Independent A-League will prop up cash-strapped clubs

The A-League club owners will come to the rescue of financially struggling clubs to ensure next season will finish with 12 teams, after reaching an agreement to gain near-full control of the competition from Football Federation Australia.

The transition of ownership of the A-League to the clubs is set to be rubber-stamped within the next two months, once lawyers finalise the terms of the separation of the league from FFA. It means the 2020-21 A-League season will be operated, governed and owned by the A-League clubs for the first time since the competition's inception in 2005.



https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/independent-a-league-will-prop-up-cash-strapped-clubs-20201019-p566hv.html

Seems like a conflict of interest. How can clubs take money from other clubs?

CCM & NJ may survive next season but beyond that....

  really  If  no  no  This can' t be serious can it .  . surely not  What a Joke !!

Hahahahahahahahahahah that's awesome. So will the owner clubs get to choose which one they control or is it a pooled system like MLS? 

Pool system, a fund the owners contribute to.

That's awesome. Certainly a great way to keep all the retail stores open in a pandemic. Centralise the ownership. So will any new shops have to pay for a license or will they just add to the central pool and they will be allocated a name, a geographic region and a fan base? 

There is not enough large business in and around these regional teams. Look at the Nrl, they won't touch Gosford because they will be perenial strugglers, even with that excellent stadium. Newcastle Knights have only ever been on the breadline until wealthy Wests Group in Newy took over the Knights because they would of folded by now.

The NRL won't touch Gosford because the competition is seen as too Sydney-centric. They see Gosford as just an extension of Sydney. The only way Gosford gets a team is to replace a Sydney team. Otherwise Perth, Adelaide, another Qld or NZ team or even a PNG  team all come in before Gosford.

Bloody great decision in this COVID driven economic train wreck year. Bed in the 12 teams this one year; and then move to promotion/relegation mode next year. Then its the survival of the fittest and best, oh what joy!.
Smaller provincial well managed community supported clubs can survive and prosper as they do in other leagues - note Leicester in the EPL.

Leister are owned by wealthy Thai business people. Perhaps Southampton, but they are never inside the top12-15 teams. Its a long season and the upset results stop usually after a couple of months into the season.

It will be interesting as it is against FIFA rules due to compromising integrity of the competition. Also if iAL buy NJ for example, it's in their interest to get the best possible price when they eventually sell, what better way than ensuring NJ are "successful" for a few seasons....

Integrity of the competition?? Hahahahah when teams play some other teams twice and others 3 times a year??? hahahahah Best to think of uncle Franks legacy as creating a reality show with legalized gambling.

However, the same rules didn’t stop the FFA “acquiring” several A League clubs over the years and selling them for a decent profit. 

Regardless of the Newcastle Jets situation, it’s good to see this process almost over.

Now with aleague as it is it’s going to take time and of course but now there is no excuse for the independent aleague to get right given the FFA don’t control like they used to before.

The main things they have to do in the immediate term is they need to bring is more investment into the aleague, and trying to get the active fans back as well although tough with Covid they need to build those relationships with the fans again as it pissed away by the FFA.

I think that there has been so much mismanagement of some of these clubs that it borders on criminal
ccm, Jets , Glory and even Roar all one team cities that are unable to be viable , something not quite right.

Correct. The FFA keeping too much money that should go to the clubs and then restricting the commercial options clubs have .... pretty much the argument for I-AL 

This.
No national transfer system means clubs make nothing from selling/loaning out players unless it's overseas, and those deals are few and far between.
Clubs make nothing from ticket sales during the finals series.
There is no prize money for winning the league or the GF.
The ACL would be a potential money earner if clubs weren't handicapped by our salary cap.
The clubs don't own their IP, so they make next to nothing from merch sales. ($10 from every shirt sale is a joke).
There are limitations on which sponsors they can use.

Doesn't leave many avenues for generating revenue.

The MLS went through something similar in the early 2000s when one owner bought 1 or 2 clubs when the league was on the verge of death, this happened when the MLS become an independent league as well.

And look how far they have come now, top level facilities and stadia, marquee players, great promotion and marketing and even better social media platforms, big crowds  and now producing great young players for the top leagues of European football.

We might not achieve the same as them but there is something to aspire too if the independent board and the clubs get the league right, its theirs by 60 days from now so there is no more excuses for them now they own the keys to the house. 

True

Listened to the Real Football Show and Greg Griffin who was a former owner of Adelaide United and said the unbundling process was almost 97% percent done, they need to get this done quickly and not muck around.

Aspiring to be like the MLS???? You and I have different dreams mate :)

I’d take the MLS over what we have. At least they can produce players and have a NSD. 

Yep. Impossible to overstate what a hopeless mess football is in Australia right now. 

Same here. 

They get good crowds as well. They managed and executed the new version of the MLS well from the get go.

Our current lot can’t seem to get out of first gear.

