If any positive can come out of this pandemic, it is that it has forced our governing body to examine the direction of the game.
It has stopped us kicking the can down the road and postponing the inevitable.
As football fans, we have discussed ad nauseam where the game went wrong. We have discussed the decline of our youth system, the poor quality of football, the treatment of fans like dollar signs, allowing broadcasters too much control and influence over our game, an over-reliance on TV money at the expense of a stable model, ignoring our footballing heritage, suppressing and killing active support and just down right poor management as our game is hijacked by the metrics bozos at head office who do not understand football’s DNA nor the unique power football has to drive change and be a leader in the community.
They are protecting their own power base at the expense of our game, avoiding accountability and creating a barrier of entry for people like our golden generation, whose knowledge would be invaluable. If it can’t be quantified into a narrow metric whose end goal is to make money, it’s worthless.
It seems head office doesn’t want the old-school fans who draw inspiration from community, passion and sticking by their team through thick and thin. They want events people and social media influencers who will go to a game and post to their followers about what a great time they are having, conveniently filming themselves as they celebrate a goal. But these people have dropped football for the next trendy thing, just as broadcasters will when the game is no longer profitable, while in the mean time the game has alienated its true fans.
(AAP Image/Paul Miller)
But all is not lost. Head office has been dragged kicking and screaming to the crossroads. The worst thing they can do if they survive this is go back to business as usual. If they don’t, we have reason to be optimistic.
James Johnson, the new FFA chief executive, seems to get it. He understands football without the community is nothing. He has so far proven himself an adept mediator, overseeing the various warring parties and finding a solution to move forward. His power may be limited, but so far he has done a fantastic job and I only wish we had him in the chair three years ago.
We need to go back to zero. The lucrative TV deals look to be a thing of the past and never again must they be allowed to dictate the game’s strategy. We need a model that starts with the fans. That can grow from there. We need the teams to act as small self-sustaining units operating under the umbrella of a national body or at least all pulling in the same direction.
The new model will not require tens of millions of dollars to be sustainable nor should the game ever again attempt to be a second-rate version of the Big Bash, NRL or AFL. The A-League has produced some wonderful moments, wonderful clubs and wonderful fans.
We have derbies that even until recently pulled 20,000 to 30,000 people. That is something we could not have dreamed of 20 years ago.
We have crowd averages of nearly 10,000 people and this is despite the game being poorly run and in decline. We have a huge junior base and we are international and we have more exposure in the Australian media than we have ever had in the game’s history. These are wonderful ingredients to begin our journey to a solid sustainable strategy.
FFA CEO James Johnson has a big job on his hands. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett)
But it’s not complete, because there is a part of the game’s essence that is missing. A key set of ingredients mean the game will never reach its potential unless we all pull in the same direction as one football family. We need to reignite the mission that Johnny Warren and Les Murray spoke about. A game that doesn’t acknowledge its history is rudderless and lacking in foundation and identity.
It’s time to unite the old with the new and to recognise the people and the teams who laid the foundations. These are the clubs who have been alienated and left to rot but who have stilled survived. The fans of those clubs were part of the community who gave not only the golden generation but a host of great players. They produced your Johnny Warrens, Marshall Sopers and Robbie Slaters.
With these clubs we can begin to rebuild our identity, our youth system, and our culture. Take it back to the grassroots. Imagine the passion of a league that has Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory, Perth Glory, Brisbane Strikers, Wollongong Wolves and South Melbourne. Add in Sydney Olympic and Melbourne Knights for a little spice. Add to this new regional teams, an overdue Canberra team and bringing Townsville back. This is Australia and this is Australian football. We will all be part of the new football family.
What form this will take is up for review. We can expect less revenue and a second division, although ideal may not be realistic. But remember, the idea is to build areas of sustainability from the ground up and as the community becomes engaged, revenue streams will open up organically and the game will grow.
Perhaps even a conference system like you have in the US is possible. This would essentially be teams of one area (or conference) playing each other, which would minimise travel expenses, with a select number of games within the season allowed for interstate games.
You may argue the US system may not work in Australia and that’s fine, but the idea is to minimise expenditure, increase community engagement and create youth pathways. We are not trying to get 40,000 people per game and chase billion-dollar TV deals and getting into hundred of millions of debt. That model is unrealistic, unachievable and irresponsible. Perhaps a second division with a conference style system while maintaining the national first division is possible. There are options.
The ingredients are there, we just have to bring them all together. We have the right man to lead us, and we have now the opportunity to make the change. Now is the time to create the game we all wanted.
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
:laughing: Lol where to begin. 1. The AFC rankings aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, Qatar being 2nd when it isn’t even the strongest league in West Asia says it all. Frankly you just have to ask any Asian Football fan and they will tell you J-League is comfortably the strongest in Asia as Chinese teams are still stuck with dud Chinese players regardless of how expensive their imports are. Btw in last years ACL, Guangzhou Evergrande finished 5 points behind Vissel Kobe in the group stage, struggled to a 1-1 away goal win against Kashima and then were comprehensively beaten home and away by Urawa. In fact they only won 1 out of 6 attempts against Japanese teams over 90 minutes, so much for smashing every J-League side.” 2. Brazilian elite player are not “shipped off to the academies in Europe when they are kids” unless they have a European passport. Under FIFA statutes, it is illegal for European Clubs to sign players from non EU countries before they turn 18. You can check for yourself by looking at the foreign based players in the latest Brazil squad, nearly all of them went through Brazilian academies and played at least one or two seasons inn Brazil before moving to Europe. 3. And not that it’s important but I’m actually an Anglo who didn’t even live in the country until the NSL was finished and I’ve had a MV membership since the Olympic Park days. Frankly I just have no interest seeing the games unique culture and history being shat on and melded into another bland Australian Sports product like the other codes by becoming the AFL with a round ball just to appease so some late comers from other sports. But good on you for figuring it all out, very clever!
