Western Sydney Wanderers success shows weakness of A-League

[jack_spain]

After winning the Premiership Plate by a country mile in their first season (because the Mariners and Victory lost form at the business end of the season) and now setting up a place in the grand final after beating last year's champions Brisbane, the Wanderers story sounds like a fairy tale.

They also have the loudest and consistently largest group of dedicated supporters that follow them at all games home and away. Sorry Victory, you might get larger crowds on the whole, but WSW have the more dedicated supporters. The noise they made last night was genuinely frightening.

But let me provide a fly in the ointment. The Wanderers success highlights the inherent weakness of the A-League. The Mariners were literally hours away from folding financially this season, and the Melbourne Heart might be next on the endagered list. Averaging just over 6,000 fans a game (and how many of those were freebies?) they won't be able to sustain the pace against Victory for the relatively small number of soccer fans in this state. Mind you Victory has to worry too. I can remember when Victory drew crowds of over 50,000 at Etihad and had more members than some of their larger crowds this season (i.e. 25,000). They'd be lucky to have a membership half that now.

The Wanderers success is due to the fact the A-League finally realised that soccer heartland lies in the western suburbs. Sydney FC is the historical mistake. Western Sydney should have been first cab off the rank years ago. As it was, despite all the hype surrounding Del Piero, Sydney FC missed the finals and apart from the crowds of the derbies, attendances were poor (especially when you are paying the Italian star over million dollars a season).

The Wanderers success this year is meritorious, but FFA shouldn't be crowing. If the A-League were so healthy a brand new club would have no chance of winning first up. It's a bit embarrassing really to have the Wanderers showing everybody up like this.

No wonder Australia is struggling to qualify for the next World Cup. No wonder our teams regularly get booted in the Asian Champions League. We just ain't good enough on the world stage.