Fulham Defeat Great For All

Gold Coast’s win over Fulham on Wednesday night has caused quite a stir. With news of the surprising win even making news in the UK. It certainly has given the Gold Coast a huge boast in confidence going into the start of the new A-League season but how important is it to the A-league in general.

Putting aside the fact that Fulham were extremely underdone for this match and Gold Coast meets them at the end of a extensive preseason, and yes the Fulham side was full of reserves and youngsters in the second half when GC scored their winning goals. But remember this is the club that finish 7th in the EPL last season meeting a side that has not played an official match as yet, they would not have been pleased to walk away with the loss.

The result can only have benefits for the A-League across world and especially within Europe. With Fulham, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Celtic all playing matches here this pre-season it will no doubt draw football fans who would not normally go along to watch a A-League game. Perth and Brisbane especially could get a large boost in membership from some solid performances against their English and Scottish opponents respectively. Who knows in a couple of years we may even see A-league clubs talking on the giants of European football. A Melbourne Victory vs Barcelona or a Sydney vs Chelsea, maybe even a Gold Coast vs Real Madrid.

I found Michael Cockerill’s article today to be a very interesting read. To be honest I think the FFA approach here is spot on. Allowing the A-League clubs to organise their own preseason matches has opened up the door to media and public exposure that the league was never going to achieve via their dinky preseason club.

I hope though the FFA never support EPL matches here in Australia. Such matches would not be conductive to the growth of the game here in Australia and would be a backward step. These preseason matchups are the way to grow the game and hopefully a couple more good results will encourage better teams out here for their pre-seasons.

I will be heading along to the Melbourne Victory and Fulham match on Saturday night and have two English friends coming who have never seen the Victory play live. I am not desperate for a win (though it would be nice), what I really want is a great spectacle. There is no doubt that Fulham will come out with a little more vigour after been stung on Wednesday, hopefully the Victory can match and also put on a display. Whatever the result though its great for the game here and I look forward to more and evn better clubs in the following years.

27 Days to Season V

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Youth Marquee Farce

When the FFA introduced the Youth Marquee allowance before the start of last season I thought it was a great initiative to help keep some of our youngest stars here in Australia for a year or two longer but now it has just turned into a farce and is effectively just a defacto $150,000 increase to the Salary cap.

The fact that the $150k allowance can be split across three players within the squad just means that clubs are going to use the allowance to pay for their three youngest squad members (which by the FFA regulations they must have) and effectively add the $150K saved to the rest of the cap.

This defeats the whole purpose of the Youth Marquee allowance. Originally when introduced, it was intended that the $150K could be used to encourage clubs to offer a bit more to those players who were on the verge of leaving overseas due to overseas league being willing to pay a lot more for their services than what a A-League club could afford under our cap. It was hoped that by providing an allowance outside the cap, it would allow clubs to offer higher than normal wages to a few select players that would normally have left. The idea was this could also be used to encourage younger players back from Europe when their careers may be stagnating a bit and the extra cash on offer might be enough to see them home. The classic example of this was Melbourne Victory enticing back Nick Ward. It is doubtful that Melbourne would have been able to afford him without the benefit of salary being excluded from the cap.

The fact that some clubs didn’t have players that were worthy of a $150K contract has seen a push from the clubs and PFA to spread this allowance across multiple players. This is stupid as now clubs have no motivation to chase the better youth players. So instead of clubs targeting the likes of Oliver Bozanic, Ryan McGowan, James Wesolowski & David Williams for a return to Australia they will just assign the money to their three under 21 players and free up the $150K to be spent on obtaining a slightly better foreign player. Don’t believe me, lets take Melbourne Victory for example again. With Nick Ward no longer eligible for the concession they sought and have been granted permission to assign their youth marquee allowance to Elasi, Theodore and Langerak, thus freeing up the $150K needed to sign Hernandez/Sukha. Now I am in no way complaining about these signings (as a Victory supporter I am rapt to have both) but it makes a joke out of the Youth Marquee salary exclusion.

Why didn’t the FFA dump the allowance and just bump the salary cap up by $150K, after all the result is exactly the same. I would much rather see an extra player slot allocated outside the salary cap than maintain this charade. This would allow the more adventurous clubs to add to the quality of talent coming into the league. It would also assist Australian clubs in the Champions League.

34 Days to Season V

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A Window To Asia

With just over a month until the start of the new season I thought it about time I resume this blog. I lot has happened in the last couple of months but there are few items I want to mention specifically.

