https://archive.ph/F77VN

Vince Rugari
September 13, 2023 — 2.48pm

The A-Leagues’ controversial grand final sale to Sydney could be reversed in a move that has the potential to mend fractured relationships between the struggling competition and angry fans.
According to sources with knowledge of the discussions, who were not authorised to speak publicly due to the sensitivity of the matter, the NSW government and the Australian Professional Leagues are in talks to scrap the remainder of the $12 million, three-year deal which guaranteed that Sydney would host the men’s and women’s grand finals through to 2025.
That contract could instead be spun off into a “Magic Round”, in which a full weekend of fixtures in both the men’s and women’s A-League would be played in NSW, with grand final hosting rights to return to the team which earns it – a tradition in domestic football stretching back to the National Soccer League.While the sources have cautioned that nothing has been finalised yet, if an agreement is reached, it will signal the end of one of the most tumultuous chapters in the A-Leagues’ history.The decision to sell the grand finals to Sydney, via Destination NSW, was announced in the days after the Socceroos’ inspiring run to the round of 16 at last year’s World Cup in Qatar.Instead of harnessing the Socceroos’ momentum, the domestic game was plunged into immediate chaos, with players and clubs speaking out against the APL, former Melbourne Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro stepping down from the APL board, and active fan groups announcing a boycott of matches.
Some Melbourne Victory supporters were so incensed they invaded the AAMI Park pitch in December’s derby against Melbourne City, with the man who threw a bucket of sand at goalkeeper Tom Glover jailed for three months.
The APL, which was motivated primarily by financial considerations in selling the grand final to Sydney, was taken aback by the ferocity of the backlash from all corners of the football community, with fans broadly rejecting the premise that the deal was the start of a “new tradition” for the game in Australia.
Last season’s A-League Men grand final was held at CommBank Stadium, where the Central Coast Mariners thumped City 6-1. The women’s version was played at the same venue – despite Western United, who lost 4-0 to Sydney FC, having earned hosting rights under the previous model.The APL declined to comment. Destination NSW was also contacted for comment.
The sources claimed the NSW government was behind the move to revisit the deal, after choosing not to support a mooted A-Leagues All Stars clash with Bayern Munich earlier this year due to budget restraints, but that the APL also saw it as an opportunity to cut its losses.The APL’s original concept for grand finals in Sydney revolved around an All Stars clash against a high-profile European opponent held on the same weekend as the men’s and women’s domestic league deciders.

Danny T never offered to reverse decision. Now the clown is gone fences might be finally mended 

well I find it surprising tbh for DT or anyone under their position is only the mouth piece of the board, directed what to say and not so it wouldn't matter he there or the next guy.
More like they they are coming to their senses relunctantly for it could have been reversed long before instead of sold to the supporters as the next great show of franchise football.
Wonder how many more burnt fans are left to try and bring back.
There is a whole lot of hurt to mend, won't happen overnight.

Thank you Danny for enabling me to watch my 'away' GF in Parramatta. I was too crook to travel to Melbourne. I have seen some City fans complain on twitter that you took away their right to watch their team get thumped. How ungrateful after you saved them from that fate.

Hahahahaha poor Vince having to "report" this shit. hahahahahah

Get ready for MAGIC ROUND my Aleague friends :)

and bucket boy isn't in jail

WE ARE SO BAC....

**reads "Magic Round"**

Oh FFS!

We have to follow afl and nrl 

Can't wait for the A-league draft.

Maybe we can get some washed up rock-band to play our favourite pub songs at the Grand Final.

Any chance we can develop some footballers whilst we're at it? :)

Auckland City FC's "half-time entertainment" used to consist of a local bogan getting on the mike and doing karaoke

FFS WE ARE FOLLOWING ENGLAND SUPERLEAGUE NOT AFL AND NRL DUMFUC SO ITS UUUUUUROPE SO IT GOOOD SHIT DAMN IT 

5 dollars get outta here

God save us.

I guess I can resume watching A League.  (Worryingly I didn't miss it at all).

Destination NSW probably realised the deal was a dud after the football festival was an utter embarrassment and the game attracted virtually no interstate tourists

oh ffs I just read that Magic Round....

Can we just play a farking football game like normal people 

You Shall Not Pass!

Everything involved with football in this country must be passed through a marketing funnel first.

