To create a second division with promotion and relegation to follow in Australia, we first need to develop respect for Australian professional football. This is why.
First let’s look at Australia’s football pyramid to see where we lack respect.
Volunteers – coaches, managers, local park committee members – have respect.
Parents who bring their children to training and matches have respect.
Players, mostly respected.
Local park teams, hugely respected. Regional associations, mostly respected.
National teams are hugely respected, with the Matildas without doubt the leading female national team and arguably Australia’s number three team across male and female sports (behind the Socceroos and the men’s cricket team).
Australian professional football has little respect, because of the perception of quality and management structures.
SBS is the perfect example of this. They provide heaps of praise for juniors, global football and our national teams. Nevertheless, they are always negative about local professional football. The NSL also received lots of negative criticism from SBS when it represented the professional game in this country.
(Photo by James Elsby/Getty Images)
There is little respect for professional football from governments, in particular. Various governments build mega stadiums and pour money into other codes that football can only dream about.
There is little to no respect from the mainstream media for Australian professional football.
To gain respect, generally you also have to give respect. You can’t demand respect – you need to command respect. In my lifetime, Australian professional football has never given respect to lower levels. In fact, the degree of mistrust between many of the NSL teams and regional associations was very intense.
Until the greater football community respects Australian professional football, then nothing much will change.
Some people argue promotion and relegation is the answer. Before promotion and relegation can work, we need to have the respect of existing football fans, the player base and volunteers. Promotion and relegation will be a large part of the solution over time but until Australian professional football has respect, the effect will be marginal.
Far greater minds than mine have answers to issues pertaining to Australian professional football. These issues have been around since the late 1940s.
The player base, volunteers, parents and Eurosnobs are a big number with a low conversation rate of eyeballs to screens. The quality combined with traditional viewing patterns prevent eyeballs to screens.
A more positive media would help, but more is needed.
Having served on my local park team committee for a number of years and knowing the influence committees can have on the various stakeholders in their club, what’s needed is for Australian professional football to respect the park teams and their stakeholders.
I have two ideas. The first is to provide local park teams the ability to sell tickets to A-League matches with a ten per cent discount shared between the club and person buying the ticket. This would provide park team committees with an incentive to promote the A-League.
The second is to offer each park team within a reasonable reach of an A-League stadium free tickets for committee members. Say there are 400 teams with five tickets each, that’s 2000 tickets. Sit them all together so the A-League club can talk to their park team committees.
The costs of these two things will be more than covered in increased crowds and should have a very positive effect on eyeballs to screens.
For the A-League to reach its potential, it needs respect from football’s broader base. To earn respect, Australian professional football needs to develop relationships with its broader base and this can be done via regional associations and their park teams.
Kasey
Roar Pro
@Randy :laughing: :laughing: 16 years ago the doomsayers yelled at the top of their lungs: " A-League? 3 years tops!" We're still here and we're a lot stronger than we were 10 years ago. The A-League is a success story. fact.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
Punter So so so true mate.... A while ago now when we had Arnold and a strong squad ... anywho two mates both followed the EPL and rubbished Hal so I says lets have a BBQ at my place on the CC... and I am roughly 15 minutes from Gosford stadium... The Mariners were playing the Drive Bys and so I said lets go and dragged them along kicking and screaming... they were blown away by both the quality of the match and the fans ... They still talk about how great that night was but still have not been to another Hal game... I can't explain it...
fabian gulino
Roar Rookie
the socceroos and the coach are up themselves and boring.
fabian gulino
Roar Rookie
the socceroos have lost my respect,beacuse they play boring footaball and the coach is a wanker.
Nemesis
Guest
I honestly don't care about your background. I only go on the comments you make. And, the comments you make reveal a poor grasp of what sport is about, let along what football is about. The National 2D is coming. It's not speculation. It's coming. You don't think it will happen is of zero consequence since you're not part of the community that matters. Stick in your lane. We aren't inventing N2D. We are simply restructuring the current 2nd Tier of football in Australia from a 8 regional competitions to 1 National competitions with 8 regional competitions then forming the 3rd Tier. With time, there will likely be a National 3rd Division & the 4th Tier will be 8 regional competitions. Not because this is demanded by fans. But, because it is demanded by players.
