A-League boom call by coach
SOCCEROOS coach Ange Postecoglou has demanded ALeague expansion — and soon — to cater for what he sees as incredible growth in the sport.
Postecoglou has used his soon-to-be published book, Changing the Game, to challenge the sport’s decisionmakers, issuing a call to arms to grow the league.
Those decision-makers, Football Federation Australia, are also his employers as national team boss.
But the Asian Cup-winning coach hasn’t cut the governing body any slack in comments that are likely to hurry the pace of A-League expansion on the eve of the new season.
“Consolidating at a time of growth seems counterintuitive to me. We should be right in the middle of an investment boom,” he writes.
“The A-League is a great product but it can’t be what Australia needs it to be with just 10 teams.
“It may be enough for a financial model in a boardroom but it’s out of whack with the reality of the opportunity.”
Postecoglou details his ideal Australian competition — with 15 or 16 teams, derbies in each state, running from August or September to May including finals.
“I’d be getting there as fast as I could. I’d be breaking doors down to make it happen,” he writes.
“My push comes from a pretty simple, basic premise. More and more people are loving the game and playing the game,” he said.
“The one thing you don’t want to do is deny young boys and girls, people that want to play the game and support the game, the opportunity to do so because of limited spots.”
In the book, Postecoglou also savages his employers for a money-grabbing approach to staging the 2015 FFA Cup final.