Had to split the article over 3 posts. (There's a character limit.)

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“COVID’s helped us out a little bit … it’s a bit more like the NSL where there’s some top senior players, and they’re helping to bring young players through,” Morgan said.

Mid-range players, too, are finding their earning capacity in Australia has dropped, and are looking elsewhere. Lachlan Brook, 24, is a good, solid player. In the past, someone like him would stay in the A-League through his prime years. Instead, he’s at Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer and last season he was on almost $440,000 - far more than he could earn at home.

With those sorts of players increasingly heading overseas for a better payday, there is more room in the A-League for young players to blossom. They also have much more upside when it comes to the transfer market, a space within which Australian clubs have finally figured out how to operate successfully.

‘So much money has been left on the table’​

For many years, the outbound transfer fee record in Australia – for a player moving directly from an Australian club to an overseas club – was $1.7 million. That was when Zeljko Kalac was sold by then-National Soccer League outfit Sydney United to Leicester City, who were playing in England’s second tier, in 1995.


Former Socceroo Zeljko Kalac.Credit:Getty Images

In the ensuing years, the global transfer market exploded – in 2017, Neymar moved from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for a world record fee of over $360 million – but in Australia, Kalac’s record stood untouched for almost two decades.

Then, in 2023, it was broken three times within eight months – and twice by the same club. First, Melbourne City pocketed $2 million from the sale of Socceroo Jordan Bos to Belgian club KVC Westerlo. Marco Tilio then left City for Celtic for a slightly bigger fee, before Adelaide United’s Joe Gauci joined Aston Villa for a reported fee of $2.5 million.

There is no better example of the rising value of Australian players than Ariath Piol, one of three players sold by Macarthur FC in the January transfer window. He moved to Real Salt Lake for about $800,000 and made his debut this past weekend.


Former Macarthur FC striker Ariath Piol.Credit:Getty Images

Piol, 20, played his first game of professional football last February. He started only four times in the A-League and has never completed a full 90 minutes. He’s a raw but exciting talent, the kind of player who could turn out to be absolutely anything, or nothing at all. And yet, the Bulls were able to turn him into roughly the same amount of money as Adelaide United received almost five years ago from another MLS team, Charlotte FC, for Socceroo Riley McGree.

This amount of money is pocket change for the world’s biggest clubs. But for A-League clubs living on the breadline, it’s crucial revenue that helps keep the lights on. Piol’s sale alone is almost double the annual distribution that Macarthur FC received this season from the APL. In fact, players union Professional Footballers Australia found that in 2023-24, transfer revenue outstripped broadcast income for the first time.

It’s difficult for A-League clubs to compete for eyeballs, crowds, government support and corporate dollars against the other bigger, richer sports in this country – but money raised by selling players on the transfer market is an extra income stream which is not subject to the whims of the Australian sporting landscape, and not available to any other code. And the savviest clubs are doing everything possible to maximise their returns.

“It’s the right approach,” says James Kitching, an Australian sporting administrator who previously served as FIFA’s director of football regulatory – effectively putting him in charge of the global transfer system.



“They’ve stumbled on it by necessity because revenues have dried up from other sources and there is an issue when it comes to distributions. That’s fine. The clubs have the opportunity now to unlock a revenue stream which no other sport can touch.

“This is how the financial model of football was actually set up across the vast majority of the world. Australia has not embraced that model or really properly understood that model, but we’ve been part of that system since 2001, since it was first introduced. There is so much money that has been left on the table [over the years] … it’s quite staggering.”

It’s worth noting that Football Australia takes a 10 per cent clip of all A-League transfer revenue, as per the league’s independence agreement with the governing body – and that most deals include various clauses and triggers which lead to more payments beyond the up-front fee.

Macarthur also sold inexperienced defender Oliver Jones to Danish club Randers for $260,000 and Jed Drew, one of the A-League’s most dynamic attackers, to Austrian club TSV Hartberg for $300,000, in January.

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Part 3.

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Drew’s transfer fee is low for a player of his calibre – but because he was coming off contract at the end of the season, the Bulls had a choice. They could either keep him for the rest of the season and try to convince him to re-sign while risking the possibility of losing him for nothing, or they could take whatever they could get now, and potentially something else later, too.

This speaks to transfer strategy, where A-League clubs have certainly become smarter over time.

In the past, contract offers to players of more than three years in length were uncommon. Most deals were for one or two years, including for prized young players, which was a problem: overseas clubs were able to lowball transfer offers and point to the short time remaining on their contracts as a sign that the selling club didn’t actually value them much at all. Clubs have learned from their mistakes, and now the best kids are getting tied down on longer-term deals – and it’s in everyone’s interest that they’re sold before they expire.