Going against the group think here but the NRL magic round is great. It's a massive event for the NRL. It's a whole weekend of football with all the fans mixing together in the one place.

I know we're copying the NRL but in this case it's a great idea. The A Leagues did it a few years ago when they played every fixture one after the other on a single day but in different cities and that was good. 

Follow your team to a city and go and watch 2 or 3 other matches while you're there.

It's a thumbs up from me.

Thumbs down from me

Totally ignores the tribal nature of the spectator, no Home advantage, no travelling to a 'fortress' to grab a point.

Or maybe have 26 Magic rounds, save on Stadium hire, Staffing and Broadcast costs.

Mind you this is the APL, so my sarcasm may become reality

Spot on re home advantage etc......
Here in Syd some friends are NRL and co workers.
They actually dislike losing the home advantage, too funny its a home game but played at Suncorp or whtever ( any advantage lost)
Home fans have their regular spots at games, banter the opponents, larger numbers to create the "vibe" "cauldrum" atmosphere, some visiting players always lose the plot under pressure playing away, what its all about.

I can see merit in what you say - however, the name just sets it up with a terrible notion.

It probably wouldn't attract enough people and logistics probably hard but doing it with the Australia Cup, could be interesting, 10 games in a weekend in one city/state 

Even Worse

Fundamental feature of the cup is the chance to take on a big team at your home ground

Well the reality is these games are few. The overwhelming majority of games are just small clubs playing each other - or do only a handful of NPL clubs count?   I am not saying do it, but it could be interesting. 

Bit rough to deny a small club (any club not just NPL) their one and only chance to make a bit of coin from gate takings in my opinion... 

Northcote City last month, for example, had a boost to their gate takings and food sales which, if they were forced to travel to Sydney for a kumbaya round, would have been denied them.

I get what you are saying though, perhaps a better idea would be to do a football carnival type thing in the earlier parts of the cup, perhaps, for example all Victorian games (before the national NPL clubs are combined) matches are played over a weekend at AAMI park for example, 

All I am saying is 90% of games (probably more), are not teams playing an a league side for takings. 

Yeah fair call mate... It wouldnt be the worst idea in the cup I suppose.

SMFC being drawn MV and playing in Perth would be a highlight

I reckon we would get a fair few Perth locals from clubs like Athena  (and even our old foes Perth Glory) coming down to support the mighty Hellas..... :)

Would draw a better crowd than Brisbane vs WU in Perth for example..... 

sorry mate nah as some have posted, marketing directive that yep works for them due to their failed 1 level league format and the years of slow decline its been through.
They got to come up with something and yep works being just 2 States next door are the majority following.

We are FOOTBALL, we have so much going for it but we're so so stifled in a vacuum on being something else to suit the grain of this countries 2 codes dna.
We have our leagues below that are sitting there in mothballs doing their own thing to survive and the other end doing its own thing to survive but follow the marketing way for sugar hits and to say thats success due to a spike in crowds or whatever.
WE have the resource to be a HIT for ourselves the game not to the rest of non football supporters compared to those codes IF we had unity and models that follows Footballs known structure world over.

I'm getting so sick of our game being sold as a gimmick and what do you get ?
Magic round or star wars or whatever other gimmick (its a poors mans/suedo Cup kind of style method because its all those codes can work with) - the product is the game on the pitch ! and imagine the true model with P/R, wouldn't that get the juices flowing turning up to games.
I get this kind of marketing ploy when you've had a thriving league after many years with good support Club to Club, right now our top league is a crawling/stuttering entity and these approachs even more now looks like its turning off another % of hardened AL supporters.

I'm wasting my time I know in the big picture but here's another perspective and Muz none of the post is directed to you personally.
Apple iphones or think of any other successful commodity - can they survive with just 1 product line to offer in todays world ?
Nope.

Your points are vaild, but I think you need to look at it as the alternative to a NSW GF. For me it's a much better alternative to have a magic round than selling off the GF to NSW...Melbourne City got absolutely dudded last GF not being able to play it at home.

Gold-covered turd is much better than just a plain old turd, is basically what it is. 

Football Australia and then the APL have completely dropped the ball with the A-league over so many years, we have in my opinion gone backwards from the point where we started in 2005. Almost 20 years of development pissed away for nothing. It's a calamity. 

Whilst I 100% agree with you, many here would say it's not football 'kulcha'!

Do you mean "culture' Paulie? Is that some sort of franchise marketing spelling you are using? 