So you'd be (are) happy with that same system here? An AFL/MLS imitation franchise league? Clearly working for both the US and Australia, can't wait for our immense clashes in future World Cups. The rest of the world, judging by world rankings must be stupid. 
Like I said previously, I guess everyone has a different dream.

The MLS has done everything better than us except for pro-rel, what's wrong to learn from other countries that have improved?

Im sorry I just don't agree with you regarding MLS. I may be proven wrong in the next 50-100 years but I really can't see them ever developing a national squad that will ever compete against the rest of the world for titles, let alone make tournaments. Even the US women's team, who have been the number 1 performing side for ever basically, are now being over run in the rankings after European countries have finally pulled their thumbs out regarding the women's game.... using clubs in the age old, non-franchised way.... 

Someone said the US Soccer Development Academy system started in 2007 akin to what we have with the FFA NC and Aleague/NPL academies. 

Fast forward to 2020 and have players at first team at top leagues in Europe and playing. 

McKennie  (Juventus)
Adams      (RB Leipzig)
Pulisic       (Chelsea)
Reyna       (Dortmund)
Weah        (Lille)
Sargent     (Werder Bremen)

Also there is Alphonso Davies who came from the MLS in Canada and has done very well for Bayern Munich.

Regardless of its issues its starting to nurture some very good players, i think MLS should encourage to develop more players for first team football rather than sell them overseas as they developing a level for the top clubs in Europe but maybe its not in their business model?

6 players, in 13 years, from a population of 350 million I dont know mate, I just don't see it as something we should emulate.
As for business model, the whole MLS is an entertainment concept, think of it as a giant TV production company. 

The thing that the US has that we don't have is 81 professional clubs spread over 3 levels.

yep, and money helps eh and good luck to them, for without Football had NO hope in that country due to its dna of baseball/basketball/gridiron then other long time sports.
Our game there had the barriers we have in a kind of way (excl Governance imcompetance) key sports way ahead of Football BUT with the pop of 350M+ farfar more chance having millianaires and corporates helping it gain its footprint AND having Mex/Latinos over the border without the wall to date.

Gyfox yes that indeed is something  to envy I agree. Their participation levels, especially in younger ages is also astronomical. What I don't see happening is their youth players coming through this system in any meaningful way. In their search for a system of "entertainment" for lack if a better term the disconnect from grass roots and also player retention is even greater than ours. 
A mates son went over to University of South Carolina a few years ago to play on a scholarship and his impression (obviously just one guys opinion but is all the info I have to go off) was that there are 3 very distinct Worlds in the game over there. The professional leagues which are all about foreign players and big money signings, the college system and the rest of soccer which is very heavily influenced by private academies and soccer schools  "pay to play" basically. Most of their youth and national squads cone from this last group and I fear that with the creation of NPL and A league academies as they are and the prevalence of these same extra curriculum private soccer tutors here we are going down the same path.

You couldn't be more wrong. MLS makes barely more money from TV than the A-League, and that's with 15 times the population (they want to change this, but it's evidently a hard nut to crack). The vast majority of club revenue comes from fans coming in through the gates. And there are some big success stories there. Seattle and Atlanta have populations comparable to Sydney and Melbourne, and get crowds of 40-50k per game. Portland is akin to Brisbane or Perth, and has sold out every single game in its 25k stadium. Most clubs are also building their own stadiums, which is the model a lot would like to see in the A-Legue.

That is certainly better than playing in suburban grounds with small crowds in a fully open system. At some point the traditionalists have to accept whilst the system like the MLS may not be ideal, it is what the business of sport demands. 

You are right, all we need now is the AL teams to develop their own grounds and fill them with fans.....

Better for who exactly? 
Apart from maybe Hajduk and Dinamo the rest of the Croatian 1st division plays to NPL like crowds in old dilapitated municipal stadiums (no disrespect to these clubs) put aside your maniacal ethnic hatred for a second and tell me which system has produced the best results, USA or Croatia?

And you can go through dozens of Croatia-like examples before you even bother giving the MLS the time of day.

Yup. But some just want safe smoke and Daryl Braithwaite  f#ck me. Heheheh

Will the independent Al league aka clubs be negotiating the next TV rights? Or is that upto the FFA?
Can the FFA in a few years time change the rules for pro/rel or is the competition run by the clubs now?
so who makes these big decisions going forward?

The league will be owned and operated by the clubs, however the FFA will hold a minority share.
The iAL will be responsible for negotiating the next TV rights.
Apparently the FFA can vito some decisions in the event a particular decision will effect other areas of Australian football and not just the AL. P&R could fall into that category.

Is Sydney still spnsored by a betting company? Hmmm that might be untwresting.

That's true, the TV deals the MLS get are miniscule, especially when compared to the big American sports.
As for a zillion professional clubs spread across 3 tiers.
So what.
The only way a club can move up is by paying a hundred milliion dollars for a license - no one gets relegated.
If anyone thought the A-League was a ponzi scheme, you ain't seen nothing yet...