Phil Rothfield: Even the most fanatical soccer cheerleaders cannot deny their game has fallen off a cliff
Phil Rothfield’s story last week on the screening of an A-League match being moved to an ABC kids channel hit a nerve. Here Buzz and Robbie Slater argue whether football is still the ‘beautiful game’ in Australia.
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These are the TV ratings (see below) across major sports in Australia that prove the A-League is on a slippery slope to sporting oblivion.
Even the most fanatical round-ball cheerleaders cannot deny their game has fallen off a cliff.
They show soccer not only trails the major sports cricket, NRL and AFL, but it is now way behind V8 Supercars, Super Rugby, netball and other women’s sports.
Back in 2014-15, the average A-League game rated 161,000 viewers on free-to-air television. It is now 50,000.
The average audience on Fox Sports was 81,000. It is now 30,000.
Those old figures are the reason why the code scored a $56 million-a-year broadcast deal from Fox Sports, which is the major funding for A-League clubs. That deal expires in three years’ time.
Clubs already struggling to survive will disappear. They already lose a combined $15 million a season. Without the TV money, clubs are stuffed.
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There are many reasons why the game is struggling and losing blue-chip sponsors such as Caltex, Aldi, Tag Heuer, Bet 365, NAB and possibly Hyundai.
Marquee players like Alessandro Del Piero, Dwight Yorke, Shinji Ono and Robbie Fowler are long gone — although Fowler’s now coaching Brisbane Roar.
The recently departed Wanderers coach Markus Babbel described it as a “weak” competition when he packed up and left four weeks ago.
Lot of soccer crazies out tonight. If only they were passionate enough to go to games or watch the A League on TV, the competition might even survive.
— BUZZ ROTHFIELD (@BuzzRothfield) February 10, 2020
Soccer used to have prime-time weekend sport to themselves over the summer months.
You’d watch the cricket all day then switch on the A-League. Then along came an appealing alternative in the Big Bash cricket competition.
Suddenly the Sixers, Thunder, Heat and the Scorchers overtook Sydney FC, the Wanderers, Roar and Glory. It was all about Warne, Watson, Gayle, Lynn, De Villiers instead of the soccer boys.
Soccer’s strength of participation numbers doesn’t translate into TV eyeballs or bums on seats.
Although interest in the cricket tournament has declined, it is still the No.1 sport in Australia in the five-city metro market on free-to-air television. It has nine times the free-to-air audience of the A-League.
Many, including Australian coach Graham Arnold, believe the A League should return to being a winter competition. The skill level is not the same in the heat.
The problem is Fox Sports doesn’t need programming in the winter. The NRL and AFL competitions are enough.
Even the Socceroos are no longer the glamour sporting outfit they once were. Almost the entire team could walk down George St in civilian clothes and not be recognised.
It’s a far cry from the wonderful old days of Timmy Cahill, Harry Kewell, Mark Bosnich, Mark Viduka and Lucas Neill. There’s no sign of the next crop coming through.
It’s more about Sam Kerr and the Matildas.
Maybe the Olyroos at the Tokyo Olympics can give the code the shot in the arm it desperately needs.
Slater: Football in Australia is fractured
When I saw Buzz Rothfield’s article last week I was angry. But that’s because no one likes hearing home truths.
Let’s be honest enough to admit that football is fractured, and it’s a bit ironic the one thing that gets people together is an outsider throwing barbs our way.
The numbers don’t lie. Yes, some of the decline in Fox Sports viewing figures is down to partial switching to streaming services, but the trend is inescapable. Same with crowds.
But what do we expect after three years when so much of coverage of our sport was about the battle to control it? Steven Lowy fought the clubs — in the end the clubs won … but the collateral damage is what we’re seeing now.
Wow ! Real cheap shot this ! Congratulations ! Disrespectful and nasty in my opinion ! pic.twitter.com/yTKf7mtpXo
— Robbie Slater (@RobbieSlater17) February 8, 2020
Apparently the clubs are running the A-League, but no one is out on the airwaves defending the sport and advancing its interests – no one from the clubs nor the FFA. Who’s in charge of what? What’s the strategy?
Do we want football to thrive and prosper? Because if the A-League falls over, the professional game is dead.
Then the grassroots, where parents spend thousands to get their promising kid the best coaching, will have nowhere for those kids to grow and play.
At some point, people who say they care about the game need to accept that the structure, imperfect as it is, is what we have. Argue for change, sure, but don’t refuse to play ball until it meets your view.
The states, the players and the fans all have to look at the health of the game overall, instead of jealously protecting their own share. It’s all about what I can get out of the game rather than what can I give the game.
Football people need to start supporting football. A healthy A-League keeps Fox Sports happy, and without Fox Sports thereis no competition. That keeps sponsors such as Hyundai happy and brings in money for all levels of the game.
Where are our golden players of the past who could be helping bring on the next generation of Australian football talent.They should be coaching and helping the game. Giving back. But as I’ve been saying all week, the game is just stumbling on — nobody seems interested in helping.
We’ll never be the No.1 code, but we don’t have to be. Nor do we have to compete with the English Premier League because 98per cent of leagues in the world don’t.
We need to come together and start changing the facts and the perception.
We have a new FFA CEO and a board with football people. The clubs are taking over the A-League and have promised to invest.So let’s hold them to account.
Robbie Slater played for the Socceroos between 1988-97 and won an English Premier League title with Blackburn Rovers in 1994-95
- Robbie Slater