Football Federation Australia have gone from attempting to push through a global pandemic - by encouraging the continuation of the A-League - to shutting down the competition until a review on April 22, to then announcing that 70 per cent of their staff have been stood down.
“These developments impact many forms of revenue for FFA, including national registration fees, broadcast fees, sponsorship, ticket sales and government funding, so we have needed to adjust our operations to ensure that we can remain operational, forcing us to take the unfortunate decision to stand down approximately 70% of our workforce,” said CEO James Johnson.
Just today, a reliable source also revealed that A-League players have been told that some clubs will continue to pay them, others will have to take pay cuts, while some may not get paid at all.
It’s been truly catastrophic across all fronts with the devastating effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the Australian football economy still yet to be fully understood and we may not know just how wide-reaching they are for some time.
For now though, there is a necessary acceptance that there are more important things than sport, but as the old saying goes: “this too shall pass”, and the professional game’s plight hasn’t been immune to questions of whether or not it will be able to weather this unforgiving storm.
In a statement earlier this week, Johnson was optimistic, citing the football fraternity’s resilience as a positive foothold and remained hopeful that the season will resume.
“We are resilient. We are resilient as people, as football people, we are resilient as a football community and we’ll ride through this like we’ve ridden through difficult circumstances in the past.
“We’ll get through this and we’ll be stronger for it.”
After just 10 weeks in the role, the former Senior Vice President of External Affairs with the City Football Group has been parachuted into one of the grimmest periods in Australian football history and tasked with the unenviable responsibility of getting us out of it.
Unfortunately though, the pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg.
The recent loss of major sponsors, plummeting crowd figures and television ratings, plus the persistent rumours that official broadcaster Fox Sports are looking to terminate their broadcast arrangement have all contributed to hugely unflattering narratives in the public domain.
The sad reality is the overwhelming majority of A-League clubs continue to operate in highly stressful financial environments, with the reported losses far outweighing the benefits.
If ever there was an opportunity to reset and demand drastic changes - it’s now.
In the last 18 months alone, we have seen massive shifts in the game’s governance model - in the names and faces populating the key decision-making positions - and accepted that the ownership of the A-League will eventually move to the club owners in 2022.
This period of uncertainty predates the COVID-19 outbreak and, as we look to the future, so much of it is typified by the mistakes of the past and not the ones we have been thrust into over the last week.
For now, both the governing body and the owners are bound by an in-principle agreement for the next three years which will see FFA continue on as custodians of the game. This was rumoured to be installed to prevent Fox Sports from identifying a legal loophole and tearing up their contract.
Once in effect, FFA will retain control of the national teams, development pathways, and a 20 per cent stake in the A-League, as well as receive annual payments of a reported $4.5 million from the independent league.
In the lead-up to this decision, the owners were especially vocal about assuming control of the league, issuing monthly statements via their official website, the Australian Professional Football Clubs Association.
Now, in the game’s greatest hour of need, they have gone eerily silent and the last time they issued a release was on the 16th of October, 2019 which begs the question - where are they now?
With the exception of an article in the Sydney Morning Herald in which Chairman of Western Sydney Wanderers Paul Lederer, who is also the head of the APFCA, said that now is “not a time to take advantage of one another”, there have been no official statements from the owners.
Perth Glory owner Tony Sage has revealed his losses at the club could blow-out to $35 million, while Central Coast Mariners owner Mike Charlesworth said “success right now for probably all the clubs is going to be survival.
"I’m probably stressing a little bit less than some of the others because I am used to it.”
While a collective message from the owners has been lacking, this week Johnson spoke of their unprecedented unity in the face of such uncertainty which is what we need right now more than ever.
“For the first time in a long time you have the Australian football community that is united behind one voice.” Said Johnson.
From SBS’s perspective, we are all too aware of how important lending trusted and valued voices to such a rapidly evolving story is.
It’s why we’ve made a commitment within the organisation to continue delivering the most up-to-date and expert analysis on the COVID-19 pandemic to the football audience via The World Game brand.
Over the last fortnight, both myself and my beloved colleague Craig Foster have had the pleasure of speaking to various specialists from across the globe, ranging from highly-revered journalists in the United Kingdom, to Professional Footballer’s Australia Chief John Didulica and a professor from the University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital.
All of this has been done with the view that every voice within the community is no more important than the other because we are all playing for one another in a bid to stop this crippling virus.
I hope that wherever you are, you are taking care of yourself and your loved ones. While this is a great period of uncertainty for both football and mankind, the one thing I know to be true about both is that we are at our most powerful when we work together.
Stay safe, always.
