Jump to content
Melbourne Football

The APL/FA Management Thread


thisphantomfortress
 Share

Recommended Posts

On 30/03/2017 at 9:14 AM, haz said:

This is an article by the 442 user "aussieshorter", it goes into deep detail about how he would structure the football pyrimid in Australia and how pro/rel can be introduced. The article is quite long but has had many positive responses.

http://thepeckingorder.com.au/tpovision/

Ok I read it. I love his passion.

He agrees with what I've posted before, we need an A2 League now. It could be done and would work. In a couple of years you can have promotion and relegation. To me this is where expansion should come from first.

in regards to his criticism of the salary cap, he doesn't even mention the caps biggest problem. It draws clubs down to the lowest level, thus lowering the quality of the league, which then reduces its marketability.

Some of the things he writes about he expects arguments about "how" but I would say "why". Why do we need and A3 league? Why do we need a link to the amateur clubs? Why should every club be able to make it into the A1 league? Personally I don't think any of this is desirable now and may never be.

Anyway as a game I think we need more debate so I welcome his hard work here.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, Shahanga said:

Ok I read it. I love his passion.

He agrees with what I've posted before, we need an A2 League now. It could be done and would work. In a couple of years you can have promotion and relegation. To me this is where expansion should come from first.

in regards to his criticism of the salary cap, he doesn't even mention the caps biggest problem. It draws clubs down to the lowest level, thus lowering the quality of the league, which then reduces its marketability.

Some of the things he writes about he expects arguments about "how" but I would say "why". Why do we need and A3 league? Why do we need a link to the amateur clubs? Why should every club be able to make it into the A1 league? Personally I don't think any of this is desirable now and may never be.

Anyway as a game I think we need more debate so I welcome his hard work here.

With all the talk about P & R I'm still yet to see a well put together post in any forum on how this will work from a financial perspective. And how will all aspects of running two tiers affect the finacial sustainability of each club and the league as a whole. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, n i k o said:

With all the talk about P & R I'm still yet to see a well put together post in any forum on how this will work from a financial perspective. And how will all aspects of running two tiers affect the finacial sustainability of each club and the league as a whole. 

I agree. it's a big hurdle.

The first thing you need to do is show that an A2 league is viable. Will it be?

I'd like to think so, but the Australian public is fairly disinterested in quality 2nd tier sport, look at how the Sheffield shield can't draw a crowd despite being played by the 12th to 66th best cricketers in the country, so its a concern.  Obviously some sort of TV deal would be crucial.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Shahanga said:

I agree. it's a big hurdle.

The first thing you need to do is show that an A2 league is viable. Will it be?

I'd like to think so, but the Australian public is fairly disinterested in quality 2nd tier sport, look at how the Sheffield shield can't draw a crowd despite being played by the 12th to 66th best cricketers in the country, so its a concern.  Obviously some sort of TV deal would be crucial.

Unfortunately I am on my phone, so I don't have the patience to write a comprehensive response.

I love red ball cricket as much as anyone, I have never watched a ball of the BBL and haven't watched ODI's since I was a teen. I feel the lack of coverage is the nature of the beast with regard to first class cricket. I can't imagine the reception to County Cricket would be much different in the UK (correct me if I'm wrong), nobody has the time in this day and age to watch four full days of cricket. Test matches work as they are somewhat of an event, only occurring once per year in any given city. 

A better comparison would probably be the flailing second tier Aussie rules leagues. But when the top flight is not even a dream for these clubs, why would kids grow up wanting to support Port Melbourne over *spits* Collingwood? I believe I read on Wikipedia (the bastion of informed debate) that one of the reasons the original VFL broke away from the then VFA was to create a league without relegation.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 01/04/2017 at 4:16 PM, Blackout said:

Unfortunately I am on my phone, so I don't have the patience to write a comprehensive response.

I love red ball cricket as much as anyone, I have never watched a ball of the BBL and haven't watched ODI's since I was a teen. I feel the lack of coverage is the nature of the beast with regard to first class cricket. I can't imagine the reception to County Cricket would be much different in the UK (correct me if I'm wrong), nobody has the time in this day and age to watch four full days of cricket. Test matches work as they are somewhat of an event, only occurring once per year in any given city. 

