Much hope has surrounded Football Federation Australia’s decision to appoint one of our own to its helm. Intelligent, well connected, young and with actual experience in and around the game at the highest level, James Johnson ticks all the boxes when it comes to the type of person many believe should be shuffling the deck chairs and mapping the course for the medium term future.
With no doubt scores of meetings to attend, stakeholders to acquaint and new relationships to be formed, Johnson has been and will continue to be, a very busy man. Having outlined a broad vision of fundamental issues that he sees as at the top of the FFA to-do list, Johnson will now set about forging trusting relationships with those capable of supporting and assisting in the implementation of his plans.
A national second division is potentially the most burning issue and to many the most vital. Some suggest an aggressive approach, brisk establishment and an ironing out of issues on the run, as the competition begins to take shape. Those feeling that approach is the right course are somewhat misguided in their view that an established second tier would automatically provide something of a magic elixir for the domestic game.
More prudent would be Johnson overseeing a measured approach to what could be the most significant change in Australian football for decades. The risk adverse leadership that the game has endured since the A-League was established 15 years ago does need to be energised, yet Johnson’s significant experience will not see him throw the game into the fire without a well thought out plan and a strategical approach that stands a fighting chance of success.
Whatever the final timeline does prove to be, the game is about to experience a significant change when the much awaited second tier is established. It will be a move with the potential to reconnect the fractures that separate those involved and gripped by the A-League model and others embracing Australia’s footballing past in the form of their community clubs and NPL competitions.
That chasm has been a fundamental road block to growth in Australia, with a significant portion of the football loving public remaining sceptical of the franchise model on which the A-League was based. Moreover, younger fans without ties to some of Australia’s oldest, traditional and culturally rich clubs struggle to appreciate that history, nor value its importance in terms of potentially bringing thousands of supporters back to a fully functioning, multi-leagued national competition.
The change that is coming will be welcomed, however, symptomatic of the excessive tinkering and fiddling with the game that has taken place since the inception of the National Soccer League competition in 1977.
1984 saw the adoption of a conference system that lasted just two seasons and resulted in many clubs being demoted back to local competitions. In 1989, the long argued case for summer football came to pass as the competition shifted its season to the warmer months. Around the same time, the rather cringe worthy concept of making football ‘mainstream’ took over the thinking of those at the helm.
After decades of clubs building stable communities, essentially based on migrants supporting each other in the search for a sense of belonging, ethnically based club names and logos were forcibly altered. Ethinic flags became forbidden in a rather flawed attempt by David Hill and his board to cleanse the game of its migrant past. It was an odd move considering the profile of the average NSL fan.
The new approach was parlayed into the creation of a host of clubs such as Parramatta Power, Collingwood and Carlton, all obvious attempts to draw in people from both NRL and AFL markets. It was an unmitigated disaster.
Teams battled financially, broadcasting rights delivered little return and sponsorship dwindled. The NSL was dead by 2004, thanks mainly to rather poor decisions and a failure to appreciate the base from which the Australian game had grown.
Along the way, competition changes were also constant. You name it, Australian football tried it. The traditional first past the post style morphed into grand finals, two-legged grand finals, five team finals’ series, six team finals’ series and even points incentives for matches won by larger margins.
At one point, drawn matches resulted in a penalty shootout to determine the destination of the third point.
At that juncture, reinvention seemed the only way forward and thus the A-League was born. Ironically, the future was to be based on wholesale and sweeping changes, required after years of exactly that.
The game has not been left alone for decades, nor been allowed to find its own unique identity thanks to an array of administrators who thought they knew better.
Whilst everyone acknowledges the need for growth and change as Johnson moves into the top job, it might be prudent to remind ourselves of that fact.
