Fox Sports, as the broadcast partner to both Football Federation Australia and, more recently, Football Australia, has exerted a great deal of influence in how the game is run here.
But should they be solely to blame for the current state of the A League, after all they were just buying content for their sports channels. It seems that they were given ' carte blanche' by the FFA as long as they 'stumped up the cash'.  It would seem that  Lowy (senior and junior) along with various CEO's who were totally unsuitable for the job, are being held responsible for today's ills. So is it fair to put too much blame on Fox Sports.

Fox are not to blame for all problems at all, even though A League is a winter sport and should never of just been treated as content for summer.
The real enemy of FFA was the whole fractured football ecosystem in this country. A stale product going downhill right up until very recently.
The unbundling completed finally, and having the FA with JJ and the Apl with the likes of Lederer, Townsend and co, the code seems to be in good hands as they plow through all the red tape. 

Certainly James Johnson and the 'new' Football Australia administration seem to be putting the game first rather than sitting back and 'taking the money' which is what previous administrators seemed happy to do. I guess, in that context, Fox aren't the main 'villain', although, having watched Optus Sports coverage of this seasons J League I have to say Fox offering is amateurish at best.

That Dazn are a likely lot. They stream everywhere that matters overseas. If Greg O'Rourke & co could invite them over for a bbq and beers, maybe they could stream A League.
The product is good, so with a massive company like them, the profile could raise and the Apl could attract more business in time. They stream boxing at the minute as they try to get a foot hold on these shores.

You can blame foxsports. Or FFA. But surely the clubs are also responsible. They wanted the $$$ too. 

The clubs had no say in the tv deal - it was entirely an FFA thing. That was one of the central arguments over independence 

Stan & ch9 are looking like they will make a bid for the A League later in the season...A League hub twitter.

"are looking like" ..are they  ? how do you know ?

The clubs were in constant contact wi FFA and Gallop during negotiations. 

Just like all those channels showed interest in a-league back in 2016. 

A League Hub twitter
Ch9n want to revamp their Stan Sports service and they recently bid for the NBL as well.
No streaming like today back in 2016 in this country.

The clubs went to war over the tv deal - thry has no involvement in the negotiations, they had no day in which broadcaster it was, they didn’t even know how much the deal was worth ... only what they got. So no, the clubs weren’t “in touch with Gallop” over this deal thry were very much in the dark and angry about it. 

Pretty much a done deal apparently 

Interesting ....

Oh yes, lots of progress since lol.

where are you getting this info from?

I know I didn't read anything about anything being a done deal. There will be companies tendering for the A League as it is on an upward trajectory.
Waz taking the piss I'd say.

Still hoping that Optus come in swinging for next year.

farkin oath

Take it with a pinch of salt but that’s what I’ve heard from someone in Sydney that I trust would know. I can’t check with my contacts at Roar because they wouldn’t say anyway, but “it’s a done deal” were the words he used plus that it’s someone new. 

I don’t know who it is; my guess is it will be NINE because they did make a massive play last time but got no cooperation from Fox over getting more games on FTA. 

I don't recall hearing anything about ch 9 making a play last time. But they do own Stan, so it comes as no surprise they'd broadcast FTA games in partnership with Stan.

Went to war over the distribution of the TV money. 

Hope it is true Waz-man.
I'd like to add, Fox paid a reported amount of $56mil afew years back for Summer A League, and I know that the money bandied around back then was quite over the top, with all the major codes they have as content. Well, I believe the A League is now better, a more unified product with a myriad of young Aussies and a plethora of Foreigners that are of real quality, of which, they obviously see value in arriving here and competing on these shores.
'Unbundling' (just love the word), is the lever Apl (& FA) need to run with and drive a very good negotiation with the bidders later this year.
The fact that the League is on an upward trend, go with it and emphasis on all the positives. No timid rubbish in driving that.

Yeah, me too. 

Can someone show me the graph, any type, of the upward trend of the aleague, please.

It's a graph of hope.

                                                    north
                                                       ----------------JJ's unbundling so marketing, advertising, exposure, transfer fees etc belly dancers and breaking plates (2021+)
trajectory up                  --------------cap to rise next season
                    ---------------quality foreigners in numbers
              -----------young aussie players
-----pre-unbundling, low level             (2004-2020)

That’s a good list. It’s clear that, despite COVID, football has stopped digging a hole for itself and - while there’s much to do to correct the damage - there’s good reason to be optimistic. 

It'll be interesting when the services come knocking and bidding.

I haven't heard anything - except that Delaney wants to take FA and APL guys out to lunch. If indeed it is a done deal then discussion may well be about gaining control of the back-catalog of A-League, FFA Cup, Socceroo and Matidas games that Fox own. Taking back content and the FA and/or APL owning it would be important going forward as future media/streaming deals are negotiated.