Cashed-up owners and sponsors of A-League clubs are facing pressure to invest in Australian football to stem the flow of players leaving the competition to play elsewhere.

Several of the competition’s top stars have flown the coop in recent weeks. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Socceroos sensation Daniel Arzani is understood to be the target of several cashed-up clubs in Europe.

Fox Sports and Macquarie Radio football commentator Andy Harper says the A-League clubs should not expect to match offers from Japanese and Chinese teams dollar-for-dollar, but

“We’ve got to be more competitive, and we can’t be more competitive until the way the league is structured encourages greater investment from the club owners and sponsors. Once we start chippping into that, then we can rightly expect to be doing better in these recruitment and retention discussions,” Harper told Macquarie Sports Radio’s Cam Reddin.

“Fans do want to cling onto these players for longer… but it’s not that players leave, it’s what does the league and the club do about the replacement?”

In recent weeks, high-profile players Besart Berisha (Melbourne Victory), Adrian Mierzejewski and Bobô (both Sydney FC) have departed Australia to play in other leagues.

Berisha accepted an offer to play in Japan. Mierzejewski, a Johnny Warren Medalist in his only A-League season, recently debuted for Changchun Yatai in China, while Bobô is off to Turkey.

“It’s the reality of the football business,” Harper said.

“International football is an international labour market. It is a global talent pool. Every club is part of that food chain and every club is a selling club, unless you are at the top of that food chain,” he said.

Earlier, A-League boss Greg O’Rourke told Macquarie Sports Radio he is in favour of a regular turnover of players to freshen up the squads each season.

“One of the things the fans are saying to us is they don’t want to turn up and see the same team trotted out that was trotted out last year. They want to see movement, they want to see change, they want to see improvement,” Mr O’Rourke told Macquarie Sports Radio’s Cam Reddin on Saturday.

“To do that, obviously you have to let some players go,” he said.

Andy Harper agrees that player turnover is necessary, but he warns too much turnover was dangerous.

https://www.sportsradio.com.au/a-league-owners-must-invest-to-stop-player-exodus/

What can the owners do with a cap in place? Those who excel are difficult to keep hold of because you can't physically offer them the money they want, if you do it means you probably need to send another good player packing and it creates an unavoidable turnover cycle.

@ City Sam

All roads lead to the FFA right.

Here you have O’Rourke making a positive out of a negative and being totally devoid of any plan to retain AND attract new talent. We could do both right.

The FFA know several clubs can invest a lot more (Adelaide, SFC, WSW, Roar, City, Victory, Jets and probably Glory) but for them to do that they’re going to want more money and more control which is back to a familiar battleground.

If nothing changes. Nothing changes.

The ffa are masters are not changing anything.

But give us the same 10 teams and recycled players (Y)

Pretty shit article imo.

The owners have no incentive to invest.
If the FFA release the restrictions and shackles then they may decide to do so.

How can you "invest" when you have a salary cap in place. If Victory were to pay George marquee wages how would we get a decent striker under the cap. Article is rubbish.

there is no reward for player development in australia without selling the players overseas.  anyone can just get poached from another team in the AL.

there needs to be open and unlimited transfer fees bought in immediately.

not gonna happen in my lifetime

Even with no cap, why would I invest?

What do I get if I win the league?

What happens if I bottom out?

@ Socceroo 06

But they’re already investing - Sydney and City losing $5m each year is an investment over and above their income. Jets must have lost a heap last year, again a huge investment

So they’re doing it but (a) why would they do more? and (b) how can they do more with the Salary cap in the way?

What would these owners invest if the conditions were right??

I didn’t have time to listen to the audio interview in the link but assume it’s much the same as the summary here, which is basically a preposition for what’s coming later this month - independence for the HAL, at least in some form.

As many have already mentioned there is not much incentive (if any) to spend more than they currently are. No prize money. No risk of relegation. There is no denying that that is the result of the salary cap. But the other issue the cap brings is risk. Under the current cap its very risky to spend big on a player. That player can can be out for a season (eg Vargas at NJ) and then the club has very few options. With a marquee they cannot get a like for like replacement during the season because they would then need more marquee spots. Also if a player doesn't quite work out for any reason they cannot simply transfer to another club during a transfer window because there are no transfers between clubs. The current cap just adds complication in too many areas. Excluding marquees there is only $30M that can be spent on players. That works out at roughly $130k per HAL player. Unfortunately that is simply not enough in the world wide scheme of things. 

Clubs need to learn how to deal with that and not see it as a burden, Clubs should be seeking to emulate the dutch and Belgians by investing in youth and selling young players on for profit whilst still having a formidable domestic league 

This

Those leagues don't have salary caps though. Pretty sure they both operate using FFP rules (please correct me if I'm wrong here). FFP makes much more sense than the ridiculous cap with a dozen exemptions we have in the HAL. 

Just feels like another excuse, How does the salary cap prevent clubs form putting young players on good contracts ? 

