Fans of the beautiful game deserve so much more in Australia

Australian football has amazing participation numbers, a huge amount of local clubs and a diverse volunteer and paid workforce. Yet Australian football remains the poor cousin on a national competition level to the NRL and AFL. On a scarier note the sport's governing body, Football Federation of Australia (FFA) is at odds with it's most important constituents, grassroots football.

Go to any shopping centre in Australia on any given day and you will see children wearing jerseys from the top leagues in Europe. They will outnumber local A-League jerseys on every single occasion. Why? Because the jerseys that people are wearing are from competitions with the world's best players, best marketing and increasing avenues to viewership.

Australia's male and female players strive to play in the world's biggest leagues. The A-League is either a stepping stone or a returning venture for older players.  Destination Europe for men and the United States for women are the preferred career paths. The best AFL and NRL players, for obvious reasons, can ply their trade at home. This gives fans, media and sponsors access to the best players on a daily basis. The best Australian footballers are only accessed when the represent the Socceroos or Matildas, or in the women's case increasingly when they return to play in the W-League. Supporters of many codes, especially the younger brigade associate less with our star footballers from the round ball code than they do with local footballers of the oval versions. This is generalist of course but reads true in many cases.

Additionally the following of NBA basketball by many younger supporters drives the recognition towards the stars of that entertainment league. It would be hard to believe that children couldn't recognise the names from European football and the NBA. Names such as Ronaldo, Messi, James, Harden to name just a few. This would be a much harder task with A-League and W-League players.

With these obvious disadvantages it would be hoped that the FFA would do its  due diligence and look after it's professional league but more importantly the lifeblood of football, grassroots football. It could be argued that is does neither well.

Now the best kept secret in Australian sport has become the worst kept secret in international sport with the FFA at odds with FIFA conventions and advice. And for once FIFA's suggestions seem perfectly reasonable. FIFA has suggested a wider representation from  all levels of Australian football, something the current FFA administration has fallen well short on thus far. Worse case scenario, however unlikely? All Australian teams could be excluded from major competitions in 2018 and beyond. It should never, ever have got to this stage and is a major embarrassment for football in this country.

So, enough of the doom and gloom what are some of the things that should at least be looked at by our sport's governing body? What are the ideals that will bring the game into the new age?

The A-League must expand. Many pundits and supporters are bored of the same teams playing each other year in and year out. Supporters have commentated on and demonstrated A-League fatigue. New teams will bring excitement and a refresh required to reinvigorate the imagination of football supporters in the country. New rivalries, new colour, different ideas will be generated. Existing teams will need to up their game on and off the field.

The expansion cannot be just in Victoria and New South Wales as this will weaken the resolve in other states. Expansion will also allow many younger players a pathway often denied in the A-League. Teams are reluctant to take many chances on youth and there are many current A-League players that are playing at their third or fourth A-League clubs. This is not good enough. Young players will be on show for national selection as well as having the chance to be picked up by bigger clubs overseas. This will also feed down to state league teams who should be able to sell their players to A-League academies, these academies should then be able to

We should not be afraid to revisit locales that have not succeeded in locales that have not worked previously. Some of the failures were due to the ownership and management as much as the area that they were located in. Areas to be considered would be the Gold Coast, North Queensland, Tasmania, Wollongong, Geelong amongst others.

Bringing tradition clubs into fold should be very much considered. The Western Sydney Wanderers are an example of a latent, and previously disenfranchised supporter group who have got behind their local entity. Previous NSL clubs such as South Melbourne have a developed ground, strong supporter culture and money to start their A-League journey. These teams must be given every chance to enter the A-League. Whilst we must learn from mistakes of the past we cannot disregard the successes of the past.

Promotion and relegation must eventually enter the A-League and W-League picture. A second tier for the A-League will allow traditional NSL and state league clubs to develop their professionalism and acclimatise to the demands of the modern football era. It is a mandate of FIFA for national competitions with the USA and Australia holding out at this stage. It will create a new depth of excitement to the lower end of the table come season's end.

The long awaited FFA Cup has been a great success and should be continued to be expanded upon. The draw should be a complete draw without the manipulation of ensuring A-League clubs enter too late into the competition. Additionally the final should be a centre-piece of the season and given the credit it deserves it should be a stand alone match on a Saturday night with the A-League taking a break on that weekend. The week's break would also refresh many of the teams during the season.

