. They continue 10 months training for football every day, playing every day, if you start at 12 years and finish at 18, you spend all your efforts at training every day and playing every weekend." Source: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/australian-kids-have-the-talent-but-don-t-have-enough-chances-to-play-20190426-p51hhf.html

The success or otherwise of Tarneit FC will go a long way towards helping us gauge the new A-League going forward. The establishment of the supporter group "Carpe Diem" some two months ago was a big step forward for the new club. Unfortunately, I've only just learned that it has already disbanded. Now supporter groups come and go, but I've never heard of one disappearing before a single ball was kicked in anger.

Also should add that the challenges are made even greater by a few things: 1. The self-interest of European football who perhaps don’t want to compete for merchandise revenue with local sides in countries like ours 2. The ease at which highlights of the big leagues can be seen (highlights can be misleading as the boring and mediocre parts of the game are vetted out) 3. Instant gratification - we live in an era where many people want to experience the finished product without the necessary buildup. You can order meals delivered to your door without leaving the couch. Want to buy something before pay day? Get a quick loan (payday lenders make a fortune in this country despite their predatory behaviour). And it’s the same with football. Far too many fans expect the A-League to be on par with the EPL and their club to have Man City’s trophy count without experiencing the bad and the ugly which football fans in England experienced over decades from the beginnings of the professional game. The A-League will improve but it needs time and patience. Not “insta”-fans who expect everything delivered on a platter.

“There’s no football in Australia, the A-League is a joke,” so said a patient of mine yesterday who supports Juventus and whose company is involved with Real Madrid preseason tours. Apparently the Spanish laugh at the standard of our league and compare it to the 6th or 7th division of their own. I wanted to retort that it won’t improve with that attitude, that Europeans have had a 100 year head start when it comes to building up professional football and that them laughing at our league is akin to me laughing at a kindergarten kid for their lack of academic prowess but the dental business is tough enough as it is without antagonising your patients so I just changed focus to her oral health. The new A-League governance has a hell of a fight on its hands to beat this self-fulfilling negativity. Changing this perception and building an attendance culture (which only seems to exist for cricket, AFL and NRL at least in Queensland) will be the biggest challenges. The A-League may not be pretty but it’s our league. The games are in our time zones. If fans don’t get behind it, it will fail and the game will never recover from a commercial point of view.

They have already mastered the art of getting the team bus to the right ground and packing the right snacks.

If we be nice to them I'm sure they will be nice to us when push comes to shove.

I made the prediction in a neutral manner, I think it's neither good or bad. It's just something which is likely to happen.

Would be wonderful if this happens. Global commerce, in a global market, for global services. Australian iron ore is the feeder stock for the Chinese Steel Mills, Australian coal & LNG is the feeder stock for the Chinese energy industry. Someone mentioned A-League clubs losing $2.5M per year. If our ALeague clubs can regularly sell players to foreign buyers, the boost to the AUS football economy will be enormous. In Football, there's no need for Poker Machines to hit the Jackpot.

I predicted about a year ago that in the very near future, the majority of A-League clubs will end up being feeder clubs to Chinese soccer clubs.

For sure Anon . You should cover the uprising

Agreed mate.

"broke clubs, brawls in the stands" Sounds like AFL in 2019.

Just wait until the Chinese clubs get their act together.

The reality is that Korean and Japanese players are a long way ahead of A league players technically . This is the first gap that needs closing. , but reality is that the gap is widening. Getting rid of a salary cap is not going to see another A league team win the champions league . A league clubs cannot generate the revenue the rest of the football world can . It’s just the .economic reality .

Bad old days -- broke clubs, brawls in the stands, soccer tucked away on SBS as a highlights package.

“ just think what the Dangerfields martins betts etc could do with a soccer ball “. Their skills too inaccurate under pressure to have been any good at soccer . Maybe Eddie betts could play for Rockdale Suns third grade team Martin ... not a chance of making it in n p l. Dangerfield probably a third grade or maybe over 35s team one day More chance a skilful athlete who performed under pressure like a Adam Gilchrist or a Steve Waugh could have made it had they chosen that path .