Postecoglou must be new Socceroo manager

Holger Osieck ended his association with Australian soccer an unpopular coach whose side capitulated 6-0 twice in succession.  If anything is liable to have a manager fired, it is a pitiful loss against reasonable opposition and the German was dismissed in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s match against France.

According to the normal chain of events, speculation is gathering as to the identity of his successor with the most high-profile names being Socceroo Swami Guus Hiddink, ex-Chile and Athletic Bilbao boss Marcelo Bielsa and – for some unknown reason – Roberto Di Matteo.  Were Australia focusing solely on the World and Asian Cups of 2014 and 15, an “impact signing” excelling at tournament football – and hopefully at pulling strings at European clubs – would seem a wise investment.

However, none of the three “names” above would be inclined to hang around to create a platform for future development; to an ambitious non-Aussie, the most appealing aspect of the Australia job is almost certainly its potential for a quick profit. 

Australia has lacked footballing identity since the 2010 World Cup. Until that time, the boys in Gold were a lineup of predictably loveable maulers: their backline boasted Craig Moore, Lucas Neill and Scott Chipperfield while the midfield was manned by uncompromising sorts Brett Emerton and Vince Grella.  The team’s only lightweight, Harry Kewell, flitted about behind man-mountain Mark Viduka and his unsettlingly-physical Boy Wonder, Tim Cahill. 

With the Green and Gold army clamouring for generational change and the press conferences of some of the Socceroo elite seemingly endorsing such claims, Football Federation of Australia Chairman and all-around-Daddy-Warbucks-figure Frank Lowy has narrowed the association’s focus and suggested the biggest hire in Australian soccer is likely to be from the FFA’s back room, the A-League. 

The Australian national team needs to be the pinnacle for any Australian footballer. While the A-League has strengthened, the player pathways that produced the Golden Generation that peaked in 2006 have become overgrown.  A strong Socceroo side with structures based around player development both at home and abroad is an absolute necessity for football to become more deeply rooted in the antipodean sporting consciousness.  The coach best able to implement such a program must be employed.

For the first time in a generation, an Australian is almost certainly the best person for the position.

Lowy has effectively narrowed the field to three candidates – Tony Popovic of nascent Western Sydney Wanderers; former interim Socceroo manager Graham Arnold, now of the Central Coast Mariners; and Melbourne Victory kingpin Ange Postecoglou.

All the candidates present convincing resumés despite high-profile failures.  Of the three, Arnold probably comes with the most baggage due to his underwhelming Asian Cup leadership of 2007; however, he has developed a consistently good Mariners outfit despite a tight budget even by A-League standards.  His appointment may be seen as a reward to a company man. Popovic has a jaw-dropping level of natural talent for management and served an impressive apprenticeship before taking a journeyman bunch of Wanderers into the league finals in their first season.  Questions remain, however, as to his experience.

Even with these negative aspects, were Arnold or Popovic to earn the position, Australia could feel confident about the Socceroos’ future. 

However, the most compelling choice is Ange Postecoglou.  After turning the Brisbane Roar from also-rans into dominant Premiers, he is currently re-shaping the A-League’s biggest club into a younger, more vital side; his modus operandi is to turn young footballers into disciplined and productive units.

This is based in part about his coaching philosophy: his teams hold the ball and use it rather than Osieck’s haphazard, “needs-must” approach.  In an age where Australian youngsters have struggled to claim positions for the National side, pragmatism has few uses even focusing solely upon next year’s Cup.  If a player – especially a youngster – knows ahead of time what is expected of a Socceroo, he is in far better position to prepare.

Despite the short lead-in to the World Cup, the FFA is in an enviable position.  They can finally choose a manager to mould a team with the future in mind rather than employing someone they hope is able to bring about short-term results.  The Round of Sixteen would of course be nice, but the Socceroos can no longer afford to focus on the twilights Schwarzer, Neill and Cahill.  The outlook must now be on the retirements of James Holland, Tom Rogic and Matthew Spiranovic.

FFA optimistic to a fault, wants World Cup refund from FIFA

Since missing out on the 2022 World Cup in December 2010, the Football Federation of Australia and has remained almost piously silent.  Despite changing chief executives, boasting one of Asia’s best teams, a domestic league that continues to grow and the impending rollout of the new FFA Cup, a knockout competition involving clubs from the A-League and various lower-tier leagues across the country, the Federation’s mantra since late 2010 has been “don’t mention the war”.

Today the war got mentioned like Basil Fawlty. 

