it's a concern raised time and again on this forum and it's a position that i take as well.

foreign players take up spaces in the a-league that could be filled by australians.

this is a big reason why we have stopped developing australian stirkers.  there isnt anywhere for them to learn their trade.

if a club is going to bring a foreigner in, they should only be top quality or maquee. not squadies that take up space that could be filled by australians -  particularly young australians.

imo the quality of the a-league does not warrant the inclusion of foreigners.  the shift in quality in the league would be minimal if we stocked the foreign spots with young australian players.

this was an idea put forward in a article this week - one of those "ten things we need to do to fix australian football" articles.  i can't find it. icnbf looking for it.

Another “quick fix” silver bullet idea.

Reducing the quality of the A League will not increase the quality of Australian players.

And what happens if this idea has an unintended consequence? Maybe Australian defenders are better because they’ve faced better foreign strikers .... but if they’re forced to face inferior Aussie strikers maybe their standard will fall, what then?

There’s a need to improve opportunities for Aussie strikers - but they have to be better than foreign imports. That starts with coaching at U12, then the acadamies, then the A League.... there’s no quick fix.

What a great idea - lets gift spots to somebody because they have the right passport! Has worked REALLY well with Chinese goalkeepers, right?

Takes more than a few years for these things to pay off

In a word No.

Clubs should be able to determine what they need in their squads and how much to pay their players. I am against any sort of salary cap. Develop a better player, how about that for a novel idea. 

It also reeks of short term, nationalistic bullshit - if a kid is good enough, they'll play. Not to mention the OP specifically mentions a YOUNG Aussie player only - when is the cutoff? What happens to late developers? The idea that only foreigners who command a million dollars should be allowed to play is ludicrous - I can guarantee Berisha wasn't on that when he arrived at the Roar, Zwaanswijk at the Mariners or even Delpierre at the Vuck. Even Leroy George was an under the cap foreign signing - should we not allow him to play because he is 'not a high enough profile player'? Because he taught a lesson to EVERY A-League side this season that just finished. Under this arbitrary approach he wouldn't be allowed to come to the league unless he was paid over his market value.

The problem is not at the top level - the problem is endemic throughout the entire football ecosystem INCLUDING A-League clubs academies (or lack thereof). Fix those, an we'll start fixing the national teams. We're lucky to be in a league where we can mandate a cap on foreigners to begin with, but we don't need to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater in response to a poor World Cup.

A majority of imports have been of a good quality, if we want players to improve they need to be beating the best players to a starting berth. 

No, would inflate the wage of imports without the need to

A bit like how international touring teams should also only be marquee fixtures

Sometimes I wonder how those at the FFA could have gotten things so fucking wrong. Then I read threads on this forum and realise that common sense may actually be a rare thing

Dont look for a silver bullet idea if your intention is to shoot your own foot

just need to have a minimum amount of u23''s in the team extend the bench could be a simple way to do this.

absolutely. this bullsh1t that plagues the a-league and the npls is the cancer killing Australian football. Marquee players, salary cap, home grown concessions, 4 under 21s, minimum 2 beards and 1 long haired player on the field at all times, mandatory elderly bloke, minimum 2 females in every a-league squad. 

The NPL points system is a joke. Having an under 20s instead of reserve grade is a joke. 

Every one of these bullshit regulations designed to promote something or other does much more harm than good. 

Or have 3 foreigners outside the cap

late developers? 

mate 20 years of age is the cutoff for development. If you aren't in first grade by then you never will be. go back and play in a pub league.

/sarcasm

perhaps this all comes back to the fact that Oz is a nanny state. we regulate everything. there are rules for everything. if there is even the smallest problem there is a rule or 12 we will come up with to "fix it". its disgusting. 

i would argue against that.  there have been a lot of good imports. and some really good ones on the cheap.  i would say half of them have probably been poor.  there have been more epic flops than stand outs.

the million dollar mark is an arbitrary figure, not based on any actual evidence of a shift at that price point. that was just the amount stated in the article mentioned in the o.p.

the point is to limit to introduction of foreign players unless they stand well above the quality of local players. which i would argue has not happened. and it is the flooding of the local game with mediocre foreign players in key positions that is harming the development of the australian game.  

at the moment there is little incentive for clubs to develop locally.  a better idea would be to introduce transfer fees between aus clubs

Less regulation, more clubs. The cream will rise to the top.

definitely more clubs.  the cream will start moving once p&r is bought in.

if the foreign player isnt a striker, then it doesnt matter. we must promote australian strikers what ever the cost. i dont really care how much you pay the foreigners, as long as they are not taking up the strikers position.

also, our youth must also learn to adapt to playing against foreign defenders and midfielders to harden them up for international games

So any pub league Aussie gets a free pass to A-League level as long as he has number 9 on his shirt?

How about plauers earning their spot in a quality league? Or are we too unique for that?

too obvious :)
we also need to adopt the AFC ruling on foreign players .

1 million a season is about 25-33k a week due to the fact the season is only 6-7 months long depending on if you make finals 
That is a solid salary i would stay lower end EPL/SerieA and La Liga players would be on that much $$$ i am all against the salary cap but paying has bins big money on a few individuals isnt the answer. 

Maybe instead of wasting cash on 'big names' throw it can into grass roots we might create our own marquees...

Note: MLS is a prime example of why the marquee system is flawed...

The only way to get more young Aussie players improving and coming through is to have a FULLY PROFESSIONAL second division where young Aussies are paid to train and play FULL TIME as professional footballers, without having to do other work to earn a living.
It really is THAT simple.

The problem is not following the natural football pyramid system the rest of the world has.Adding regulations about what can and can't be done is the bs that has got us in this mess.
A free market system where you can rise from the very bottom to the top so merit is rewarded is the only way we will ever get things right.
Merit based for teams and merit based for players.
Salary caps for teams and players is never the answer ,unless you keep to a rigged closed communist system where the privelaged few lock out everyone else.

i think that was the point of it.  that unless the player is going to contribute substantially, the money would be better spent developing local talent.

so what you're saying that every australian striker is at pub league level? i wonder whos the blame for that :Whistling:

Bingo mark. Well mostly. Having a half professional second division is better than none. Having a 3/4 professional second division is better than half. Having a full second division and a professional 3rd division is even better!

Its very simple maths. We need more professional players. The more pro players the better we will be. The 1% improvement things in technical development are way behind just having more players in terms of importance. 

We are ready for this. We need to do it. 

The worst thing about the current setup is ten teams have paid a fee to FFA to remain in the top division regardless of merit.It is such a bad system.It's like nepotism.They join the brotherhood.No matter how rubbish the team is they cannot be thrown out because they have paid money to stay.
Teams that want to get in the top division can only get there by also paying the fee/blood money to FFA .That is regardless of the strength of the team they will buy.
Even if a team in lower semiprofessional division can afford to be in the top division ,has consistently demonstrated being an alite team and wants to play in the top division,there is no way to get in unless they have the bag of cash to pay the fee and mysterious metrics.
I dont understand how FIFA allows this.

mdamn, thats an interesting was of seeing it. FIFA need to bring down the hammer on the football cartel asap

Or just scrap the cap ffs.

Don't want duds here taking up 7 figures of salary cap.

-PB

Yes Kiwis should be on multi-million dollar contacts.