They don't seem to be embedding at all with the current software, unfortunately.

Cheers paladisious.

Ahh the old forum

I posted this on a different forum ill post it here 

You either got good players or you dont - we currently dont thus interest is at an all time low. 
I dont follow athletics and i dont care about Jamaica but i know who Usain Bolt is, becuz the athlete is a 'brand'.
Ive never watched a game of golf but i know who 'tiger woods' is etc

Sport on a professional level is a business and clubs/players/leagues are brands. 

Thus it is hard to market Australian football when we are rubbish. During 2006 golden Era Socceroos where on Weet Bix, Optus ads etc they were everywhere. Becuz when a fan typed in Kewell/Viduka/Cahill etc and saw the player scoring in the PL you where like this guy is class. Becuz the EPL itself is a 'massive brand' even if you dont like football you know that the PL is one of the best if not the best best league in the world u know Liverpool is one of the biggest clubs in the world - thus when you see Australians doing well in the PL it turns those players into a 'brand' themselves. 
It is why everyone was a lil disappointed Mooy has gone to the CSL when he could of kept playing in the PL
The easiest way to put it is 

If the EPL (or European football) is Nike. The AL are home brand runners but they are trying to charge Nike prices, they dont look as nice, they arent as flash so why buy them? The Brands within Australian football right now are rubbish bar the clubs are seen as rubbish becuz they are held back by a salary cap in a league with a joke of a structure, the socceroos are seen as rubbish becuz they lack star power. Even people who arent major EPL fans would say to me ill watch Brighton to see Mooy and Ryan play (last season)  

It is cut and dry in sport - need to realise we cant complete with 'top' leagues for quality but we can produce quality to play in those top leagues which overall lifts the brand that is the AL and Australian football. At the same time seeing AL players struggle to make it in Europe and fail to to do anything decent for the Socceroos hurts the brand that is the AL. If 10 players from the AL tomorrow went to the PL and did well in the league it would be the best marketing for the AL becuz people would be like 'maybe' this league is better then we give it credit for. At the same time now that the AL development is toilet it reaffirms the notion that the league is shit

The big issue i have with GA not only is he a incompetent manager the Socceroos manager himself could be a 'brand' ill give another example
Marcello Lippi manages China i couldnt name one player that players for China but i know any team managed by team will be tactically decent and defensively solid

Yep.... but to be fair I did notice 2 fans in Swans jerseys at an ALeague game last year, so they’d probably count that as a massive success!

Despite the constant disappointments and incompetence, the ALeague still has average attendances in excess of many Euro leagues. 

@spongebob 

can I ask which 3 Swedish clubs you used as reference?

10k average crowds is pretty damn great and something I would have only ever dreamed of 20 years ago ...... but over all general popularity.... I don't know about that.
It's all about numbers through the turnstiles, eyeballs on screens, revenue streams, this, profits that... merch merch merch and more merch,,,,,
As someone posted above we have a comparable league in terms of metrics to most European nations but where the difference lies n my humble opinion is that here it's all about the league and not about actual club culture, I mean I just read an article about a 14 year old kid starting an active supporters group in Canberra years ago hoping to get a team there? WTF is he actively supporting? Am I the only one that thinks this is crazy? In countries like Turkey, Sweden etc from the previous list maybe there are other factors why people don't attend the game but I can  be pretty sure that 80% of the population would know who Besiktas or AIK where... can we say the same about us?
.

This is actually not a bad shout. 

Football is about banter, tribalism, rivalries and overall having a good time with people who support your club - i
it also doesnt help the clubs are plastic as f**k in the AL
The NSL had too much tribalism becuz it was about ethinic backgrounds and issues from deacdes of hatred it Serbs/Croatians, Maco/Greeks etc 

We need to find a bit of a balance.

I watch a load of PL and I also watch some of the fan channels on youtube esp when rivals lose just for the banter - the thing is you need thick skin and I think we have a incredibly soft culture in Australia everyone gets ribbon, booing is racist, you can be negative becuz it will hurt some flogs feelings etc etc 

Interesting  I feel more connected to other MU fans and MU the club via twitter/Youtube/travel etc then i have ever felt MVFC fans or MV the club 

I used to think the franchises where plastic as f*8ck and in many many ways l still do but credit where it's due most of them and their season ticket holders have stuck around now for 15 years...  I dont blame the new dawn, they were exposed to a new sport and they loved it... where told that if it is made family friendly and they kept the wogsies out then before long soccer would be Australia's number 1 sport... 
But the rest of the A league is a corporate marketing schill. Big bash league, it's a knockout, tv entertainment product. FOCUS on the club's culture, like you said tribalism and passion..  Maybe I dont speak for anyone else but I personally couldn't give a flying f*8ck for my local geographic catchment/metric area.... 

