Back in early October, when the world hung on two momentous decisions – the one soon to face American voters, the other tormenting a 10-year-old Sydney schoolboy named Yoshi – the 2016-17 A-League season bolted from the gates as if slapped on the rump.

Boosted by an A-League record crowd of 61,880 at the Sydney derby, round one saw the highest single-round attendance (106,365) in A-League history and David Gallop was understandably delighted. Knowing a spruiking opportunity when he sees one, Football Federation Australia’s CEO predicted the momentum would continue into round two with Tim Cahill’s long-awaited, much-discussed A-League debut for City in the Melbourne derby.

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And how it did. In front of 43,188 at Docklands, Cahill led City to a stunning 4-1 win over Victory after opening the scoring with a mantelpiece-worthy 35-metre half-volley of such timeliness that pundits speculated whether Cahill had, with one sweep of his right foot, justified – if not repaid – the $4m spent by FFA and City to secure his services as the league’s marquee player. If there was anyone happier than Cahill at Docklands that night it would have been Gallop. “We’ve got further talks with TV networks this week [about a new TV deal] and while it’s early days, a goal like that from Tim Cahill couldn’t come at a better time,” said Gallop who might well have left the stadium that night with a spring in his step as he fished in his pocket for his car keys.

Seven months later, as Americans search for North Korea on a map and as Yoshi looks for a get-out clause in his City promissory note, it seems reasonable to suggest that despite its compelling finale, the A-League season failed to live up to its early promise. It wasn’t just that a stellar Sydney won the premiership by the length of the straight, which took away a good deal of suspense and, arguably, gave to the second half of the season the same clock-slowing feel of a long layover in an airport transit lounge. Outside of this there was also an undercurrent of discontent that lapped at the game’s ankles and now seems to be heading towards its knees.

Set against stagnating TV ratings and attendances across the league – even at Cahill’s Melbourne City, even at Sydney FC, where a baffled Graham Arnold issued a plea, in February, for more support from Sydneysiders – many opined that the A-League’s 10-team format has gone stale. New teams are desperately needed, they said, to shake things up if the A-League is to make the most of football’s massive participation rate at club level. Moreover, calls for “promotion and relegation” have become a kind of incantation from the progressives who want real change.

Meanwhile, and most significantly, FFA came under pressure this season from world governing body Fifa to change its governance model and the makeup of its congress; a change that will potentially give the A-League clubs more decision-making powers. FFA has agreed to overhaul its congress but, as yet, despite a 31 March Fifa-imposed deadline, and despite a number of fractious meetings between FFA and key stakeholders – which include nine state and territory-based federations, the newly formed Association of Australian Football Clubs (the representative body of National Premier League clubs), and Professional Footballers Australia – consensus has yet to be achieved.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sydney FC’s Jordy Buijs celebrates scoring during the semi-final against Perth Glory at Allianz Stadium in April. Photograph: Steve Christo/Corbis via Getty Images

Forget Jordy Buijs’ hairstyle, forget Ange Postecoglou’s vigorous sweat glands, the governance of the game in Australia has become the biggest issue in football and until it’s sorted out it’s hard to see football casting off its much-touted “sleeping giant” status to become, as has so often been predicted, the dominant professional sport in Australia.

Then again … and here’s a thought … what if that never happens? What if (whisper it) the A-League, despite its nice big stride, avuncular manner, and football’s jumpsquiffling impact at grassroots level, never outgrows the highest notch on the doorframe of Australian sport?

Stakeholder squabbling

On the eve of the A-League grand final the Guardian asked Gallop his thoughts on the season just finished. Was it a success and, if so, by what measures? He may have merely been getting his thoughts in order but his long initial pause seemed significant; particularly when his first comment was to then express his delight that the championship decider would be played between the two top teams in the league before a sell-out crowd. You can hardly blame him, but it was the answer of a politician.

Gallop then expressed his delight at the Australian Sports Commission’s AusPlay report which showed that football, with 1.1 million participants, was far and away the most popular club-based sport in Australia. He mentioned, too, that record club memberships were set across the A-League, partly in response, he said, to the “You’ve Gotta Have a Team” marketing campaign featuring Yoshi. This, he said, was part of FFA’s endeavour to “connect those grassroots participants to the A-League and W-League”.