Firstly, congratulations to the Socceroos on qualification to their second world cup in a row (only our third in total). I have been astounded by the criticism of the coach, Pim Verbeek, in the lead up to the last couple of matches. Although I also have been critical of the conservative approach he employs the proof is in the pudding and I would suggest it will be a long while before another Australian coach exceeds his qualification record of 14 games, 9 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses.

Secondly I think overall Newcastle and Central Coasts performance in the Asian Champions League was unfortunately about what was to be expected. Central Coast never looked like they deserved to be there and it was no surprise they failed to win a match. Although Newcastle exceeded my initial expectations of them by making the final 16 round, the way they capitulated to Pohang demonstrated that they probably didn’t deserve to get that far. I think Gary Van Egmond is a huge loss to Newcastle and I fear both they and Central Coast will struggle to make the final 6 this year.

The final item I wanted to talk about is the moment in A-League history that occurred today. What moment am I talking about? Today Melbourne Victory’s recent signing, Thailand international Surat Sukha, officially joined the reining champions. It is significant because I believe he is the first ASEAN player to be signed into the A-League. It is my personal belief that several of the ASEAN countries can and will provide a market for the A-League. Not just in terms of players but supporters, TV rights and sponsors as well.

The population of this area is staggering, Indonesia (220 Million), Philippines (92 Million), Vietnam (88 Million), Thailand (63 Million), Malaysia (28 Million). With this sort of marketing opportunity on our doorstep is seems daft that Australian teams haven’t attempted to tap into this market before. Take Thailand for example. Their capital, Bangkok, alone has a population of over 8 million people and is a football mad country (though admittedly the majority seem more interested in the EPL than their local league). With a time difference of only 3 hours behind Melbourne, it would seem a logical TV market to tap into.

Surat Sukha may just be the thin edge of the wedge into this exciting country and if successful you can bet your life on the fact that others will soon follow. Of course Melbourne have been influenced in their decision to sign Sukha due to the 3+1 rule in the Asian Champions League. For those unaware of the rule, all teams may have only three foreign players in their ACL squad though you are allowed to have a fourth if they are from an AFC Country.

This rule is similar to the one that the J-league introduced this year and as I have commented on before should be implemented here in Australia as well. To allow five foreign based players to be signed by each team in the A-league and not mandate that at least one of them is to be from an AFC country just seems crazy. Other countries in the AFC are following the J-league lead with Saudi Arabia and Qatar both planning to also implement the 3+1 rule next season and I will be very surprised if they are the last.

It seems though at least a few of the A-league teams are now looking to Asia. In addition to Sukha at Victory, Adelaide have picked up Shin In Sup (Korea) and Sydney have signed Byun Sung-Hwan (Korea). And Newcastle of course still have Song Jin-Hyung (Korea) on their books. So our out of the 10 teams, 4 have recruited in Asia. Not great but at least it is a start. The FFA need to implement a 4+1 rule for next season.

36 Days to Season V

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Sydney's Attempt To Profiteer On Youth

You have to hand it to Sydney FC, their audacity is astounding at times. Today’s attempt to pressure the FFA to compensate them for the loss of youth players to other A-league clubs is not only out of line, as it goes against what the FFA to trying do with not limiting youth player opportunities, but must leave the clubs that truly developed these players seething.

Why they think they would deserve any compensation is beyond me. The three players mentioned in the article (Zach Cairncross, Sam Munro and Steven Lustica ) have played one season in the youth team at the club. Now I know the coaching expertise of John Koshmina is second to none but does Stefan Kamasz really expect us to believe that Sydney FC has taken these young players and sharpen them into professional footballers in a single season?

What this outrageous demand by Sydney does do is highlight the issues that grassroots club are now facing by this system. The fact is these players have been signed to the Youth League with no compensation at all to their junior clubs that raised and nurtured them throughout their developmental years. This is the real tragedy of our current system. A system that fails to provide little reward to our grass roots clubs for their developmental programs.

Take Steven Lustica for instance, he played all of his junior days at Canberra FC. They just must love hearing Sydney ask for compensation at potentially losing him to another A-league club. Where is the call for compensation for all the work they have done to develop him into the footballer he is today.

The fact is until Sydney establish their own junior program and truly develop players from 8-12 years of age they have no claim on these players.

Of course the FFA will give this call by Sydney the short front it deserves. The whole point of the youth league system was to sign them to short amateur contracts that would allow unfettered moves to A-league clubs if and when those clubs were willing to sign them to professional contracts. Sydney like every other club has the opportunity to scout the entire youth system for talent and offer senior contacts to anyone within the system. This will ensure that no club can hoard potential stars and hold them in the youth system hoping for a pay day when an overseas club comes calling. Young players will go to the clubs that are willing to give them a chance and sign them to an A-league senior contract. This promotes youth and encourages clubs to roll on the dice on giving talented youngsters senior contacts.