This morning, via major benefactor and Chairman Frank Lowy, the FFA requested FIFA pay back the the $43 million spent by the nation on their failed 2022 World Cup bid.  The move results from FIFA tacitly acknowledging that the tournament to be staged in Qatar will almost certainly be played in the northern winter to avoid local temperatures in excess of 40° Celsius.  This understanding is also a significant backtrack on prior statements made by executives both from FIFA and the Qatari bid commission.

With a  new Cup tournament beginning in 2014 and hopes of replacing coach Holger Osieck with someone more personable/charismatic/nurturing – and therefore more expensive – either before or after next year’s Big Dance, that $43 million would really help Australian football.  That half-a-latte chipped in by every Australian constitutes more ready cash than the FFA could ever hope to see again and so would be very handy – especially if Guus Hiddink’s back in the frame (which he’s not).

The reparation request suggests that the FFA wouldn’t have placed the bid had they known that changing tournament dates was possible.  The request is also framed by a particularly murky bid process which is still being “investigated” by FIFA’s ethics committee. 

Even with the obtuse and confused selection method, Chairman Frank Lowy’s position is both optimistic and curious.  Despite – because of? – widespread misgivings as to the integrity behind the bid process, some of the blame for the loss must be placed at the callow nature of Australian football administration.  The FFA entered a competitive bid situation against powers like USA, Qatar and Japan administered by a body with only one hard and fast guiding tenet – money usually talks.  And the Australians’ $43 million is a whisper when compared with what Gulf States are able to bawl.

In retrospect, it’s tough to work out why the FFA ever thought they were anywhere near pole position.

FIFA will not grant the request – why should they?  If they were to recompense their irritated Aussies, then they open themselves up to the lawyer’s best frenemy, precedent.  Any club who felt irked by a hosting decision (and Australia had reasons to be very annoyed indeed) could then expect to request – or sue – the governing body and pocket all or part of what they spent.  This puts the Australian party line on a par with the Ireland requesting to be a 33^rd team at the 2010 World Cup.

It’s somewhat comforting to know that the FFA hasn’t abandoned all of its resentment towards the FIFA executive: Australia was (now, perhaps naïvely) seen as one of the frontrunners to host the tournament yet received only one vote.  But the manifestation of that resentment now makes the FFA an object of footballing derision.  While the sentiments of the FFA represent those of the greater Australian populace, they are far from realistic expectation and have only tenuous legal basis.

When Ireland requested a trip to South Africa, FIFA probably laughed privately before responding with a courteous negative.  Watch them do the same with Australia.

The A-League: spread too thin

The furore surrounding Clive Palmer and Gold Coast United has cast more unwanted focus on soccer's position in the Australian sporting hierarchy. The club failing is bad enough, but for component on-field parts to auction themselves to prospective employers is like your soon-to-be ex auditioning potential replacements in front of your eyes.

Most galling of all is for this failure to occur in particularly high-growth area in the fastest-growing state in the nation. If football couldn't survive – demented patriarch or not – on the Gold Coast, there are few options left for A-League expansion. The league looks destined to stay in the same locations. And this may be for the best.

Realistically, there are only two more locations into which the A-League can try and expand naturally into a city with a population large enough to support the game. The league has already failed in both locations, Auckland and the Gold Coast. Despite it's size, Auckland also drags with it the baggage of New Zealand clubs playing in the domestic league of an Asian confederation member when the country competes in the Oceania confederation. Other possible expansion locations are also fraught with problems – the AFL's Cats countenance no rivals in Geelong, while Canberra boasts an enormous fly-in, fly-out population and lots of roundabouts.

Ben Buckley and the FFA, the sport's governing body in Australia and administers of the A-League, let the phenomenally successful second A-League season (2006-07) go to their collective bonces. The league attracted an average of nearly 13,000 fans per game that year, while collecting additional fuel from rivalries which solidified between the league's marquee clubs Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC and Adelaide United.

However, the Victory's remarkable crowd numbers masked the true situation. The now-defunct New Zealand Knights averaged a pitiful 3000 fans. More telling should have been that Melbourne's attendance comprised nearly 30% of the entire league gate. With renewed interest in roundball left over from the Socceroos' 2006 World Cup run and FFA decided to capitalise on soccer's newfound popularity and expand.

They couldn't have been more wrong.

Since that year, four new teams have been created. Half of those have failed and now lie in ruin. A third, the Melbourne Heart is haemorrhaging cash, while the fourth, the Wellington Phoenix was born from the rubble of the Knights. With a population of slightly more than 22 million people The World Game's status as a distant fourth favourite football code, Australia simply can't support a national football competition which has more than ten teams. Thus, any expectation of healthy crowds or shirt sales at every venue is optimism verging on insanity.

