Why Australian football is at war

Football Australia are proposing a huge shake up to the way the domestic league is structured. Previously whichever of its two playoff finalists finished highest in the A-League regular-season table got to host its final. Now the final will be played in Sydney regardless.

Why is this so controversial? Seb Stafford-Bloor explains. Philippe Fenner illustrates.

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#ALeague #Australia

[robforan]

Only thing I'd add is that this deal was done in secret. Half of the clubs, let alone the fans were not informed until after the contacts were signed and it was too late to reneg. The APL knew it would be unpopular, but I think they underestimated how extreme the fallout would be. The fans walkouts and now boycotts / terminating subscriptions and memberships will likely cost more in one season than the deal will make over the next three.

[o.portista]

Been following this page for years, and it's never failed to cover everything, Explained really excellently.

[iqweaver]

The A League used to be run by the FA

The professional clubs said they could run the league better and took it over and formed the APL.

Supporters who had long hated-on the FA for failing to make football in Australia a major popular sport; decided the APL was going to fix everything.

One decision they took was to sell the TV rights to a new streaming partner.

The free to air network kicked the A League off their main channel because of low ratings.

The streaming partner had been contracted on the basis of achieving a certain number of subscribers. This target was not met. The A League (APL) therefore did not get the revenue they imagined.

To make up for the lost revenue the sold the Grand Finals to NSW for $12-15m.

So yes

1. NSW bias (although most NSW think the decision is dumb)
2. General decade long distrust and hatred of the game administration
3. A large section of the supporter base who will never accept the A League and want the NSL back
4. A need to cover a massive shortfall in revenue from the clubs (who own the league now)

[dillonhf]

thank you for covering this. it looks like they’re not going to backtrack on the decision and things may get uglier

[David.Marquez]

Reminds me of when they changed the Libertadores final from being two matches at each team's home to a final match on neutral ground. The issue is It's harder to travel like that in South America than it is in Europe, and many people are just not happy about the change still.

[abrakadabra]

As an Australian who watches A-league something important to add is the sport is not big here - so having the finals to the top team makes it special for the local fans that aren’t many in number to begin with.

[twenty-two]

It’s pathetic. I’ve lived in Sydney my entire a life and was once a passionate Sydney FC supporter. The inner city and eastern suburbs of Sydney have become such an uncultured cesspool of wigs with money. No Sydney football fan will have any interest in going to watch two other clubs play each other in a game that means so much for them. I watched my team win the grand final on a penalty shoot out in the stadium they will be hosting these games at - it was incredible. The atmosphere was something I had never experienced before. To think that a fan could watch the exact same game, albeit with two different teams outside of Sydney, with a neutered crowd makes me sad. It’s a representation of Sydney as a whole and how Australia views anything that the common folk have made popular. That is, slap a price tag on it and move it to Sydney.

[nathanjones]

There's a lot more for you guys to discover here. There's some grubby back room deal done to get this off the ground in the first place, which is why no one in the game (other than a half dozen on the APL board, and should be pointed out it was kept secret from some board members) knew about this prior to the announcement by the APL. Me personally, i think it's far from the only one.

Should be pointed out that while Townsend and Lederer have made numerous promises around a "festival of football", not a single plan other than the hosting rights going to Sydney was announced. He alluded to having some plans, but would not provide any specifics. Should also be noted, the "interview" was an internal Q&A that was recorded, IE, the APL's media manager picked the softest of soft ball questions for Townsend to selectively answer, and even then he managed to balls some of them up.

It should be noted that the league is in this position because of a really terrible deal worked out with Ten Network holdings (channel 10) that's seen most of the TV money disappear from the clubs, only 1 of the 6 games on the weekend telecast and the other 5 only on their subscription streaming service (as opposed to their previous deal where all games were telecast live on pay tv). This has lead to even Melbourne Victory running at a loss having historically been basically the only club in the country capable of standing on it's own two feet without requiring financial assistance from the league/FA.

Again, whilst Townsend and Lederer have addressed fan concerns about predatory price gouging by our air travel and hotel industry saying they will "help fans to make it as affordable as possible" (whatever that actually means) there has been no specifics what so ever on this either.