A better comparison would probably be the flailing second tier Aussie rules leagues. But when the top flight is not even a dream for these clubs, why would kids grow up wanting to support Port Melbourne over *spits* Collingwood? I believe I read on Wikipedia (the bastion of informed debate) that one of the reasons the original VFL broke away from the then VFA was to create a league without relegation.

That last point is fantastic, because in comparison to England, there are so many fans for unambitious clubs in 3rd/4th tiers due to their history. These clubs have been good in the past, and generations have gone on following the club even through their unambitious years. The issue for Australian football is since these 2nd tier clubs would be new, with seemingly bugger all history, who would want to follow the unambitious ones?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The A-League is so far away from where it needs to be at the moment, that I have no idea why promotion/relegation is even a legitimate talking point right now as there are so many more pressing matters at hand. 

The competition already struggles enough as it is for attention in a heavily crowded Australian sports market so realistically how much coverage will an A2 League get? Keeping in mind too that the only reason the A-League is financially viable is due to Fox Sports, and even then there's several clubs who struggle off the pitch every single season. 

I agree the game needs to evolve as the current A-League format is really stale and whilst the FFA Cup has been good for the game, expansion is honestly the only legitimate option I can see working in the current Australian sporting landscape moving forward imo.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎31‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 7:57 PM, Shahanga said:

Ok I read it. I love his passion.

He agrees with what I've posted before, we need an A2 League now. It could be done and would work. In a couple of years you can have promotion and relegation. To me this is where expansion should come from first.

in regards to his criticism of the salary cap, he doesn't even mention the caps biggest problem. It draws clubs down to the lowest level, thus lowering the quality of the league, which then reduces its marketability.

Some of the things he writes about he expects arguments about "how" but I would say "why". Why do we need and A3 league? Why do we need a link to the amateur clubs? Why should every club be able to make it into the A1 league? Personally I don't think any of this is desirable now and may never be.

Anyway as a game I think we need more debate so I welcome his hard work here.

Thanks for sharing, and I'll try to answer any questions that come up.

I agree with your comments on the salary cap holding back the quality of the A-League, and I think I've touched on it when I talk about the successful teams being punished each year.  Another point that I need to add is that removing the salary cap isn't only about spending more on better players, it's also about allowing clubs to replace the players who haven't worked out. The salary cap forces the clubs to wait until those players leave after their contracts are up before they can be replaced.

On your point about 'why', I want to focus on the A3 league because to me that's one of the most important points.  If we assume that only a second division will be implemented, it will either be fully professional or semi-professional - it can't be both.  And yet we need both.  A professional second division is needed because if our goal is to increase the number of professional clubs in Australia, we can't have a professional club relegated directly to a semi-professional league. It might not kill the club, but it can only hurt it.  We need that professional second division as a buffer.  And we also need a semi-professional league to bridge the gap between the Professional Leagues and all the State Leagues (currently there are eight).  It's ridiculous to think a semi-professional club playing in a tier among ~100 other clubs can jump straight into a professional league.  We need both, and the ultimate 'why' is because we are aiming to increase the number of professional clubs in Australia.

On your other question about why we should link to amateur clubs, it's because of the incentive it creates.  The amateur clubs are only amateur clubs at a point in time (right now), but there's no reason to assume none of them couldn't be professional clubs if given the chance.  It also takes the responsibility off the FFA and puts it on the clubs.  To give an example, the FFA could choose two new A-League clubs for the 2018/19 season.  That would create two professional clubs, and that's it.  Or the FFA could create two new A-League expansion PLACES and say that the top two clubs from the division below the A-League (A2 in my model) will win those places, but only if they meet a set of criteria.  All of a sudden you have 10, or 12 clubs becoming more professional (to meet the criteria) in the HOPE that they win those places.  The simple act of creating the opportunity encourages investment that otherwise might not happen.

For a bold and ambitious model like the one I'm suggesting to work, it also needs the support and backing from all stakeholders in the game.  The best way to get their backing is to include them in the structure. We need unity, and a closed structure creates division.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Nate said:

The A-League is so far away from where it needs to be at the moment, that I have no idea why promotion/relegation is even a legitimate talking point right now as there are so many more pressing matters at hand. 

