Will Swanton’s attempted NBL vs A-League code war was an epic fail

Staff Writer

People like The Australian newspaper’s Will Swanton obviously detest football and apparently enjoy watching the game struggle, for acknowledgement and towards expansion.

The veteran journalist took a pot shot at football on the 17th of November, in an article pumping up the tires of the increasingly well attended National Basketball League. It was poorly timed to say the least. It came just a day after the football community had embraced the now traditional romance of November 16th; the anniversary of the day Australian football returned to World Cup respectability.

On that day in 2005, John Aloisi’s boot and Mark Schwarzer’s hands helped send the Socceroos to their first World Cup in 32 years. Never before had a team of professionals represented the nation on the biggest of football stages, yet the generation of players that emerged around the turn of the century was mature and did so with pride and determination.

Following the record breaking crowd of 17,514 that attended the Sydney Kings vs Illawarra Hawks NBL match a day later at Qudos Bank Arena, Swanton felt the need to do two things.

Firstly, he correctly identified the increase in interest and attendance at NBL matches thus far in 2019. At the time of writing, that attendance increase stood at 6.7% when measured against the 2018/19 season average. A fantastic achievement and one potentially impacted by Australia’s stellar but ultimately disappointing run at the recent World Championships in China.

Swanton captured the NBL success well with his use of the term “slam-dunk” in the headline, yet had many astonished by his decision to suggest that the A-League was kicking an “own-goal” in comparison. The award winning journalist doubled down in his second paragraph by fabricating the existence of a “summer shootout” between the two sports; arguing that basketball was gaining traction whilst football was floundering.

Perhaps confrontational by nature, Swanton felt the need to use divisive and inflammatory language to outline his thesis, when the reality is that many football fans are also embracing the success of the National Basketball League. In short, any attempt to infer that either sport is dragging fans away from the other is merely nonsense.

More alarming is the rather loose use of language and the exclusion of data that actually counters his argument decisively. The reality is that A-League crowds are up 6.9% on 2018/19 season averages, even considering the introduction of Western United and their expected mediocre crowds as they attempt to build a loyal supporter base in Geelong.

Hardly floundering.

Just four days after The Australian published the piece, the FFA would announce an increased operating surplus for 2019 of A$44.04 million and a 13% increase in Australia’s football participation rates. That increase translates to around 1.8 million Australians playing the beautiful game on a regular basis.

A record 125,631 people became members of A-League clubs in 2019 and for the first time in the competition’s history, more than 50% of participants across the country were actively supporting an A-League team.

All potentially important fragments of information to be aware of before writing an article that death knells a competition and lampoons its quality as being “not in the top two” leagues in the world. Such drivel merely enunciates the limited research undertaken for the piece and potentially the lack of knowledge possessed by the writer when it comes to football and its deep seated roots in this country.

Former Socceroo and Fox Sports analyst Mark Bosnich made mere folly of Swanton’s reference to football’s poor television figures by noting that the viewing audience for the Kings vs Hawks fixture was in fact smaller than the crowd inside the arena for the contest.

Bosnich was correct in his assertion that football fans would never raise such a statistic. Co-existence in Australia’s overcrowded sporting landscape is a reality and there is room for both codes to survive and thrive.

Perhaps the writer should be more concerned about the shrinking attendances at international cricket matches, after the Brisbane test Match at the Gabba between Australia and Pakistan drew just 13,561 fans on the opening day of the international season.

Moreover, the 31.7% decrease in Big Bash crowds in just two seasons is surely worth more space than a rather desperate attempt to set up a futile code war between two emerging sports. Framing such a tension does little more than pander to those who salivate at the thought of seeing football punted from television screens and being told to assume its seat, as it has been told many times before.

Sadly for Swanton, the game at grass roots level continues to grow, women’s football soars ahead in leaps and bounds and the A-League is plugging away quite well thank you very much.

The standard is commendable, the fans engaged and with new found independence, the future looks bright. Hopefully, those of us who enjoy watching the NBL and the A-League can savour the growth of both, hold hands, and march into the future with wonderful viewing options over the course of an Australian summer. I’ll do so with or without Will Swanton.

