It's taken almost 45 years but the premier domestic national league competitions are about to be untethered from the governing body.
They came, they spoke, and they pretty much conquered.
That's how the Chatham House appearance of the deputy Chairman of Melbourne City Simon Pearce and Sydney FC CEO Danny Townsend at the Football Writers' Festival can be summarised.
Pearce - who is widely acknowledged as the behind-the-scenes leader of A-League clubs since he hosted them in Abu Dhabi for the 2014 Grand Prix - and Townsend spent just on two hours on Sunday responding to questions from moderator Simon Hill and Festival attendees.
It's fair to say they had an answer to almost everything and almost everyone walked out of that room feeling more positive about the long-term future of the A-League and the other competitions the A-League clubs have control of - the W-League, the Y-League and the E-League, the latter of which has enormous potential.
The duo explained why the battle for changes to the Constitution were necessary. Simply, the clubs were putting in lots of money, they owned nothing, and they were getting nothing back. They collectively realised they may well have been insane to sign the club license agreements in the first place, but they knew they had to change the Constitution.
Pearce and Townsend didn't say it, but it's worth noting that when the A-League clubs first sought a bigger voice in the governance of the game locally, they were seeking only three places on the FFA Congress and one on the FFA Board. But they were blocked at every turn by the then Steven Lowy led Board, backed by the less progressive elements amongst the state federations. That intransigence led to the 'Congress Wars' and, according to the A-League clubs, it was they who delivered Australian football to democratic principles - something they also paid for, not FFA.
One might quibble on the 'democratic' model they have come up with but there is no doubt that having more people in the room to pontificate on the big issues in Australian football is better than the previous closed shop model of a mere ten people, nine of which were state federations.
The model we will have - fingers crossed - as of 1st December is one where the clubs are commercially independent, but subordinate to FFA which remains the regulator.
Fingers are 'crossed' because we were told that it was as if they were about to move into their own house for the first time. The contracts are drawn-up, the key provisions agreed, but final contracts are yet to be signed and exchanged, and they don't have the keys. An important step will be tomorrow's annual general meeting of FFA where the FFA Congress is expected to sign-off on the new arrangements after extensive negotiations.
FFA CEO James Johnson continued the housing analogy later in the day when he described the situation as being like “your children moving out of home for the first time. They'll always be welcome back.”
The welcome news was that, while the A-League clubs have been quiet - almost deathly so - since the interrupted season was completed in August, there has apparently been lots going on behind the scenes. ACity Football Group executive is leading a marketing and communications blitz that is ready to spring into action once the keys are received as part of a shadow organisation that has been operating for some time. This starts today with the release of the fixture list for the 2020-21 season.
It is clear that the clubs see great opportunity for an OTT broadcast service, along the lines of that proposed by The Golden Generation in May, noting that football was actually in a good position as it has maximum flexibility. By that they meant that the share of revenue from broadcasting was relatively low, so they were not tied to particular requirements or scheduling. For example, 60% of Sydney Roosters revenue comes from broadcasting, compared with only about 20% for Sydney FC.
Instead, if the arrangements had not changed, the game would have been tethered to a drowning man because sports can be broadcasters but broadcasters can't be sports.
The new organisation being established by the clubs is known as Australian Professional Leagues which will be granted all commercial and IP rights and will be solely responsible for the operation and promotion of the leagues. Shareholders of the new entity will be:
the 12 existing A-League clubs - who were jokingly dubbed the 'Dirty Dozen' by Simon Hill;
FFA with both a 'carry' share and a 'good of game' share equivalent to 20% of the value of the entity; and
investment shares (more on this later).
The clubs made a pact earlier in the year that they would come out of COVID with what they went into it with. The consequence of this 'all for one, one for all' approach is that clubs who are not performing, either on or off-the-field, will be held accountable by other clubs. Thus far, any non-performing club has been only answerable to FFA.
For those keen to have a national second division and promotion and relegation, don't expect it anytime soon. The current 12 clubs have a license in perpetuity because those who invest in a football club need to know they will get something out of it. At one stage, we were told that we already have a national second division called the NPL, but this position was clarified during the course of the discussion to being that the A-League clubs are committed to the implementation of a national second division and promotion and relegation, but they haven't seen anything about it.
The A-League clubs see the ideal size of the competition as 16 teams with all clubs expected also to have a W-League, Y-League and E-League teams. Special provision has been made for Canberra United for the time being (which is run by Capital Football) with a faint suggestion that Canberra may well be near the front of the queue when it comes to expansion.
The forthcoming season is a transition season with the clubs intent on changing the narrative and focussing not so much on numbers, but the quality of engagement. A large chunk of the $40 million being contributed by clubs this year is expected to be spent on digital platofrms and engagement, as well as infrastructure improvements.
The clubs believe they will be successful for three reasons.
They have stuck together for five years, most of which have been in the face of the full force of the pro-Lowy, anti-change brigade, which shows a unity of purpose.
The best way to advance an individual club owner's interest is to advance the game.
The business is football and football is global. A New York bank that they are working with to look at inwards investment opportunities suggests that the competitions have unrealised and untapped potential.
One week till the shackles come off. And then - no more excuses.
