Socceroos and Australian Football

[luffy]

And has Cullina gone to GC? Or NQ? Confused.

 

[chaminda_00]

and has cullina gone to gc? Or nq? Confused.

gc

 

[luffy]

Thought so.

Was thinking of the AFL expansion, yeah, whatever.

 

[speirz]

I think the Chipperfield deal is gone, now NQ Fury signed Flower.

NQ aren't the only club to have tabled an offer to him. Both Newcastle and Perth have their marquee spots available.

 

[luffy]

Screw the Marquee rules.

If the A-League wants to get better in quality, the more good players they attract the better, not one per team.

 

[ripper868]

Screw the Marquee rules.

If the A-League wants to get better in quality, the more good players they attract the better, not one per team.

The money isn't in Australian Soccer yet to sustain having many high class players....the cap is sort of a safety net to stop clubs spending beyonfd their means.

Do agree partly though, if clubs can show they can afford said person, then hell, go for it.

 

[Johnners]

The problem with removing the salary cap/marquee system from the A-League, is that you would then have 2/3 teams likely dominate simply because they're better off financially which is something you can ill afford in a league that is still well and truly in it's development stages.

 

[ripper868]

The problem with removing the salary cap/marquee system from the A-League, is that you would then have 2/3 teams likely dominate simply because they're better off financially which is something you can ill afford in a league that is still well and truly in it's development stages.

See all soccer leagues around the world though...the rich ones win...See EPL

 

[Johnners]

See all soccer leagues around the world though...the rich ones win...See EPL

That's almost completely irrelevant to soccer in Australia though. Soccer in Europe/South America isn't trying to find it's feet, and it has no real competition for being the no.1 sport/football code in those parts of the world. In Australia, Soccer is probably only the 3rd most popular code, and in a country of only 20 million people it means the sport has a struggle ahead.

If there are 2-3 clubs in the A-League that dominate the league for a lengthy period of time (or even say 4/5 years), people are going to lose interest pretty quickly because Soccer doesn't yet have the deep roots here in Australia like it does in Europe/S America, or even like the AFL has here in Aust.

 

[luffy]

The problem with removing the salary cap/marquee system from the A-League, is that you would then have 2/3 teams likely dominate simply because they're better off financially which is something you can ill afford in a league that is still well and truly in it's development stages.

See all soccer leagues around the world though...the rich ones win...See EPL

Yeah, as said above, if a team can afford someone, why not go hell for leather going for them? If the A-League can get someone that is well known amongst non-soccer fans, this would boost ticket sales for that team, and the home team that is playing them.

People could start getting into the competition if people believe, "Wow, if they can attract someone that good, it must be going heaps good!".

 

[Johnners]

It's also worth noting, that the only way the A-League is really going to get better, is when quality of Australian players coming through the youth systems etc. increases. You're not going to increase the quality of the league, nor the quality of Australian footballers just by removing a salary cap, thus allowing the financially endowed teams to splash more dosh on overseas players.

 

[luffy]

True, but with better overseas players, means the fringe players will be working harder to get into the teams, thus getting better.

 

[Johnners]

Not necessarily. Ask yourself this, and ask any of the british posters, is English football better off for having their best teams dominated by overseas players? Answer is no imo.

 

[luffy]

Who's saying that the teams would be greatly made up of overseas players?

Should be a limit, for example each team could have a max 5 contracted, and the others are local players.

 

[Johnners]

Who's saying that the teams would be greatly made up of overseas players?

Should be a limit, for example each team could have a max 5 contracted, and the others are local players.

Well if it's not greatly made up of overseas players, I assume you're relying on overseas Australians returning home. And that I cannot see happening often unless they're in the twilight of their career (Culina being the obvious exception) because as it stands, the quality of football in the A-League is still below the level of many 2nd and possibly even 3rd tier competitions in the strongest countries. Even with an increased salary cap, it would be just as difficult to lure better quality players back home simply because the level of competition is below where they're currently playing, and it's likely they still wouldn't be earning as much $$$ in Australia as they could in europe.

I do agree that luring Australians back home earlier is the sort of thing that would benefit the league, but IMO increasing/ridding ourselves of the salary cap and marquee players system isn't the way to do it at this stage of the leagues development.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Not necessarily. Ask yourself this, and ask any of the british posters, is English football better off for having their best teams dominated by overseas players? Answer is no imo.

There is an argument to say the answer is no, however IMO it doesn't really make a great difference. Look at the Italians - their league has been dominated by overseas players for years, and they still go OK. IIRC the Inter side that faced us at the San Siro almost two weeks ago contained one Italian. IMO the reason England haven't won a World Cup for 43 years is a combination of poor managers, poor players (youth systems mostly to blame here), and bottling it at crucial times rather than a league being dominated by foreigners, which has only happened in the past ten years or so anyway.

 

[Johnners]

Yeah fair point, thanks

Still, whilst it may not make that great a difference for the bigger leagues, for a developing football nation/league like Australia and the A-League, I just don't see how it can be beneficial to give more overseas players starts at the expense of the nations up and coming footballers.

 

[chaminda_00]

With the salary cap and limits and overseas. The A-League sides will always be at a disadvantage come the ACL, with other side dominated by overseas players and massive salaries. Yeah the Reds found a way around that. But they didn't have a large number of injuries during their campaign.

Also now Asia now we have some good players in the A-League. It not only Europe that will cherry pick our best players. The cap may keep sides afloat short term. But all it will do is continually drop the standard of the league down. At the start of A-League players were willing to take pay cuts to to come back. But most players now are over that or have noticed you can't make the Socceroos first team in Australia.

They have a couple of options to improve the standard. Increase the cap, increase the foreign players or increase the matches. I think you will find most clubs that can't afford the cap, wont spend it as there is no threat of regulation. Yeah it might mean a couple sides dominate. But sometimes quality is better then quanity. Especially in sport like football, where if the quality of matches is low, people will just watch overseas leagues. As there is no reason why you have to support an A-League side.

 

[ash chaulk]

Increase the cap i say

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Australia And Turkey On The Playing Field Of Peace - Goal.com

Great gesture from both sides, long may it continue.