As far as I can tell, the PFA's issue is not so much the idea of wage cuts, but the clubs wanting to just tap random players on the shoulder and tell them their wages are getting cut, not the player next to them. Which seems fair enough.
Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins
As far as I can tell, the PFA's issue is not so much the idea of wage cuts, but the clubs wanting to just tap random players on the shoulder and tell them their wages are getting cut, not the player next to them. Which seems fair enough.
Yeah, I can see exactly why the players aren't having a bar of that and who can blame them? Clubs are gonna have to step up their offer here unless they want to actually destroy the league.
Andy Bevin for the Phoenix? Hes a far slower version of McCowatt whom showed that he needed extra time to try get his own shot.
No.
Andy Bevin for the Phoenix? Hes a far slower version of McCowatt whom showed that he needed extra time to try get his own shot.
No.
The discussion was about Myer Bevan, not Andy Bevin.
Yeah, I can see exactly why the players aren't having a bar of that and who can blame them? Clubs are gonna have to step up their offer here unless they want to actually destroy the league.
There's some dark irony if the league implodes financially and ends up becoming the old NSL immediately after the clubs had been given control of it again.
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Crowds are important, but they're not the main source of income - no club is going to survive simply because they're getting crowd money. Everything revolves around TV money because that is the model that set the league on its course, and it forms the main income for the league basically.
The problem, really, is that Fox have decided that they overvalued the league, and used the first opportunity that presented itself to worm out of the TV deal. The next season isn't so much the problem really - while the TV income is halved, it's still there, so you can still have some sort of a competition, even if it is much watered down from what we've had recently. The question is, what happens after that?
Fox aren't committed - at all - beyond next season. When it looked like Fox might back out entirely in July, no-one was exactly queuing out the door to take over. The fact that Fox re-committing for one more season at half the original price was touted as a successful negotiation by the FFA illustrates how dire the situation was. Add to it that the league currently doesn't have a main sponsor, and again with no-one showing much interest in it, shows what a difficult sell the league is at the moment. I mean, yes, Covid has been a part of this, but the TV audiences and crowds have been steadily decreasing for years now - I remember seeing a figure of 8,000 TV audience for a Nix v Jest game this season (last season?), and that was pre-Covid. Those sort of figures aren't going to attract anyone, and no-one is going to throw serious cash at the league for that kind of minimal exposure.
Obviously the NLWG was aware of these problems, and the reason why a 'transitional' period had been agreed with the FFA was to ensure that the 2016 Fox deal remained in place to give them some breathing space to turn things around. Now that breathing space has been cut from three years to one year, with half the expected money for that one to do it with. How do you make a struggling product turn its fortunes around when you have basically one shot at it, and less money to do it with than you had in previous seasons? It's super tough. The good thing is that it will force clubs to do some lateral thinking and re-design their business models to make them more feasible in the future. The issue is whether there is enough time to do that given the current circumstances.
This is mostly true. Out of pure curiosity, I've looked through the financial statements of various U.K professional clubs. The smaller clubs in the English leagues (Low-Championship, League 1 and 2) are far more dependent on gate receipts to stay afloat. Gate receipts and match day income typically makes up around 30-40% of total revenues for league 2 clubs. For non-league clubs it's far higher, so they must be really struggling now.
The A-league is in a bit of a better situation because it gets TV revenue, whereas those leagues only get a small windfall from the Premier League tv rights. But for professional football's sake (especially the lower leagues), we really need crowds to start returning as soon as possible (when it is safe to do so obviously).
Bring back Brockie? Sign Clayton Lewis?
Just imagine what may have been possible without Covid, in a parallel universe.
Based on same final regular season finishing positions, re the top 6.
Nix host and beat Glory. Get a bumper 25,000 crowd and nice cash injection.
Then I've taken some liability, with them upsetting the Smurfs in Sydney. Likewise Western U winning their semi in Melbourne (well come the end of season they were a form horse who maybe just ran out of legs).