The system has its problems, by allowing A-league clubs to profit when they on sell these junior players with little compensation to their junior clubs they are creating resentment within the grassroots clubs. Already we have seen Canberra FC and Melbourne Knights hint at establishing formal ties with a foreign club in an effort to avoid losing their junior stars for little or no money.

Rather than heeding Sydney’s call, the FFA should move now to ensure that these grassroots clubs receive a bigger slice of the transfer fees that A-league clubs receive when these junior players get their chance at the big time. This would not only help promote the clubs that do a good job of developing our youth but would also encourage all A-league clubs to focus more on developing their own youth pipeline.

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Are They Serious

There seems to be at least one country in the East Asian half of the Champions League that doesn’t consider the competition much chop. The South Korean club Ulsan Hyundai have made their thoughts apparent to all with the Team they sent out onto the park for their second round match up with Newcastle last night.

Not content to rest a few players after their 0-0 draw against Seongnam Ilhwa in the K-league on Sunday the club effectively gave all of their first team players a rest and brought their reserves to Australia. The Pohang Steelers also rested a few players in their first round match against the Central Coast but certainly not to this degree.

The AFC officials would not be impressed with the Korean side’s less than committed approach to the competition. With the increase in prize money and change in format the AFC is attempting to raise the prestige of the tournament but if the teams don’t place an emphasis on winning it can only damage the spectacle and reputation of the Champions League. It is obvious that Ulsan had decided that a draw here at Newcastle was acceptable and there is no need to push harder for a better result. Quite rightly though Newcastle dispatched them with little trouble.

Of course Gary Van Egmond must have been secretly relieved at Ulsan’s approach. After the disaster that was their first round effort against Beijing Guoan last week (and don’t let the spin deceive you, a disaster it was) he needed a win at home. Make no mistake the Jet’s campaign was hanging in the balance, as we have seen in previous tournaments an early loss at home can be hard to recover from. It was doubly important as Ulsan would be considered the weakest team (except for Newcastle themselves) in the group and a loss here would have seen them struggle to get off the bottom let alone out of the group.

I significant improvement by the Jets was needed last night if they were to take the three points away. Their defence last week was tortured by Beijing and was always going to be interesting to see how Topor-Stanley and Milicevic stood up on home soil, especially Topor-Stanley whose performance last week was so bad that even the Chinese crowd were jeering him when he went near the ball.

In the end though Ulsan made it easy for Newcastle and although there was still many question marks around Topor-Stanley performance in the end Newcastle were not really troubled by the Koreans. Sasho Petrovski was a handful for the Ulsan defence all night and fully deserved his two goals.

Newcastle need to ensure they don’t get too carried away with the result though as the real test comes over the next two weeks as they face up to group favourites, Nagoya Grampus (home and away), who were held to a surprising goalless draw at home to Beijing Goan overnight. With their defence still looking very brittle they have a mountain to climb if they are to even get close to the Japanese side.

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A Cup Of Our Own

With plans for the 2009/2010 season well under way, its time for the FFA to drop the preseason cup in favour of a knockout competition that incorporates teams beyond the A-League.

Next season will see the A-league move to a 10 team league and will almost certainly see the regular season stretch to 27 games. These significant changes allow the FFA to take a critical look at the league's current structure and do away with some aspects that are just not working.

The preseason cup competition in its current format is a lame duck and the FFA needs to replace it with an alternative that not only provides a much more marketable package but also can potentially incorporate a qualification spot for the Asian Champions League in the longer term. The answer of course is a knockout cup competition. There has been speculation in the press for a while now that the FFA will look to introduce a cup competition this year or next but the time appears ripe to go earlier than later. A limited Cup Competition would solve a number of issues while providing the FFA with another marketable competition alongside the A-League.

Of course in this current economic climate the FFA need to err on the side of safety. The first year a 16 team competition would provide a four round competition and would fit nicely into our sporting calendar. The 10 A-league clubs plus 6 teams from across the country would provide a small but interesting competition for the first year. This would mean excluding a couple of the state federations from the initial cup but similar to the A-league, a limited approach in the first year may be the wisest move.

So who would be the six clubs? Below is a sample list of the 6 teams who are the current champions of their state leagues.

