There are no real winners in the latest club versus country row, which highlights just how far apart the FFA and A-League clubs have drifted.

The National Arbitration Tribunal has ruled that A-League clubs must release all players requested for this month’s AFC U-23 Championship in China.

“Going into today’s hearing we believed that we had a strong case to select players from the A-League for national representative teams under the long standing contractual relationship with each A-League club set out in the club participation agreement,” said Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop following the announcement.

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“It is not ideal that this Asian Football Confederation tournament falls outside a designated FIFA international window, however, the scheduling is outside FFA’s control.”

He’s right that it’s not ideal the tournament falls outside a FIFA window, although the AFC won’t be unduly troubled given that several of the competing nations are in the midst of their winter break.

And this an AFC which, by and large, has never warmed to Australia’s inclusion.

If they don’t like us now, just imagine what they’d think if we sent a second-string team to what is literally the U-23 Asian Cup.

Yet it’s hard to disagree with former Socceroos shot-stopper Mark Bosnich, who criticised the decision to call up key A-League players midway through the season.

“(I)f you’re trying to promote the A-League as your premier competition, but you continue to decimate it with under-23s and you don’t have international breaks, then it takes away,” Bosnich said on Fox Sports on Saturday.



“The clubs and the fans and the people who watch on TV, in my opinion, are not getting value for money.”

It’s true. And the fact the FFA can’t be bothered to follow the lead of every single major football league on the planet and incorporate international breaks speaks volumes for their lack of football nous.



But international breaks wouldn’t have helped here, and it’s not a problem powerful regional rivals like South Korea and Japan have to worry about given that both the K League Classic and J. League are currently between seasons.

Little wonder the likes of Dijon midfielder Kwon Chang-hoon and current Stuttgart striker Takuma Asano used the 2016 tournament as a springboard to bigger and better things.

That doesn’t hold much sway with either Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin or Central Coast Mariners chief executive Shaun Mielekamp though – the latter of whom calling the AFC U-23 Championship “a meaningless tournament”.

But here’s the thing. Griffin is a former AFL player agent. And before he joined Western Sydney Wanderers and then the Mariners, Mielekamp worked for the Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL.

Both of them understandably want the best for their respective clubs.



Yet both of them view football through the same prism as every other Australian sport, and neither seems willing to acknowledge the global nature of football.

Part of that global nature is tournaments like the AFC U-23 Championship, and if we ever want to forge closer relations with our neighbours in Asia, that means taking tournaments like this one seriously.

This is a squad, it’s worth remembering that has failed to qualify for each of the past two Olympic Games in London and Rio de Janeiro respectively.

It used to be that representing your country was the highest honour a player could earn in any age group, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that some of the players now at the centre of the latest club versus country tussle have already played in the qualifying campaign, and deserve the chance to compete in the finals.

But that qualifying campaign took place outside of the A-League season, and it’s easy to understand why clubs are unhappy to lose their best players.

There are no easy answers here.

But what is certain is that representing your nation should be a huge accolade.

Sadly for football fans, this latest chapter makes it feel more like a horrible chore.

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