It’s not possible in every instance, however. Some players would prefer not to do this, to keep their options open and enable them to move elsewhere on a free transfer. The two best midfielders from last season, Central Coast Mariners pair Max Balard and Josh Nisbet, did exactly that, meaning their club missed out on what would have been decent fees.

While it wasn’t ideal that they had to sell Drew now, halfway through the season, Macarthur were able to ensure they can cash in on him again one day, if his career in Austria takes off. Their sale to TSV Hartberg included a 10 per cent sell-on clause, which means they will pocket 10 per cent of his next transfer fee. Let’s say Drew kills it, and a club in a top-five league buys him for $5 million; they’ll get an extra $500,000, which is more than they sold him for.

According to FIFA, almost half of all permanent transfers in 2024 included a sell-on clause, which has more than doubled since 2016; the average sell-on percentage around the world last year was 22.2 per cent.

‘There’s plenty of under-valued players over there’​

The other part of this puzzle is the external perception of Australian soccer.

No matter what is thought locally, Australia’s reputation is growing overseas, thanks in large part to the Socceroos reaching the past five World Cups. That’s something only 11 other nations have managed, including the likes of Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Spain, England and France.


Hayden Matthews, who recently moved from Sydney FC to Portsmouth.Credit:Getty Images

“That tells them that something’s going right in Australian football,” said Paddy Dominguez, one of Australia’s leading player agents.

Dominguez spent most of the last off-season touring Europe and talking to clubs over there about Australian players - and their awareness of the local talent pool, thanks to the data revolution, is deeper than what many fans would assume.

“I can tell you wholeheartedly that they have a very good respect for Australian footballing talents,” he said. “They were asking me a lot of things about players – particularly younger players they’re pretty keen on. They know there’s talent here. Even in the early age groups, they were talking a lot about 13, 14-year-olds. A lot of the clubs have been here themselves, or they’ve sent scouts down to watch NPL matches.”

The transfer market has never been more competitive, and the top end of it never so inflated – and so, increasingly, clubs are searching in places they usually wouldn’t for players with untapped potential they could help realise. Usually, in those places, they come cheap, too. Australia fits the bill.

Don’t just take Dominguez’s word for it. John Mousinho, the manager of English Championship outfit Portsmouth, can see it, too.

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His club has gone large on Australian players in the last 18 months: they’ve signed Socceroo Kusini Yengi, Brisbane Roar striker Thomas Waddingham, Central Coast Mariners defender Jacob Farrell and Sydney FC’s newly minted Socceroo Hayden Matthews, who was sold for a reported $2.5 million – a record fee for an Australian defender.

“We think there’s plenty of under-valued players over there,” Mousinho said last year. “It is an emerging league … we’ve had a look at that market, seen some really good athletes and seen some really good footballers. Football’s popularity over there is growing with increased investment in the A-League. It’s definitely a market that we like.“

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Thanks @Muz The charts are probably the most interesting part of the article. Repeating some thoughts from twitter


1) The first chart captures that we are 2nd in the world for u20 minutes. The pfa by contrast has us only just catching up with the Jupiler league and Eredivisie. I suspect what is happening here is that the overall u23 minutes are similar but our youth skew younger. Here is the number of players by birth year in each league. A league:

2002 -17
2003 - 19
2004 - 27
2005 - 21
2006 - 18
2007 - 6
2008 - 3

Compare with the Jupiler league (data taken from fotmob)

2002 35
2003 18
2004 20
2005 8
2006
2007 2
2008

We have more players getting game time born 2006 than those born 2002.

2) The youth minutes have a downturn towards the end of the nsl era. The youth during that down turn were probably born around 1981-1984. That generation was substantial drop in quality compared to those born 1977-1980. Does anyone who watched the nsl from that era care to speculate what the cause was? Were the youth lower in quality resulting in less minutes or were the lack of minutes a cause of that generation not hitting the same heights.

3) The a league has never had a home and away nyl. I understand that clubs are cash strapped. But could an argument be made that a nyl would pay for itself? A league youth tend to take a while to get up to speed - there were 25 young players in the top half of fotmob ratings a month ago compared to 29 players at the end of the last round. If we go back to the start of the season, the first few rounds of the a league seemed a drop in quality to me before things got back up to speed. A nyl could get youngsters match ready faster. How much more transfer money could a club get from a 20 year old thriving in the a league compared to a 21 year old? Surely more than the 200k per season per club a nyl would cost?

grazorblade said:

Thanks @Muz
3) The a league has never had a home and away nyl. I understand that clubs are cash strapped. But could an argument be made that a nyl would pay for itself? A league youth tend to take a while to get up to speed - there were 25 young players in the top half of fotmob ratings a month ago compared to 29 players at the end of the last round. If we go back to the start of the season, the first few rounds of the a league seemed a drop in quality to me before things got back up to speed. A nyl could get youngsters match ready faster. How much more transfer money could a club get from a 20 year old thriving in the a league compared to a 21 year old? Surely more than the 200k per season per club a nyl would cost?