Does it matter if people don't support these professional clubs in big numbers? I'm a big believer that you should support a local club and that doesn't necessarily mean supporting a professional club. I lost interest in the A-league years ago but I still support a football club in the NPL. I'll support that club no matter what division they are in. 

Agree with you. Support a  CLUB  not a ,league... For whatever reason makes the most sense to you. If it's local NPL because it's close to home or Marconi Stallions because your nono took you as a kid or even Liverpool because you grew up watching prem league and reading Shoot magazine and Roy of the Rovers. 

So do almost every other country.

Title of this thread should be corrected to.......”Football in Australia is not popular, why?”

Good point.
I've often asked the question on these boards:  What does it mean to connect to grassroots?  Why is it important for A-League clubs to connect to lower tier clubs?

I ask the question because in an open pyramid, there are clubs in the lower tiers aiming to replace those clubs in the top tier, so the idea that the A-League clubs sit permanently on top of these clubs, as if they are lording it over them, is an absurd one.

It is absurd but unfortunately is the reality for Australian soccer and has been for at least 15 years and to be honest even further back. Although the NSL did have some sort of buy in from state league clubs and on the rare occasion there was an opportunity for a smaller club to step up via promotion or restructuring of the league... Not as clear cut as straight forward pro/rel which I think, we should agree, is the fairest method, but at least there was a small opportunity for connection back then.

A poster above mentions that the name of this thread should change to "Football in Australia is not popular - why?" but I think that is not the case. As others on here have repeatedly shown actual participation and connection numbers in NPL, State Leagues, Church leagues etc are all at record highs levels. 
The only real way for any meaningful connection of this massive base to the cough* cough* top tier in this country is for either

1) the A -League franchises to go out and form meaningful alliances with actual member run clubs in their designated sales area, offer coaching support, clinics, free tickets or memberships to juniors in the area and incorporate these clubs into the "production line" of their academies actually fostering a meaningful relationship with the actual soccer fans in their purported region

2)remove the artificial restraint on the football pyramid in this country and allow a full second and possibly even third national division, down to the NPL and then state leagues (include these mythical NSW district associations, which a few keep mentioning are the real grass roots, if they want it) with full pro/rel based on where teams finish on the table and the caveat of reasonable minimum financial and home ground criteria of course.

I know which one I would like to see happen, but either way something needs to be done.

Its a shame we couldnt see it, sigh.

When I mention about emotional connection, this is it.

Support what you feel connected with the most and not being forced fed to support a team or league.

This is football.

If your statement is true - why wasn’t the NSL popular then? 

The notion that there are some rules around what club you should support and what clubs you shouldn’t is one of the most anti-football things going around. It probably explains why Australia lacks a proper football culture - we don’t actually “get it” but in an effort to try and get it we make up rules that the real football world doesn’t follow. 

It was popular ... Just not with the right class of people obviously :P

100% agree with this well said.

I think it goes without saying that if you have a situation where clubs are getting replaced year on year, sometimes by clubs of a similar size, other times by smaller clubs, that it is impossible to predict where the metrics will be in 10 years time (in the NSL we had a team from Queanbeyan, and even a club from  Morwell, a tiny country town).
Yes, there is a chance that spreading the love of fans across, not 8, 9 or 10 clubs, but 50 clubs (the number who might be aiming for a top tier spot at any moment in time), will possibly dilute the level of support any one club has (but what is the overall support looking like?).
This is the main argument in favour of the closed shop system we currently have, and in one sense, it did deliver what it set out to do:  establish a professional league and increase metrics over and above what the NSL delivered (as a semi-pro comp).
But if we take this argument to its logical conclusion, it means we must stay with the closed shop system, pick and choose the clubs to enter via a licensing system, and everyone else can go please themselves.
I think many would agree with me that that's not ideal either (unfortunately, it appears to remain the FFA's preferred model).
But...
Here we are, professional league pretty close to rock bottom in many respects, so maybe the closed shop approach isn't everything it's cut out to be?
Maybe a traditional open pyramid is worth a try afterall?