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The Participation Boom Councils Didn’t Plan For Is Hitting Football Hard

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Football in Australia isn’t being held back by passion, participation, or community support. It’s being held back by local government failure. From a CEO perspective, the warning signs are no longer subtle — they’re screaming. Confidence towards councils is collapsing, clubs are done believing the rhetoric, and the people carrying the game every weekend are telling us the same thing: councils don’t understand football, don’t consult properly, and don’t plan for growth. This isn’t opinion anymore. It’s measurable. And it should embarrass every policymaker in the country.

Football in Australia isn’t struggling because of a lack of passion. It isn’t struggling because communities don’t care. And it certainly isn’t struggling because participation is declining.

Football is struggling because, at the local government level, confidence is collapsing. What is more, the people closest to the game can feel it.

Soccerscene’s latest survey on council readiness and football planning shows something deeply confronting: trust in councils is at its lowest point, and clubs no longer believe the rhetoric. Councils frequently speak about “supporting the world game” and “investing in community sport,” but the data tells a different story.

The people building the game every weekend, people such as presidents, coaches, volunteers and administrators, are telling us councils do not understand football demand, do not consult effectively, and do not plan for long-term growth. And that’s not an emotional opinion. It’s now measurable.

In our survey, over 61% of respondents said their council has limited or no understanding of football participation demand. Consultation outcomes were even worse: 74% said council consultation is inconsistent or ineffective. And when asked if facilities are being planned with long-term growth in mind, the answer should stop every policymaker in their tracks: more than 71% said planning is short-term or non-existent.

Results graphic from Soccerscene’s January industry survey:

This is not a small problem. This is a national warning sign.

Football is not a niche sport. It’s the world’s sport

Councils across Australia are making decisions as if football is still an emerging code, competing for scraps. That thinking is decades out of date.

Football is not only Australia’s largest participation sport in many communities – it is also part of the global economy of sport, the largest sport market on earth, and a cultural engine that connects Australia to Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

When councils underinvest in football infrastructure, they’re not just failing local clubs. They’re failing an entire economic pipeline: participation growth, player development, coaching pathways, community engagement, multicultural integration, women’s sport, health outcomes, events, tourism, and commercial opportunity.

And yet, football is still treated as the code that should “make do”.

The Glenferrie Oval case: a perfect example of the imbalance.

Take the redevelopment of Glenferrie Oval and the historic Michael Tuck Stand in Hawthorn.

This is a major project with a total estimated investment of approximately $30 million, with the City of Boroondara allocating $29.47 million over four years to transform the site into a premier hub for women’s and junior AFL.

Let’s be clear: there is nothing wrong with investing in women’s sport. In fact, it’s essential.

But this investment is also a symbol of something football people have been saying quietly for years: councils understand AFL. Councils prioritise AFL. Councils know how to justify AFL.

They don’t do the same for football, despite its participation scale, multicultural reach, and global relevance.

Across the country, football clubs are being told there is “no funding,” that “planning takes time,” or that facilities “can’t be upgraded yet.” Meanwhile, we see multi-million-dollar grandstands, boutique ovals, and legacy infrastructure funded and delivered for other codes.

Football isn’t asking for special treatment.

Football is asking for fair treatment based on reality.

Councils are stuck in a domestic mindset – while football is global.

Here is the core issue: local councils are making decisions through a domestic sporting lens, while football operates in a global one.

Football isn’t just a Saturday sport. It’s a worldwide industry with elite pathways, commercial frameworks, international investment, and an ecosystem that Australia must compete within.

If councils don’t understand this, they will keep making decisions that shrink our competitiveness.

And this is where the stakes become real.

Australia is not only competing against itself. We are competing against countries like Japan and South Korea, who treat football as a national asset. They don’t leave football infrastructure to fragmented local decision-making without a clear national framework. They invest strategically, align education with delivery, and build systems that create long-term advantage.

We cannot keep pretending we are in the same conversation globally while our local facilities remain stuck in the past.

Clubs are carrying the burden – and it’s breaking the system.

The survey results point to a harsh reality: football clubs feel like they are carrying the weight of growth alone.

When asked what the biggest council-related challenge is, nearly 49% said funding is not prioritised, while others pointed to poor facility design, limited engagement, and slow planning processes.

