Open letter, closed communication (guest post)

This post was originally published on Manny blog.

For the last three months I have been lost in the NST desert, wandering aimlessly across the baron internet praying for a drop of news about the proposed competition. The other night I fell hard for yet another mirage, this time in the form of South Melbourne’s open letter to the football community.

The letter described South’s historical achievements and the challenges it has faced in attempting to return to national football competition. Most Importantly though, it implored the FA to proceed with its proposed second division.

A letter, and its online reaction

The heavy handed self-aggrandising in the letter’s introduction was tough to read. Party because I came off a little conceited, but mostly because I knew how certain sections of the internet would react to it. Scanning comments on r/aleague confirmed my expectations with some partisan anti-south posters quick to dismiss the letter, and choose instead to rant about South’s arrogance.

I really get triggered by this kind of discourse and feel it reveals the unsavory biases of some commenters. Some of these people still reflect an anti-ethnic agenda, some of these people have been triggered by years of SMFCMike posting, and some of these people simply personify the worst of Australia’s tall poppy syndrome.

I’m not looking for pro-South comments though (there’s plenty of one-eyed fan accounts, and even one anti-A-League ex-Head of the A-League). What I am hoping for is genuine discussion. The NSD is such a fascinating project that could (and has to an extent) trigger interesting conversation, unfortunately though it is more often then not used by some to espouse hateful and unchanging views.

Over time I’ve come to see a deterioration of authentic online conversation regarding Australian football. There are many reasons for this, but the conclusion is the same – feeding into these conversations never changes much, except to solidify your own bias. The recent discourse served a reminder to get off my computer and get outside.

A letter, and its offline message

Outside of the chronically online Australian Sokkah bubble though, I anticipate the letter’s impact to be more effective. Before the reaching the crux of the letter, it’s worth mentioning the importance of the self-aggrandising introduction. It may have come off as arrogant, but everything in the letter was substantiated. South Melbourne has produced Socceroos, Matildas and won National titles. This context emphasised the club’s continued contribution to Australian football culture and contextualised the main point of this communication – which is a plea to the governing body to treat the club, and other like it, with a respect that it hasn’t necessarily received until now.

In the letter, South outlines that it has continued to work with administrators since being relegated to the State Leagues. It has been knocked back from the A-League multiple times, without receiving a clear explanation as to what it can do to achieve ascension. It has facilitated A-League clubs to host Youth and Women’s matches at its venue, despite having the power to prevent this. It has continued to achieve success at State and Community level, despite no transfer market nor on-field ascension available to the club to support this.

But after 20 years at State Level, this delayed NSD process once again leaves the club in the dark about its future. Back in 2004, the delayed acceptance of South Melbourne into the VPL nearly left the club financially ruined, but it fought tooth and nail to keep going. In 2024 the delayed NST process may leave the club spiritually ruined and this letter shows the club is again willing to stand up for its future.

South’s noise is only in response to the FA’s silence, and at the very least the club deserves enough respect to receive a update – from a governing body it has worked in partnership with, in good faith, for two decades.

What this says about the FA

This call for respect goes beyond South’s own needs though. Seven other foundation clubs are also being left in the dark, as are the entire football pyramids of Victoria and NSW. At different points during this process, the clubs, State Federations, the APL, and the PFA have gone to the media about being left in the dark regarding the NSD. The silence from the FA, following a commitment to start a H&A competition in 2025, is starting to generate mistrust and ill-will towards and organisation which just year ago appeared to be turning a corner. This letter should not just be seen as a South Melbourne issue, but an indicator about the FA’s broader communication and stakeholder management.

The NSD process has been marred with issues, but it has also provided an invaluable, if not sobering, learning experience about Australian Football politics. It has revealed opposition from State Federations (FQ and FT), the difficulty of managing conflicts of interest (the APL) as well as the challenges of balancing different perspectives (the PFA). More than anything it has shown the power of inertia and the difficulty in changing the status quo of a complex political and economic ecosystem. A deterioration in the wider economy has only served to exacerbate the pressures working against the establishment of the NSD, however none of this – none of this – provides reason enough for the NSD foundation clubs to find themselves out of the loop.

Delays, political issues, economic feasibility and even model adjustments would be bitterly accepted by clubs, but accepted nevertheless, if the FA could show them, and take them, on a clear path. However, rather than collaborate, the FA has created a communication vacuum which has been filled with stakeholder frustration and doubt instead. Even if it were to be found that the NSD was economically unviable, the FA needs to understand that respect is free, and clubs like South deserve at least that.

We wait again

On Sunday night 3XY’s State Soccer Program featured SMFC’s president. There he echoed his frustrations and revealed that foundations clubs will be meeting with the FA in Sydney to get an update on the project. Was this meeting sparked by the letter? Either way the outlook doesn’t look good. At at least there is confirmation about some sort of communication.

This process has been slow and frustrating. I think saddest of all though it how conflicted Australian football is. I applaud James Johnson for trying to push forward with a clear vision for Australian Football, one that has been bought into by most of the community, however the pace of developing the Domestic Transfer System and the NSD formation process have gone to show that the biggest issues with Australian football are not necessarily economic, but rather political. The ever changing board and member voting compositions do not lend themselves to long term planning or alignment, so that even the best management team can be prevented from pushing through on plans.

Where this NSD ends up I don’t know. I’ll be waiting for the next update.