A-League: FFA must connect grassroots with the main game to win over broadcasters
The A-League faces its most critical 12 months next year as it attempts to pull itself out of the COVID black hole, but it won’t thrive unless the FFA changes its approach to the world game in Australia.
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The A-League faces the most critical 12 months of its 15-year existence as it looks to pull itself out of a COVID-19 black hole amid broadcasting uncertainty.
With the A-League season set to resume on Friday, with Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix reigniting things after a four-month wait, we can on one hand take a moment to reflect on the great work done to get the game back on the park while also acknowledging the unbelievably important period coming up for the game.
For much of the lockdown period, the game had its hands tied as it sorted out a broadcast deal with Fox Sports.
What disappointed me in the period while the broadcast deal was being finalised was the fact it just went silent. There was no news on it, no one was reassuring people that although it was taking a while, we’re here and ready to go.
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It was a tough time for everyone involved in the game.
The players were, of course, worried about their futures.
The Fox deal was on the brink of completely not existing anymore. But they got together and have somehow revived it so we can finish the season and also go on for next season.
But there’s a lot of work ahead to turn it around and make sure it’s a success.
No one is going to get judged on the finish to this season. It is going to be whatever it is and is a success in simply getting restarted
But next season is critical, for the A-League for FFA, for the clubs and for everyone in the game to show Fox why they should continue — or show anyone why it should be a viable product.
FFA knows what it needs to do. It is so obvious: be unified, move as one and give the supporters and competition the exposure so people can see it — and the quality that the people want to see.
How do you do that? The biggest thing, as it always has been, is to find a way to connect the grassroots to the main game.
Everyone is bored of hearing how football is the biggest sport and that more kids play it than any other. That’s not good enough.
Because what no one in the A-League era or NSL era has managed to do is connected the massive grassroots level to the elite domestic competition.
Instead, we fall into traps comparing our game to the major European leagues.
What the FFA, club owners and the game need to do is convince the football people in this country that the A-League is a good league, it’s our league and it’s one to be proud.
Comparing our competition to the English Premier League? That is dumb and stupid, and will get us nowhere.
All the leagues around the world have their ups and downs, and that’s the way it is. But since it started in 2005, the level of the football in the A-League has been of a good all-round standard.
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And to go back further, the same must be said for the old NSL, which had its problems, no doubt about it, but produced some of our greatest players.
Mark Viduka, Marco Bresciano, even going back to myself, Graham Arnold, the Vidmar brothers, Ned Zelic, Paul Okon.
We all started in the old NSL. In essence, the game in this country has always been quite healthy, but we’ve just failed to make the people, the grassroots, the broad base of the biggest participation sport in the world … we’ve just never managed to make them love it.
That’s the challenge for FFA and the A-League over the next 12 months. And it starts on Friday.
Originally published as A-League: FFA must connect grassroots with the main game to win over broadcasters