This isn’t just an inconvenience.

It is creating volunteer burnout, club debt, stagnation in women’s participation, and barriers to junior growth. It is forcing clubs into survival mode – patching up grounds, sharing overcrowded facilities, and trying to grow in spaces that were never designed for modern football demand.

And when planning is short-term, the problem compounds. Councils aren’t just falling behind- they’re building the wrong solutions.

So what do we do? We stop reacting and start leading.

Football cannot keep waiting for councils to “get it” organically. That approach has failed.

What we need now is a national strategic response that is structured, intelligent, and relentless.

This is where football must learn from high-performing football nations  not just on the pitch, but in governance, philosophy, and decision-making.

A powerful example is Korea’s “Made in Korea” project, which was built to identify structural gaps, align stakeholders, and create a unified development philosophy. It wasn’t just a technical framework, it was a national alignment strategy.

Australia needs the off-field equivalent.

A National Football Facilities & Readiness Taskforce.

I believe the time has come to establish a National Football Facilities & Readiness Taskforce, made up of the most capable minds across the game and beyond it.

Not another committee. Not another meeting group.

A taskforce.

It should include leaders from football, infrastructure, urban planning, commercial strategy, government relations, and corporate Australia. We should be selecting the most intelligent and effective people in the country, not based on titles, but based on outcomes.

This taskforce should have one clear mission:

Educate, influence, and reshape how councils plan, consult, and invest in football infrastructure.

Alongside a taskforce, we need long-term strategic working groups embedded across the states, designed to:

educate councils on football participation demand and growth forecasting

standardise best-practice facility design and future-proofing

create consistent consultation frameworks

align football investment with economic, health and multicultural outcomes

build a national narrative that football is an asset rather than a cost

Because right now, the survey shows councils aren’t prioritising football for economic reasons. In fact, only 2.56% of respondents said councils should prioritise football due to economic benefits. This is not because it isn’t true, but because councils haven’t been educated to see football that way.

That is a failure of strategy, not a failure of the game.

This is bigger than facilities – it’s about Australia’s place in the world game.

If we want to be taken seriously as a football nation, we must build a country that treats football seriously.

Not just at elite level.

At local level – where the entire pyramid begins.

The message from the survey is blunt: football’s confidence in councils is collapsing. But within that truth is also an opportunity.

Because when trust hits its lowest point, change becomes possible.

The next step is ours.

We either continue accepting a system that doesn’t understand the world game – or we build one that does.

Football’s Growth Is Outpacing Council Planning and Clubs Are Paying the Price

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One Nil

Football is growing fast in Australia, but the infrastructure and planning behind it are not. In a Soccerscene-exclusive survey conducted between 19 and 30 January 2026, distributed through our 31,000-strong industry database, grassroots and semi-professional leaders raised consistent concerns that council consultation, long-term facility planning, and funding priorities are failing to match rising participation demand.

The risk is bigger than overcrowded pitches and volunteer burnout. If the foundations of the game cannot keep pace, Australia’s ability to develop talent, retain players, and remain competitive, particularly against structured football nations like Japan and South Korea, becomes harder to sustain.

Football participation in Australia continues to grow at a rapid pace. Local councils frequently emphasise their support for the game and its contribution to community life.

However, feedback from those responsible for administering football at club level suggests this support is not consistently reflected in long-term planning, effective consultation, or infrastructure funding that matches rising demand.

A growing game facing structural pressure

The disconnection can be seen in recent survey findings gathered from across Australia’s football ecosystem, including administrators, coaches, club executives and volunteers working predominantly at grassroots and semi-professionals levels. The results point to a consistent pattern of concern around how local councils are engaging with the game.

When asked how well their local council understands football participation demand, almost two-thirds of respondents (64 per cent) said councils had either a limited understanding or no understanding at all. Only one respondent indicated that their council understood participation demand “very well”.

Concerns extend beyond awareness to process. Three-quarters of respondents (75 per cent) described council consultation with football clubs as either inconsistent or ineffective. This suggests that while engagement may occur, it is often fragmented, reactive or lacking meaningful follow-through.