100% agree with this and is the prime reason why the AL is failing 

But you still can, Barca4Life. Just click on each of the hyperlinks.

Thierry Henry Top 25 Goals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UECYEyENt84

Thierry Henry - All 106 Assists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFhhRRgQucY

You'll notice with the videos of the assists, a lot of the goals are down to Henry's vision and accuracy in passing. He finds the runs of Dennis Bergkamp, Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pires, etc. Not unlike Aaron Mooy's passing. Very unselfish.

At 11:13, his pass is so good that Patrick Vieira is literally able to walk the ball over the line.

But the other interesting thing is that some of the assists come  from the individual runs that Henry does. He's so good that the opposition player tries to stick to him like glue. Sometimes Henry has 2-3 opponents trying to dispossess him. He evades them. As a result, the defensive line of the other team is fractured. Henry passes to a teammate. That teammates has isolated the goalkeeper and, sometimes, is able to pass the ball into the net for an easy goal.

The only way that anybody can develop high quality 1 vs 1 ability (for match situations) is:
(a) have the natural speed, agility and co-ordination (as Thierry Henry did). And
(b) to practise 1 vs 1 for hours and hours from a young age on one's own, with one's friends (street football), in all phases of training (including "phases of play" and practice matches) and in competitive matches. Think of the number of hours of practice it takes to perfect a skill.

Individualism needs to be encouraged, not just possession-based football. Are Australian footballers being told off for trying the 1 vs 1 route when there's a safer pass, or just for holding on to the ball for too long? If they aren't allowed to do this (even if they're just discouraged), Australia will find it hard to produce many strong 1 vs 1 footballers.

My point is, the NSL had all the above and was way less popular than the A-League. 

And what was the prime reason the NSL failed then? 

Because it was only considered a sport for Sheilas, wogs and pooftahs...... 

The NSL as a league was an absolute basket case, like a bi-polar rhino constantly at war with itself, its few fans and the mythical mainstream Australia - The Federation itself was even worse. Leader after leader brought on to solve the problem of the woggie clubs not appealing to Trevor and Karen from Summer Bay and their 4 year old daughter. Change their names, tarnish their reputation in the media, buy the rights to broadcast and show it at 3am... who cares its just the wogs.

The A- League could have been so much better mate, it really could have. 

The management was a basket cast the media also purchased the rights and hid the games on at the middle of the night to stop non-hard cores following the league. - it wasnt like now you could just type in google check scores highlights etc you either watched it on TV or went to the game. I think it was 9 who purposely sabotaged football to help the AFL grow. 

The AL had a TV deal that gave it a bucket of $$ and though the games were on Foxtel, Foxtel itself (until they lost the EPL rights) really did try and promote  the league - they even admited it somewhere alone the line (i was only a kid so i dont remember it all). 

The NSL never had the TV money luxury - the clubs where also fueled with old hatreds that 'wogs' had installed in them from there parents most of them post WW2 ie Croatians and Serbs didnt like each other Greeks and Macos etc  - im half Croatian trust me when i say the Cros and Serbs always ended in a punch on....

I never loved the NSL - but i have always been a Socceroos fan and i respected the league for its ability to produce talent with limited resources. 

The NSL needed to be scrapped that wasnt the wrong decision the problem was the clubs needed to be intrgated into the AL. Unfortunately the AL became a closed franchisee system which is ultimately now is failing becuz it refuses to connect with the established old NSL power houses ie South Melbourne etc.

It also never had a long term plan - the AL structure was 'alright' when it was in its infancy but it has quickly become boring becuz of the lack of P/R, and lack of real 'stakes' coming 1st or last doesnt 'really matter' and the league out grew its structure and needed to move more into a NSL traditional style the FFA didnt grow the game and didnt have any real vision and thus the AL is heading the same way as the NSL - but the NSL at least produced talent the AL doesnt even have that...

Ultimately the NSL clubs and AL need to find a common ground or else i reckon the AL will fold within the next 4-5 years 

The NSL on Channel 10 got plenty of air play. The move to 7 cruelled it.

thats the one sorry i was like 8-9 when that happened