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Opinion

For Australian football, the times they are a changin’

11th July, 2022
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11th July, 2022
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There appears to be something fresh in the football air.

Australia’s top-level female competition is about to welcome Western United into the league, before the Central Coast Mariners do the same 12 months later.

Two pending World Cups stand to provide excellent domestic media and social engagement with the global game and a little extra cash available to Australia’s top tier clubs has been most welcome.

At the risk of putting the proverbial cart before the horse, rumoured signings Nani and Cesc Fabregas have many Australian fans frothing at the potential opportunity to see them in action on a regular basis. With both apparently at the advanced stage of talks with the APL and their prospective clubs, either would be the biggest signing the A-League has seen in some time.

In the background, others have explored the once seemingly ridiculous possibility of Australia luring other players of similar international note, with Luis Suarez and Diego Costa mentioned in dispatches. As crazy at that may sound, Sydney FC did land a similar-sized fish when Alessandro Del Piero was brought to the harbour Sydney for a two-year stint that momentarily reshaped the A-League competition.

I guess anything is possible.

APL Chief Executive Danny Townsend has spoken openly about the game needing an injection of talent and more notable names that will hopefully lure further players of that quality in the future, whilst also hopefully catching a few more curious domestic eyeballs.

Yet it is the investment of $140 million from private equity firm Silver Lake that looms as the game-changer.

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Whilst Daniel Sturridge’s time in Perth ended sadly, one can only imagine the talk were he firing in the west and ready for season two of his stay, with Nani and Fabregas hopefully about the jet to their new teams and begin a pre-season in Australia.

Daniel Sturridge

Daniel Sturridge (Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

A reported $2 million deal is required to land Nani, with Melbourne Victory the Portuguese’s apparent likely destination and should Fabregas’ also sign what will surely be a similarly lucrative deal, the announcement of his destination will be much anticipated.

The arrival of Englishman Charlie Austin in Brisbane already has tongues wagging and if you aren’t following the 33-year-old on social media just yet, I suggest you do. He comes across as a lovable larrikin with a little Jason Cummings about him.

Equally as interesting was the Milos Ninkovic defection to the Wanderers after failing to come to terms with Sydney FC for another deal.

One wonders whether the Sky Blue fans will already be hunting down snake shaped confectionary in anticipation of the first derby of the season, with one of Sydney’s favourite sons surely to avoid the treatment former goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic was dealt after his move across to the Wanderers?

With the recent APL decision to include a second designated player spot for all twelve clubs in the 2022/23 season, thus potentially allowing for an additional marquee, the competition looks likely to be stacked with more talent than it has been for some time. The move allows for an extra $600,000 to be spent on an additional designated player outside the restrictive salary cap.

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Numerically, a situation now exists where two marquees and two designated players whose wages fall outside of the $2,550,000 salary cap ceiling, could raise the value of some squads to between $4 and $5 million dollars.

All the while, the 2023 Women’s World Cup on home soil looms and if the Women’s EURO 2022 tournament currently being held in England is used to gauge the size and magnitude of the carnival headed our way, we are in for something special.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

With expansion of both the number of teams and the length of the season being fully implemented by 2023/24, the A-League Womens competition will finally move to align with global governing body expectations.

Most exciting of all is the recent recognition given to a host of young Australian players who are effectively the first batch to have enjoyed the full experience of the National Football Curriculum which was released in 2009.

Whilst serious concerns still exist around the implementation of the curriculum at a grassroots level, with under-funding still hampering the development of the vast majority of the playing masses at local club level, elite players now entering their early 20’s are products of the pedagogy.

As a result, the A-League Men is to be stripped of some of the most exciting talent we have seen on domestic shores for years. Connor Metcalfe, Joshua Rawlins, Philip Cancar, Mohamed Toure, Yaka Dukuly, Kye Rolwes, Lewis Miller, Tass Mourdoukoutas and Keanu Baccus are all headed abroad, after what has been an exciting 12 months in all of their football journeys.

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Add their names to the list of young men already plying their trade abroad and considering the Olyroos’ strong performance at the recent U-23 Asian Cup, there are signs that the next wave of Australian stars may be significantly more talented than their predecessors.

The idea that our departing players also now leave spaces for the next wave of youth to fill in 2022/23, alongside what looks to be an exciting influx of foreign marquees and real progress in the women’s game, sees Australian football entering a moment of change and restructure.

With careful yet ambitious decision-making at the top level, the potential positives are considerable. Let’s hope the new investments in the game do indeed provide a return that allows a continuation of the approach. If they do, football in Australia may well have changed forever.

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