The answer is simple enough some would say - so that you can get the best playing roster and become a strong chance to win the competition.
But where does that money come from - the money that goes into the players pockets?
Well for most Clubs in the Capital Football Premier League it comes from a few sponsors, donations, raffles, canteen takings, sale of gear, Club functions, not to mention reigstration fees for each player (and what do clubs get of that) and the like. Every dollar is counted and counted upon to keep the Club afloat. Its all hard graft for a few motivated people in the Club.
The Clubs with a licence to play in the Capital Football Premier League must satisfy Capital Football that they can meet the costs of campaigning in the Premier League. Easy for them to say, but do they have their collective fingers on the pulse? What does it cost a Club to run four teams in the Men's Premier League? Good question. A little bird told me that some were surprised when told by a Club that had a good season, that it was just hanging on by a thread and faced the same daunting challenge again to find the money to go around again. What planet are some of these people on? How many Board members go to PL games (mens and womens) in season or the Summer 20s (another cost to Clubs and one that should have been absorbed by Capital Football, but that's another story and I'm easily distracted) and so on? You don't even get a shoulder to cry on, much less an ear to bash!
I know some things for sure - its costing more each season, the money is getting harder to find and more and more players are looking for a pay day. Out here in Clubland, we are all getting a bit worried. Player payments are a pox on our game.
At the end of every season in the Premier League, Clubs with money eye of the emerging talent and make offers. One young player told me four weeks ago that he had been approached to go to another PL club for $260 a game and another for $170 a game. If you were young and offerred this moent would you (or I) move - I guess so. This causes lots of problems for some PL Clubs.
Another aspect - that small group of Club officials and supporters that make it all possible for players to play, go looking for a minimum of $40,000 per season for a Premier League Club licence per season. Some officials argue the figuer is now closer to $70,000 per season if you want to cover all the contingencies and that's before you get to player payments of any significance.
Now we are not talking Manchester United type payments to PL players. What is said to be paid (and this is hard to verify with real precision) is not big, big money, but try finding $100 per player per game a season. And that's before you cover off on the training costs - we train (and play sometimes) on absolutely crap playing surfaces and when we try to relocate to good ones such as Hawker enclosed or the AIS, it costs Clubs money. You don't get any help from the FFA, CAPital Football or anyone else in solving this basic football problem.
So why on earth would most of the Clubs in the Capital Football Premier League, without a huge sponsor or a licenced club behind them, get entangled in the business of paying players to play? It can only lead to the Club collapsing and leaving the Premier League. That's the history for every code of football, including our poor, but not so old A League competition. The Youth League players don't get a living wage and the our very own Canberra United plays for the love of it. And yet, we think its a good idea to pay players in the Capital Football Premier League?
I'll tell you why - because the few clubs with money / resources put together the best playing rosters. These few Clubs can pay per game, and they pick and choose the players they want from across all the clubs that are prepared to go to them (and not all do). Well that's there good fortune, but it reeks havoc on the competitive nature of the teams across the competition and the survivability of those other Clubs. That should worry Capital Football and Capital Football Board because it worries the hell out of the other Clubs that are not well resourced and float on unpaid volunteers.
We have a variety of structures among our Premier League Clubs - some have a junior club based, others make arrangements to get it from elsewhere. This structural difference raises many questions, but I'll confine myself to one releveant to the issue of paying players. Why would a big Junior Clubs form a united "super Club" if there was a real risk that the revenue earned via the junior football contributions (and thats where the real money is people), could be consumed by player payments to Premier Legaue players, who play for no more sunstantial reason than a boy or girl in the Div 3 Under 13s within the same Club? Well, you would have to mad to get into that sort of arrangement.
Paying players robs the game of resources at Club level necessary to grow the game and develop all the players. We are not a professional football environment where player payments are concerned, but all Clubs do their level best to make it so in every other way - with less and less each season. That too should worry the Capital Football Board.
This week I interviewed the President of the Goulburn Strikers, Graeme Welsh about rumours I had heard about the Strikers.
The usual Club stuff - playing roster, coaches for next season and so on. They started well in 2010 and fell away and we all know how that feels. Its always accompanied by a certain amount of finger pointing, blame shedding and if onlys. Things change all the time at Club level. I was struck by the "statesman" like approach of Graeme Welsh (as I was by his predecssor Shane Wilson), very experienced bloke, not easily fooled or flustered was my impression. When we got to the subject of Clubs poaching players with offers of match payments and he made more sense than I have heard in a long time. Four things he said hit home for me when it comes to paying a player in our league (I would summarise as follows):
- The money you take is money from your club and your mates
- If you want more money, get another job
- We are not really professional (in terms of paying players) until the players start bringing in gate receipts (we have A league clubs that can't do that).
- Don't ask your mates to pay you for doing something you enjoy.