Seeing all this starting to unfold, Hooper plays through his hammy twinge with a serious of 20 min cameos off the bench. Him and Ball love their jet ski adventures with Taylor. All are content in Wellington. Meeting up for regular curry nights, teasing Steinmann about how their grand fathers bombed Dresden (Matti takes it well), and Davila about his 5 year Chelsea deal without a playing minute at Stamford Bridge. All the wives/partners coo coo over little Davila junior. It's a happy camp.
Nix get to host Snakes in the Grand Final, in front of a full house. Of course that pantomime villain Rudan is sent home a loser.
That Welnix owner who regularly drops a bar tab for the Melbourne away games (I don't know his name), celebrates large. He promises Gaza a new $1m/season deal that night after his 10th pint. Things look great.
Stupid fudgeing virus.
*Admittedly there are some dark clouds on the horizon, with Fox looking at all avenues to reduce their TV rights deal. But as yet they haven't a way. So I'll paper over that for now.
I read that and totally agree, it also means that when we come through this the current gaffer and owners can rebuild and go again. The skill to find decent players and grow the youth is in the club, just need the desire and a leage to play in
I'm thinking that there will be a re-set of the make up of teams. Mainly locals with perhaps 1 or 2 imports but on modest wages. As long there is some income from broadcasting, clubs will be able to survive but will just have to cut their cloth to suit. This will also mean that players will have to modify their expectations too if they want to get gigs but I'd think many would come to that realisation when they find they cant get jobs elsewhere with the type of money they would like.
As a result of this crisis, everyone [including owners and agents] need to suck it up for a bit until we come out the other side. It is unrealistic to expect things to stay the same and a lot of credibility is at stake so owners shouldn't look to make profits while everyone else is struggling.
Everyone is going to have to take a paycut.
Whilst this means some amateurs might basically earn the same as the professionals, I would still hope they'd sign. Far easier to step in to a higher professional set up having come from one than moving up from an amateur league.
Its why I don't get players like Howieson saying no to the NIX. Has he had any trials elsewhere?? Its like he has thrown in the towel already.
can we open a thread : We're doooomed!
Everyone is going to have to take a paycut.
Whilst this means some amateurs might basically earn the same as the professionals, I would still hope they'd sign. Far easier to step in to a higher professional set up having come from one than moving up from an amateur league.
Its why I don't get players like Howieson saying no to the NIX. Has he had any trials elsewhere?? Its like he has thrown in the towel already.
I think with Howieson, it's sorta just sounds like personal reasons. When he returned to NZ (he's a ChCh boy?) he had a stint with TW, but him and/or his partner didn't like Wellington? He also has a personal training business? So maybe yes he has just given up on being a pro footballer.
He had a few years at Burnley and in Scotland (St Mirren), without really cracking it. So maybe just got sick of the unpredictability of it all. Remember Kip Colvey, he basically gave up from memory - tired of the constant moving around, and lack of certainty.
As others have said with ACFC plus NRFL, Howieson probably earns okay coin, and he's a regular starter. Big fish in a small pond. But you can't really begrudge him that.
Assuming massive pay-cuts and layoffs are around the corner.. I guess one small bright-side is that we could see a lot of young, talented amateur NZ footballers given a shot at professional football.
David Ball was close to joining Bolton Wanderers but talks have broken down after Wellington told him and Ulises Davila that they are being kept on for now. Ball was ready to move his family back to the UK if his contract was torn up. [@TheBoltonNews]https://t.co/SGfnGF0Ja5
— A-League Hub (@AleagueHub) September 18, 2020
well at least the club are standing firm on some things, I suppose if balls and davila's family are here then sweet.
well at least the club are standing firm on some things, I suppose if balls and davila's family are here then sweet.
I think Davila is still in Mexico, which has pretty high Covid case numbers and deaths. Whole issue of family at the moment, won’t be easy for Davila. This as someone currently in Peru with a Peruvian partner. If Davila or his wife have elderly parents or grandparents vulnerable to Covid, there will be some sense of guilt if he returns to NZ. If any of them caught the virus and he is thousands of kms away, you can imagine the emotions and stress.