While it is understandable the FFA wanted to expand while the game was at it's antipodean zenith, the league was a success in 2006-07 as a result of those nine teams, not despite the shortage of numbers. The game is healthier now than before the A-League's commencement, but to expect public interest to grow from all-time highs – especially when the tail end of the Golden Generation returned to pasture at home after a magical tour of Germany – was fallacy of the highest order. The league should have consolidated, rather than chosen to grow at a remarkably ambitious rate (including next season's likley West Sydney franchise, growing by five clubs in five seasons).

The argument against expansion is easy and tired, yet sport administrators fail to learn. No matter what the sport, clubs in a national competition need one of two things to succeed (and preferably both) – grassroots support for the sport, or a large enough populace to support a “minority” sport. By expanding into Far North Queensland,

When the league embarked on this Mr. Creosote-style inflation, not expecting local talent to be poached by higher-paying leagues, thus thinning the ranks of top players, was naïve. Add to that the established fact that expansion dilutes the talent-pool and suddenly the A-League doesn't provide the product it once did. That the young talent isn't coming through is just as damning – the simple fact is we can't supply the league with enough money, support or home-grown talent.

Because of this, the A-League should remain an nine-team league for the foreseeable future. Even the quick-cloned Western Sydney would be fallacy.

Part of the problem seems to be the FFA's complete misunderstanding of how many people it takes to fuel a football club. A vast majority of Australians couldn't tell you the left-back for their local A-League club, which explains why the sport struggles for recognition as a serious national competition, especially at a local level. It's time for the A-League to accept, for the time being, their place in the Australian sporting landscape. Give the people what they want – quality football. Clive Palmer seems to have forgotten, but this isn't accomplished with teenagers and faded stars, but with well-coached professional athletes.

To quote The Rock, it's time for the A-League to shut their mouth and know their role. It is possible – foreseeable, even, given junior participation – that in the longest of terms, football overtakes Rugby Union and even cricket in the national consciousness. However, that is also unlikely, especially when the FFA damages the A-League brand with repeated failed franchises.

Shocker: Billionaire football club owner is mental

The Australian A-League, a competition set up to minimise infighting and partisanship while maximising club longevity, has again slid inexorably into disarray. And this time, it's one man's madness rather than hyper-optimistic expansion or Kevin Muscat perpetual battle with the red-mist.

The lone figure isn't even Harry Kewell.

Although the league is markedly strengthened from it's nascence, the competition – and the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) – have been rendered impotent and the fall guy of a former owner.

To paraphrase Python, Clive Palmer is an ex-owner.

When the league expanded three seasons ago, the Gold Coast appeared to have the strongest of the two expansion licences. Their locale was growth market, they boasted a solid squad and even a passable coach who pinned the team to “franchise” players Shane Smeltz, Jason Culina and Michael Thwaite. Only three years later, the FFA has revoked the club's licence and the team looks as if it has passed football's Event Horizon.

Who knows why Palmer decided to bid for the initial licence. Why the FFA granted him a team is no secret: his dimensionally-transcendent pocketbook made him irresistible. But Australian mining magnates have an unwavering tendency to the irregular: just ask Lang Hancock, Rose Porteous and Gina Rinehart.

Since obtaining the rights to own Gold Coast United, Palmer has persistently, and even maliciously, undermined his football club with ludicrous management decisions. The last of which, where he personally appointed debutant seventeen year-old Mitch Cooper club captain, cost him his the remaining shreds of his credibility. His rap sheet is stupefying in it's capacity self-destruction and therefore incriminating.  This copy doesn't include slamming football as a sport and an open challenge for FFA Chairman Frank Lowy to pit their respective wealth against each other in court. Football is better off without him.

It's now becoming apparent soccer in Australia can't win. Where in the bunker days of the old NSL it was lack of money that turned fans away, this time it is the expectation of those who do spend. There seems to be no middle ground and it is this which Lowy and offsider Ben Buckley must see as their utmost priority.

Harry Kewell the answer to A-League's Marquee question?

The Hyundai A-League - and by extension, the Football Federation of Australia - reels from one crisis to another. If it's not declining crowd numbers, owners threatening to close stands rather than see empty seats, franchises folding, disastrous World Cup bids (corruption or not) or even stars entering fan forums, then it's clubs failing to take advantage of the league's generous marquee player policy.

