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Opinion
A late-night statement on the back of the most tumultuous 48 hours in A-League history suggests the only way things will change is if fans initiate a league-wide boycott of games.
Monday’s extraordinary announcement that the A-League Grand Final has been sold to the city of Sydney and the New South Wales government’s tourism arm Destination NSW has unleashed the most visceral outpouring of rage we’ve seen in decades in Australian football.
It’s worse than when former FFA chief executive David Gallop failed to defend fans after The Sunday Telegraph published the identities of 198 banned supporters back in 2015 – many of whom had been banned for entirely spurious reasons.
A concerted boycott saw attendances drop by more than a third in the wake of that report, and you could argue they’ve never really bounced back.
But what’s different about this decision to sell off hosting rights to the Grand Final for three years is the fact that it affects every A-League fan.
All across Australia and New Zealand, fans in every A-League city have spent the past 17 seasons dreaming of the right to watch their team host the decider.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Many of our most cherished memories hail from Grand Final day – from the first Orange Sunday in Brisbane, to Archie Thompson’s five-goal haul at Docklands, to the afternoon South Australian fans painted the Adelaide Oval red and finally celebrated a championship.
But not anymore.
After two days of roiling anger across every social media channel you care to read, the Australian Professional Leagues released a four-paragraph statement at 11pm AEDT overnight reaffirming their commitment to hosting this year’s decider in Sydney.
Signed originally by representatives of all 12 A-League Men clubs – at least until the APL pulled the post down and re-posted to social media with names removed – the statement is proof that administrators plan to double down on what is undoubtedly the most unpopular decision is A-League history.
And the only way to respond to them is by voting with your feet.
No one denies that Australian football has long been desperate for more cash. But the APL signed a $200 million, five-year broadcast deal with Paramount barely 18 months ago.
They sold a 33 per cent stake in the league worth a reported $140 million to private equity firm Silver Lake hardly six months later.
What on earth have they spent the money on? KeepUp, for one thing.
A couple of the big-name journos they’ve brought in-house to produce content got an unfortunate taste of corporate propaganda when they were tasked with lobbing a few softballs the way of APL chief executive Danny Townsend in the wake of the announcement.
I’ve tried a few times to secure an audience with Danny myself, but I’ve always been given the run-around.
I can’t hold my peace on what I think is unequivocally the worst decision the A-League has ever made though.
If the APL thinks the way to get more fans into the A-League is by doing surreptitious deals with Destination NSW, they should quit the football business and start running some hotels.
Because this decision is anti-football. It’s a slap in the face to fans and it erases 17 years of actual Grand Final history – not the laughable ‘tradition’ the APL claims they’ll create.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
And it’s not the first time the APL and its executives have spectacularly misread the room.
What happens next is largely up to them – but only because they seem so determined to compound their egregious error.
The alleged $15-20 million they’ll receive for the deal isn’t worth it. If the game goes broke without it, it was in even worse shape than anyone thought.
But more than at any other time in the A-League’s checkered history, now is the time for fans to make a stand. Already there’s a mass walk-out planned on the terraces at the Melbourne Derby on Saturday night.
And on the back of the Socceroos’ glorious World Cup campaign, it seems incredible it has come to this.
But it’s the only way they’ll learn.
The APL must be reminded: football without fans is nothing.