Punter
Roar Rookie
Yes Mid, I know many football fans in exactly the same boat!!! I ask them the same question, how do you expect the A-League to improve, if football fans like you don't support it. I watch a lot of La Liga, the A-League is not at that standard, but as you know I love my SFC. I like you volunteer at my local club & you get those complaining about the club not doing this or that & I say why do you volunteer & help drive this, NO!!!! Some people just complain things aren't working but won't take actions.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
Thanks Punter ... its interesting how many Football fans don't watch the Hal... last week I got a new client who is a Roma fan .... live streams their games etc .... I said why don't you come to watch the Mariners ... he lives in Gosford very close to the stadium and he laughed and said Hal was backward .... the lack of respect for our professional league has a number of fathers but the preserved quality is certainty one..
Punter
Roar Rookie
Good article Mid, keep them coming.
Ad-O
Guest
My point is that the A-League wont knowingly enter into an arrangement where they will lose money. And I'm yet to be convinced that pro/rel will do anything apart from dilute the precarious situation the A League is already in. I mean, it's not certain that the next TV deal is going to be as good as the current one as it is. Imagine going to FOX and asking them to pay for an arrangement where you might not have a team in the league from Melbourne. If you dont think they're gonna want to hedge against that then youre not connecting the right dots.
Leonard
Guest
Surely this is the only valid and practical point (and most of the rest either fantasy or hope trying to deny experience), that we have two soccer seasons, the A-League in the summer and everything else below that tier in the winter - so how can the sport's elite pro players establish bonds with the rest and their local clubs? And vice versa? To unify the sport, doesn't it make sense to re-unify the seasons? Especially with soccer spruikers reminding us time and again how insignificant and irrelevant the three eggball codes are? What's not to like?
Midfielder
Roar Guru
They don't .... Euro Snobs and A-League fans are roughly the same size
Ad-O
Guest
Sorry friend, but my sport is football and I've spent many years living in countries where it is No1, so I say this without any malice to the sport at all. But there is nothing particularly unique about football. I think a lot of people on here forget the fact that the A-League is played in Australia, not Europe. Football is not entrenched in the culture with enough people and neither is pro/rel. If a team like the Brisbane Roar gets relegated, people will just stop going. And I say this to you because I lived in Europe, I've experienced the attachment people have to their local club, the money they are willing to spend to follow the team wherever they play, the fact a city like Dortmund can sell out an 80K stadium every week despite the fact they only have 600K people. This type of passion simply does not exist in Australia. Not even close. Not even in the AFL. You cant just magically invent it by throwing a 2nd Division at it. So argue the details as much as you like. IMHO you are looking at the tree and missing the forest. If the A League are ever stupid enough to try a professional national 2nd division it will end badly.
Fadida
Roar Rookie
They have no choice Sam. No one else cares about them
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Wow, didn’t realise that video was still around. Things have moved on a fair bit since Eddie Moore was CEO. However, it does highlight what are fairly good facilities in western Sydney. The original plans were far more ambitious but they were scuppered in a political battle some years back and now we have a trimmed down version. Park was named after Charlie Valentine who bequeathed the land.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
hope you're are right
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Numbers will vary according to age groups but if you start at around 9 or 10 which is often the age that kids begin to support or follow a particular team, I’d say in a squad of 13 there are 3 or 4 that are already engaging in tv viewing, quite often EPL, La Liga etc but it is the right time to be trying to engage at a more local level. Some adult teams are heavily into viewing football but I’ve come across just as many who don’t watch or take an interest in anything outside of their team. It is very much a cultural thing.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
no its near Blacktown / Seven Hills in Sydney
Onside
Guest
The FFA Cup could be a useful vehicle to provide your ' missing link' to the relationship between A L clubs and local clubs. How ? I don't know , but the size of the competition is huge , about 750 clubs nationwide. One day.....ha ha.... Brisbane Roar will be drawn against Alice Springs in the first round. Melbourne Victory will play Noosa. The missing link might actually be playing matches against the backbone of Australian football, and in many cases, in daylight, cos lighting for night games is inadequate at most suburban clubs. The biggest competition in Australia needs a sponsor that can not only see , but also use the reach of 750 clubs ( each with many teams male and female). I understand how naysayers enjoy anonymously niggling away at the optimism of most football supporters , but the sniping is irrelevant really , considering that the 750 clubs around Australia are the actual soul of the game, with a timeless love of football that will forever be the foundation of the professional game in Australia. Football in OZ is alive and well and a little nurturing will generate the necessary respect.
anon
Roar Pro
SBS are negative to most things home grown. Just look at their news. They routinely cover international stories if no relevance to most Australians ahead of national issues that affect Australians. They’ll cover soccer in England ahead of AFL and NRL for crying out loud.
chris
Guest
Good point Sam. Football should listen to AFL fans like you as you are the yardstick of a successful global sport.