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That's a great point about the YL possibly paying for itself these days.

Season timing will need some work. They need to stay in the state leagues, it's just working too well playing 20+ matches against men. So the YL would be in addition to that.

The players need a mandatory rest period of 6 or more weeks. So the YL season would either be in the lead up to a state football season or after it. A post season YL might fit in nicely with the Championship timing, if they keep that. Then they can have the same breaks as the NPL teams.

I don't know how that rest period works when the A-League team and their state team play 52 weeks of the year altogether, when do the kids get their break if they are called up to the senior team?

HappyGuus said:

That's a great point about the YL possibly paying for itself these days.

Season timing will need some work. They need to stay in the state leagues, it's just working too well playing 20+ matches against men. So the YL would be in addition to that.

The players need a mandatory rest period of 6 or more weeks. So the YL season would either be in the lead up to a state football season or after it. A post season YL might fit in nicely with the Championship timing, if they keep that. Then they can have the same breaks as the NPL teams.

I don't know how that rest period works when the A-League team and their state team play 52 weeks of the year altogether, when do the kids get their break if they are called up to the senior team?

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Good point about the loads with 26 npl games and 20 nyl games. I imagine it would force them to have deeper youth squads so no player had to play more than 46 games?

grazorblade said:

Good point about the loads with 26 npl games and 20 nyl games. I imagine it would force them to have deeper youth squads so no player had to play more than 46 games?

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Honestly I'd just match the Championship timing as there isn't much room for anything longer, and they'll all get the same off-season. 11 Australian clubs, 10 matches each in a single round robin (11 weeks).

Assuming the A-League clubs make the NPL finals, they could be playing them into September. If they kick off the youth league immediately after that, it should finish up around late November. Add 6 weeks break minimum, pre-season training, pre-season matches, then it's a tight squeeze before the NPL starts early February. But certainly doable.

Muz said:

Part 3.

ctd....



Drew’s transfer fee is low for a player of his calibre – but because he was coming off contract at the end of the season, the Bulls had a choice. They could either keep him for the rest of the season and try to convince him to re-sign while risking the possibility of losing him for nothing, or they could take whatever they could get now, and potentially something else later, too.

This speaks to transfer strategy, where A-League clubs have certainly become smarter over time.

In the past, contract offers to players of more than three years in length were uncommon. Most deals were for one or two years, including for prized young players, which was a problem: overseas clubs were able to lowball transfer offers and point to the short time remaining on their contracts as a sign that the selling club didn’t actually value them much at all. Clubs have learned from their mistakes, and now the best kids are getting tied down on longer-term deals – and it’s in everyone’s interest that they’re sold before they expire.

It’s not possible in every instance, however. Some players would prefer not to do this, to keep their options open and enable them to move elsewhere on a free transfer. The two best midfielders from last season, Central Coast Mariners pair Max Balard and Josh Nisbet, did exactly that, meaning their club missed out on what would have been decent fees.

While it wasn’t ideal that they had to sell Drew now, halfway through the season, Macarthur were able to ensure they can cash in on him again one day, if his career in Austria takes off. Their sale to TSV Hartberg included a 10 per cent sell-on clause, which means they will pocket 10 per cent of his next transfer fee. Let’s say Drew kills it, and a club in a top-five league buys him for $5 million; they’ll get an extra $500,000, which is more than they sold him for.

According to FIFA, almost half of all permanent transfers in 2024 included a sell-on clause, which has more than doubled since 2016; the average sell-on percentage around the world last year was 22.2 per cent.

‘There’s plenty of under-valued players over there’​

The other part of this puzzle is the external perception of Australian soccer.

No matter what is thought locally, Australia’s reputation is growing overseas, thanks in large part to the Socceroos reaching the past five World Cups. That’s something only 11 other nations have managed, including the likes of Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Spain, England and France.

Hayden Matthews, who recently moved from Sydney FC to Portsmouth.Credit:Getty Images

“That tells them that something’s going right in Australian football,” said Paddy Dominguez, one of Australia’s leading player agents.

Dominguez spent most of the last off-season touring Europe and talking to clubs over there about Australian players - and their awareness of the local talent pool, thanks to the data revolution, is deeper than what many fans would assume.

