A-League... Hmm, B Plus.
The 2008/09 Hyundai A-League draw was released last week to little spectacle or surprise. Same old set up as the last three seasons.
After all the hype of the new teams and changing and expanding the sport with its popularity rising the FFA have done nothing too improve the actual league, but I have to give them some credit. I personally absolutely love the idea of a youth league.
If the games are played as a curtain raiser I will be more than willing to show up early to see a double header and new talent come through. I don’t know how many people will share this view though, perhaps an incentive for early birds could be an entry discount of some kind.
I read a suggestion by someone, I think it was in the May 08 FourFourTwo Australia, who said that a scheme should be implemented where if you show up to the youth league game you are issued with a discount coupon for the next game Brilliant, not only does it give people a reason to show up, it brings them back the following week.
The youth league is excellent, but the big effective changes will be the raised salary cap obviously as well as the under 23 marquee player. This allows an under 23 player to be offered up a salary up to $150,000 which would be excluded from the cap. Which will definitely help retain our booming young talent.
To many times we see young players go off to Europe because of managers whispering in their ear telling them where the money is. A vivid example would be Dario Vidosic who after one amazing year with the Roar in the A-League decided to join 1. FC Nuremberg in the Bundesliga. He has played a total of four games for them this season, whereas in the A-League he would be experiencing weekly play and be a rather pivotal part of Queensland’s attack.
I’m sick of hearing about our young players leaving for Romania and Slovakia and such. Really, would the football be that much better, if not worse? I’m fairly sure you’d have a better chance getting picked up for a respectable club by playing well in the A-League as opposed to the... I don’t even know what the Romanian league is called and I shall refuse to look it up out of spite.
So, FFA, I applaud your youth efforts, and that is the future of the League as well as our national team so bravo. But I would have preferred a 28 round league. As last year showed, with such closely matched teams 21 rounds is just too short to prove a real champion and finals football doesn’t show consistency, which is this most important thing in a league. Only three months and seven days till round one. Don’t worry; I’ll keep you updated on the pre-season as well.
After all the hype of the new teams and changing and expanding the sport with its popularity rising the FFA have done nothing too improve the actual league, but I have to give them some credit. I personally absolutely love the idea of a youth league.
If the games are played as a curtain raiser I will be more than willing to show up early to see a double header and new talent come through. I don’t know how many people will share this view though, perhaps an incentive for early birds could be an entry discount of some kind.
I read a suggestion by someone, I think it was in the May 08 FourFourTwo Australia, who said that a scheme should be implemented where if you show up to the youth league game you are issued with a discount coupon for the next game Brilliant, not only does it give people a reason to show up, it brings them back the following week.
The youth league is excellent, but the big effective changes will be the raised salary cap obviously as well as the under 23 marquee player. This allows an under 23 player to be offered up a salary up to $150,000 which would be excluded from the cap. Which will definitely help retain our booming young talent.
To many times we see young players go off to Europe because of managers whispering in their ear telling them where the money is. A vivid example would be Dario Vidosic who after one amazing year with the Roar in the A-League decided to join 1. FC Nuremberg in the Bundesliga. He has played a total of four games for them this season, whereas in the A-League he would be experiencing weekly play and be a rather pivotal part of Queensland’s attack.
I’m sick of hearing about our young players leaving for Romania and Slovakia and such. Really, would the football be that much better, if not worse? I’m fairly sure you’d have a better chance getting picked up for a respectable club by playing well in the A-League as opposed to the... I don’t even know what the Romanian league is called and I shall refuse to look it up out of spite.
So, FFA, I applaud your youth efforts, and that is the future of the League as well as our national team so bravo. But I would have preferred a 28 round league. As last year showed, with such closely matched teams 21 rounds is just too short to prove a real champion and finals football doesn’t show consistency, which is this most important thing in a league. Only three months and seven days till round one. Don’t worry; I’ll keep you updated on the pre-season as well.
