This was a good article and it illustrates the subtle nuances of football. It is something that Australian footballers are still sometimes naive about. It is something that could easily be employed in the A-league because something I have noticed quite regularly is how many times defenders over commit and over play their man.

I love the direction this new CEO is taking us. He is taking a very confident approach and why not, football is still the greatest game on earth whether its played in Australia or elsewhere in the world.
Of course there is trepidation from A-league fans about the switch. However, in regards to the well being of the players and having a better spectacle then there is no argument, the switch from summer to winter just make sense. The speed of the game will obviously increase, we will align our seasons with our AFC partners and our NPL competitions and the players will be less at risk.
As a fan I love watching A-league games in summer but even I concede it can get uncomfortable watching games in extreme heat and that the well being of the players should take precedent above everything else. It is difficult enough watching a game in high temperatures but imagine for a second playing in those conditions.
As for the broadcast deal I thought it was reasonable considering how covid-19 has affected most sports and our daily lives. However I am looking forward to more bold decisions by this CEO, including setting up a broadcasting arm for a subscription service. While I applaud Foxtel for their committment to football they were having too big a say in the running of our sport, which I felt was fraught with a little danger.
We have a broad base with which to work from and to tell you the truth we have more upside than downside. In the sense we need to do a better job of converting football fans into A-league fans. This conversion rate just needs to keep increasing over the years and we will be more than fine. It is FOOTBALL who can determine that. With control firmly in our destiny we decide the direction of our sport, we set the narrative, we can determine how we want our competitions to look, not a broadcast partner.
All I want to see as a football fan is the best competition we can make the A-league, that would include 14-16 teams in the future, pro/rel battles, NSD matches, womens football, transfer fee news and signings, FFA cups and charity shield type events, touring teams to Australia and Australian teams touring overseas, archive footage of old socceroo matches, NSL matches and GF’s. Its all Australian football and its our story and its up to us how we want that story to be told so that it is appealing and moves our sport forward.

There is no need to start again. I would however like to see a National Second Division (NSD) and then eventual promotion/relegation. The easiest solution is to start building a NSD which shouldn’t take too long. You bring in new teams in the A-league from the NSD for a few years through promotion only. Once you get the desire number of teams you want in the A-league you start to have pro/relegation.

As you may or may not have noticed I haven’t mentioned one team to bring into the A-league. That’s because the only criteria that matters is what you have done on the pitch through merit and whether or not your club meets a certain minimum standard. The most important thing is getting the mechanism correct ie how will it work, how many teams, how do you get relegated/promoted, home and away draw etc etc. Everything else over time will take care of itself.

I will guarantee you one thing though, over 50 years of pro/rel you will see a totally tranformed landscape and if done properly with integrity and following the rules to the letter our football will be much stronger for it.

What can you say that hasn’t already been said. My beautiful club is going through a rough trot and its showing in the stands. We might have decent membership numbers but no one is turning up to games, not even the RBB. The last few weeks quite frankly have been pathetic, the football has been terrible and even after that is all said and done we are only a couple of wins from the top 6. Lol, Aussie football you have to laugh or cry.

The VAR is a curse full stop. It is a curse on this once beautiful game which VAR is in the process of ruining. Can anyone tell me honestly that they find football more appealing than what it was pre-VAR. This quest to find perfection is ruining our game. So before VAR it was said that the referees were getting about 94-95% of decisions correct. With the VAR it is said to be around 98%. So is the small percentage gain of getting the correct decisions worth it. NOOOOOOOOOOO it is not.

I simply don’t go to away matches anymore. The cheap tickets are home memberships and I try to go to as many home games as possible.

I honestly dont think that losing just one game at home is cause for alarm. Sure I would like to have seen more away wins, however, it is tough to win away at home. We are away from home again this week.

This has all been a beat up, nothing more too it than that. It must have been a slow sports week and the writer of the article came up with that nonsense.

