Football Federation Australia held a press conference this morning in response to coronavirus. It said the A-League would continue behind closed doors at least until the end of the regular season, however matches involving Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix in the next two weeks would be postponed, as players and officials from both clubs undergo 14 days of self-isolation when they fly in to Australia today or tomorrow. The Phoenix will play all their matches in Australia for the rest of the season.
The FFA also announced this Sunday’s W-League Grand Final between Melbourne City and Sydney FC would also be played behind closed doors.
This means horse racing is the only major sport which is continuing in Australia despite the coronavirus, but for how long?
Optus Sport, DAZN, 10, SBS, Prime Video, ABC, ESPN, BeIn Sports, Eurosport or someone else?
The A league really need fox in this instance. Who would want the rights into the future given the poor ratings and general lack of interest in the competition.
Optus Sport would be the only other contender - but whether they’d want it or not would be interesting
DAZN have expressed interest before.
DAZN probably will not be signing new deals anytime soon, I think.
Carmaker Hyundai formally ends its long-time sponsorship of the A-League.
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Australian soccer needs to concede defeat and stop pretending it is has wide appeal in this country. A bare bones operation like what the NBL is doing may be a way of saving it, otherwise the national competition should just shutdown.
Edit - Deleted because fuck it, i’m done
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Millions of Australians catch public transport, swim at the beach, eat lunch at McDonald’s, and go to church on Sunday (or will when everything is back to normal), but that doesn’t mean those activities have a wide appeal as an attraction that the general population wants to watch on television.
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shame you’ve deleted your post - because you make some decent points.
How one of the largest grassroots sports becomes effectively a basket-case at a professional level is a story for the ages
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The Australian reports the A-League is planning a 36-day blitz to finish the current season, with matches restarting on July 18 culminating with the grand final on August 22. The plan will require the agreement of Fox Sports and the conclusion of a pay deal with players to cover the extra three months needed to finish the season, as many player contracts expire this Sunday, May 31.
EDIT 29/5:
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$11 million seems reasonably generous to me, rather than “a hugely insulting offer”, which the author of that piece Lucy Zelic wrote.
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The A-League season will resume on July 16 after the Covid-19 hiatus with a derby between Melbourne Victory and Western United at AAMI Park.
The remaining 27 matches of the home and away season will be packed into a 28-day period before the finals, which must be completed by August 31.
However, the detail for the remainder of the season is yet to be confirmed, due to the prospect of further relaxations in state border restrictions.
“We have developed multiple draw options for the completion of the regular season,” Football Federation Australia’s head of leagues Greg O’Rourke said on Tuesday.
"All options commence with Victory taking on Western United at AAMI Park followed by a game between the table-topping Sydney FC against third-placed Wellington Phoenix at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium the following day.
“The reason for having multiple draw options - which our clubs are across - is due to the fact that over the next few weeks there may be additional relaxations in border restrictions and travel movements in Australia, which may enable our clubs from Victoria, Queensland and South Australia to remain and play in their home cities, rather than relocating to New South Wales to complete the season.”
Perth Glory and Wellington Phoenix are committed to playing the remainder of their regular-season games in NSW.
A-League clubs are free to return to training on Wednesday.