The competition already struggles enough as it is for attention in a heavily crowded Australian sports market so realistically how much coverage will an A2 League get? Keeping in mind too that the only reason the A-League is financially viable is due to Fox Sports, and even then there's several clubs who struggle off the pitch every single season. 

I agree the game needs to evolve as the current A-League format is really stale and whilst the FFA Cup has been good for the game, expansion is honestly the only legitimate option I can see working in the current Australian sporting landscape moving forward imo.

You've nailed a few of the comments that frustrate me the msot in these types of discussions :)

On Expansion:

I don’t think anyone would argue that 10 is the right number of teams for the A-League, but my view is that expansion is a band-aid fix.  Let’s talk about a few of the benefits if expansion is done in isolation:

  • Additional professional spots for players (if two teams, around 40 new Australian spots created)

  • An extra Australian coach or two at the top level

  • More games per season

  • Added interest for the fans (temporarily)

  • Probably more derby games (depending on the location of the expansion clubs)

  • (Minimal) additional value from the TV Deal

All of those are good things.  But here’s a list of things that isolated expansion would also bring:

  • A subjective and ambiguous selection process that results in multiple bids being rejected and ill-will created (does anyone expect the FFA to conduct an open and transparent process?)

  • Potential investment into the game being turned away when the failed bids disappear

  • More irrelevant games at the bottom of the table each season

  • The added interest for fans will only be temporary.  In a few years, the same conversations that involve the words ‘stale’ and ‘boring’ will be had.  In effect, the added interest from a fan point of view is a novelty only

  • Increased resentment from the rest of the football pyramid who still feel excluded and ignored (which is exactly what they are)

  • Increased animosity between stakeholders in the game who should be working together

Expansion by itself doesn’t address any of the real problems in Australian football, and if anything, makes some of them worse.  I am absolutely in favour of expanding the A-League, but only as a small part of a much larger answer.

 

On Financial Stability:

What does a ‘financially stable’ club look like?  How do we define it?  If the big goal is to make sure all our elite clubs are financially stable, why has no one asked the following question – how will we know when we get there? 

If your answer is that the league must be structured in a way that allows all clubs to spend within their means, I think we’re already at that point.  The problem is that it’s down to the management of the individual club as to how they do that.  Should we punish not only the other A-League clubs, but all football in Australia, because a particular management team performs poorly?  And we only need to look at the big football leagues around the world to see that a significant number of clubs rely heavily on rich owners to cover ‘losses’ (side note – why do we think about them as losses?  Let’s reframe our thinking on this.  It’s not a loss, it’s an investment made by the owner). 

In a competitive environment, where clubs are continually under pressure to keep up with the other clubs, we will always see decisions made by club management that are in direct opposition to ‘financial stability’.  Any team could cut their staff numbers, marketing budget, let their expensive players go and replace with cheaper alternatives, all in an effort to cut costs.  But it won’t happen and nor should it.  But we can’t put a hold on progress because of poor club management.

On top of that, even if you can define financial stability, the reality is that we will never reach it.  In a competitive environment, any additional revenue will just result in additional expenditure.  A bigger TV deal won’t make a club financially viable, it’ll increase that club’s ability to spend money.  It doesn’t force a club to spend less than it earns in revenue.  A club with income of $2M can go bankrupt just as easily as a club earning $100M if the wrong management team is in place.

And finally, this whole argument is only important if you’re assumption is for the A-League to remain closed, and for the current clubs to be the entire future of our elite game.  With a shift in thinking (which is the whole point of my article), it becomes obvious that if a club makes poor financial decisions or goes beyond its means, there are clubs waiting to take their place.  In fact, it’s another way to drive professionalism and strive for better-run clubs, because those that aren’t at that level will be left behind.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, aussieshorter said:

You've nailed a few of the comments that frustrate me the msot in these types of discussions :)

On Expansion:

I don’t think anyone would argue that 10 is the right number of teams for the A-League, but my view is that expansion is a band-aid fix.  Let’s talk about a few of the benefits if expansion is done in isolation:

  • Additional professional spots for players (if two teams, around 40 new Australian spots created)

  • An extra Australian coach or two at the top level

  • More games per season

  • Added interest for the fans (temporarily)

  • Probably more derby games (depending on the location of the expansion clubs)

  • (Minimal) additional value from the TV Deal

All of those are good things.  But here’s a list of things that isolated expansion would also bring:

  • A subjective and ambiguous selection process that results in multiple bids being rejected and ill-will created (does anyone expect the FFA to conduct an open and transparent process?)