But, as mentioned, it was hardly smooth sailing in 2016-17. Even the signing of a new, $346m, six-year broadcast agreement with Fox Sports for 2017-2018 onwards was undermined by FFA’s failure to attract bids from commercial, free-to-air broadcasters for a Saturday night game. And as yet, no free-to-air partner has been secured.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest FFA CEO David Gallop. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

Then, of course, there’s the issue of governance reform which, by the by, has delayed FFA’s release of A-League expansion criteria. And it’s an issue, as a senior football administrator involved in governance talks told the Guardian, that doesn’t look like being sorted out any time soon. “There hasn’t been enough dialogue and enough exchange of information between clubs, state federations, FFA and players to arrive at a structure that does the game justice,” he said. In fact, he continued, “There’s a complete absence of goodwill and information exchange.”

So what does Gallop make of the governance issue? Does the A-League clubs’ demand for a greater share of power, revenue, and decision-making constitute a revolt? “One of the most significant decisions of the season has been the commitment to move to a new operating model for the A-League, to look to make an adjustment to the governance of the game to promote investment both from our current owners and provide the opportunity to grow the league beyond 10 teams with new investors,” Gallop says.

But, again, does the push by clubs for a greater say in the running of the game feel like a revolt? “No. Because that’s something we embrace as a good idea for the business of the game. There will always be squabbles with stakeholders about how the funding is divvied up but I think it’s very significant that we’re looking at a model that will change the shape of that.”

As for what such a model will look like, Gallop says “it’s too early to say”.

Gallop goes on to say that the FFA “recognises that the current model may not necessarily encourage the kind of investment we need both for our current clubs and any new investors”. He does feel, however, that for all the competing agendas, everyone involved in football has the same vision for the game. “I think they do, but it’s a matter of being able to fund it.”

‘It’s important to be aspirational’

Before the start of the 2013-14 season Gallop declared football (by which he seemed to mean the A-League) would one day become the largest and most popular sporting code in the country. This is something we’ve heard many times before. Back in 1985, former player and then Canberra City Olympians president, Charles Perkins, spoke of football being “the sleeping giant” of Australian sport. Tellingly, perhaps, a disillusioned Perkins – who was resigning from his post at the time – added the game would never wake from its slumber “unless there is a dramatic change in the leadership and administration of soccer” in Australia.

Game of Thrones has nothing on football in Australia when it comes to internecine bickering and drama.

Gallop doesn’t shy away from his prediction today but he says such a scenario is still a long way off. Given that, does he think historical and present day predictions of the game’s future pre-eminence have become a stick used by outsiders, and even insiders, to beat the A-League when it doesn’t show year-in, year-on growth? Or when attendances, for example, are stuck around the 12,000 mark (never mind that that would place the A-League comfortably within the top 10 average attendances in Europe)? Or when the A-League, as happened during summer, is significantly out-rated by Big Bash cricket and even, on occasions, by the fledgling ALFW?

“It’s important to be aspirational,” he says. “I do think the game has that potential, but it’s decades away from that kind of position.”

Speaking of aspirations, of FFA’s vision for the game, Gallop says its first step will be to move to 12 teams – although it is yet to release A-League licence expansion criteria, a result of the governance negotiations dropping a spanner in the game’s cogs. After that, he says, a 14, even 16 team competition seems viable – “but that is long-term ambition,” he says, later clarifying that even a 12-team competition wouldn’t happen until after the new, still-in-negotiation operating model comes into effect for the 2018-19 season.

Promotion and relegation? “One day. It’s obviously not immediately viable but certainly one day you would like to think the game could support that kind of model. And I think equally importantly to continue to grow the W-League and the opportunities around women’s football.

Football has cause to be ambitious and optimistic about its future David Gallop

“Football has been a trailblazer with the W-League. We need to invest money and resources in pay and conditions so it’s an attractive option for female athletes.”

In terms of governance, Gallop believes FFA’s vision is more or less shared by the game’s stakeholders and, for that, “football has cause to be ambitious and optimistic about its future. [But] occasionally there are some in and around the game who are restless for overnight success and a sharper incline in growth than is sometimes possible in the crowded Australian sporting market.”

For all the death-riding and heavy sighing that football often attracts the game’s position in this astonishingly competitive market has certainly become more prominent since the contemporaneous formation of FFA and the launch of the A-League [both in 2005], the Socceroos’ drought-breaking World Cup appearance in 2006, and the launch of the W-League in 2008.