 

Long-term planning failing to match participation growth

The implications of this are most evident in infrastructure planning. Half of respondents said football facilities are not being planned with long-term growth in mind, with a further 19 per cent indicating planning is short-term only. In other words, nearly seven in ten respondents believe current approaches fail to adequately account for future participation pressures.

Funding priorities continue to challenge football’s expansion

Funding priorities also emerged as a critical issue. Almost half or respondents (47 per cent) identified the lack of prioritised funding as the single biggest council-related challenge facing football, ahead of poor facility design, limited engagement and slow planning processes.

 

Importantly, these concerns were raised by people deeply embedded in the game. The majority of respondents represented grassroots or semi-professional clubs, many holding governance, leadership or operational roles. Underscoring that these findings reflect lived, on-the-ground experience rather than isolated dissatisfaction.

Taken together, the data suggests the issue is not one of individual councils falling short, but of a broader mismatch between football’s rapid participation growth and the frameworks councils use to plan, consult and invest.

The reality on the ground for clubs and communities

The consequences of this misalignment are already being felt on the ground. Findings in a 2024 audit undertaken by Football Victoria affirm that across many municipalities, football facilities are operating at or beyond capacity, with pitches heavily overused across multiple days and codes, increasing wear, limiting recovery time and compromising playing surfaces.

For clubs, this pressure is most visible in how access is allocated. Women’s teams are increasingly competing for already limited training and match slots, often scheduled later in the evening or displaced altogether, despite participation growth being strongest in the women’s game. Junior teams, meanwhile, are frequently compressed into unsuitable or undersized facilities, with multiple age groups sharing spaces not designed for that level of demand.

In the absence of sufficient council-led planning, clubs are left to absorb the consequences. Volunteer administrators are tasked with managing participation growth councils did not anticipate, juggling scheduling conflicts, maintaining deteriorating facilities, and responding to rising expectations from players and families.

Over time, these pressures risk undermining the very outcomes councils say they value. Participation pathways become constrained, equity of access is compromised, and clubs are forced into reactive decision-making simply to keep programs running. What emerges is not a failure of clubs to manage growth, but a system in which demand has outpaced the infrastructure frameworks designed to support it.

How councils interpret and respond to these challenges ultimately shapes how football infrastructure evolves at a local level.

How councils view the challenge

Longstanding Councillor of Merri-Bek, Oscar Yildiz, acknowledges that funding football infrastructure remains one of the most complex challenges facing local government, largely due to competing demands across multiple sporting codes.

“We get requests from AFL, cricket, bowling and a whole range of other sports,” Yildiz said. “With limited funding, councils are constantly trying to balance those competing priorities and direct investment where it will have the greatest impact.”

Yildiz also suggested that funding decisions are influenced not only by council budgets, but by broader political dynamics between local, state and federal governments.

“If all three levels of government aren’t working together, you’re going to have fractures,” he said. “And when that happens, clubs lose, players lose, and communities lose.”

Consultation, another major concern identified in the survey, is an area Yildiz believes councils must continually improve. While he noted that council officers often maintain strong working relationships with local clubs, he acknowledged that bureaucratic delays and staff turnover can weaken engagement and slow progress.

“The biggest issue with any level of government is time,” Yildiz said. “Clubs want issues resolved quickly, whether it’s facility access, maintenance or funding, but processes can be slow. During that time, clubs can lose members, resources and opportunities.”

In municipalities such as Moreland, where football plays a significant cultural and community role, Yildiz believes councils have an added responsibility to recognise the sport’s social value.

“Football engages thousands of people across culturally diverse communities,” he said. “It’s not just about sport – it’s about connection, wellbeing and participation.”

What happens if councils fail to keep pace?

Ultimately, Yildiz argues that the cost of failing to invest in football infrastructure extends far beyond financial considerations.

“It’s about the return on investment for families and communities,” he said. “If clubs aren’t supported to continue operating and growing, the long-term social and health impacts are something we all carry.”

While councils face genuine financial and political constraints, the survey findings highlight a growing expectation across the football industry that infrastructure planning, consultation processes and funding frameworks must evolve alongside participation growth.

The question is no longer whether football is growing. The question is whether council planning is prepared to grow with it.

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