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
Evergrande is easily the best team in AFC by far and would smash any J-League side most of the time through the J-League is more balanced in comparison to the CSL but ACL largely does not matter as most teams do not 100% comment to it due to the lackluster prize money but as South Korea has won the most titles by your logic the K-League should be considered the best league in Asia which it clearly is not as according to AFC Club Competition Rankings China is 1st through Japan has the Highest Ranked National Team which is 28th overall https://www.the-afc.com/afc-ranking/ https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/#AFC Brazilian Players are some of the best in the World but those elite players get shipped off to the academies in Europe when they are kids and the domestic league suffers as a result along with the 2-3 month long transfer window in the middle of the season which drastically changes squads and the burnout of playing years round once state league games are taken into account No way to legally watch the Chillan League in Australia so can't comment on it but the only club I know of from there is Colo Colo I Personally think you either a bitter old man from Eastern Europe or the Mediterranean that most likely lives in Melbourne who is still bitter about his club not being in the top flight and wants football in Australia to go back to the days of being "Wog Ball" and non "ethnics" like myself being excluded from the games because of our heritage, a Euro Snob or a Combination of the two Ironically your Elitist Attitude makes you a perfect Rugby fan in Australia
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
Well that shows you know nothing then. The CSL has never been the top league in Asia and that is clear as absolute day to anyone who actually watches Asian Football. The last three ACL finals have featured J-League teams, despite them not even prioritising the tournament. If you think the Brazilian or even the Chilean league are trash then you haven't watched a second of South American football. It's pretty damn clear that this not your sport and you should possibly stick to Rugby.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Agree but makes little difference to my fundamental point.
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
you forgot to account for the population of NZ which is 4.5 million bringing u the total market population to 29.5 million
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
I never said the MLS was "so good" as you claim What I Actually said was "purist’s like to shit on the MLS but they have done well in the short time they have existed to position themselves as the no 5 sport in the US and the biggest sport outside the big 4 in just 24 years"
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
Eurosnobs are the worst man
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
besides the Argentine League the South American Leagues are Trash as any players with potential are shipped off to the Academies of European Clubs, J-League is not even the best in AFC the CSL is these days and most AFC leagues are shit, your just shitting on the MLS because it adapted to the American Market
Samuel Power
Roar Rookie
Do you think the MLS is better than the A-League then?
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
yeah it's so good that it helped them fail to qualify for the world cup out of CONCACAF. MLS is trash.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Well you can start with the top 10 European leagues, thereafter, you can look at the next tier of European leagues, and the 2nd divisions of the top leagues, and the South American leagues come into it, can even throw the J-League into the mix at this point.
Samuel Power
Roar Rookie
MLS is rubbish? What leagues bar the top Euro leagues is it worse than?
Stevo
Roar Rookie
In both USA and Oz, football is not the major code. Fine. So the game fights for eyeballs and sponsorship. In the MLS there are 26 teams across a population of 328M people which averages to nearly 13M people per MLS team. The HAL will have 12 teams across a population of about 25M people which averages to just over 2M people per HAL team. The HAL’s catchment in raw numbers is an order of magnitude below that of the USA. That’s your starting point.
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
have you watched a game?
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
MLS is rubbish.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
My eyes glaze over whenever anyone mentions the conference system. The US has 15 times our population, with 100 cities with populations over 500k. We have on city in the Western half of the continent.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Fair enough if that's the case. I didn't realise they had such a bad record.
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
Watch the NPL and FFA Cup. WA teams have never had the resources to compete with the east coast and every year there is an exodus of their best players to (usually) the NPLV because the pay is better and it's a higher standard. Also they have won something like one FFA Cup game in something like 24 attempts.
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
Those NSL clubs that "failed us" just happen to still be, by and large, the strongest clubs outside the A-League with the infrastructure, tradition and fan bases to make it work and were the ones who made an organised push for a 2nd division in the first place. The whole point of having a 2nd division is to consolidate the NPL into the strongest possible league under the A-League. Pretending that can be achieved by swapping the former NSL clubs for inexperienced teams with less fans just to sooth this "dots on the map" itch some people have when it comes to expansion defeats the purpose.
Samuel Power
Roar Rookie
Mate, I never even really followed the NSL, kept up with the odd Adelaide v West game every year or so but that’s it! Shove it up all those South Melbourne supporters who hate on the A-League for just stupid reasons. I want the league to thrive, hence why I bought a Macarthur FC membership, I want them to have a bit impact on the league. Soccer isn’t even my number one sport, I’d much rather AFL and cricket, however I love the A-League and try to watch almost every match each week. Don’t assume that I want the days of the NSL back, I don’t. In the 90’s and early 2000’s, we were stuck in the 60’s soccer-wise. I just think that bringing some of the older clubs back into some relevancy with the A-League will not make the community as divided as it is and would possibly get those NSL fanatics into the A-League.