Building a Football Culture

This has been a huge off-season for the A-League and the FFA as they prepare for arguably the biggest and most important season of Australian domestic football to date.

Fans have been forced to wait over 5 months to see their teams compete in the top domestic competition and with over 2 months to go we must ask ourselves and our governing body, have we done enough?

Sadly this wasn't the worst photo we could find. It will
take a while to cement  football in Australian  sporting culture

All dedicated a-league fans know why the off-season was elongated, the fixture was strategically moved to begin in October but we’re not here to talk about the off-season now, we’re here to ask of the work that has been done during it.

We can narrow the FFA off-season work to 3 things:

·         - New Fixture and league restructure

·        -  Fan forums and communication and

·        - Marketing

The FFA have worked tirelessly to try change the A-League image from a poor quality domestic league to an entertaining and worthwhile event in a bid to turn dipping attendance and financial figures.

The first major initiative by the FFA was obviously the fan forums, held by football fans down under the forums proved successful in allowing frustrated fans to vent their anger and concerns directly to FFA leaders. Other groups followed suit, with the world game (on sbs) and Brisbane roar conducting fan forums.

A number of issues were highlighted including fan treatment, marketing and the fixture. The latter has received intensive work with the FFA announcing huge changes in the 2011-12 fixture with the aim of maximising 

media exposure and making the games more accessible.

Fan forums prove to be a great way of getting a point across but do little actual action, many of the raised concerns have been forgotten and the FFA has turned to larger, easier issues like level of marketing.

There have been continued statements by the FFA indicating more marketing for next season but whether this will result in higher crowds or be as disastrous as the ‘fan made’ campaign is simply unknown as only time will tell.

For football fans things are all well and good with a general feeling that the FFA is moving in the right direction, but for afl, rugby and other non-football people all the hard work and effort of the FFA and dedicated fans may be for naught.

As much money as the FFA pours into the A-League only fans can truly keep it alive both financially as businesses and as football clubs. The bottom line is that crowds will only get bigger if more people are exposed to the games and the atmosphere of the A-League thought dedicated fans and clubs can only be financially viable with a strong supporter base.

But these things don’t happen overnight, it has take the AFL over 100 to secure a billion dollar tv deal based on the huge supporter base that sees the sport as part of their national culture. Children grow up supporting their parents teams and wish to continue that chain, a chain the A-League can’t have.

Will the A-League survive? Yes, too many people want it too. As long as the passion remains between that large supporter base only time and effort are needed to allow it to grow, spread and become part of the Australian culture.

We may not be in the days of ‘wog-ball’ or ‘old soccer’ but ‘new football’ isn’t just going to take off. The Socceroos are successfull because they have a history and as much work as the FFA do they will never be able to just give the A-League a history but I like to think that they are heading in the right direction.

This is a big season for the A-League and the work done during the offseason is important. The fate of the A-League lies in the hands of its fans. Yes, the work done this offseason is very important, it is pivotal to establishing a stable football culture in Australia.

Even though we may not see the results this year if the true fans stick to it others will identify the magic that has kept us so loyal for so long and our children will want to keep their links to it alive.