“I can tell you wholeheartedly that they have a very good respect for Australian footballing talents,” he said. “They were asking me a lot of things about players – particularly younger players they’re pretty keen on. They know there’s talent here. Even in the early age groups, they were talking a lot about 13, 14-year-olds. A lot of the clubs have been here themselves, or they’ve sent scouts down to watch NPL matches.”

The transfer market has never been more competitive, and the top end of it never so inflated – and so, increasingly, clubs are searching in places they usually wouldn’t for players with untapped potential they could help realise. Usually, in those places, they come cheap, too. Australia fits the bill.

Don’t just take Dominguez’s word for it. John Mousinho, the manager of English Championship outfit Portsmouth, can see it, too.

Loading
His club has gone large on Australian players in the last 18 months: they’ve signed Socceroo Kusini Yengi, Brisbane Roar striker Thomas Waddingham, Central Coast Mariners defender Jacob Farrell and Sydney FC’s newly minted Socceroo Hayden Matthews, who was sold for a reported $2.5 million – a record fee for an Australian defender.

“We think there’s plenty of under-valued players over there,” Mousinho said last year. “It is an emerging league … we’ve had a look at that market, seen some really good athletes and seen some really good footballers. Football’s popularity over there is growing with increased investment in the A-League. It’s definitely a market that we like.“

Sports news, results and expert commentary.Sign up for our Sport newsletter.

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Thans Muz, needed a good belly laugh this week...

Muz said:

It's not crap and it's not the EPL either. Most leagues in the world aren't the EPL or crap. They are what they are.

We're a mid-tier league kicking along in Australia and that's fine.

Personally I prefer it now that they're running it on the smell of an oily rag. Lots of youngsters getting about whose spot would have been taken up in the past by 35 year old journeymen.

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I say it's crap compared to what it used to be and what it could be. I'm not expecting us to be on the level of the EPL or anything like that, but we are kidding ourselves if we say it is a great league and that things are good. There are many who think it is on the level of or better than Championship, and they could not be more wrong.

zimbos05 said:

I say it's crap compared to what it used to be and what it could be. I'm not expecting us to be on the level of the EPL or anything like that, but we are kidding ourselves if we say it is a great league and that things are good. There are many who think it is on the level of or better than Championship, and they could not be more wrong.

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Kevin Muscat said once on radio that the first title MV winning team of 06/07 would finish mid table in epl.

The bogan interviewing him was completely eating it up

zimbos05 said:

I say it's crap compared to what it used to be and what it could be. I'm not expecting us to be on the level of the EPL or anything like that, but we are kidding ourselves if we say it is a great league and that things are good. There are many who think it is on the level of or better than Championship, and they could not be more wrong.

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I'd say its much better than it used to be

Shane Smeltz was a conference league player who couldn't cut it in league 2 right up to his 26th birthday when he came here and dominated. He was still strong when the a league was supposedly peaking

what equivalent of that is there in the league today? Ryan edmonson is a regular in league 1 and has struggled to cement a spot when his competition is one of the weakest strikers in the league. Those are just a couple of examples, but it seems now you need a higher level foreigner and our transfers to 2nd tier leagues in europe are more likely to play straight away or after a shorter aclimatization period

2.1m people have watched the ALM in NZ, up by %49 from last year. Maybe SkySports can pay more then $120,000 for ALM rights now if there paying $1m for NRL TV rights.

grazorblade said:

I'd say its much better than it used to be

Shane Smeltz was a conference league player who couldn't cut it in league 2 right up to his 26th birthday when he came here and dominated. He was still strong when the a league was supposedly peaking

what equivalent of that is there in the league today? Ryan edmonson is a regular in league 1 and has struggled to cement a spot when his competition is one of the weakest strikers in the league. Those are just a couple of examples, but it seems now you need a higher level foreigner and our transfers to 2nd tier leagues in europe are more likely to play straight away or after a shorter aclimatization period

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Smeltz is a good example the level it is here then and now
He was at his 24/25yr old peak as mentioned at Wimbledon for 1 season and failed following at Halifax.
AL was easy compared where he came from as it would be today imo for a player of his capability coming to a weaker league.
Same type today would do well here with the inexperience there is.
Like a Bobo as long as the ball gets in the zone they’ll get their foot to it.
Higher level of foreigner ?
Christ Adrian came here and played against far more experienced players here.
Ninko
Throw in more - they were night and day to locals with vision and time on the ball.
Too many talk this up sorry and like zimbos I sure don’t expect epl championship levels but a lot better than what it is but for the AL outliers like a Segacic - we need 20 plus of his level and that will have the league in better light.