There's a lot you can look into on why MV is running at a loss as well, there's ripples and rumors flying thick and fast all year about a lot of really poor management going on at MV

[TheCatDrinksAllTheRedBull]

Some of my best childhood memories were watching Brisbane roar as a 9-year-old at Suncorp stadium. The days of big crowds, Berisha and Broich. I lost interest over the years as my priorities shifted to other sports and Arsenal. When I returned as a 16-year-old, I saw an empty husk of the club that I once followed religiously. An empty Suncorp, a club being evicted from training bases, and no direction whatsoever. It makes me sad to think that I was living in the best days as a 9-year-old, but I didn't know it

[Bagster]

As an Aussie, thank you for making this video and shining a light on a bad decision purely to make money that now will likely never be undone thanks to a group of thugs attacking the ref and players.

[Ory-Hara]

after the field invasion at melbourne they definitely wont back down. that would mean they would appear to be succumbing to violence and that would encourage it further.

[MattOlsen]

As a paying season ticket holder and a fan writer within the Australian leagues, I can tell that these are some of the darkest days in the game for us as a community, but the A-Leagues have always given off a vibe to mainstream Australia that they don't warrant a lot of commercial success, when this really historically speaking, is not accurate.

It has added fuel to the fire in terms of that negative perception being vocalised more strongly, because at the end of the day, for a sports mad country like ours, football stands out, and it's success is a threat to other more popular sports, thus the bias against football.

As for the actual decision itself, the APL claims to have been forced into the decision due to a lack of decent investment. That claim is horseshit and everyone in AusFootball is painfully aware of that, ultimately the driving force behind our reaction being so strong.

I will say this, our leagues and national teams are coming into a period that is HUGE for the game, mostly with a home FIFA women's world cup coming up in 2023, and an increased number of clubs looking to join the first and more importantly closed first tier, with talks of the professional second tier going ahead, so this may be a MASSIVE hurdle, but one I believe can be overcome.

[ld]

I was at Tottenham Hotspur stadium today for a tour and every single time I mentioned I was Aussie the staff asked me about what happened in Melbourne. Whilst it was a dark day in our countries footballing history, I’m glad more people are waking up to the situation of football in Australia.

[davidashmore]

Saw Australia in the title, and guessed it would be an article by Seb. Excellent stuff as usual Tifo 👏

[raushaanseychell]

Thank you so much for covering this and giving it light. We’ve been staging walk outs and trying to get our voice across peacefully. It doesn’t help that our press doesn’t like football either.

[chrisguardiano]

As an American, Australian fans can look to MLS for what can happen when the league's championship is at a fixed site location. From the league's founding in 1996-2011 the site for the final was determined ahead of time. This often meant that the bigger or more successful markets in the league such as LA, New England, DC & Columbus often hosted the final, though in some years cities like Dallas or Kansas City would host the final. This angered many of the newer & smaller market clubs in the league & it also discouraged potential new owners from starting expansion clubs. In 2011, MLS switched to the format that the A-Leagues just left behind where the higher seed in the playoffs hosts the final & as a result the MLS Cup final has seen an increase in TV ratings, media interest & attendance. It has also given clubs an incentive to perform well in the regular season knowing that the reward is hosting MLS Cup in front of your home fans which has increased the standard of play. I think this format also has incentivized most of the growth we have seen in MLS over the past decade in terms of expansion teams because potential owners can tell investors that if they heavily in the team in the first year and are successful, we could host MLS Cup & generate more revenue as a result. As for our women's league the NWSL, they are adopting this format this upcoming season as well. I hope that the APL realizes the error they have made and goes back to the format they used to have because if they stick to what they have got now, they risk killing both leagues

[shaukahodan]

As an Aussie I love seeing bigger pages covering our smaller sports

[tlt]

I’m from South Africa and my corruption sense is tingling 🤣

[samwansbone]

Update now: Grand Finals have gone back to being hosted to the old format and Danny Townsend has left the APL for Saudi.

And the A-League is finally back.

[Roger-gojc]

Australia did amazingly at the World Cup. This was a big wave to ride for our beautiful game.
The Womens League was already there for me.
The only downer for me has always been foreign ownership and control.
Especially the UAE. If anyone has seen the Four Corners report "A League of Their Own" (it's on YouTube), they will know how dirty it has got.
But yeah, things were high.
Then came the declaration about Sydney, and all that positivity flew out the window.
I have played all my life. It's spatial, 3D, touch thing that I just loved crossing that white line.
And they reminded us that day that it is NOT our game.
It's money. And then they tell us how to "pilgrimage"!
I'm in Brisbane. But I want to pilgrimage to New Zealand to watch Wellington Phoenix who win the league, host the Final within the next 3 years.