Perhaps The FFA Could Kindly Tell Us When To Panic

There's been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the health of the A-League.  Much of the discussion has been precipitated by the ongoing crowd issues at Gold Coast United and the now precarious financial situation that Newcastle Jets have found themselves in.  There has been plenty of debate about the issue on fans forums, and the media has certainly weighed heavily into the debate.  But perhaps most tellingly we are now starting to see club owners and administrators publicly speaking up about the issues facing the league.  Meanwhile the FFA continues to trot out a line of rhetoric that all is well.  Sadly I can't say I agree with them.

There certainly are a lot of indicators floating around that the overall of health of the league is in a pretty dire state.  Consider the following.

• Adelaide United continue to be 100% owned by the FFA.
• North Queensland Fury is 100% owned by the FFA.
• Newcastle Jets have recently received a short term injection of cash from the FFA to keep them operating with the club unable to pay it's bills.  The FFA have subsequently refused to commit to any long term rescue package for the Jets.
• Expansion club in waiting, Sydney Rovers, is currently unable to prove to the FFA that it has the necessary finances and is quite likely to have it's licence revoked.
• Crowds at Gold Coast United are being capped at 5,000 to reduce operating costs.
• Expansion clubs Gold Coast United, North Queensland Fury and Melbourne Heart have average attendances of 4,018, 5,410 and 6,703 respectively.
• Melbourne Victory, the long time benchmark for attendances, have seen their average this season plummet to just 14,047.  Their lowest average since the first season of the A-League.
• Sydney FC, with an average attendance of 9,937, are averaging under 12,000 for the first time in their history.
• Attendances at Brisbane Roar (8,253), Adelaide (8,473), Newcastle (7,593) and Central Coast (7,201) are all well below past averages.

So despite the FFA's insistence that things are good, I have to admit that I'm extremely concerned for the future of the league.  

I've followed the A-League since day one and I've always been very positive about it's future.  Lately though I've become very concerned about where things are going.  I really believe things went off the rails with the decision to expand the league.  I said at the time it was too early as most of the foundation clubs were still trying to establish themselves.  Since then it seems everything has gone totally pear shaped and the last couple of seasons have seen the fortunes of the league take a savage dip.  Sadly I think the football side the league is just starting to really shine, but that may all be lost due to the problems the clubs face.  We are actually starting to see teams play some really good football and the standard of play this season is widely regarded as the best ever.  On top of this we are finally starting to see the widespread emergence of quality youngsters across the league, something that is exactly what we need the league doing for the good of the national team.

What worries me most though in this whole matter is the lack of action from the FFA.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that things are in a very bad state, but they just seem to want to keep trucking along.  The clubs clearly want to see changes to the way the league operates and are crying out for the FFA to act, but nothing is happening.  Given the current state of the league, and the FFA's ongoing insistence that all is OK, I really worry about just how bad things have to get before the FFA are going to consider things to be a crisis.  Let's just hope that it's sometime before these problems become terminal.