Our Report Card

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Here is a look at how the AFC assessed Australia. The AFC article on this issue can be found here. You can also access Brendan’s views on the report here.

Organisation – 13/20

In this category, Australia obtained the worst score in the AFC. Our score was only 13/20 whereas basically all other nations scored well. This poor score was no doubt largely due to the fact that the A-League is still very young and contains relatively few teams. We would have scored badly in categories such as a promotion/relegation system, number of teams and matches per team, duration of the league and football season etc.

Technical Standard – 51.3/100

The poor score in this category is probably the most worrying assessment. It would be interesting to find out whether this assessment takes into consideration the players Australia has overseas. In any case, South Korea clearly won this category with a score of 94.8, followed by Japan with 82.4 and Saudi Arabia with 78.8. Australia was placed 8^th, marginally ahead of Jordan and marginally behind the United Arab Emirates. I don’t know how this was assessed so it is pretty hard to question the score of 51.3. You can sort of understand why the score is low as some A-League games can be very poor. However, I still expected a better score than what we eventually got.

Australia’s inability to play basic keep ball against Ghana or effectively bring the ball out of defence may provide some justification to this score. The team might have been a ‘B’ team but surely we can expect even a ‘B’ team to be able to retain possession.

Attendance – 76.2/100

I think this score accurately reflects the growth of the sport in this country over the last few years as well as the public’s embracement of the A-League. Australia came second in this category, behind Japan which scored 88.2 (the average attendance for the J-League was 19,081). I think this is a category which Australia can realistically aim to top within the next 5 years. If the A-League continues to grow as it has, we might top this category even sooner.

Governance/Soundness – 12.5/50

Our score in this category is shocking and the shambolic incident involving the Ghanaian national anthem couldn’t have helped. Saudi Arabia and Japan produced perfect scores in this category while Iran also scored highly. Australia is somehow only on par with nations such as Hong Kong. I’m not familiar with the grounds on which this score was determined but Australia apparently scored badly due to the following:

1. The league governing body is a legal entity governed by its football association.
2. The league governing body has a management structure which controls competition, marketing, media and finance.
3. Club representatives, representatives of the football association and representatives from the league’s top management are the members of the highest decision making body (executive committee) of the league.
4. The position of the CEO must be full-time
5. The league has an audited Profit and Loss Statement and Balance Sheet.
6. The league has an auditor.

I’ll let the experts figure out why we scored so badly, whether it was deserved and how we can improve.

Business Scale – 28.2

This is assessed on whether the following three elements are the main sources of income in the league: i) media rights, ii) sponsorship and iii) merchandising. China and Japan produced perfect scores while South Korea’s score was near perfect. The United Arab Eremites also scored well with 77.7. It is telling that 10 of our Asian neighbours couldn’t even achieve scores of over ten. While there are undoubtedly ridiculous riches in the game, clearly not all nations are benefiting from the boom.

Australia’s score is rather poor and this is undoubtedly due to the fact that the sport is still rebuilding in this country. However, I feel that this score may remain low until the current Foxtel deal is over or unless something changes in relation to this deal. The amount of money received from the media is undoubtedly significantly greater than merchandising and sponsorship. It could be a while before we see a change in this score.

Other Categories

There is actually a lot of good news in relation to the other categories. Australia scored very well in relation to marketing and promotion, coming second with a score of 18.8/20 (Japan achieved a perfect score). Australia also achieved a respectable score of 16.7 in relation to media (5^th overall), a perfect score in relation to stadia and a near perfect score in relation to clubs. This reflects the immense progress the sport has made off the field and the ability of the A-League clubs to sustain year to year increases in average attendance as well as develop links within the community.

Overall

We came 7^th overall which is a respectable result given that the game is still rebuilding and that many of the low scores were substantially caused by the fact that the A-League has only completed three seasons. There is plenty of room for improvement, particularly in relation to technical quality and governance. The FFA also needs to ensure that the performance in the categories where Australia scored well needs to be maintained while continued progress also needs to be made in relation to attendance.

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