With a turbulent first season in the books, it’s over to the APL to get football back on track

So, it’s been a while, a long time between drinks as they say, but as the latest A-League season came to a close last night, I just had to share some ideas and thoughts on this platform.

This season has had its ups and downs, but the game has a lot of work to do before the next season comes around. Some things need urgent attention and can be sorted pretty quickly, others will take some time, but are super important, and need to be done.

Here’s my take on the issues football faces at the moment.

Scrap the cap

This topic is a never-ending saga, but this really needs to go, as it’s now stifling the potential growth of our bigger clubs, and the entire league as a whole. If some of our bigger clubs want to spend $15 million-$20 million on their wage budgets, simply because they can, then so be it.

Allowing this to happen also helps to make our football clubs more competitive in Asia, and more recognised overseas.

The APL has to mandate minimum 27-man squads, and the minimum wages per player (as per their age) which is already in place through the CBA automatically dictates the minimum spend on salaries for all the clubs, so we don’t have clubs spending over $10 million and some spending under $1 million on wages.

Domestic transfer system

This has been much talked about recently, and it looks like it’s finally happening, but apparently not yet for the A-League clubs, which is ridiculous. This needs to be opened up to the entire market, including the A-League clubs, as this will bring a whole new domestic football economy.

So clubs like CCM or Wellington can cash in on some young players if they wish, to one of the bigger clubs in the competition, plus other loans, transfers etc can all happen, and extra money will circulate throughout the league. The FA could even take a 2 per cent or 3 per cent cut out of all transfers as a fee.

National second division

This needs to happen ASAP, and it needs to start later in 2022 or in 2023 at the latest. I understand the fact that we may not be ready for a full promotion and relegation for a while, but we do need more than 12 clubs in the league, so promotion needs to come from here.

The day of brand new clubs started out of thin air are gone. We could bring in the next 4-6 clubs from the NSD.

However, in the medium to long term, we really need to sort out the relegation component. The APL clubs need to understand that by not allowing relegation from the AL, just because the owners have paid some ridiculous fees to buy some of these clubs in the last decade, is holding the game back massively.

Promotion/relegation needs to be open to all, and even though some may lose in the short term, the entire sport wins in the long term, together with our national team.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Football infrastructure

It’s been great to see the Matildas get a new home at La Trobe in Victoria recently, and Melbourne City open up a new training base at Dandenong. This is where our sport lags behind the rest by a long way. Particularly at a local level, much ground has been made up in the last few years in most states, but many local clubs still need better facilities.

At the A-League level, most clubs now have proper stadiums to play out of, except for Brisbane Roar and Western United. The latter will break ground on their training facility shortly, which will deliver a 5000-seat stadium, which isn’t for the A-League side, but they can actually use that as soon as it’s ready in about 12 months’ time.

The Roar are a huge concern overall, with their owners really letting their fans down over the last five years, while they also now have to work out where to play out of long term.

Melbourne City can use AAMI Park for now, but you’d love for their mega-rich owners to start coming up with some plans for a small stadium out at Dandenong, which is where they’re now based. If this was to ever happen, this would capture the vast majority of the Melbourne geography in terms of where the three clubs play at.

Victory in the CBD and inner suburbs, Western out at Tarneit and western suburbs and City taking in Dandenong and the southeast.

A-League clubs all need their own proper training facilities. Case in point – Melbourne Victory, who after 16 years of success on and off the park, are still looking for a location to establish a training base, and an academy.

Scheduling

This must improve next season, evidently. Hopefully with heavy COVID restrictions and state border closures now a thing of the past, a better schedule should work wonders next season, alongside some decent marketing, which is exactly what the league needs again.

I know marquee players have become a hot topic again, but in my opinion, they’ve always been hit and miss, and give no guarantees of a return. Only Alessandro Del Piero and Dwight Yorke have had the impact that the APL is looking for, in terms of getting instant recognition, bigger gates at grounds, and being regularly in the media spotlight.

Other lesser-known marquee players have done very well on field, but have not had that same impact off it.

The in-game ads are a disgrace, and will single-handedly kill off whatever small but rusted-on group of fans the league still has, and has managed to hang onto during some very tumultuous times. These must be stopped next season at all costs.

They can run banner advertising for most of the game if need be, but the sport is a continuous game, with sometimes only a handful of goal opportunities for the entire 90 minutes, which cannot be missed, so this has to stop immediately.

Another part of the scheduling I would change is the Australia Cup final dates. I’d play the two semi-finals of the Australia Cup the weekend after the A-League Grand Final, and then the final the following weekend, making it the last game of the year. And make the A-League sides play from the Round of 64 onwards, with a fully open draw, meaning more games for all teams.

Ideally, a 16-18 team league gives us 30-34 league games, plus the Australia Cup, and a future Super Cup, which also has to happen.

(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Technology

The Paramount+ app needs work immediately. If you can’t give the football loving public, or any other interested people, the opportunity to pause, rewind, or start over a live game of football, then the broadcaster just isn’t caring or bothering to listen to their clients! Clients who can do this very same thing on apps like Optus Sport, Stan, Bein Sports, Kayo and pretty much every other platform out there.

Also, the fact that people like myself, who are football mad, but have young kids, cannot watch the entire game just after the final whistle is also a huge issue. Surely we don’t need to wait 12 hours to watch a game we’ve just missed, while not being able to rewind or start over during. This is just primitive stuff, and the APL along with Paramount need to sort this out ASAP.

Ticket pricing

A pressure point in any marketing plan, and to succeed you just have to get this one right, particularly if you’re still trying to grow the product. If it’s not priced right, then you are just not giving yourself the best chance of success, and it may actually have the adverse effect on some people.

Now, I understand some grounds may cost a lot to play out of, but I see many GA ticket prices around the league being well over $40 per game, now this is just too much. The APL is better off bringing in a $30 max GA ticket price league-wide, and heavily subsiding that, rather than paying some overseas-based older players, who simply will not have the desired impact on field.

The All-Stars concept

I’d normally hate this, but I’m afraid it is here to stay. If the visit by Barca is anything to go by, these are a success. They get guaranteed good crowds, good ratings, and increase the overall interest in the game. They attract football casuals, Eurosnobs and non-football people, which is what the sport needs.

They should take these games around the country, pack out different stadiums, against world-class opposition. It’s now up to the APL to attract those people to their local A-League games. This is a gimmick, but a very much-needed one at this moment.

These are my points on what needs to be done, and most of it could be done by next season.

Roarers, do you agree or disagree?

What do you think needs to change or improve?