Listen and form your own opinion.
Download the Podcast here:
What a load of nonsense.
ReplyDeleteIf we start listening to clubs or representatives of clubs such as the one mentioned, then we will continiue to play on cow padocks such as they play on.
The only two clubs in Canberra that have their own grounds are examples of how clubs should be run. Not perfect but better than any other by a country mile.
The clubs that have disappeared are the ones that did not deserve to be here, not only because of their performance but their lack of passion and knowledge of the game.
Get out there, get sponsors, work harder or invest your own money to make your club better. Dont try to sell me crap about we cant compete because we cant pay our players.
Dont pay your players, invest in a Top grade coach (or do you suggest that coaches do it for nothing as well, pay peanuts get monkeys),build a stadium, have a full time junior academy do something.
Until i can travel to your club and see a purpose built football ground that is a least on par with with Belco or Deakin then i will maybe pay attention to some of your suggestions, Until then you have no kudos to suggest anything that can be taken seriously.
By the way i am not affiliated with either belco or deakin.
Im not sure if you have been outside this country, if you havent, might i suggest you look at the other 200 or so countries that play this game at the lower level and see what they do. And if you have, then go sell your proposal to them and see how you go.
AND we wonder why we dont have an A LEAGUE TEAM IN THIS REGION.
I am available for further discussion.
Interesting comment. The many club officials I talk to tell me just how hard it is to get sponsorship of the order necessary to do as you say. I admire CFC and Belco for their facilities and I wonder why they bothering to play in the Capital Football Premier League with those sort of resources. I think they have outgrown the Canberra Football scene. Both clubs seemed to play below the capabilities indicated by their playing rosters and that must have ciuased them enormous frustration. But in the end, they were the two that stood out and have done for quite a while. Might have something to do with fiscal stability and flexibity that goes with that profile in football.
ReplyDeleteNow, beyond these two clubs, who else is close to putting in place a licenced club and a stadium with a first rate grass playing surface? Answer - none, nothing and no one!
Why? that's the question to ask. That's the question you should answer. I know why, you do some thinking.
Have I been overseas - yes indeed I have, numerous times and usually go to football somewhere. We are a long way behind plenty. But how do you build what they have if the little you can raise is dissipated on player payments, and not especially large amounts in football terms anyway. It's dum thing for clubs that trying to build there financial and facility base to do.
We have a massively lopsided financial divide in our Premier League environment at the moment. Clubs are trying to close the gap but it is very difficult. I suggest you do the research at the club level. If it was as easy as you say to find sponsorship, I am certain many of the pretty smart and very industrious people I have met in the ACT in Football would have cracked the problem. Its a different day today and not easy to work with, so keep your money in your Club bank account and not in the pockets of players by way of payments if you can. I could go on.
And why dont we have an A League for Canberra team - glad you raised that point. Lots of people interested, ACt Government willing to make an initial contribution, but the real concern is how to meet the annual operating costs which are considerable (and include player payments). A League clubs are falling over too often, requiring resusitation by the FFA. I think it number 7 clubs now. A couple are hanging on by a thread. Other bids (Western Sydney) failed fo lack of finance. Are we reall up for this as a community in the ACT Region. Not so sure myself, as much as I would like to to see it happen.
And what would the local PL Club sponsorship money look like int eh ACt of the A league club was harvesting the same environment for money? Not good.
Anyway, thnaks for the response. Comment again by all means. I'll publish if there are no personal atacks - see the front page on the Blog.
Both BelU and Deakin have shrinking and in some cases non-existent junior bases. That is why they have to pay players. They are not the future of football in Canberra.
ReplyDeleteA united Canberra team that plays in the NSW Super/Premier League is the only way to go, and this will also take care of the junior pathways for all the elite players at those levels.
However both of the clubs you have mentioned think it's a big deal to win the ACT Premier League and also don't like each other very much so the chances of that happening without Capital Football pushing it both at the local level and FFA level (to push NSW to let them in) are next to zero. Sad but true.
It will take another one of the emerging clubs with big junior bases (eg. Woden / Gungahlin) who put players before premierships to make things happen in this region. And it's not a given that they can and want to do that.
Did you ask Graeme Welsh if any players get payed in their team. I recall this club mentioned above offering a certain player $200 per game to play for them for season 2010. Ask him again...
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should get rid of the need for clubs to have juniors, I mean really what do the big clubs do to develop juniors, they just thro money at some junior club and is it really achieving anything. Calling it a pathway doesn’t mean that it was never there before.
ReplyDeleteIf they get rid of the junior requirements and just have PL and reserves clubs then can just focus on one strong team and you’ll have a semi professional comp. Now you have 4 clubs that are professional and 5 that aren’t.
Everyone knows someone who says that someone else got offerred this or that. Its all too often one of those apocryphal stories in football. But let's say you are correct. It their position now. Good one too.