VPL Champions ………………………………Altona City
Captial Football Champions……………....Canberra FC
QSL Champions……………………………….Sunshine Coast FC
NSWPL Champions …………………………Wollongong FC
NNSW Champions……………………………Broadmeadow Magic FC
SA SL Champions…………………………….Adelaide City
* Apologies to WA, TAS, NT and NZ

The first round could be contested in July (when the state leagues are fully match fit and the A-league is in preseason mode), with the quarter-finals in the first week of October after the state leagues finals have been completed. The semi-finals and final could then be scheduled for November/December dates.

One of the issues with the Preseason Cup is that it ties the A-league teams into practice matches with other A-league clubs and therefore leaves them little room to maximise revenue by participating in preseason competitions with other foreign clubs, something which the fans of all clubs would love to see. By only committing them to one match in late July the Cup Format would allow them to schedule their own preseason matches with whoever they like.

Of course though the biggest bonus of a Cup Competition is that that we could use it as a qualification spot for the Asian Champions League. With the A-league expanding to 10 this year and then most likely to 12 the year after we are by the AFC Rules for the Champions League eligible for 3 and 4 places respectively (Of course there are some other provisions beyond the size of the league that the AFC has laid down that we would have the meet). A Cup Competition lays the ground work which would allow the FFA some leverage to convince the AFC to grant Australia a third place for the 2010 or 2011 Asian Champions League (most likely a play off spot would be the best foreseeable outcome in the short term).

The last but certainly not the least compelling reason is from a publicity point of view a Knockout Cup Competition provides the FFA with another marketable product. By placing the TV rights for such a competition on FTA they would be able to increase the exposure of the A-league teams without hindering the commercial arrangement with Foxtel. With Channel’s Ten’s “ONE Sport” kicking off in the next couple of weeks, you can’t help but speculate that it would provide a prefect vehicle for the new competition.

Of course as the competition will need to be expanded in future years. A 32 team (5 Rounds) competition would be the logical goal and this could further be expanded by introducing a qualifying round.

But baby steps first, come on FFA make it happen.
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The Lure Of Asia

There is a common cliche that you hear bandied around a lot, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”. They must be sick of hearing it in the corridors of the FFA at the moment.

Our entry into Asia was seen at the time to be a master stoke of football politics by Frank Lowry and co. It not only provided our national team with a much less heart wrenching path to the World Cup but it also provided our new national domestic competition a pathway to a larger stage in the Asian Champions League. Mike Cockerill of the Sydney Morning Herald and Fox Sports wrote last week of the impact the Asian Champions League is having on the significance of the Final of the A-league. With both teams already qualified for the ACL his contention is that the final has lost its gloss with both teams seeing it as a bonus rather than the primary aim.

There is no doubt that entry to the Asian Champions League is a priority to the A-League clubs. The ACL has come a long way since its introduction in 2004. The inclusion of Australian Team, entry to the Club Wold Championships and the change of attitude of Japanese clubs towards the comp have all contributed to the competition growing in statue in the region. The change in format for 2009 should again take the competition to another level.

With an increase in prize money and exposure to the large east Asian countries, Australian teams can benefit substantially from their time in the ACL. Players also can showcase themselves not only on the Asian stage but use the competition as a launch pad to Europe. But do we really have the talent and competition to compete on this stage? Adelaide’s run last year has, I fear, given fans, clubs, media and bigwigs at the FFA a false sense of where we stand in relation to East Asia.

With our limited ability to buys in talented foreign players and keep talented Aussies due to a very restrictive salary cap I am not sure we have the players n the park that can take it to these East Asian teams that have much larger budgets.

As shown last night by a very under done Newcastle Jets we may be clinging to a dream that we are nowhere near making a reality. I have seen reports today of Gary Van Egmond talking up the Newcastle performance but in reality the Jets were played off the pack last night. Beijing Goan ran rings around them and the score line flattered Newcastle no end. I am sure the old excuse that this was nearly a new team and that they hadn’t played a competitive match in six weeks will be touted around. But also remember that the Chinese team is in preseason and is certainly not in match harden shape right now.

On the evidence last night, Newcastle will struggle to make it off the bottom of the group. The crunch game will come next week when they host Ulsan Hyundai at home, lose that and its good night for their campaign.

Central Coast will kick off their campaign tonight when they host Pohang Steelers in a match they must simply win. The Steelers are arguably the weakest team in a strong group, Adelaide won both of the matches against them in last years ACL competition and to be honest if the Mariners are to have any hope of progressing they must do the same.

Unfortunately I cannot see either team progressing out of their groups. They simply do not have the squads to compete successfully at this level.

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