Of course most of these problems can be traced back to one thing - A-League clubs are struggling to make ends meet. Football ranks a clear fourth on the Australian football consciousness behind Australian Rules, Rugby League and Rugby Union. Therefore the sport tends to pick up hard core fans, bandwagon supporters leftover from World Cups and the occasional family based around a growing number of Soccer Mums. This is to be expected however, having remained unchanged for five yeras - and the sport, though not making quantum leaps in popularity, forms a much greater part in the nation's sporting psyche.

The A-League now allows each club three marquee players, ostensibly top-end guys whose wages are not counted towards a team's salary cap: an International Marquee player, a Marquee Australian and a Marquee Youth player. These rules exist in theory to both lure top end talent and protect young assets. While this is a generous format, the FFA (who administer the A-League) does not contribute to the players' salaries, the result of this being A-League clubs draw five to ten-thousand fans per match are forced to pay players like Sergio Van Dijk, Robbie Fowler and his Perth Glory replacement Liam Miller serious dollars.

In business, organisations almost always must spend money to make it. It's the way the world works - wise investment brings about fiscal rewards and peace of mind. It was thus when Dwight Yorke signed for Sydney FC for the A-League's first campaign - he signed for the lifestyle, found the football to his liking, led Sydney to the A-League title and secured a move back to the English Premier League with Sunderland. It was coincidence that he (along with the Victory's Archie Thompson) was the first big name to join, but he is now the A-League's definitive Marquee Player and the benchmark - for better or worse - by which all subsequent imports are judged.

Yorke's situation was the perfect combination of circumstance: famously involved in a big club (Manchester United), with a sparkling, eloquent public profile and due to Trinidad & Tobago's 2006 World Cup campaign, still with reasons to perform other than personal pride. That Manchester United connection created a 10% increase in crowds across the league - Yorke was a man the crowds came to watch. Subsequent marquee signings like Robbie Fowler haven't had the same impact either on the pitch or as a league ambassador.

Approaching the A-League's seventh season, the ten clubs employ a grand total of Three Junior Marquee players, four Australian Marquee players and two (!) international "stars" - New Zealand striker Shane Smeltz and former Dutch U21 International Van Dijk. The Australian Marquee players are Archie Thompson, Mile Sterjovski, Nicky Carle and Jason Culina. Culina perhaps aside, it's difficult - impossible, even - to see any of those six transferring to a high-level club abroad.

The marquee player must in future be modeled on Dwight Yorke. He shouldn't be the only prototype as South Americans also could well check the requisite boxes, but it must be remembered antipodean crowds have a far greater knowledge of European football than the Samba style (no, not Christopher). Not only must such a player sparkle on the pitch, but he must be able to provide a lift to the league in the media.

Some players linked to out-of-cap positions - like Harry Kewell - could perform those functions; others however, most notably Serb striker Mateja Kežman, are a risky proposition. Melbourne in particular has a large Slavic population and could provide a slight bump in local crowds but club executives must ask themselves if a player such as serial-mover Kežman could warrant such spendthrift expenditure - does his one season at Chelsea, four at PSV and cups of coffee at Fenerbahce, PSG and Atletico really provide the league-wide PR lift the A-League so desperately needs? While his age and skills could well justify the salary slot he'd take up, would his name inspire the Rugby League fan to join? Or the AFL nut?

Australian soccer consciousness, so far increased since the magical 2006 World Cup, is still really in its infancy. It is so far behind that, for better or worse, it takes big names, not just quality footballers, to get the alert sporting landscape to attend. And with the local clubs haemmorhaging money, is it in fact prudent to spend $40,000AUD a week on a player not a "sure thing"?

The FFA must step in and contribute. Perhaps it could facilitate local teams signing the fading superstars of the game, if only on one-season deals. Though the game's governing body is skint from a highly unsuccessful World Cup hosting bid, contributing a small percentage of an international marquee player's salary to each team strictly for that purpose could be an option.

While Australian "marquee" players aid the competition, the league now understands it is names who will grow the sport. Of Australians, only Kewell could fit that bill. It takes money to make money and as abhorrent as spending more money sounds to leaky propositions such as Central Coast and the Gold Coast, prudent investment may be the best way forward.

Would Roberto Carlos, Alessandro Del Piero, Shunsuke Nakamura or even Theofanis Gekas be interested in a final payday? Even though Clarence Seedorf and Florent Malouda have suggested a desire to play in Brazil, both have the requisite stature and ability for them to be attractive targets for Aussie clubs. Perhaps with all six the answer would be negative, but certainly they would be players of whom League chiefs should be aware.

The A-League is a good league. By inspiring the masses - and cashing in on their attendance - it can become very good.

