A-League faces the music over plan for ‘fast’ game

A PROPOSAL to give Australian football a Twenty20 cricket-style makeover with lights and music in games was slammed yesterday by fans and media as “cheap gimmicks”.

Fox Sports Australia said ALeague head Greg O’Rourke has spent the off-season working with clubs to develop the proposed model, which takes its cue from cricket’s successful IPL and Big Bash League.

It could see safe smoke from flares in the stands, lights and even music played during the brief pauses before goal kicks, corners and substitutions.

“We’re fully aware of what the Big Bash entertainment product is and how it attracts young families. We need to make sure we’re not closed off to that,” O’Rourke was quoted as saying.

“But equally we need to make sure the things in our game that we hold unique will be maintained.

“We’ll be treading carefully towards this to get the best of both worlds.”

Australia’s Big Bash League has been a smash hit since its inception in 2011, with large family centred crowds entertained by blaring music, fireworks and quick-fire scoring.

In contrast, the domestic football league has been struggling, with fewer fans through the turnstiles and tumbling TV ratings in a sports-saturated market.

“We want to see the return and growth of active fans that have a large, boisterous, enter- taining, standing, singing, chanting culture,” O’Rourke said.

But not everyone is convinced, with fans taking to social media to slam the idea.

With the backlash building, Football Federation Australia’s chief marketing officer Luke Bould took to Twitter to say: “Don’t believe everything you read,” without elaborating.