But, 12 seasons on, where does professional football go from here? Governance aside, it’s fairly clear that a larger share of the game’s one million-plus participants need to become fans of the A-League (and the W-League which has had a national league for nine seasons, though it has never received the moon-landing fanfare of the inaugural AFLW season). To go about this many emphasise the importance of getting more A-League on free-to-air television; more, that is, than a single game a week as it stands now. That said, Gallop believes a game a week in a five-game weekend is “realistic”. He adds, however: “When the competition is bigger than five games then of course there’s a better argument for a different mix of free-to-air and pay television.”

Notwithstanding the chicken and egg scenario it conjures, more A-League fans attending and watching increases the game’s chance of getting bigger and better revenues from future broadcast deals, which is the No1 driver of revenue.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brisbane Roar had an average gate of 14,152 in 2016-17, the fourth highest in the league. Photograph: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Another important factor is marketing but, as the senior administrator points out, “When revenue is limited, when capital investment is limited, there’s no discretionary money to go into marketing and growth related initiatives”.

He wonders, too, what FFA has been doing to market “its commercial properties to its participants”. If they do have a plan in operation it’s not working. If they don’t have a plan, why not?”

Professor Russell Hoye of La Trobe University, a specialist in sports marketing and management, points out that FFA is in the difficult position of “having to juggle the needs and desires of for-profit, privately owned clubs against not-for-profit federations” but he believes that A-League clubs need more input in decision making, which could be improved by “moving to an independent board with FFA as a stakeholder.” It “wasn’t a good look,” Hoye adds, when the FFA “handed down the chair position from father [Frank Lowy] to son [Steven Lowy]”.

Then, he says, stifling growth, is the matter of a lack of bespoke football stadiums in Australia and the work that needs to be done to establish better pathways from grassroots football to the A-League.

Growing pains

And as we ponder all this, football fans, even the zealots with their Johnny Warren scapulars and proselytising zeal, should pause to consider the possibility that football will never be the No1 professional code in Australia. Not because it’s not a wonderful game – as its place in the heart of the world attests – nor because the AFL and NRL are simply too big to topple, but because the best players in the world, and the best Australian players in the world, will always be playing somewhere else.

Could it be that a kind of cultural cringe will hold the game back? That potential fans will always be looking over the A-league’s shoulder? Not only at other codes on offer, but more glamorous football leagues overseas?

Lou Sticca isn’t convinced by this. A football entrepreneur, agent, and former founder and CEO of Carlton Soccer Club, Sticca believes football’s attraction hinges on entertainment and tribalism. “The 40,000 people that attended the grand final, they went there for the entertainment,” he says. “They didn’t walk in thinking, ‘I’m only watching second rate players’ or ‘it’s not the Premier League’. They didn’t care. You think the fans that came up from Melbourne cared about [the relative standard of play on offer]? They were invested. The fans we’ve got are committed. What we don’t have is enough fans. We’ve got to grow the game.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The 2017 A-League grand final finished in dramatic circumstances as Sydney FC beat Melbourne Victory on penalties. Photograph: Jason McCawley/Getty Images

To talk to Sticca, to listen to his lectern-thumping positivity, is to be reminded, conversely, how much sky-is-falling negativity there is in football. He may be in the business of selling football but nevertheless he seems genuinely bullish about the future of the game in Australia. He points to, as evidence for optimism, Australia’s population growth and immigration from football loving countries. He highlights, too, the growing industry that surrounds the A-League, the growing number of people who earn a living from it and will consequently “protect the game and talk it up … as happens in AFL”.

I think that we’ve got many positives, many things to be happy about Lou Sticca

“I just put [problems and detractors] down to growing pains. No one is right, no one is wrong,” says Sticca. “The fact of the matter is, the A-League is just 12 years old and football wasn’t even in the mainstream before then. We now are in the mainstream. Let’s look at where we’ve come from, let’s look at where we are, and enjoy the fact we are a mainstream sport. Football has never had the media penetration, the sponsorship, the TV exposure that we now have. So I think that we’ve got many positives, many things to be happy about.”

What needs to happen, he says, if football is to continue to grow, is to better tap into those grassroots participants. “To get a bigger slice of the population invested in the sport, you need to have expansion. When we expand, more teams will create a bigger industry, it will create more fans, and that in itself will help the A-League grow. A second division will help the game grow. The more people that are invested in the game the more it will mean to more people.

“I’ve been involved in the NSL,” Sticca adds. “I’ve transitioned across from the old to the new. I know where we’ve come from. Let me tell you; where the game is today, for all its problems, we’re in a very good spot and we’re well–positioned to continue to grow and to weave into the fabric of Australian sport and society. You can’t buy history. The only way you can achieve history is to be around long enough.”