Is David Gallop asleep at the wheel (and is Disco Damian in from his night out yet)?

In a red letter week for Australian football the organisation that was once the shining light of Australian sports administration seem determined to throw away all the good it has done in as short a time as possible.

What should have been a week of celebration on the back of a hugely hyped Sydney derby has turned into an opportunity for the FFA to shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly.

The game as a spectacle was a massive disappointment after a match across the Tasman before it that showed superb skills and flowing football from two teams that wanted to entertain.  Instead for some reason the two Sydney sides seemed far more determined to stop the other team playing than making the game meet the fanfare the FFA had built around it.

If that wasn't enough the culture built by the FFA around these derbies resulted in the usual front page news as the supporters embraced their own entirely predictable version of anti-football off the pitch. 

The news around this got worse for the FFA when the viewership figures for the match came in.  A viewership of 78k was a drop of 57% on the figures for an equivalent match last season, coupled with a rumoured 40% drop in overall viewing for the league in in the domestic market is it time to ask some questions?

Of course the hits keep on coming with the FFA decision to play the FFA Cup final in Melbourne.  Yes they left an out in case a miracle happens and VPL battlers Hume City pull off a miracle and beat the Melbourne Victory juggernaut but let's be honest that is about as likely as a stable A-League team owned by a mining magnate. 

Perth Glory have made the final and have earned an even chance to host it, this isn't the Melbourne and Sydney league it's a national competition and all teams should be treated equally.  This league survives as a level playing field it dies when it is concentrated in two markets.

Which of course brings us to the Elephant in the room.  The Wellington Phoenix.  Now, let's start by saying that there is a massive amount of misinformation out there about the Phoenix and their presence in the league, much of it spread by media who are employed by key FFA partners. 

Debunking some myths:

The New Zealand TV market does not bring enough revenue

The current TV deal the A-League has in New Zealand was not negotiated or at any point owned by the Wellington Phoenix.  Those rights are the FFAs to sell and if the FFA failed to sell them for a reasonable value that should not be held over the Wellington side.

NZ Football do not support the Phoenix

Untrue.  Robbie Slater’s latest inaccurate bandwagon.  They contribute financially to the Phoenix and to a number of the programmes the club have implemented for player development

A-League spend money promoting the game in New Zealand

The FFA have a significant budget used for promoting the competition along with a significant investment from FOX to do the same.  None of that budget is spent in the New Zealand market.  The FFA expect the same profile for the sport in the market across the Tasman but don't actually put any resources into making it happen.

The Phoenix do not develop Australian players

Again.  Not true.  While the FFA trim back the national youth league and reduced spots for domestic players by allowing exceptions to the overseas player rules for new clubs the Phoenix this season have three Australian players ignored by A-League sides on their books.  In Troy Danaskos, Dylan Fox and Blake Powell the Phoenix have made as big a commitment to helping state league players step up than any other A-League club this season. 

Last season the Phoenix helped the rebirth of Nathan Burns into a Johnny Warren medal winner and Socceroo regular when no Australian sides were willing to take a chance on him.  This club has all along had an Australian core and continues to do so with more than 30 Australian players having been on the club's books at some stage.

Yes, an Australian side would have had more but an Australian side hasn't existed so that is 30 more professional players than we would have had.

The Phoenix don’t have marquee players

Untrue.  Last season Nathan Burns was a marquee and while not being perpetually injured or running out on the league after a couple of games he did win the Johnny Warren medal so was probably the best value marquee in the league.

The club also use the second marquee spot.  This should come as no shock to anyone when the squad is looked at.  With two ex-Dutch youth internationals, an ex-Premier league youth team captain and multiple international representative players they have a good side and it won’t have come at a ‘less than cap’ price.

At its most basic level though the reason the Phoenix should stay is simple.  Of the 13 clubs that have played in this league only two have not had to be propped up by the FFA, have not cost the FFA additional money to keep them afloat.  Not only are the Phoenix ownership group reliable and stable but they have a vision that puts the majority of other A-League owners to shame.

Academies are not just lip service they exist, they are producing players.  The club has gone from one team to four under this ownership group with plans to support the women's game and enter the W-League.  While the FFA retrench on the National Youth League the Phoenix are expanding their youth commitment as well as increasing their scouting of the Australian market.  Our own young players could do worse than looking to join the Phoenix youth set-up which is far more widespread than the majority of our own clubs.

Instead of cutting them adrift they should be the model the majority of our clubs should be built on.  Prospective new owners should be vetted against the standard in Wellington, the commitment to the sport and the organisation rather than if they can hand the FFA 10 million dollars leveraged against collapsing mining holdings.

It seems we don’t go a week without the FFA finding a way to put their foot in their own mouth.  In the last 10 days alone we’ve had the derby stand-offs, the crowd troubles in Sydney (rest assured their weak handling of the issues when they owned the Wanderers are a key ingredient), the FFA Cup final hosting, the collapsing television audience and the Phoenix situation.  Alongside that we have one club managed by the FFA and two more that seem to be a day to day proposition with their current owners.

Isn’t it time our journalists asked some serious questions about this management and whether the people making the decisions genuinely have the right skills to make the A-League stable and sustainable?