Australian soccer should explore owning its broadcast rights and shift domestic seasons to align with Asia, according to members of the country’s ‘golden generation’.
A group of esteemed Socceroos including former captains Mark Viduka, Lucas Neill and Craig Moore are urging soccer’s hierarchy to use the coronavirus shutdown to reset the sport in Australia.
Viduka, Neill, Moore, John Aloisi, Scott Chipperfield, Vince Grella, Zeljko Kalac, Josip Skoko and Luke Wilkshire are urging a rethink of the way soccer is managed.
“We are not looking to be agitators,” Moore told AAP on Thursday.
“We’re looking to be able to support and push the right outcomes to a level where they’re at least getting discussed.
“A reset will happen. It’s when.”
The group, part of the 2006 Socceroos dubbed the ‘golden generation’ for taking Australia the World Cup – for the first time in 32 years – believed soccer “was a little bit stale and certainly needs to be freshened up”, Moore said.
“There’s a lot of discussion points within the game and we want to be a part of those discussions because we know changes need to occur for our game to move forward,” he said.
The group want administration costs reduced to ensure more funds for grassroots.
“We’re not saying that we don’t need state member federations but … the layers of administration that we currently have certainly can be streamlined,” Moore said.
“That will then allow the reductions of costs to be able to be passed on to participants and clubs … we need to try to find better solutions financially.”
Owning future broadcasting rights via a streaming service covering everything from national teams to state and junior competitions should also be on the agenda.
“We understand there’s a broadcast deal in place but, in terms of securing the future of the game, it’s a really good discussion point about how can we have ownership of our game,” Moore said.
“Are we able to find a smarter solution moving forward that gives us a better opportunity to have more control of our content?”
Aligning domestic seasons to coincide with Asian competitions should also be considered.
“Are we brave enough to say … we’re going to align with Asia?” Moore said.
“That, to me, is something that would be a huge success because I believe longer-term it’s going to be beneficial for the game.
“It then allows the discussion around promotion and relegation and all those kind of things become a lot closer because the whole football pyramid is in line.”
chris
Guest
Correct. If you watch the game against Italy I think we created one good chance with Chippers. Italy created lots of chances and Schwarzer had a fine game. And whilst the pen was soft, I would have screamed blue murder if the same wasn't given to us if things happened in reverse. The Italians were superior to us even when they had a man sent off. That's nothing to be ashamed of as they were a good team and obviously went on to win the WC.
At work
Roar Rookie
Agree with everything except the Italian game, I felt they held no fear of our chances of scoring. Our only hope was to hold out for a penalty shoot out.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Ironically that Brazil game was probably their best game at that world cup. Don’t forget they were robbed of a win against Croatia by Graham Poll’s meltdown (3 yellow cards to the same Croatian player still on the pitch at the end! :shocked: ). And with Aloisi primed to come on, I’m confident we would’ve ran over the top of Italy in extra-time if not for Neill’s lack of composure.
At work
Roar Rookie
On a side note, I'm getting a little bored, or tired os them bring referred to as the golden generation. If we have a proper think about it they didn't achieve much more at the 2006 WC than the 2010 iteration. The only difference is we only lost 0-2 to Brazil in 2006 compared to 0-4 to Germany in 2010, meaning we missed out on goal difference. Add to that the farcial decision to award Ghana a penalty and red card Kewell for the ball hitting his shoulder on the goal line, that game could have easily turned into a win instead of a draw. Then we can also look at how many of the 'golden generation' were playing in big European leagues, which is much better then we currently have. While not saying it's not more impressive then compared to now, what is clearly ignored is that fact there are so many more African players players playing in Europe these days, which are obviously going to remove available positions.