FFA Think Tank Required

Two years on from the Asian Cup triumph and twelve years on from our penalty shootout heroics our game is still treading water and struggling to keep afloat.  Admittedly we are in a much stronger position than we were as the NSL life support system was being switched off but we are seeing far too many great opportunities slip thru our fingers and other sports continuing to surge ahead of us.

The people running our sport are failing both the game and the fans and this must stop before they run our game into the ground.  Financially we are in a good position but we are not moving forward as a football community nor are we marching to the beat of the same drum. 

Let’s start with those running the game.  Football in Australia isn’t your average business, nor should it be treated as one.  We were all sceptical when Frank handed Steven the keys to the FFA ivory tower like the our local plumber down the road handing his son the keys to the work van but I think we’ve give him some time now to assess what he has achieved during his time at the helm.  Not much from what I can see what about from your view?

We need far greater transparency into how the game is run and whilst we don’t need to know how every decision is made but the current regime comes off like a dictatorship running our game and you will ever get the community onside with this archaic management style. 

Ideally I’d love to get a large number of great football minds in the one spot and create some type of football think tank.  You would need at least a week for this football conference to run but if you get the right people on board you could achieve great things. 

Imagine having a room containing the current FFA board, representatives from each club, some key media players, former Socceroos, a representative from each fan group, a few marketing experts and whoever else you think worthy of an invite.  It would be utter chaos for the first few hours but if everyone managed to get on somewhat of the same page I feel like our game could take a huge step forward. 

At the moment there is many people disenchanted with how football in run in the country and frankly you cannot blame them.  If we get some of our great football minds all pushing in the same direction I believe the game could grow and move forward together.

Here are five suggestions I would make for starters…

–          $25 Away tickets for members who have made the effort to travel (Capped at 500 tickets)

–          Increase the number of A-League clubs to 14 and play a 26 round season

–          Introduce transfer fees between AL and NPL clubs

–          International Breaks so clubs don’t get penalised for producing international players

–          Be more inclusive of our football history, not just the last eleven A-League seasons

 

See you at the conference…

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