  • Potential investment into the game being turned away when the failed bids disappear

  • More irrelevant games at the bottom of the table each season

  • The added interest for fans will only be temporary.  In a few years, the same conversations that involve the words ‘stale’ and ‘boring’ will be had.  In effect, the added interest from a fan point of view is a novelty only

  • Increased resentment from the rest of the football pyramid who still feel excluded and ignored (which is exactly what they are)

  • Increased animosity between stakeholders in the game who should be working together

Expansion by itself doesn’t address any of the real problems in Australian football, and if anything, makes some of them worse.  I am absolutely in favour of expanding the A-League, but only as a small part of a much larger answer.

 

On Financial Stability:

What does a ‘financially stable’ club look like?  How do we define it?  If the big goal is to make sure all our elite clubs are financially stable, why has no one asked the following question – how will we know when we get there? 

If your answer is that the league must be structured in a way that allows all clubs to spend within their means, I think we’re already at that point.  The problem is that it’s down to the management of the individual club as to how they do that.  Should we punish not only the other A-League clubs, but all football in Australia, because a particular management team performs poorly?  And we only need to look at the big football leagues around the world to see that a significant number of clubs rely heavily on rich owners to cover ‘losses’ (side note – why do we think about them as losses?  Let’s reframe our thinking on this.  It’s not a loss, it’s an investment made by the owner). 

In a competitive environment, where clubs are continually under pressure to keep up with the other clubs, we will always see decisions made by club management that are in direct opposition to ‘financial stability’.  Any team could cut their staff numbers, marketing budget, let their expensive players go and replace with cheaper alternatives, all in an effort to cut costs.  But it won’t happen and nor should it.  But we can’t put a hold on progress because of poor club management.

On top of that, even if you can define financial stability, the reality is that we will never reach it.  In a competitive environment, any additional revenue will just result in additional expenditure.  A bigger TV deal won’t make a club financially viable, it’ll increase that club’s ability to spend money.  It doesn’t force a club to spend less than it earns in revenue.  A club with income of $2M can go bankrupt just as easily as a club earning $100M if the wrong management team is in place.

And finally, this whole argument is only important if you’re assumption is for the A-League to remain closed, and for the current clubs to be the entire future of our elite game.  With a shift in thinking (which is the whole point of my article), it becomes obvious that if a club makes poor financial decisions or goes beyond its means, there are clubs waiting to take their place.  In fact, it’s another way to drive professionalism and strive for better-run clubs, because those that aren’t at that level will be left behind.

I read your original article and I think it's brilliant, your vision and love for the game in Australia should be commended. 

I'm aware expansion alone is a band-aid fix but unfortunately I think it's the only feasible solution for now. I'm all for a free and open market as it will force current A-League clubs to improve their overall standard on and off the pitch or risk fading into obscurity, but I don't see how it can be sustained with the current level of support (competing against a plethora of other codes/sports, in an already comparatively small population.

The idea is right, the vision is right and the structures are right but I genuinely believe Australia is a unique marketplace, and I fear a promotion/relegation system is decades away from even being feasible. I would love to be wrong though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@aussieshorter have you read the Crawford report? I haven't, but assuming it is publicly available (big if!) it may give you a good background in why things are like they are at present. I think the game needs to be careful that it doesn't repeat "the mistakes of the NSL", so clearly the first thing you need to do is figure out what those mistakes actually are and I presume they will be listed in the Crawford report.

When you look back at the history of the NSL you saw a lot of club turnover and frankly I don't think it helped. I was in Qld when we didn't even have a club (1987) and it sure felt like it wasn't a national competition anymore. I lost interest in the NsL at that point and never regained it. That's the kind of thing the A League era needs to guard against.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, haz said:

@aussieshorter good to see you have some input on this forum. 

Have you tried communicating with anyone with "power" about your proposed system? The more discussions and ideas people put forward the better IMO.

I've had a few people contact me and I'm aware that some others with more influence than me have read it.  At this stage for me it's just about getting it out there and hopefully starting the discussion.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Shahanga I read the Crawford Report years ago, but you're right that we need to learn from the past. and be careful that we don't make the same mistakes.

