Australia
Bid to finish regular season behind closed doors eventually becomes impossible
Mission complicated became mission impossible” were the words of new Football Federation Australia (FFA) CEO James Johnson as he rather belatedly brought the curtain down on the A-League.
Complicated it certainly was. But mindful of a fragile relationship with a broadcaster that has made little secret of the fact it would like to rid itself of a contract worth $57million per year to the game, the A-League, unlike many others, had vowed to plough on.
With only a handful of games left of the regular season the clubs and FFA
– so often at loggerheads – were singing from the same hymn sheet in believing that they could fulfil their contractual obligations and get the season done.
However, the increasingly restrictive measures implemented by governments in both Australia and New Zealand would eventually scupper those plans.
Initially the competition opted to play behind closed doors and move fixtures to midweek dates to condense the final part of the campaign into just a few weeks.
But that race against the clock was complicated by governmental decisions to impose quarantine periods on those travelling in and out of Australia – and, crucially, New Zealand.
This legislation was already in effect in New Zealand by the time Wellington Phoenix hosted Melbourne Victory on March 13, and from then on the New Zealand side knew the only way they could complete a promising campaign would be to decamp to Australia and stay there.
Phoenix’s players and staff faced a tough dilemma: commit to spending six weeks – maybe even longer – away from home, or stay with family. And in the case of midfielder Ulises Davila the choice was even starker as his wife had just given birth to his first child back in Mexico.
In the end, Phoenix opted to move to Australia and rocked up at the Sydney Academy of Sport in Narrabeen on March 18 to start their first of two weeks in enforced quarantine. Victory’s players also had to serve a fortnight’s selfisolation, with striker Ola Toivonen taking to social media to express his anger that the players had been unaware of the impending measures. The Swede was backed up by the Professional Footballers Australia union boss, John Didulica, who claimed he’d been given assurances by the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade that the quarantine imposition would not happen.
Although Victory and Phoenix were ruled out for two weeks, in the end their absence proved immaterial as only four more games were completed, including the derby between Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC.
This fixture was played in front of a full house of 28,500 at the same venue last October. On March 21, the stands were empty as they played out a 1-1 draw. The only consolation was that many footballstarved fans around the planet tuned in for what was billed the “biggest game of football in the world tonight”.
Forty-eight hours later Newcastle Jets beat Melbourne City 2-1, with Steven Ugarkovic scoring a cracking winner, but by then the reality of the situation had dawned on everyone.
Further travel restrictions between
Australian states made any continuation impossible and Johnson confirmed the inevitable at a press conference in Sydney the next day.
FFA has been careful in the language it has used regarding the shutdown, labelling it a “suspension” with a reassessment promised on April 22, but in the current climate it’s difficult to envisage any sport being ready to resume by then.
In the interim the federation and the clubs must deal with the financial fallout of a massive loss in revenue. With the independence of the A-League still not finalised, and TV ratings having plummeted on the back of a threeyear civil war, coronavirus could not have arrived at a worse time.
With the league technically in breach of its TV deal, albeit through no fault of its own, Johnson’s administrative skills will be put to the test in keeping both broadcasters and the football community fully onside – which will be no easy task.
The game in Australia is no stranger to adversity and in the last 50 years it has come through a three-year FIFA ban, the collapse of the National Soccer League (the forerunner of the A-League) and, more recently, the governance war that was as long as it was bitter between the protagonists. It has survived them all, but to come through this latest challenge will require unity of purpose – which is not exactly its strong point.
However, at a moment in time where the football community is pleading for a plan to take the game forward, the enforced break does at least offer a chance to reset.
Football in Australia must use the time wisely. Its future depends upon it.
The derby between Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC was billed as the “biggest game of football in the world tonight”