LFC said:

Smeltz is a good example the level it is here then and now
He was at his 24/25yr old peak as mentioned at Wimbledon for 1 season and failed following at Halifax.
AL was easy compared where he came from as it would be today imo for a player of his capability coming to a weaker league.
Same type today would do well here with the inexperience there is.
Like a Bobo as long as the ball gets in the zone they’ll get their foot to it.
Higher level of foreigner ?
Christ Adrian came here and played against far more experienced players here.
Ninko
Throw in more - they were night and day to locals with vision and time on the ball.
Too many talk this up sorry and like zimbos I sure don’t expect epl championship levels but a lot better than what it is but for the AL outliers like a Segacic - we need 20 plus of his level and that will have the league in better light.

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you say "then and now" but what is the equivalent of Shane Shmeltz in the last couple of years? What evidence is there that the same type would do well here? Name a specific player that failed in the fourth division in england and dominated here recently. These days we have players at a higher level struggling. As I said, Adamson for ccm was comfortable at league 1 level and can't keep a starting spot here despite being at an age where he should rapidly improve. True we aren't anywhere near championship level yet but its a lot better than what it was imo

Interesting nay wrong word... Let the forum decide on what the word should be.

The above few posts are quite critical of the a-league.

Further the same critical posters would consider themselves football folk and be known by those around them as football folk.

Now consider our attempts to increase the level of acceptance of football in the broader community.

How much harder is getting that acceptance by the broader football family when the hard core rusted on bag it.

How hard is it to talk about the good things that are happening... this is not refusing to acknowledge the stuff ups ...

Is it so hard to not drag old stories and when there is some decent news not find ways to tear it down

Midfielder said:

Interesting nay wrong word... Let the forum decide on what the word should be.

The above few posts are quite critical of the a-league.

Further the same critical posters would consider themselves football folk and be known by those around them as football folk.

Now consider our attempts to increase the level of acceptance of football in the broader community.

How much harder is getting that acceptance by the broader football family when the hard core rusted on bag it.

How hard is it to talk about the good things that are happening... this is not refusing to acknowledge the stuff ups ...

Is it so hard to not drag old stories and when there is some decent news not find ways to tear it down

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Curious if I count as one of the critical voices since I was trying to argue it was improving (but perhaps failing )

grazorblade said:

Curious if I count as one of the critical voices since I was trying to argue it was improving (but perhaps failing )

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Not you

Midfielder said:

Not you

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Yeah whatever the negatives are of overestimating the league, there are surely just as many negatives to underestimating it.

I don't see many claiming the league is better than the championship, even on a league reddit, unless they are literally paid to promote the game (fair enough it's their job)
So surely underestimating the league is a bigger problem

grazorblade said:

you say "then and now" but what is the equivalent of Shane Shmeltz in the last couple of years? What evidence is there that the same type would do well here? Name a specific player that failed in the fourth division in england and dominated here recently. These days we have players at a higher level struggling. As I said, Adamson for ccm was comfortable at league 1 level and can't keep a starting spot here despite being at an age where he should rapidly improve. True we aren't anywhere near championship level yet but its a lot better than what it was imo

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there is no equiv of Smeltz types for there is no $$ hence the use of many many more locals (which is fine great for the talent pool but it also needs some class like any league) and you know what the evidence is IF there were players of scoring stature ?
Just look at the ladder top 7 GA over just 19games.
One the wonderful talent pool of AU has 34 shipped by them just 4 behind their GF.
Thankyou.
Christ at least Auckland show why they are top with 17 GA over 19 games and MC.
The rest omg.

Adamsom, sorry for the young fella but obviously he is going backwards/struggling say no more and maybe why he needed to come back.
Not every player at the age rapidly improve, he may not be a good case.
Not near Championship level yet ? not a friggin hope without something to lose like relegation.

Seriously Middy, o wise one.....nice post your a good thinker.
I respect you mate I really do and I think we both have been around the traps long enough and I'll say my peace considering you are meaning me as one of the critical posters
I shout from the clouds when things are great (when the good times have been incl the U20 win) and hard core to call out when its not, I'm a realist and I'm not going to dress anything up more that it actually is and where we actually are.
As you say we as supporters need to respect the game we have, I agree, I'm waiting, been waiting a lonnng time.
By the way when the Pro game here wins me over, you'll be first to know

LFC said:

there is no equiv of Smeltz types for there is no $$ hence the use of many many more locals (which is fine great for the talent pool but it also needs some class like any league) and you know what the evidence is IF there were players of scoring stature ?

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No money to afford a conference league player but enough money to afford players in higher leagues? That makes no sense?