Finally the AFL season can start

This offseason has probably been the most dramatic in recent AFL history. And, not a moment too soon, the break ends tonight as Carlton take on Richmond at the MCG. Thank goodness - because as car-crashingly enthralling as reading about the "St Kilda Schoolgirl" and her ... err ... exploits has been, it will be blessed and welcome relief to jam match coverage in amongst the tabloid-style back pages to which we've become so accustomed.

The offseason of 2010-11 for the AFL really started over twelve months ago when it became apparent that "Little Gary" would not sign a contract extension with Geelong, meaning he would effectively become a restricted free agent at the end of season 2010. Since then, AFL off-field shenanigans have included (in no particular order) Mark Thompson's lie-induced burnout; Ablett's inevitable re-enactment of the LeBron James masterpiece "Leaving Cleveland"; Brendan Fevola's self-destruction; Nick Riewoldt's wang; Zac Dawson's disco biscuits; the creation of a new franchise; a Collingwood premiership and subsequent uprising of the Magpie army; the gutting of the National Rugby League as Israel Folau and Greg Inglis changed (or threatened to change) codes; James Hird's Second Coming as Essendon coach; further rumours about stars leaving their clubs for what amounts to GWS slush-funds; Ricky Nixon's precipitous fall from grace and finally, thankfully, nothing at all about Port Adelaide or Fremantle.

Andrew Demetriou must surely be relieved that Melbourne, a town notorious for it's blanket coverage of AFL-related issues, will finally have actual deliverable content to space out the negative headlines. Aside from the form of Ricky Ponting - and how many words can you print daily on that? - the scarcity of sport worth speaking about has left Melbourne newspapers with little else on which to speculate throughout the Summer. Had the ignoble misadventures of Ricky Nixon, Sam Gilbert, Fevola and the horribly overpromoted Melbourne schoolgirl occurred in the Summer of 2007 amidst a 5 - 0 Ashes victory, the Melbourne Victory's phenomenal second season and the retirements of Warne, Langer, Martyn and McGrath, the AFL's offseason of new frontiers may well have garnered only a fraction of the attention it did this year.

The spotlight thrown on this off-field malarkey was only intensified by Australia's performance in The Ashes and waning public interest in cricket. As most sport becomes fully and painfully professional, they lose much of the larrikinism and fun which attracted the mug punter to them in the first place. Faced with the choice between a team full of bullies, pouters and bores or following the World Game (with very little television coverage), Joe Public decided it was best simply to re-invest in the coming Aussie Rules season. The league revelled in the exposure, initially falling victim to the old adage that any publicity is good publicity. This theory was recently discounted somewhat in The Economist; the AFL was only to learn how wrong that statement can be in February as first Brendan Fevola, then Ricky Nixon committed professional seppuku.

The AFL plays the politics of sports much better than any other code in Australia. No other competition in the nation felt obliged to have its say on the bidding process save the AFL, yet Demetriou managed to sound both condescending and patronising to football's governing body all at once. The failed FFA bid for the 2022 football World Cup meant only more airtime and column inches. The League invited - and loved - the attention, yet as the summer wore on it became obvious that those at League headquarters couldn't wait for the season to begin. The stream of life malapropisms committed by AFL brethren had made life in the public eye nigh-on unbearable. What were once a player's endearing foibles now appear glaring character weaknesses. Football's never been played by saints - but now media coverage and the blogosphere mean for better coverage. What was once left uncovered rarely remains so now.

Finally, the season is upon us. Now perhaps we can get around to covering what really matters: the game itself.

A-League's declining crowds need addressing

Though streets ahead of the factional National Soccer League, peacefully and thankfully euthanised in 2004 after a fraught reign as Australia's national football competition, failing supporter bases for the A-League means once again the FFA is faced with the challenge of enticing and maintaining supporter interest.

In the NSL days much of the public was alienated by violence and the overly patriotic fans boasted by each club. Clubs were divided very much along national lines: if you were of Greek parentage you supported South Melbourne Hellas. Even 1/16th Croatian heritage meant a Melbourne Knights fan. It's the way it was. Furthering the league's violent image were the stories told by old security guards of the old Olympic Park: the most galling I heard was punters making sure their flares got into the game by hiding in a stroller beneath a sleeping baby. The A-League's come a long way just by renouncing the nationalistic culture endemic and integral in the NSL's supersession.