We should also learn from the A-League taking so long to implement a cup competition and fast track a women's FFA Cup as soon as possible. The women's game deserves no less.

The clubs should be encouraged and enabled to acquire their own stadiums. Boutique stadiums have been very successful in the MLS and countries such as Sweden have built low-cost and cost effective stadiums. A crowd of 13,000 in a stadium of 18-20,000 would create great atmosphere, look great for television coverage and importantly, create demand and a certain fear of missing out on attending matches.

The FFA should abolish the salary cap for all A-League clubs. This would allow marquees to be obtained and for the best Australian talent to have the choice of staying in Australia. Clubs should still have a restriction on the amount of foreign players in the squad which would allow local talent a pathway to the professional ranks.

The suggestions are not without barriers but we must plan, dream and implement changes to bring the game forward. It is a beautiful game and it deserves every chance to be as beautiful as it can be in Australia. There is too much history and too many dedicated fans to not make this work.

What do you think the FFA needs to do to improve football in Australia? Long live the beautiful game!

The trouble up north

With Ablett's departure will the Suns now build a team culture?

The AFL has had a stellar two seasons culminating in ground-breaking and historic wins by competition stalwarts the Western Bulldogs and Richmond. Yet there still remains the troubled areas north of the AFL heartland. Greater Western Sydney, Brisbane and especially the Gold Coast remain troubled entities that require significant attention.

What about the fans?

The trouble is largely game day based, performances and the lack of crowds. Whilst the GWS are performing well now that's not guaranteed in the long run, Brisbane look like they have the young talent to greatly improve but it's the Gold Coast that have crosses in both columns. Are there solutions or are these entities doomed to fail? Many people say that success will bring crowds but only Brisbane has a proven track record of large crowds when they have been successful.

Brisbane, Gold Coast and GWS crowds are on average 6000 less per game than the next best team.

During the Lions' glory years, 2001-3, they averaged over 30,000 people at their home games. There is a market, and there is a history of attendance that sustained success should rebuild. The Gold Coast has not had a sustained period of success but is in a sporting market where loyalty to teams by fans, owners and organisations has not been evident. The carcasses of teams from football, AFL, basketball and rugby league is self evident. Success may not guarantee crowds, but it cannot hurt them.

The Greater Western Sydney has had success, albeit fledgling at this stage but it's crowds are not evident. In their past two years they have made the preliminary final but have only averaged just over 13,000 per home game. We need to give the franchise time to build but how long can we give them? The answer should be as long as they need.

Why can't we lose them?

The AFL won't want to lose these teams now that the decision, time and resources have been allocated towards them. The AFL needs these teams to succeed based on their geography and competition for other neighbouring teams.

The GWS are located in the largest growth area in metropolitan NSW. They have competition from rugby league and in particular the Western Sydney Wanderers. The AFL has the NSW stalwarts in the Sydney Swans that will help grow GWS by providing annual competition and opposition.

Brisbane and the Gold Coast are in large population areas and are only an hour apart, if the traffic on the M1 is kind! They provide reference points and opposition to each other.

In short, if the AFL is to be a truly national game it cannot afford to lose these teams.

Solutions?

Marquee players are used in other sports to bolster crowds, merchandise sales and most importantly hope. The Gold Coast has tried this experiment and at face value the experiment was a failure. Whilst Gary Ablett Jnr played extremely well when on the field it was his injuries and the loss of young talent to other teams that has meant that the Gold Coast are a long way back from most teams in the competition. Marquees are costly and there is a dearth of available talent at the present moment. This is not to say that future marquee opportunities should not be considered.

The GWS and Gold Coast and, to a lesser extent recently, the Brisbane Lions have received extra draft picks as well as salary cap concessions. Whilst the draft picks would be largely frowned upon by the rest of the competition salary cap concessions, especially to keep younger players taking the lure of the go home factor, should be continued and revisited for the northern franchises.

The administration of all three clubs has great experience and depth, the AFL must remain vigilant and maintain a say in the quality of appointments made by each club for this to continue.

The question asked by many people is can, why and should the three clubs continue? The question should be how can we ensure they do, and more importantly how can we help them thrive?

By Paul Frederickson