Plenty of room for both sports and both sports are going well, and its not at the expense of one another. I mainly follow and watch football but I have also really gotten into the NBL this season. There has been plenty of flicking between the channels this season. For me who loves both sports, its been great. There is genuine talent in the A-league and the NBL. Just sit back and enjoy. Neither of the two sports are going anywhere.

I am a massive football fan but I am so glad we didnt host the world cup. We are just a bit backward and insular to host a tournament of this magnitude, we simply aren’t prepared for it. We also lack the infrastructure to do it. To make matters worse FIFA has made the tournament beyond the reach of most countries now with the insistence of having 48 teams at the world cup. This would be an enormous financial strain on the bidding nation and leave us with a herd of large white elephants. All forgetten now. Thanks but no thanks.

My take on the penalty is this. From a technical standpoint I can understand why it was given. I would have been happier if it wasn’t given. I was annoyed that VAR intervened for what seemed an eternity and this notion of a clear and obvious error was thrown out the window.

As for the Victory they are not playing as we all know they can, but they aren’t playing all that badly either. We have to accept that this is a close competition and that anyone on the day can beat each other. Victory are just not getting a good run of decisions and its costing them games. Toivanen let it be known is an amazing footballer and is just a joy to watch.

Didnt the FFA say “Diamanti who” all those years ago when Victory tried to sign him. I swear its like trying to push a barrel of poop uphill with the FFA. Any football fan could see what a gun Diamanti was and it must have been puzzling for football fans around the world to hear the news, that the A-league didnt sign Diamanti because he is not good enough. Yes, yes I know we are talking marquee funds etc etc but this is the message we were sending out.

Regardless………….VAR has not improved football for the better. Even with VAR it has not illiminated the subjective nature of making football decisions. Even when you think a decision is 100% correct chances are it isn’t. A lot of football supporters want to see it gone from our game because quite frankly this pursuit of perfection is ruining the spectacle of football. You may have lamented the fact that pre-VAR everyone would complain about a referee decision, however, the discussion has similarly turned the discussion on VAR, which is even worse. Congratulations the VAR is getting decisions right but at the same time is ruining football.

This article is terrible and the suggestions in it would be of no benefit to the A-league. There are a number of things I hate about the A-league and none of them have anything to do with having or not having Marquee players. That is a cherry on top to be fair and it will only apply in certain circumstances. The much better option which I am glad is happening is getting rid of Marquees altogether and allowing football clubs to know their audience and to buy players accordingly. If you have a big stadium and you think you have a player that fits in with your style of play and you think he can fill the stadium then sure a club would go and get that player, but to make Marquee players mandatory is absolute nonsense. Finding those rare players is difficult and they usually don’t bring any long term benefit. The cost benefit usually outweighs their purchase anyway.

Now to the things that annoy me about the A-league. The first issue is the VAR which we have seen is killing the sport. The FFA and the powers that be want to have the VAR which is doing untold damage. This is not just an A-league phenomenom but one that is hampering the EPL and other top leagues around the world. Getting the atmosphere back into the stadiums might actually be a thing this year. HAL-leluia. For too long we have listened to outside influencers who have no interest in our sport and who want to potray the supporters as hooligans. Lets hope the A-league clubs listen to their fans for a change and get rid of the excess police presence and security forces which are not needed at the grounds. For the first time in a long time I didn’t see as many police but alas they were still there. The police should be banned from the grounds proper and remain just outside the sporting precinct if they need to be anywhere. They are an absolute nuisance, they are basically paid to watch football on the taxpayers dime because no where in the stadium are they ever needed. It would be the most requested posting for the whole rostered week, double time and half to watch football. Unreal.

Other issues are the fairness and integrity of the competition or lack thereof. Rigged draws and bye rounds should not be part of any football draw. Kicking off on time would be a nice one to have. How about getting rid of the salary cap and this idea that every club must be equal or be given a shot of winning the A-league. In every football competition there are big clubs and there are little clubs. This isn’t communism, there should be no intervention or policies to equalize the competition. For the most part competitions like the A-league should be run on auto-pilot but we try and over complicate things with rules to equalize the competition. These are the things that annoy me not whether or not a club can afford an Marquee or not. This notion should be dispensed with immediately and substituted with the word player, because thats how it should be.