Latinos are generally very very family orientated. Then there is the whole issue of Nix potentially going back into a Aussie hub next year, and him again being away from his wife and young son. Plus a possible salary reduction. Bit to think about I imagine.
As much as I want them to stay im afraid its totally unrealistic expecting them to. Lets face for all the talk we have no idea when the new season will start or what it will look like. The only thing we have is a complete lack of information to the fans yet we will be expected to jump on board when they finally sort something out. No way i would want to hang around down this part of the world if i was a player and i can sign on some where else and start earning some money,
The ball article is interesting and if correct in my view worrying.
It implies that he wanted to move to Bolton and who could blame him - back home, at a level he was playing before and with his family.
Verses most likely being based in Ausi and away from his family for a very long time.
In a time when we are wanting to trim costs we said no to a player who may now be discontented.
A good solid player but not a gun who is irreplaceable.
Dávila is however a gun and in my view irreplaceable - saying to Ball, no you are staying to me implies Dávila is already gone and the coach doesn’t what the team to be totally gutted
As much as I want them to stay im afraid its totally unrealistic expecting them to. Lets face for all the talk we have no idea when the new season will start or what it will look like. The only thing we have is a complete lack of information to the fans yet we will be expected to jump on board when they finally sort something out. No way i would want to hang around down this part of the world if i was a player and i can sign on some where else and start earning some money,
I don't give a shark how much any Indian team would offer me, I'd definitely avoid that place and Africa for the next few years as Covid works its way through them. I can't believe Steven Taylor would put himself at risk going there. Probably better off in the USA or J League.
while he has been good for us, he came to us from league one
Both the above leagues are above the a league
As much as I want them to stay im afraid its totally unrealistic expecting them to. Lets face for all the talk we have no idea when the new season will start or what it will look like. The only thing we have is a complete lack of information to the fans yet we will be expected to jump on board when they finally sort something out. No way i would want to hang around down this part of the world if i was a player and i can sign on some where else and start earning some money,
I don't give a shark how much any Indian team would offer me, I'd definitely avoid that place and Africa for the next few years as Covid works its way through them. I can't believe Steven Taylor would put himself at risk going there. Probably better off in the USA or J League.
The Covid case & death numbers yes in India are high. However on a popn basis they still remain pretty low (for now!). If the numbers can be believed India has 62 deaths per 1M people, USA for example 612 deaths per 1M. UK is 614 deaths per 1M. So arguably at the moment it's safer to walk the streets of India than Stateside or Blighty. Still could be early days of the pandemic in the sub continent.
More importantly for Taylor and other players in the ISL, the league is to be played as a protected hub at 3 venues in Goa state. I understand there is a pretty sizeable expat popn in Goa, and probably at least a few world class hotels, hospitals, clinics etc.
Also currently seems there is plenty of money in Indian football, so I'm sure all the teams have top class doctors and other medicos available. Furthermore footballers are invariably young fit guys without underlying health conditions. Doesn't mean that they want to get Covid, but they are highly highly unlikely to get badly sick even if they get the virus. And lastly it's a pretty short roughly 6 month season, Nov-March, so I guess hub up, take the money then leave maybe.
But yeah certainly being brutal about it, a Covid player/staff outbreak early season in the ISL, may just see any of Krishna, Williams, Taylor etc consider a Nix return. Long shot
"Probably better off in the USA"
...yeah, nah, that place is fudgeing crazy. Japan's got some pretty stringent rules around visas and foreign players as well. And heaps of Covid-19.
while I don’t want to in any one say USA is doing well, I would seriously doubt India is accurately reporting Covid deaths
Not because they are deliberately doing so just down to the size of the place and the ability to do so
Would you stay in NZ though if you had to take a pay-cut of 30% (probably at the minimum) and you were offered a decent amount more elsewhere (all the while only having a couple of years left as a professional player).