I like to think my suggested model already does that to a degree, given that the A-League has worked in building a professinoal league, and I've given some protection to that in the form of Professional Licenses and no relegation below the A2 League. 

Not to mention that if/when discussions on the new model are had by those who make the decisions, it should include the FFA, PFA, A-League clubs, State Federations, NPL clubs, etc., so the lessons from the past should be in that room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The FFA are running an online fan poll for if they should redesign the league's trophies. I do think the toilet seat is shit and uninspiring, but would be pretty pissed off if they changed it. It's such a young league and we should protect any sort of tradition/continuity that we can. 

But regardless, wondering if big daddy @Tesla can whip up some sort of bot to troll the cunts like he did with the herald sun all those years ago. Plz lel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

For a decond division to work IMO you have to build it from the group up and bit by bit. Not just go full hog straight away. 

You could do this as a round robin comp at the end of NPL seasons with the champions of each league competing for the national championship ala a cup scenario. This could be then expanded to more rounds and teams until it becomes a fully fledged second division.

Id also expand the aleague at the same time, set clear financial criteria and if they meet it then they are in regardless of whom it is.

 

Only until we have a fully functioning, breaking even second division and at least a 14 team Aleague could you then start to introduce promotion relegation. That was a good article and id say the main lesson from it is to not go all in, all at once, be patient and build a solid foundation first. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dylan said:

Oh boy.....

Are you really surprised? I'm not. I would say that football in Australia has stagnated over the past couple of seasons. We've had our disappointments as City supporters, and IMO the general public has cottoned on to a series of managerial mistakes and non-decisions by FFA and doesn't know in what direction the game is heading, and the commercial channels don't see a big market for the present product.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Are you really surprised? I'm not. I would say that football in Australia has stagnated over the past couple of seasons. We've had our disappointments as City supporters, and IMO the general public has cottoned on to a series of managerial mistakes and non-decisions by FFA and doesn't know in what direction the game is heading, and the commercial channels don't see a big market for the present product.

David Gallop gives hope to even the most unremarkable among us. With a little bit of luck, despite repeated incompetence, anyone can stumble their way into becoming CEO of a national entity.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Blackout said:

David Gallop gives hope to even the most unremarkable among us. With a little bit of luck, despite repeated incompetence, anyone can stumble their way into becoming CEO of a national entity.

It's not a fluke, he looked competent compared to Ben Buckley

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well you watch the Aleague become fully independent quick smart after something like this.

Although if it is on the ABC they should be very good in terms of online streaming and the like, they are already streets ahead of the commercial stations 

 

Edited by Dylan
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Dylan said:

Well you watch the Aleague become fully independent quick smart after something like this.

Although if it is on the ABC they should be very good in terms of online streaming and the like, they are already streets ahead of the commercial stations 

 

I think if the ABC got some games it would do a decent job. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Jovan said:

I think if the ABC got some games it would do a decent job. 

IMO showing every single match in its entirety is a mistake, because many matches don't actually have a lot going for them. I would prefer to see the "match of the week" shown in full, say on a Friday night, and then a weekly highlights show (say 50 minutes) on the Sunday covering all that Round's matches. I reckon dragging five matches out over 3-4 days is as boring as batshit, reduces the impact of each Round, and complicates the fixture by the different rest periods each team has. So I would play the matches over at most two days. IMO showing dreary match after dreary match in full every week puts potential customers off rather than enticing them into getting involved with the game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

IMO showing every single match in its entirety is a mistake, because many matches don't actually have a lot going for them. I would prefer to see the "match of the week" shown in full, say on a Friday night, and then a weekly highlights show (say 50 minutes) on the Sunday covering all that Round's matches. I reckon dragging five matches out over 3-4 days is as boring as batshit, reduces the impact of each Round, and complicates the fixture by the different rest periods each team has. So I would play the matches over at most two days. IMO showing dreary match after dreary match in full every week puts potential customers off rather than enticing them into getting involved with the game.

Nobody is compelled to watch them all!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, belaguttman said:

Nobody is compelled to watch them all!