How about we just play good football whether its attacking, tactical or defensive. It shouldn’t matter. Obviously the idea is to score goals, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem in the A-league. Goals have always been scored, some might say a little too much. Perhaps a reflection on the naive way we play our football. I am not fussed about whether we score heaps of goals or its just attacking football. My contention is to always run the competition with honesty and integrity. Something I can’t say is forthcoming this year. Anyway it is what it is, bring on the season already.

My personal opinion is that any advertising dollars should be spent on social media, at least 70% of it. There are plenty of influential social media personalities and channels we can throw advertising at. It would be far more cost effective and have a better reach and cut through. We have a younger demographic and this is where we should be aiming.

Almost every football fan is up in arms over the lack of advertising. Funnily enough this lack of advertising has got people talking about the A-league without having the need to spend a single advertising dollar. Genius if you ask me, accidental of course. For so many years we have said that there is no need to preach to the converted and that we should be looking after football fans. In all honesty out of everyone on this board who is a football fan can you tell me, do you know when the season starts. I am sure you can, its Oct 11th. Job done. Now can we spend money where it really counts. I have a feeling this lack of advertising wont hurt us as much as people think it will. At least not in terms of cost benefit.

I don’t know where you got monstered from. How do you base that analysis from. We haven’t even had one game of the season proper and apparently we are going to monster the league. The thing is you just dont know, the A-league is super competitive and we just lost a key player. All the teams have recruited well. No one can tell me truthfully who will monster the A-league. I’ll reserve judgement or come to a better assessment after 10 or so games.

Hi Steve,

The NRL need to be very careful with this Tonga stance. The reason being that most of the Tongan team has the same beliefs as Israel Folau when it comes to religion. My advice to the NRL is to swallow your pride, allow Israel Folau to play before you have a potential backlash of other players with the same stance as Israel. This is a potential powder keg for the NRL and it can literally blow up in their face if they don’t get this right. I know I’ll be watching very closely.

The MLS are not miles away from P&R. They just choose not to implement it. They know FIFA will not act because as far as FIFA is concerned the US is the last great bastion for football to really conquer. In fact you may recall that recently the MLS was offered a ridiculous amount of money on the priviso that they change their structure to pro/rel. I wish they took the offer because the MLS would be so much better for it. The idea of pro/rel in the US would be amazing and would seriously rival the EPL, Serie A and Bundesliga for quality of league if that did that. Sadly they chose not to accept.

To tell you the truth Ben, there shouldn’t be a collective bargaining agreement in terms of wage agreements. The only thing there should be is minimum payments. A minimum payment for an u18 player and u23 player and everyone else above that age limit. The PFA agreement should cover things like Insurance costs, medical provisions, contract disputes etc. By and large it should exclude wages. That is because players and their agents in a free market are able to determine for themselves if they want to sign a contract. If wage demands cant be met, dont sign a contract and play in another foreign league or whatever. One of the annoying aspects of the A-league and the salary cap is this idea of a minimum spend and a maximum spend. This isn’t really needed in football where we have a large supply of talent both in Australia and abroad.

No. I only read it after I saw your post.

You obviously didn’t go to the tweet with the link I provided. That link proposes promotion only for the first 4 years.

Also I am pretty sure that the NPL competitions are already linked with pro/rel. They would be in Vic, NSW and NNSW I believe.

