FFA To Look Into The Mirror

Hi all

I am back after a six month hiatus and what a six months it has been.

A new season and with it a new club in Melbourne. After a great start the Heart seem to be struggling. Not that this should be a surprise to anyone. It was always going to be a difficult ask for a new club to enter the Melbourne market and take significant support away from Melbourne Victory.

Although the 4000 odd crowd against North Queensland Fury was extremely disappointing I still think we shouldn't write off Heart just yet. There were a lot of factors that contributed to such a low figure including competing AFL finals, weather, time of day and lastly the fact that North Queensland had just played in Melbourne a fortnight beforehand.

I still think that over the course of the season a 8,000 average crowd for Heart should be seen as a reasonable start and will allow them to build numbers into their second season. I am looking forward to the first Melbourne derby in October which I am still confident will draw nearly a full house at AAMI Park.

Crowds numbers already seems to be concern with most media pundits though. I will admit I also am concerned at some of the low crowds we have been seeing and I agree with Ray Gatt here where he lays the majority of the blame squarely at Ben Buckley's doorstep. However lets not let the clubs off the hook as they too need to take responsibility for their own promotion within their communities.

The FFA though need to take a hard look at all of their policies as there is no doubt many of them are contributing to the lower numbers. The attempt to ban pull over type banners early in this season was just another example of administrators and security not understanding what draws people to a A-league game. Add to that the restrictive “Home End Membership” policy, the common template applied to all club marketing, the heavily regulated merchandise approval process that clubs have to go through and it all adds up to a very bland league.

The FFA need to change their approach to one where they support clubs to find their own identity. Instead of the current view where each club needs to look and feel the same, they need clubs craving out their own individuality so that they can target fans. A close look into the mirror is needed and changes within required.

Of course I am not sure this will be enough to turn around some of the clubs. Gold Coast United may have burnt so many of their bridges it just may be impossible for them to recover under the current ownership.

The pity is the football this year has been by far the best we have seen within the A-league. Adelaide and Perth have been fantastic and Brisbane, Fury matches have been a joy to watch. The season is shaping up to be very even and already the two “big” clubs in Sydney and Melbourne Victory are under pressure to improve their performances.

Lets just hope the FFA can get their act together.

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Clive Needs To Go

Its disappointing to hear that yet another A-League club, Gold Coast United, are struggling financially after it was revealed that billionaire owner Clive Palmer has notified the FFA of his intention to withdraw his support of the club.

Must say the timing is very suspect with the FFA just concluding a rescue package for North Queensland we now have the leagues richest owner deciding that he can no longer sustain the losses the club is currently experiencing.

Not that you can blame Clive. If the reported $4 Million loss is correct it would be a bitter pill to swallow to see your fellow start-up club receive a extra 2.5M from the FFA while you are continually writing cheques with no support.

So the new newest clubs introduced to the league last year are both effectively out of money after one year. The question must be ask how this was allowed to happen. How could the business models be so wrong that both clubs are experiencing double to triple the losses to what they were expecting going into their first year.

I find it hard to fathom that professional business men can get it so wrong. Its not like they didn't know what costs to expect, with eight clubs before them going through the exercise recently virtually all of the start up costs would be known. I can only assume that both club vastly underestimated the revenue they would generate.

There is no doubt that both clubs have struggled to attract the crowds that they initially forecasted but this alone does not account for the vast losses both experienced. I suspect attracting the corporate dollar is where both clubs have struggled. Every professional football club relies a lot on the sponsorship dollar and it is the area that clubs can get so very wrong.

This is why the broader ownership model that the FFA so desperately wants for their clubs is so important. It allows a much greater chance of tapping into the business community of the club's region and puts money directly into the clubs coffers.

Although I would hate to see the club fold (as I feel it important in the long term for the A-League to have a team on the Gold Coast) I would not be upset to see the end of Clive's involvement. I get the impression that his one man show has actually held back the broader community within the Gold Coast from investing in the club and no club can sustain this for the long term.

I just don't see Clive as the type of person who inspires people build a relationship with the club. The Club at the moment is a difficult beast to love. A change in leadership would be the best thing for it, at the very least a radically different vibe from the club is needed for it to survive.

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Congratulations Sydney

Although this year has seen crowd levels drop off from their stellar highs of the previous years I must say I cannot remember a more exciting race for the Premier Plate in the A-leagues short history.

Congratulations must be extended to Sydney for taking out what became a three horse race late in the year when Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney all showed that they are a class above the rest of the competition. Sunday’s match was a fitting conclusion to a wonderful season and we could do worse than have such a close race for the premiership every year.

Although Melbourne were without three of their key players in Kevin Muscat, Matthew Kemp and Archie Thompson I found it fascinating to watch how this game of the season played out. It was no surprise that Ernie Merrick sent a very attacking team out onto the park as Melbourne’s defence has been suspect all season and Victory were not about to change their “just score more than the opposition” approach.

The match itself didn’t quite live up to the hype but what was interesting was how Vitezslav Lavicka tackled the match. I thought he out coached Merrick by closing the space down in the midfield, effectively strangling the service into the Victory strikers. Neither Kruse nor Mrdja seemed to have the foot speed to make an impact in the space behind the high line that Sydney played and in the end this is where Melbourne lost the match.

Lavicka does have the Sydney team playing a brand of football that causes Melbourne issues and I must admit I was surprised to see Ernie Merrick receiving the coach of the year award ahead of him. They do not allow Carlos Hernandez and Marvin Angulo the space and time to showcase their wonderful passing skills and as a result Melbourne appears a little toothless.

This is not to say that Melbourne did not have their chances. I do find it amusing that the media today seem to have written off the Melbourne after the lost but they seem to have forgotten that Victory opened up Sydney on several occasions and Mrdja hit the post in the second half. If only one of those chances had of fallen Melbourne’s way we may have seen a very different result.

I am looking forward to the next two matches that these two teams will play out over the finals campaign. With Kevin Muscat back but Kruse out, I suspect Ernie Merrick will stack the midfield and play Mrdja one out up front. With Sydney full of confidence however it will be a big ask for Melbourne to turn around the current sky blue dominance.