A-League gets ‘sober reminder’ that overhaul is needed

Details of a long-awaited report into the struggling competition show its current path is untenable.

Football Federation Australia chief David Gallop. Picture: AFP

Football Federation Australia and the A-League clubs have been given a “sober reminder” something needs to be done to sort out the problems of the A-League after details emerged of the draft New Leagues Working Group (NLWG) recommendations report into an independent national competition.

Broadcast rights holders, Fox Sports, already concerned by dwindling viewership numbers for the league, made it clear the current path the league is on is unsustainable — a view that is not too dissimilar to the clubs, who have been pushing hard for control of the competition amid the burden of heavy financial losses since the league kicked off in 2005.

The long awaited, complex 70-page document has been six weeks in the making, “involved hundreds of hours of work” and was compiled by a wide ranging group of the game’s stakeholders — the nine presidents of the member federations, five A-League club chairmen, two members of Professional Footballers Australia, two members of the Women’s Football Council, two FFA directors, members of FFA’s management (as required) and an independent non-voting chair.

In compiling the report, the NLWG took into account submissions from a number of stakeholders as well as Fox, who are in the third year of a $346 million, six-year deal.

The working group reported that Fox’s submission “made for sober reading”.

“The NLWG recognised that under whatever New Professional Leagues Model is adopted, the relationship between the Professional Leagues entity and Fox Sports Australia will be paramount just as will preservation of the respective rights and obligations of the FFA and Fox Sports Australia under contract.”

The pending release of the report sees an independent league move one step closer.

The report recommended that “all parties and stakeholders, through their nominated lead negotiators and advisers, seek to conclude their negotiations for the new Professional Leagues Model as soon as practicable following March 31, 2019 and, having done so, to document and execute all consequential and/or necessary binding long form agreements and do all things reasonably necessary to give effect to such agreements by June, 30 2019 (including submission of any proposed FFA constitutional changes to the Members of FFA).