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This Sunday evening, ANZ Stadium will host the second straight A-League All Stars game, when the league’s best host Italian giants Juventus.
Although the second instalment of the concept is unlikely to attract the media attention or fanfare of last season’s visit by English powerhouse Manchester United, it should still prove to be a great occasion.
Juventus have committed to bringing their full strength squad, which will boast World Cup stars such as Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo, Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal, just to name four.
The All Stars will be captained by former Sydney FC captain and Juventus legend in the form of World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero.
To protect the integrity of the concept, the FFA has insisted that all A-League clubs prioritise the one off contest, rather than the FFA Cup, which will unfortunately be affected.
The All Stars will play one warm up game against the young Socceroos, which should allow some sense of cohesion in a squad made up of players from all ten A League sides, plus the uncontracted Del Piero.
Travelling sides have enjoyed mixed success within Australia. While Man United, David Beckham’s La Galaxy and Liverpool attracted massive, and loud, sell-out crowds in the biggest venues in Australia, Sydney FC’s disastrous festival of football, which featured EPL side Blackburn, SPL side Rangers and Greek side AEK Athens, only managed a combined crowd of 25,873 across three doubleheaders.
At current it looks as though the Turin giants will play in front of a modest to large crowd, just as mid-table Everton did in 2010.
The simple fact is that the All Stars concept is not strong enough to draw a crowd based purely on the event. I don’t know many who went last year, or this year, to support the All Stars squad.
The success of the event relies heavily, of not entirely, on the strength of the opposition.
Last year, the FFA scored a massive win in bringing the EPL’s most successful team of all time across, in the form of the Manchester United juggernaut.
A capacity crowd packed ANZ Stadium to watch the Red Devils put five on the hapless All Stars.
Unfortunately for organisers, there are still plenty of tickets left, less than a week away from kickoff. The only sections that have sold out are the Juventus active support area, and the lowest price non-alcohol section, which would literally be the smallest allocation in the stadium.
I doubt Juventus, despite their success and star studded squad, have the drawing power of Man United.
Serie A is not does have the profile Down Under that its English counterpart does. Buffon, Vidal and co. are absolute superstars, but do not carry the same name value, at least in Australia, as Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and the rest of the United squad from last season.
The fact the game has been set for a Sunday won’t help with crowd figures. Last season’s game was played on the far more fan friendly Saturday night.
Whatever the crowd figure, I’m sure it will be a great occasion. For Juventus fans based in Australia, it’s a brilliant chance to see their side play in person.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much interest there is outside of Juve fans. Being that the game is being shown on digital channel 7Mate, and that ticket sales have been underwhelming, I don’t know how many eyes will be on ANZ Stadium come kick off.
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