With a working model for a competition free of FFA influence high on the agenda of chairman Chris Nikou’s new board, Sage maintains that a fair share of TV revenues now destined for the clubs will be funneled back into the game’s lower echelons.
Sage has no pre-conceived preferences for one operating model over another when decisions are made in March over the A-League’s new framework, but he cites the English Premier League as a success story.
“Back in 1992 when EPL was formed a lot of people thought it would be a disaster,” Sage said.
“But both the EPL and the FA are now at a peak. They are swimming in money and the grassroots has exploded in the UK.
“The FA can sustain itself on the TV money from the EPL and that’s what we hope for the future for the FFA and the grassroots here.
“I believe there will be an ongoing commitment from an independent A-League with a guaranteed slice of the TV money.
“That’s what we want to be able to give and deliver, just as the EPL has delivered for the English FA.
“The FFA will also be able to raise money from things like gate takings from the Socceroos and Matildas and deserve every cent of that.
“No model is necessarily better then another ... I cite the English model because I know it well.
“I’m also familiar with the MLS model and that’s different again from the J-League.
“We need to look at every model across the world and see what best suits Australia.”
Sage is adamant on debunking scare stories, propagated by the likes of ex-FFA chairman Steven Lowy, that the grassroots will be imperiled by changes at the top end of the game.
“Our obligations to the development of the game, the grassroots and the national teams never goes away,” he said.
“You wont see an independent A-League taking all the money and leaving them to rot.”
Sage says the A-League clubs have already put their money where their mouths are by the setting up individual academies, and they are all “totally committed to the grassroots game”.
“The FFA says the owners don’t invest in the youth but every club does exactly that,” declared the chief of the current A-League leaders.
“The clubs absolutely care about the grassroots because that’s the future for academies.
“When FFA closed the Australian institute of Sport, that was their decision.
“We have 220 kids in our academy and I presume all the other clubs aren’t too far off that number.
“We’re providing scholarships and pathways already and doing it because the FFA pulled the funding out of the AIS.
“Nobody thinks the owners for taking on that extra cost.
“Unless you sell players there’s really not too much benefit.
“We’ve been very lucky by producing the likes of Daniel De Silva, (Borussia Monchengladbach-bound) Jacob Italiano and Riley Warland, who’s off to Fulham.
“So we have managed to retrieve some money from our investment.
“This is where I disagree 100 percent with Steven Lowy.
“We have already invested in grassroots whilst the FFA cynically raised participation levies on kids after the World Cup.
“So how have they been helping the grassroots?”
“As owners all we’ve ever wanted was a fair share of the pie. As we all know, the clubs created 85 per cent of the game’s revenues But got only 33 per cent back. That was just not right.”
On a timetable for expansion, Sage said: “I would love to see two new teams in as quickly as possible, and up to four within the next two or three years.”
