Australia won hearts and minds with their performances at the 2022 World Cup.
On December 12, however, the Australian Professional Leagues (APL), the organisation
that governs the men’s and women’s A-League divisions,
announced that the next three editions of the two competitions’ Grand Finals will be
staged in Sydney — regardless of which clubs end up qualifying for those six fixtures.
It’s the result of an agreement between the APL and Destination NSW, the tourism arm of the New
South Wales state government, and it represents a major and provocative break with a tradition.
And fans, clubs, stakeholders and even players are furious about it.
Previously, whichever of the two finalists finished highest in the A
League regular-season table got to host its final. This has meant the men’s Grand Final
has been played in four different cities in the last five years, and six over the past decade.
The APL, however, believes that fixing the location of finals in advance is beneficial.
The desire is to create a spectacle and an occasion more equivalent to other major
sports in Australia, such as the Australian Football League and the National Rugby League.
The backlash was instant though – from fans, but also those inside the game.
Multiple supporter groups issued statements.
An APL board member, Anthony Pietro tended his resignation. A League clubs Western United and
Adelaide United spoke out in opposition. While two others, Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory,
expressed their preference for old style of awarding the finals to the highest-finishing club.
Most embarrassingly, Adelaide United forward Craig Goodwin, who had only just returned
from Qatar with the national team and who was actually included in the promotional material
for the finals announcement, revealed his opposition to the plan on social media.
Remy Siemsen, the Sydney FC and Matildas forward, seconded Goodwin’s opposition on Twitter.
And the reasons for the opposition and anger are many.
Firstly, location is a problem. The vast majority of A-League clubs are based in or near New South
Wales (three are in adjacent Victoria). Only four — Brisbane Roar, Perth Glory, Adelaide United and
New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix — are from other regions. Context is important, though, because
New South Wales comprises an area four times the size of the United Kingdom. Australia as a whole
is 32 times as large as the UK and the potential cost of travel clearly worries many supporters.
Disenfranchisement over Sydney-centric thinking is a common response. There are also concerns about
the type of atmosphere that will be cultivated by a fixed Sydney final — more specifically,
whether the sense of occasion imagined by the APL will be true to the culture of the game,
and if the crowd inside that stadium will be representative of those who have
been the lifeblood of Australian domestic football to this point.
Many are also protective of the old style of awarding finals to clubs,
both for what they brought to heartland communities and
for the partisan atmospheres that they typically created. Among those fans in
opposition, there’s a sense that something significant is being lost — or taken away.
When pressed on his opposition, Craig Goodwin – the national team player – said
that a centralised Sydney final would lead to “a bunch of neutrals in the stands”.
Samantha Lewis is a Sydney-based journalist who works for ABC and covered the Socceroos in
Qatar. She was part of a generation of new fans awakened by the national side’s qualification
for the 2006 World Cup via a famous play-off win over Uruguay. She was hoping that Qatar
2022 would have a similar effect – but that now seems unlikely, she told The Athletic.
“Everything the Socceroos did was so galvanising for the entire community across the country. We
saw all the scenes at Federation Square (in Melbourne) and we saw how important that was
for creating this sense of Australian football — not just football scattered around Australia,
but Australian football. So, for this decision to happen — really the first
major decision in the wake of the World Cup — it has the polar opposite effect.
It’s as if it’s all about New South Wales, all about Sydney.”
She also explains why so many supporters have responded badly to the proposed location.
“Sydney is where two of the richest clubs are. It’s where Football Australia has its
headquarters. It’s where the APL now has its headquarters too. The
annual awards happen here (in Sydney) as well. Basically, everything in Australian
football happens in Sydney, and so this folds into that larger narrative that the
people controlling the game are making their decisions on behalf of that vested interest.
Danny Townsend used to be the CEO of Sydney FC and now he’s running the APL.”
His and the APL’s ambition, however, is to set a precedent.
In a television interview the day after the announcement,
Townsend expressed his hope that other states will bid to host the Grand Final
once Sydney’s three-year deal elapses. According to the Sydney Morning Herald,
the agreement between the APL and Visit NSW is worth in the region of A$15million (£8.3m,
$10.3m). That’s not insignificant revenue for a sport that has historically lacked investment, and
the expectation will also be to attract further commercial partnerships around the event itself.
But that too requires context. In December 2021, the APL sold a 33.3 per cent stake to Silver Lake,
a technology investor that also owns a piece of back-to-back Premier League
champions Manchester City, which valued the league at A$425m. That agreement came with
the promise of developing fan experience and growth, and also supporting A-League Women and
redeveloping the A-League youth competition, which has been dormant since the pandemic.
With that in mind, the agreement with Destination NSW appears
scant consolation for upsetting so many of the game’s stakeholders.
In spite of the overwhelmingly negative response, the APL continues to stand by its decision.
24 hours after the announcement, a statement from its chair, Paul Lederer,
reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to the Destination NSW partnership and
promised to deliver “a festival of finals football worthy of our game”.
Whether that becomes a reality remains to be seen.