Shortly after the Perth Glory's Nik Mrdja banged in the winner that snared the 2004 NSL Cup, the twenty-seven year competition ended mercifully and without complaint - as pros say about retirement, "it was just time". The football public was promised more: an eight-team league. Partisan, but friendly crowds. The sport would burgeon Down Under.

But NOOOOooooooOOOOO! (Channeling John Belushi). The A-League, encouraged by a smart and sustainable start decided on expansion. The initial eight teams though each had enough recognisable faces and interest sufficient enough to support a reasonable fan base. Spurred on by the Melbourne Victory's incredible second season - on which laurels some argue the Victorian club still rests - where 50,000 regularly appeared in their Docklands home base, the A-League included franchises from North Queensland and the Gold Coast. The struggling Auckland-based New Zealand Knights, horrible nickname and all, were reborn on the South Island as the Wellington Phoenix.

While Melbourne and Adelaide have continued with strong crowd number, other A-League clubs have struggled - see the chart below. Last year the Victory boasted average crowds above 18,000 , Adelaide United drew 11,000+ and the Melbourne Heart with nearly 9,000. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Queensland franchises struggled; the appallingly-monikered North Queensland Fury's attendance barely reached 4,500 and Gold Coast FC appealed even less. The latter club's owner, mining magnate Clive Palmer, even caused controversy last year by locking out some Gold Coast fans rather than spend extra money opening other stands in their stadium. It's telling that in all of last season, the Melbourne Victory - with identifiable stars Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp - featured in eight of the ten highest-attended games. However they are not immune to the malaise which has engulfed football in Australia; their declining crowd numbers this year can be attributed to several factors, most notably the Melbourne Heart emergence as a second franchise for the city.

After last night's debacle, the FFA and A-League must acknowledge that change is needed for the A-League to retain its credibility. The 17-11-1 Brisbane Roar (sporting an awful mascot) defeated hapless North Queensland in front of only 1003 spectators. True, North Queensland has been devastated by a combination of natural disasters usually only seen in movies like 2012, but 1003 fans attending what is ostensibly a top-flight league is embarrassing and harmful for the A-League's future. It seems the Gold Coast fan base is to blame: they have also turned out record-low crowds on two other occasions this season. For a team playing such delicioius football as the Roar to draw such a pitiful crowd should finally close the book on the experimental expansion franchises North Queensland and the Gold Coast. They no longer deserve their teams.

The examples of league overinflation are obvious, patent and alarming. The NBA went from the ultimate in excitement to uninspired within a period of five years as undeserving cities received franchises: Vancouver, Memphis, Charlotte, Atlanta, Oklahoma City and New Orleans each have done enough to receive a team, but not enough to justify an owner spending money to create a winning team. The NHL is similarly afflicted: the Bettman Masterplan of expansion into the USA's southern reaches has been enough of a failure that several franchises are investigating selling their home games to cities who regularly sell in order to balance the books. By starting their Gold Coast and West Sydney franchises this year, the AFL should be heeding the FFA's mistakes even though their own brand is infinitely stronger.

It's time for the A-League to fold or relocate North Queensland. Unfortunately, there are limited options as to landing spots for the Fury - Auckland perhaps? The reality is that with North Queensland recovering from floods and the effects of Cyclone Yasi, football is likely to be the last of their priorities. The warning signs were there for the club after Robbie Fowler wasn't able to collect his paycheck and forced to move to Perth: now, as the Hornets did to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, it's time the Fury bid farewell to their home base and perhaps even to existence. That they don't have a major benefactor like Palmer, crowd numbers notwithstanding, is why they may be doomed.

The Gold Coast, funded by one of Australia's wealthiest men, is a different story. They should have the population base to fund a club yet have struggled for attendance since Palmer bought the rights and recruited stars Jason Culina and Shane Smeltz. It's embarrassing that such a vibrant area draws so poorly and both Palmer and the A-League must take their shares of the blame for their failure to thrive. The A-League needs a base in the Gold Coast as it's Australia's most rapidly growing "city", yet Palmer's reluctance to spend means task of growing football's identity in South Queensland becomes the responsibility of the FFA and the A-League.

When compared to other sporting codes in Australia, the A-League does poorly in almost every aspect. Only the Victory and Adelaide have crowds with average attendance over the lowliest Rugby League crowds, the next lowest draw in the Australian sporting hierarchy. FFA should aim for a leaguewide average of 10,000 fans which would ensure a healthy competition as well as room for growth. Before any expansion can be considered, clubs need to be certain that they themselves can survive.