Well look what we have here. One of my favourite topics at hand, and in all fairness it hasn’t come up in a while, but inevitably it eventually does come up. So let me indulge.
Ok before I start my ramblings on a second tier I need to preface this by saying that I firmly believe that we need to STOP EXPANSION OF THE A-LEAGUE Immediately after SWS Bulls enter the competition (more on this later).
In fact I have said this for a while but the most critical decision we need to make for football into this country is to establish a viable and credible National second division (NSD). That’s right, THE MOST IMPORTANT. Firstly I can understand why A-league clubs would be nervous and why they would be reluctant to give up any semblance of control or power. After all they just went through an acrimonous split with the FFA to seize control from the FFA in establishing an independent A-league. Firstly just because we now have an independent A-league doesn’t mean they own the A-league. The clubs and all stakeholders are custodians of the game. As such we must all act in the best interests of football and to the national interests ie The national team and winning the world cup. That is the ultimate end game here and while difficult is something worth pursuing. Otherwise what’s the point.
Establishing a NSD is critical for a number of reasons. The first and most obvious is that when pro/rel does eventually happen we need to be able to provide a viable platform for clubs relegated where they can re-establish themselves and fight for promotion in the top tier (A-league). In that regard having a NSD and then quickly establishing a pro/rel mechanism should go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. If you do not have that mechanism or a relatively quick timeline in place it will stymie investment in the lower tier as no one will invest when that is not part of the equation. Similarly no club in the football world should be a protected species. If there is no relegation from the A-league you can become lazy, complacent and your standards ultimately drop. There is no need to get better and to be ambitious, you rest on your laurels and you will start to go backwards.
Another reason is that we need to expand our professional player base and the number of professional clubs in this country. We already have an excellent player base both here and playing in lower leagues overseas. All we need to do is funnel them into a NSD and allow for the best players to be identified so that they can move up the next chain. By establishing more professional places we are allowing more of the current players to play and train on a full time basis. This is a huge factor when looking to improve our current players. If you are working full time and then coming home to train, it becomes very difficult to improve to the next level.
We have huge potential for football within this country. We are a wealthy country when compared to many others and we are spoilt for choice when it comes to sport. Even so, it has been shown that there is a huge appetite for investment in football when you provide the opportunities. This was clearly shown when we had at least 15-18 submissions (cant remember exactly) for 2 A-league licences when the last expansion was put forward. That is a ridiculous number of people wanting to be part of an expanded A-league.
SO IF YOU PROVIDE THE OPPORTUNITY OF GETTING TO THE A-LEAGUE WE HAVE WILLING INVESTORS READY TO INVEST.
This brings me back to my original point in saying that promotion into the A-league from a NSD is that opportunity. In an open system of football if you provide that mechanism and aspiration people will invest in the game. It’s just that it will now need to start at a lower tier. For most investors if they are looking at the long term and they believe in their management and their club this is a slight set back, but it certainly wont prevent them from investing. This is why it is important that pro/rel is part of the NSD and the A-league. It will unlock potential investment as long as it is an aspirational league. So this where I disagree somewhat with Mike as you would like to delay this further.
Having said that I am looking for a sensible timeline. As long as a reasonable timeline is included for pro/rel then that is all that needs to happen and you will find that potential clubs and future investors would be happy to know that. As long as it is open and transparent. It will be an absolute gamechanger for sport and for football in this country.
Lastly I wanted to share a tweet that someone put up a little while ago on this topic. I cannot take credit for this timeline of events, but in principle I agree with the process and the timeline. It is a very easy chart to follow and is a very sensible approach to what seems a difficult roadmap, which it is not. See below, it’s not hard to follow and I think its brilliant.
https://twitter.com/mark_putta/status/1154961334452097024
End rant – sorry for the length.

OK Mike here it is both barrels and I’ll just answer the questions you posed.
1. League over a cup any day, even if they are in the NPL
2. I think those unsavoury instances are not a frequent occurrence. They have also occurred in the A-league. Flares and bottles thrown, were also condemned. Its not just a phenomenon that occurs in the NPL.
3. I can understand why NPL fans don’t want a bar of the A-league. Why would they. Until we have an open system it will always be an us vs them mentality Mike. Things will change when the A-league is run properly. You heard me, properly. They will feel connected when we are connected duh.

My understanding is that the A-league and the club owners still haven’t reached a full agreement.

Well that’s the theory anyway. I am sure the pitches would still be harder in summer.