Nothing cultural about denying passionate club fans the opportunity to watch their club play a home game by forcing them to travel interstate when the rising cost of living means many of them may not be able to afford to. Thats not "culture" thats just selling out.

Now we don't have listen to our poor southern cousins moaning anymore, although they will think of something.

So as things stand, it looks like 5 of the 6 original members of the APL board and the dogs who negotiated the Sydney GF deal, have left (or are about to leave) the APL board. 4 of them have of them have also departed the board of their AL clubs.

-          Anthony Del Piero (former Victory chairman)
-          Danny Townsend (former Sydney FC CEO - although he left Sydney FC about 18 months ago).
-          Scott Barlow (former Sydney FC board chairman)
-          Chris Fong (former Brisbane Roar board chairman and CEO)
-          Paul Lederer (WSW board chairman - I believe he is staying on at WSW)

The only one left is the biggest cancer out of all of them… Simon Pearce (City board member and Silver Lake Board member).

Edit: Townsend was CEO, not on the board. The other board member is Stephen Evans (MD at Silver Lake).


no shit, sherlock. 


you think it was just Vuck fans? buddy, I was talking to Sydney FC fans at the WWC who was against this as much as I am (plus Adelaide fans and Brisbane fans).

Go fuck yourself

More than one team in Victoria  paranoid android.

So Code Sports/Fox (Slater and Peacock) seem to be alluding to the suggestion that the AL might be returning to being run by FA. 

Interesting times. 


No, you're just salty you may be forced to travel if your team makes the GF. Must be a tough reality for you.

I think that was more Slater's opinion more that what might happen (unless Peacock has mentioned it somewhere else?)

Slater just likes to sensationalise and highlight old problems that everyone already knows about.  

Au Contraire , i love travelling. Been to all of SFC's grand finals.

The league is struggling to lay the foundations of the basic home/away fixture as far as making it appealing for the punters to pack out the stadiums. 

This Magic Round, for all its intentions, is coming way too early in the piece. 

I can only say for myself, but the frustration is can't we just have 1 plain, old, boring home/away season without the marketing fairy dust sprinkled all over the league? 

It's no wonder I find myself heading down to watch NPL, youth football more often these days.

Magic round is a much better idea. but I would go one step further.

Mens and womens all in one city on one long weekend.

Thursday night
Double header at SFS. (1 womens, 1 mens)
Friday night
Double header at Commbank (1 Womens, One mens)
Saturday/Saturday night
Double header at Commbank (1 Womens, 1 Mens)
Double header at Jubilee (Womens)
Double header at SFS ( Mens)
Sunday
Womens match at Commbank (Afternoon)
Mens match at SFS (Twilight)

Commbank = 5 games
SFS = 5 games
Jubilee = 2 games

On the flip side FA are probably never been in a better place especially after a successful women’s World Cup which means more energy and resources spend on the national teams and other larger issues in the game such as the needing more facilities.

I think the old FFA focused too much on the aleague and then the owners wanted more power or in this case independence that Congress thing broke out so the game has never been without its issues forever it seems.

In terms of the GF decision it’s too little too late and it will take awhile for fans to get over it but I don’t mind the magic round it’s a better alternative than selling out the GF and not reward doing well in the aleague table. 

Sad to see this manoeuvre sucking people in yet again

1. Start with terrible option
2. People freak out
3. Offer alternative that is claimed to be not as terrible
4. Freaked out people, grab at alternative for comfort






 

LOL so true.

Political tactics in a nutshell 

accurate.

But its pretty obvious people would accept a Magic Round in Sydney over the GF being in Sydney. And if its a success, it could be rotated around the country in future years. The only thing i ask is that teams are not penalised by losing a home game. Make this a 27th match with no home game rights for all teams.

Hahahaah classic "Sales 101" trick   What the reality is however is that the alternative option is NOT really that alternative, infact, Destination NSW now have APL over the barrel having to "justify" the spend and cater for 6  matches instead of a GF and an Allstars international.... 

Slater behaves and talks no diff to countless ex player pundits ala Neville Carra etcetc….
Talk shit at times but I think some shit is good to stir the pot and imo this trash talk makes some sense despite it not happening it throws it out there.

the man who threw a bucket of sand at goalkeeper Tom Glover jailed for three months.

Wow, that's one hell of a penalty for wanting to build sand castles. Good deterrent though!