You missed my point. Show something that's exciting and quality and you potentially attract new fans to the game. Show hour after hour of boring shit then it puts people off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, belaguttman said:

In that case there'd be no cricket or golf on TV

I don't watch those either. TBH I rarely watch TV at all these days. Seems to me the quality of the programs is inversely proportional to the number of channels. Just a grumpy old man perhaps?

BTW Bela, do you happen to have any figures for how many people actually watch the A-League on TV?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

from http://www.footyindustry.com/?p=3655

Quote

AFL

NRL

  • After 7 rounds of the 2017 NRL season attendances are down 4% to 870,789 at an average of 15,550.

A-league

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My reading of that is that the average TV audience for A-League matches shown on TV is roughly 64,000, whether or not the match is shown on FTA or on Foxtel. And I presume that's the national audience. That number is a fraction of other TV audiences. ABC TV shows such as "The Dr. Blake Mysteries" and "Doc Martin" average about 1.6m. I haven't looked up some of the audiences on commercial TV but I imagine they exceed the ABC.

So basically A-League on TV doesn't rate. I'm not surprised the commercial channels are not bidding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The model is shit. It has little appeal. For example, making an unknown player a household name won't happen except within the households of current Aleague supporters in general. On top of that and a host of other factors the league has simply grown stale this season. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 20/04/2017 at 9:31 AM, jw1739 said:

Are you really surprised? I'm not. I would say that football in Australia has stagnated over the past couple of seasons. We've had our disappointments as City supporters, and IMO the general public has cottoned on to a series of managerial mistakes and non-decisions by FFA and doesn't know in what direction the game is heading, and the commercial channels don't see a big market for the present product.

In my view Our friends at the FFA have made the mistake of acting time and again in the last 2 seasons @to make the teams even" by dragging the better resourced clubs down.

It might be "fairer", but the league quality is lower and the weak teams, well they are still weak and all the FFA are really doing is making the league weaker. Bigger name & better players will bring in spectators and money to all clubs. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Shahanga said:

In my view Our friends at the FFA have made the mistake of acting time and again in the last 2 seasons @to make the teams even" by dragging the better resourced clubs down.

It might be "fairer", but the league quality is lower and the weak teams, well they are still weak and all the FFA are really doing is making the league weaker. Bigger name & better players will bring in spectators and money to all clubs. 

Article by Lynch in today's "Sunday Age" with some fairly strong comments on Gallop and S. Lowy and their (mis-)management of football and the league and touching on their public personas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, jw1739 said:

Article by Lynch in today's "Sunday Age" with some fairly strong comments on Gallop and S. Lowy and their (mis-)management of football and the league and touching on their public personas.

For better or worse the FFA isn't the AFL  or NRL. The finances are a lot more fragile and thus the margin for error is a lot smaller. Non optimal decisions made by those robust organisations might not even raise an eyebrow, but if you do it at the FFA you are courting disaster.

on those two characters at least Gallop got his job on performance of his last job. What has Lowy done apart from have a high achieving old man?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The old AIS programme is going to be cancelled. Youth players will be developed by A Keague academies instead.

yeah I get that, but what academies? Aren't they banned right now? The cynic in me says it's s cost cutting measure.

dont you give the clubs say a year to set up the academies before you scrap the programme?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Shahanga said:

The old AIS programme is going to be cancelled. Youth players will be developed by A Keague academies instead.

yeah I get that, but what academies? Aren't they banned right now? The cynic in me says it's s cost cutting measure.

dont you give the clubs say a year to set up the academies before you scrap the programme?

Seems like another ad hoc decision taken on the run by FFA. Little point in all their consultants, plans and glossy documents when they do this. That's how it appears anyway.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

FFA shouldn't be using the A-League to cross-subsidise their other activities, if anything they should be putting more money into it than it generates as an investment into developing the league.

Time for an independent A-League, sell it to the clubs and let them take control. 

Edited by Tesla
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Tesla said:

FFA shouldn't be using the A-League to cross-subsidise their other activities, if anything they should be putting more money into it than it generates as an investment into developing the league.

Time for an independent A-League, sell it to the clubs and let them take control. 

Exactly. 

At the end of the day the money doesn't even get to the grassroots level. That's even more costly than ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • jw1739 changed the title to The APL/FA Management Thread
  • jw1739 pinned this topic

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...