Could the first battleground between FFA and an independent A-League be around who plays in the A-League?
As the A-League clubs come to grips with implenting their 160-page manifesto to transform the competition, Football Federation's technical director, Rob Sherman, has “warned that youth development is nearing crisis point” and says that player pathways must be 'overhauled' if we are to qualify for the next two World Cup tournaments, in a report today from Dominic Bossi in Fairfax Meda.
It is worth highlighting this for three reasons.
First, Sherman is right; the purpose of the review of player pathways announced in June is to make recommendations on these matters. (This is the group that is also reviewing player pathways for elite women players but without a woman on the review panel).
Second, as we have mentioned previously, highly credentialled former players (eg. Craig Moore who is on Sherman's panel and Peter Katholos) have been saying this for some time as have former and current national team and A-League coaches (no names, no pack drill). In fact, one current high-level coach was concerned as far back as 2011 that we would be hard-pressed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and was certain that we would not do so for 2018 – and we know now that it came down to the wire to make it to Russia.
Third, this will be an interesting test for the 'new deal' between the A-League clubs and FFA. Football Today understands that some A-League clubs are keen to see a sixth visa spot for A-League squads as soon as possible. This is not news; their 2019 Blueprint for an Independent Future highlighted visa players as one of the conflict of interests in FFA also managing the A-League, viz:
“One example is rules relating to the use of ‘visa players’ or ‘guest players’ in the A-League, where the FFA – with concurrent responsibility for the A-League and the men’s national team – is inevitably influenced by factors that do not relate exclusively to the best sporting and commercial interests of the League.”
It is no surprise that Sherman and others are of the view that an increase in visa players in the A-League would further dilute the opportunities for young Australian players.
The A-League clubs point out that Australia's 'golden generation' (eg. Kewell, Cahill, Viduka) – as is common with quality players in most leagues – experience competitive first-team football from an early age which would seem to support Sherman's view. The clubs state that they support the use of “homegrown players” and they know that their fans do also, but:
”… it is the view of the APFCA that growth in the number of young Australian players in the A-League is being constrained by shortcomings in Australia’s elite player development system and the League’s own restrictions on the number of substitutes that teams are allowed to field per match.”
The solution they propose is to see the allowable substitutes' bench limit raised from five to seven, with the two additional players being aged under 23. They also quote research from Professional Footballers' Australia (PFA) that 50% of all professional football played by Australian men anywhere in the world is in the A-League.
Meanwhile, the FFA Board – which is tipped to soon recommend the inclusion of former Matilda Amy Duggan (Taylor) and Mark Bresciano to its ranks – will be receiving advice from Sherman, as well as head coach of the Socceroos Graham Arnold and others along the same lines as Sherman states in the referenced article:
“Put it this way, if we were to have a talk in eight years time and we hadn't [qualified], we shouldn't be surprised … I think there is an imminent danger . . . we need to do something now. We need to do something across the whole spectrum.”
Sherman believes the development of players aged between 17 and 23 is stalling because there are only 10 Australian A-League clubs (11 from 2020-21) and no national semi-professional second division. He believes that introduction of the national second division or expansion of the existing National Youth League is a priority.
We would say the same for the women's competition and repeat our disappointment that the 'white paper' on the national second division has deferred a national second division for women. Hopefully, Taylor's impending appointment to the Board might at least bring a relevant voice to that debate.