ReplyDeleteSome PL clubs do a bit for Junior Football, but most do nothing. I'm struggling to think of any of them that "thro money" at the junior clubs. More likely to spend money of player payments. Most hae small budgets and little flexibility. The real money in community football (leaving aside the licenced club model) is in the junior football and we have a few big ones.
ReplyDeleteProfessional - if the only criteria that matters is the ability to pay players to play, we've lost the plot.
peter,
ReplyDeleteand what have those clubs you mention with real money done of note that gets you all excited that others should follow.
Well-said Anonymous 1. Your comment is spot on!
ReplyDeleteI guess we could try to go and live in Fairyland and do what Graeme Welsh and Peter Funnel are suggesting. I agree that if nobody paid players we would have a more levelled competition but undoubtedly it would be a much lower level of competition, as the better players would go and play elsewhere such as the very rich Illawarra Premier League.
We should aim for more Clubs with a professional attitude such as Canberra FC and Belconnen, not less.
A higher-level competition creates a better environment for our juniors to develop in.
I believe that the Goulburn Strikers pay their players anyway and what their President should be more worried about is the fact that his Club is forced to pay double fees (ACT and NSW). The club is forced to pay a great deal of money to Football NSW for absolutely nothing in return.
That is the real waste of money!!!
So you reckon all the better players would leave the ACT and play in the Illawara region. Not likely. CFC and Belco cannot be regarded as displaying a "professional attitude" simply because they have money to spend on player payments. That's well off the mark. A club with a professional attitude is so much more than the amount it can play players. Agree that a higher standard of play in the PL assists football development, but "development" of players does not rely on them being paid to play, but it does rely on having sufficient resources (including money) to provide a quality environment. As to Goulburn Strikers, I think they know how things stand with Football NSW and we are lucky to have them in the Capital Football competition, and its where they want to be. You seem to have missed the point the President of the Goulburn Strikers was making - he is saying thats the way it is now and will be going forward. He's right. There are no prizes awarded for spending the most on a PL team in the form of player payments.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading some of the comments above I rest my case Peter.
ReplyDeleteBelU and Deakin are not the future of football in Canberra! At least not the "ideal" future...
This is a tough subject. I admire Belconnen United and Canberra FC because over many years of effort by many, many people, they have build an incredibly solid structure to support football. And they do demand good football as an outcome, but like all clubs, its never goes according to plan.
ReplyDeleteMy difference of opinion is over the need to pay players to play at the Captial Football Premier League level. I guess the explanation is simple enough - if you have the money to spend on player payments, to secure a stronger playing roster and win a Premiership, then its an easy step to take.
But its still a dumb thing to do in my opinion.
Better to have players who want to play because they want to play. Money by of player paments gets in the way of everything - most important - Club loyalty.
How much better would the entire game be if the money used to pay players was keppt by all the Clubs to develop football. And I mean in every way possible:
- set up scholarships for talented players to play for a season or part season overseas (over 18 years of course).
- recruit talented young players from overseas, to add to the footballing environment, to play a season here with our young players and support it with homestay. Set it up with overseas Clubs to work it the other way. Build football communities at the communtiy level. (think Monaro Panthers and Shingot Primary School U12s, or Nara Ichijo etc)
- send more PL16, PL18 and Pathways teams overseas on short tours to Asia,
- make sure no one pays these horribly inflated registration fees to play our game
- Get together (or individually) and collaborate with the ACT Government to build / imporve grounds and playing surfaces (including more artificial surfaces, Clubhouses - and stop waiting for Capital Football to muster the energy to do so.
- Identify local charities that can use a bit help on a regular basis and integrate this into the playing ethic.
- and on and on
But you can't do this if the precious dispoable income is frittered away on player patments at community level, so that someone can buy the next milkshake, Ipod or whatever.
If a CLub does get around to making the next step up - to the NSW Premier League - then we have collectively crossed a boundary that does invite player payments. Players that train every day and play at a high domestic level need some remuneration. Our best players will be attracted to this level of football. A development of this nature is desperately require for thed evelopment of players from 17 20 years. It follows then that this requires some support from the football community through Capital Football. A club should not be burdened with this venture, reliant solely on its own financial resources.
But until then, keep the player patyments money in the bank and develop the game through your Club is my view.
Im a 30 year old player who has played in the ACT PL for many years. I have a full time job, a family and not much spare time. Do you expect me to play for free? Taking time away from my family and work commitments. Although I enjoy playing some incentive is needed.
ReplyDeleteThis is a typical a number of players at clubs like Belco, Deakin, Olympic, Cooma. Some of the best players in the league. What would you say to these players? There should be player payments at the highest level in the region, even some div 1 players get payed. Its 2010 Peter.
OK. I just see it differently. Keep playing.
ReplyDelete