I can't blame Taylor for moving at all. He wanted to stay, but the reality of the situation is quite grim here atm (with the Phoenix and the A-league as a whole). There is not a lot of job security left for Australasian-based players at this moment.
dunno he has had a number of seasons in the premier league, if he has been minding his pennies, he should be set
Personally if my salary was decreasing by 30 per cent or having to work in India, I am pretty sure I know which I would choose
Not convinced that being in a hub in India would be as much of a risk as some are making out. Would take my chances in a hub there on good money rather than Sydney or Melbourne on much reduced money. Think some of you may not realise that he wont be staying in the slums.
while I don’t want to in any one say USA is doing well, I would seriously doubt India is accurately reporting Covid deaths
Not because they are deliberately doing so just down to the size of the place and the ability to do so
The US isn't accurately reporting covid either. Basically if covids a concern then he would have stayed here.
I imagine some of the Kiwis at ACFC would definitely be keen on a crack at the A League. Whether they are good enough I don't know, but many of them have overseas pro experience. Maybe they are on less coin these days at Kiwitea St. It's coming up 3 years since ACFC were last at a CWC. Lewis, Doyle, Adam Mitchell, Andrew Blake, Myer Bevan. Cam Howieson has reportedly turned down the Nix before. Is 32 year old Emilano Tade worth a look? Supersport in South Africa (the Sydney FC of SA) were sad to see him go reportedly, but less sad to cut Brockie loose.
I'm an ACFC ST holder. All of those you've mentioned would be good enough to make the step up, with the exception of Doyle who imo has already proven he's not good enough for the A-League.
I do wonder if part of the problem is with the money/lifestyle they're on in Auckland and with the introduction of Auckland United, it might make it a bit more challenging. I've read previously that Howie made more money playing for Three Kings and ACFC than the Nix would pay him.
Howie getting more money from pub football then being a proper pro shows all that is wrong with grass roots football in NZ. That money which will have come from youth fees predominantly wasted on an average at best player instead of invested in club/training facilities, cub developmentetc.
As much as I want them to stay im afraid its totally unrealistic expecting them to. Lets face for all the talk we have no idea when the new season will start or what it will look like. The only thing we have is a complete lack of information to the fans yet we will be expected to jump on board when they finally sort something out. No way i would want to hang around down this part of the world if i was a player and i can sign on some where else and start earning some money,
I don't give a shark how much any Indian team would offer me, I'd definitely avoid that place and Africa for the next few years as Covid works its way through them. I can't believe Steven Taylor would put himself at risk going there. Probably better off in the USA or J League.
If the comp is in a bubble will be no different to having been based in NSW for two months as the Nix were PLUS Covid has little effect on the young and healthy. It's overweight older people who have struggled the most.
I'm sure Roy, Steven and co will be just fine.
More chance of "Delhi Belly" then anything from my experience of India from the AW games two years ago.
Everyone is going to have to take a paycut.
Whilst this means some amateurs might basically earn the same as the professionals, I would still hope they'd sign. Far easier to step in to a higher professional set up having come from one than moving up from an amateur league.
Its why I don't get players like Howieson saying no to the NIX. Has he had any trials elsewhere?? Its like he has thrown in the towel already.
I think with Howieson, it's sorta just sounds like personal reasons. When he returned to NZ (he's a ChCh boy?)
Sobering reading for sport in the UK.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/300113643/b...
Up shot there could well be a few reasonable Championship, League One & Two players unemployed, before say that January 2021 transfer window.
Sure won't be able to offer them much, but if you are a young unemployed footballer keen on a bit of an adventure for 6-8 months, you may consider a short stint in the A League finishing around July 2021. That then gives to time to head back up to the UK mid next year, to try find a gig for the 2021/2022 UK season.
At least you would be playing football, not twiddling your thumbs, plus away from all the doom & gloom of Covid, in a sharkty UK winter.
The other place to look being obviously the NSW 4th tier. Great story.
Callan's gone to join Popa in Greece
ugh indeed, but what can we do.....players want contracts and playing time, at the moment the a-league offers neither
I think that the technical Fever term for this is 'niggly'.
Geez next season, whenever it may be, is shaping up to be fudgeing dire.
I'll lay 3-1 odds that Ufuk is going to get poached