Hope though can be drawn from the struggling Scottish Premier League. The SPL includes twelve teams, with only two ever having a chance at the title, Celtic and Rangers. The remaining ten clubs have voted overwhelmingly to reduce the number of teams in the top division from 12 to 10, meaning each team receives a greater percentage of the league's TV rights money. A ten team league nearly indistinguishable from the current setup where the only interest is who will be relegated. The mooted Scottish setup, no matter how broke the clubs are, proves an allegedly elite league can exist with only a few teams. With Australian sport looking more to American models than to European, it appears unlikely that the SPL model will be adopted.

There has never been a more crucial time for the A-League.

A glimpse of the future, courtesy of Kevin Muscat's horror tackle

In the initial rehearsals for the A-League Melbourne derby at the Docklands Stadium six days ago, everything was thrown akimbo by an ad-libbing Victory captain Kevin Muscat. The script read "Muscat tackles Zahra in his usual fashion", leaving all else to interpretation. On the night, Kevin Muscat read it in his own GBH-inducing style, while Melbourne Heart youngster Adrian Zahra played fall guy. Referee Chris Beath refrained from any further riffing and went by what was down on the page and finally yesterday the A-League went in a completely different but predictable direction.

The possible end of Kevin Muscat's playing career has been predictably overshadowed by the predictability of his manner of departure - a temper tantrum and a new career-best "Worst Ever Tackle". His 80th-minute challenge on Zahra, who has had season-ending knee surgery as a result, made Nigel de Jong's World Cup Final flykick of Xabi Alonso look like a walk-on massage offered by the most petite of Asian women. Regrettably for the A-League's most eloquent and approachable front-man it's not the only time he's lost control of his emotions; Kevin Muscat sports a file the size of the fight in the dog. He returned to Australia allegedly "The Most Hated man in Britain" after swinging his battleaxe pins into the likes of Craig Bellamy, Christophe Dugarry and Charlton Athletic player Matty Holmes. The last case resulted in a leg broken in four places from 1998 incident and Holmes successfully suing Muscat for damages.

Though he's had a solid career at home, in the UK and representing Australia, any sentence used to describe him must include the words "temperamental", "destructive" and "reckless". The largest consequence for Muscat now, aged 37 could be for his future in the sport. Since his return to the toddler A-League in 2005 he has often acted as a type of de facto league spokesman, a respected angry-grandfather figure and leader for the youth that the A-League was set up to develop. He could also distribute to that youth all he'd learned during a twenty-year pro career encompassing the old, strife-strewn, partisan NSL, England's Championship and Premiership and the SPL. When in 2006 Graeme Arnold was forced to choose a squad for an Asian Cup Qualifier solely comprised of A-League talent, there was no question who was to captain the side: Muscat, who led the team to a 2-0 victory away in Kuwait in the last of his fifty-one Socceroo caps. The public loved Muscy, especially in Melbourne and he parlayed this newfound acceptance into positions in punditry and journalism. It even seemed to mellow - slightly - the firebrand as, when he found himself in confrontation with Adelaide United gaffer John Kosmina it was the older Kosmina who was the aggressor and suspendee while the Victory skipper did nothing but smile at his rival's loss of control. Kevin Muscat, it was traditionally accepted, would succeed Ernie Merrick as the next manager of the Victory, providing just the right mix of insight, passion and tactical skills to interest new fans and sate the established masses.

As time wore on the Muscat public image, so flawed but polished, began to burnish as the form that made him famous in England became an issue for A-League supporters. The guy who disputed every anti-Melbourne or anti-Muscat refereeing decision with overwhelming disbelief that they could deign to make such calls against him; the man who instigated and began to brandish his battleaxe boots with more relish than in the league's earliest days. Perhaps as his waning legspeed vanished he was forced into inappropriate positions from which tackle but still felt he had to; maybe the Victory midfield wasn't providing the same cover for the centre-halves. Whatever the reasons though, over his six A-League years Muscat has retreated from the controlled challenges of his early return and again taken up hands with his demons - or more correctly demon, singular, which is overintensity. Not only was this most recent incident reprehensible, but his reaction more telling: a risible, laughable tirade at the referee for daring to show him a straight red. It was Muscat's second red card in succession.

Though deservedly and obviously penitent in public it's now time where Kevin Muscat must ask if he is really suited to a career in football after his playing days end. The talk of him being Crown Prince to the Victory's management has receded into white noise and given his inability or unwillingness to control a temper as short as the supporting cast of "Snow White" he should begin to query if he has the ability to do as all good managers and set a balanced tone for his team. It's the company head who defines a that's organisation's strategies and market tactics as well as, most importantly, its culture. In football management, the same principles apply and the manager dictates a playing group's mentality. The best example of this may be Jose Mourinho, who at all of his four managerial stops has convinced his players that they are a small group up against all the world can hurl at them. The question for Muscat is whether a man with obvious on-field self-control issues really enforce ideals in others that require even a modicum of discipline? If he remains ignorant of this quandary, perhaps we need look no further for an answer to Muscat's managerial suitability. And if he isn't asking himself these questions he can rest safely knowing both the Victory's owners, the A-League, the FFA and television executives all over Australia are.

