Thanks and ahh I forgot about Qu BTW Are you sure QLD has had no Marquee player pre-Craig Moore? And I'm fiarly sure Rodriguez during his short time here was signed as a Marquee, right? I think Covic came in later?
I'm pretty sure Moore is the Roar's first marquee. As for Covic, yeh i do remember that he 'took over' as marquee when he came in, i think Okon may have had that mantle prior, but not Milton......i could be wrong
It really depends on the population (not the numbers but the character). If football becomes a stronger sport than other codes, especially in towns of a little over 100k, it could become a defining characteristic of the city, and regional cities like to act more like communities than the state capitals. Take a look at Europe - sure, they don't have other codes to battle with on the whole, but cities of 100k or less generally have 1/8-1/10 people going to a game. It becomes part of the city, and part of its identity... However, something like that can be a very tough nut to crack.
Actually the discussion about Marquee players can be on topic, especially what I brought up anyway. It is interesting to compare the general standard of Marquee imports in this league, season to season. From my reading, which may or may not be correct, but the first season was mixed for quality with obviously Dwight Yorke leading the line. Then there was largely a lull in quality and perhaps use of the marquee in S2. Season 3 shows perhaps the strongest use of the Marquee yet with perhaps the strongest depth and with Juninho the highest quality/pedigree signing since Yorke, with Jardel maybe not equalling in quality but certainly of pedigree. The improvement in Marquee recruits, can reflect: -Growth in revenue, crowd numbers -Growth in playing standard -Better recruiting methods, talent spotting? I mean in terms of weeding out the good marquee candidates from the bad. ala less Brian Deanes. Though ofcourse with Jardel the jury still out, but he seems to be a calculated gamble by Newcastle and possibly worth the risk. But obviously the coaches/clubs have selected better quality Marquees all round compared to the previous 2 seasons. So some obvious lessons learned .
I wasn't sure where else to post this. About recruitment... We've improved this year so far, it seems. Coaches like GVE, Farina and co have travelled across the world to watch and meet talent in person. Often watching a greater number than they otherwise would. And this is a world's improvement over relying on videos and the word of agents, where poor A-League clubs in the past have seemed to essentially at times, treat agents as 'quasi-scouts.' But coaches having to spend several weeks overseas is quite an intensive exercise and maybe something which could be adjusted to befit a more professional environment. Not that coaches watching and meeting players is not important. Some discussion in the Victory thread, returns to the issue of looking into Asia (And throw in Africa and the like too) for 'cost effective talent,' I think many of us would agree, it's certainly something the A-League clubs should look to improve on. I guess longer term, we could significantly improve our scouting networks, our 'footprint' if you like, in regions of Africa and Asia. Have a scout/s based there during the season of the local leagues and report in regular back to the A-League club HQ, if there are players catching the eye, especially in positions which the coach actively seeks to fill. The scouts could then, through consultation with the coaches, actively pursue some players, maybe bringing some over for trial during our pre-season. Participating in general pre-season training and trial matches. I understand the likes of the MLS do not even have something like this yet? But obviously some European clubs go as far as to have Academies overseas etc... Which is something we could also aim for, eventually. 'The Javanese Glory Football Academy' Chonburi-Victory Football Academy or something I think a good indicator for the success of a league, 'may' be the number of players from that league, playing at the World Cup. I was impressed by how many of the Ghanian NT players at World Cup 06, were based in the Israeli league. They had 3 of their squad based in Israel, including John Paintsil who now plays for West Ham. Looking into it, it seems many Ghanians have passed through Israel, especially earlier in their careers, though often even returning now and again. Obviously the Israeli Football Clubs have some kind of connection to Ghana, they must have programs, partnerships, scouts etc... Not just limited to Ghana, 2 of the 3 keepers for Nigeria at the African Nations Cup earlier this year, were from the Israeli league. Looking through the Israeli teams, nearly every Israeli Premier League Club have 1-2 African players. 2 South African NT regulars, play for Maccabi Haifa. So it's not just West and Central Africa either. In the Israeli league, it seems they're limited to 3-4 imports and for most of these teams as I said, half of those are Africans. So Africa are their prime source of imports, with their being a few South Americans, Brazilians and Europeans etc.. often filling the other couple spots. Israel could be a model to some degree. Imagine if aside from the say 10 of our final World Cup Squad of 20, that were based in the A-League, there were like another 8-10 who were based in other World Cup squads? That total would put us akin to the Portuguese and Dutch League Representation at WC 06 and the 10 outside our squad would put us with the likes of Portugal, Netherlands, Turkey, Scotland and Russia for league representation outside our squad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_FIFA_World_Cup_squads#Player_representation_by_league It would be nice one day, for our league to reach a status, where most of it's imports regularly feature for their National Teams, like how Carlos Hernandez does. This would also reflect a much higher standard, prestige and much improved recruitment procedures. Especially if many were picked up, before they became big on the market place - before Europe becomes interested. So we essentially invest, then sell for big bucks.
of course the a-league will continue to grow. we now have the u/23 marquee player aswell as a marquee player. once the new teams are entered and the so called promotion relegation leagues start happening the league will grow big time. also the quality of players coming to the league has improved with each season and more and more aussies will be coming back.
With the Roar's recent major sponship announcement, hopefully the mean average, or what have you, is steadily rising in terms of sponsorship across the board. I remember Glory's co-sponsorship by Delong Holdings was one of the bigger contracts in the A-League and that was around 18 months ago: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/03/27/1883003.htm I know our club, aswell as our state, have the mining connections, but surely in the 18 Months, given the rate of the league's progress, other clubs are commanding similar kinds of deals. Some maybe commanding more even. I notice Newcastle announced a new major sponsor too, so let's hope they got a good deal too. The higher the league's valuation, the higher the league is valued in most aspects, especially sponsorship. And this should in turn help influence the expected significantly better TV Deal the FFA/A-League will receive once the current one expires in 2013. And ofcourse with hopefully qualification to and then a decent perfromance in the South African World Cup, 3 years earlier and the advent and early success of the likes of Gold Coast, North Queensland and just before 2013, another 2 teams on top of that (12 total), the league's valuation will be comparably (to now) through the roof. Stretching our imagination I'd suspect - Not to exagerate, just the more cautious, conservative conceptualisation that most tend to have (common sense) of our league at the moment.
Ahh I over looked this, but apparently the Hyuandai's re-newed sponship of the A-League this year meant a significantly increased sum. Although the figure was not disclosed, apparently what the FFA receives now more more in line with the likes of the NRL and AFL receive from their major sponsors: http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/a-league/hyundai-backs-a-league-till-2012-111076/ So hopefully this steady upward rise in valuation is translating to ALL the clubs (Including the ones from smaller markets, like Central Coast and Newcastle) and their individual sponsorship agreements.