If there any changes the ffa can make then they should do it. but not in a way were club spending gets out of control 

The current system has 3 youth per team. Most of them sit on the bench

Remove the salary cap and those 30 players will largely go to the bottom clubs. Exact same players, different distribution. They will get regular game time with the occasional hit out against a big club. And as they progress they will move up the chain until they are worthy of an MV or SFC

Think of an open league like a high school where the bottom club is year 7 and the top club is year 12. Yes the top club will lose their players to big international clubs but they will be replaced by the best players below them. Everybody moves up a grade

The current A League structure is 6 year levels of remedial classes. Players left MV to play for WP. Every team has 3 marquees, 3 goal keepers, 3 youth, 5 visa players, etc... all playing on the same budget. The number of journeymen (and title holders) in the A League conclusively demonstrates there is no difference between one club and the other. Youth go from an amateur NPL to a one size fits all professional curricula where they either make it on their first go or they dont at all. No pathway and no room for natural progression

The above statement is a twist on what fans want, so that it is aligned with how the FFA (so they can say they are listening to the fans) are currently running the league. 

Yes, we fans do like seeing new players coming in, with hope that the incoming player(s) will strengthen the team on previous seasons. What we (me at least) don't want to see the same players being recycled within the league. Same player(s), different team ever season.

We (again, me at least) also want to see players staying for longer periods. At the minute not many players seem to be offered longer contracts then a year or two. It is not hard to see why we have so much player rotation within the league and/or loss players abroad. Players need security, if they are not being offered it within the A-League, then they will look elsewhere for it.

You don't want to see ALL the best players of the A-league leaving. FMD O'Rourke can talk some shit. 

I dont think O'Rourke has spoken to a single fan in the time he has been involved in the A League

The league is potentially losing its three best players from last season (Adrian, George, Bobo) and one of the greats of the league (Berisha). Thats a huge talent drain before even considering some of the other class players that have left (Buijs, Williams etc). Whilst players will always leave and cap or no cap theres some leagues we wont ever compete with, thats a huge step backwards for the quality of the league. 

Im less bothered by the likes of Arzani leaving though a season of first team football here will be good for him. The league selling off young talent to bigger leagues is a sign of the league doing what it should. But in order to be giving players like Arzani the best apprenticeship we need good players here so that they learn at a good quality and get exposed to class players early on

Its been said but Adrian George and Bobo are replaceable. nobody knew who they were before they got here that's certainly true for George and not to mention the other imports who were excellent last season 

There's no limit on the amount of young players a club can sign, a club could sign 3 or 25 

There is actually a financial cap on investment into a squad lol.

Same goes for the teams, we don't want the same teams fighting to not finish last, It was obvious from the get go last season the Wellington and CCM would struggle to avoid the spoon,right there is two games a week people just don't bother to watch. p/r will fix that straight away 

Right but the salary cap is the difference between winning the league or not. Nobody wants to be that coach to lose the season because they didnt spend as much on players as they should have

Youth, unproven, usually get the scraps because they arent worth as much. Consequently - why would a coach play a player they have paid $60k ahead of a player they have paid $120k? Therefore, youth dont get played

If the salary cap is removed the available playing pool doesnt change. It just means the big teams end up with more $200k players, and the bottom teams end up with more $60k players. With more youth in the bottom teams, they'll get more playing spots

This is a hard call in what to do to retain players against countries that are bigger and far more cashed up than we are.

The NSL lost numerous players to overseas clubs and they couldn't do anything about it. This was at a time when the Middle Eastern and Asian marketa were not as strong as well so retention had greater opportunity.

A cashed up league is the only answer. More advertisers and more sponsors which means more TV dollars as well. These will come in time but not if we go back to the future and offer new clubs that have little ability to expand.

Why do I want Australian players to stay here?

I don't.

Overseas Australians is the best read on 442.  Every decent player we have should be headed overseas to play at the best level they can.  Otherwise UAE, Saudi etc..
The League is incrementally improving and as it does it produces better players.  Those players get more offers not just for more money, but "bigger" longer established leagues.
Good.

As long as we keep enough players in the system and keep them gradually getting better we win.  Eventually, maybe 30 years, we will have a League where a player can reach a "world" standard by staying at home.  The Japanese have decades start on us and they aren't there yet.  Their best players leave.
The Chinese League has lots of money and their players are staying home.   Which is better?

If we got rid of the salary cap and investors were willing to put more in there would still be plenty of players wanting to go overseas.  A lot of them want to be tested at a higher level, but even for the ones who are simply driven by money, Europe offers the chance to be closer to a market which allows them to earn even more...  Danny Vukovic, for example, didn't go overseas to earn more money - he went because he wanted to play at the highest level possible.

P&R

Must be a bigger emphasis for player development incentives otherwise I don’t much changing any time soon.

First step for the a-league to become independent and let them run there own race with the FFA to set out national schemes on the side, that’s how it should be.