Roy Keane, though patently much more talented, was a similar style of player. A "hard man" who seemed to love the title and sharing with Muscat both the ability to lead those around him, the knack of teaching and the same penchant for both on-field self-destruction twinn'd with career-ruining tackles. But his career in management has been spotty - early success with Sunderland, followed by a quick exit and a recent unfulfilling spell at Championship Ipswich. A notorious one for confrontation there were times during his Wearside reign where players admitted they were afraid of him and his fuse of questionable length. It's quite possible that if he remains unable to rein in his explosiveness, then Muscat may suffer the same fallibilities, no matter how talented a teacher and leader he is. The future of Kevin Muscat in the A-League both as a player and as a coach or commentator remains murky and very much under his control. It's not too late for Muscy to repair some of the damage done to his credentials but soon it will be.

Holger Osieck: Who?

The Socceroos have a new coach in German Holger Osieck. He comes with experience, having managed both internationally and at club level and armed with a remit to develop youth throughout the country to encourage growth in the sport and replenish the ageing top-line talent in the Socceroo lineup.

In Austtralia not much is known about him and it certainly seems at first glance a bit of a step down considering the names bandied about as potential Australia managers; names like Ruud Gullit, Dick Advocaat and Leo Beehakker recently several of the high-profile coaches linked in the past. But on closer inspection, Osieck's background is impressive in itself – spells as Fenerbahce and Bochum boss in Europe intermingled with spells in charge of Canada and most notably as the guy at Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds and as assistant to Franz Beckenbauer during Germany's 1990 World Cup triumph. That he took a – and let's be fair – footballing backwater like Canada to a major trophy (the 2000 CONCAAF Gold Cup) is a significant achievement in itself.

It certainly appears as if the FFA has made several statements with their selection. The criteria laid down by the board were straighforward enough: the new man had to have experience at rebuilding, come with Asian experience, while being supportive to any move by players to depart the fledgling A-League into larger and better football competitions, be they European, Asian or American. In itself, these criteria ruled out perhaps the more high-profile choices but this may well be for the best. The FFA has practically announced their priorities for the next half decade, which is youth, youth and the potential World Cup hosting role in 2022. With an Asian Cup campaign in the offing and a roster chock-full of thirtysomethings, one can be quite confident that a Frank Rijkaard-type isn't the best fit for the position in which Australia finds itself. After billionaire property-developer Frank Lowy bankrolled the Guus Hiddink era and the treading water that defined Pim Verbeek's reign, that the FFA has decided to firmly place down what they are looking for in a manager rather than trying to eke out one last major tournament from the careers of Cahill, Moore and Chipperfield is a major positive.

All this is really encouraging for the grassroots supporter of Australian football and potentially a big win for the nation as a FIFA decision on the 2022 World Cup host looms. Hopefully the key performance indicators in Osieck's job for the next two years aren't results-based, but about having Australian talent in the most appropriate bigger leagues for that talent. Rather than finding Aussies in one of two locations – Britain or the A-League – Socceroo hopefuls have recently found more success and money in lesser-publicised leagues like the K-and-J Leagues in Asia, the highly-paid Emirati leagues in the Middle East and second-tier Euroleagues such as Turkey and Holland. The best example of this could come from any of Carl Valeri, Matthew Spiranovic or Joshua Kennedy: sitting on the bench at Inter, Nurnberg or Karlsruhe is no good for a player's club or international prospects, so a step sideways to Sassuolo. Suwon or Nagoya is a great step to secure regular, high-level first-team action. Growth in player pathways is the next big step in developing the nation as an Asian footballing power and the extent of that power will be measured as the 2011 Asian Cup warm-up campaign begins. Osieck's first matches in charge is against stiff opposition – Sweden, Poland and Paraguay – and will give the local football cognoscenti a chance to examine and hopefully embrace the players sliding into key roles within the team. A mass exodus of the old guard would be foolhardy and Osieck's first squad selections has confirmed he feels likewise, but with a gradual feeding in of youth and the start of a new regime, optimism and excitement should be the order of the day for the Green and Gold army.