Season of sport in Australia. Image credit: AdobeStock
First up would be OMFG Trail Running Festival on the 30th Jan already postponed from the 9th Jan at the John Forrest National Park in Western Australia, the Australian Open in Melbourne due to start February 8th, Australian Rowing Championships on the 25th March and the Formula 1 race at Albert Park which in a normal season would be March is now pushed back to Nov 2021.
Since December, we have had the A-league of course, and this season kicked off at the same time as the Women’s league, crucial to raise the profile of the W-League in advance of the 2023 World Cup which Australia will co-host. So, with a crammed fixture list, you can get your fix of 3 or 4 soccer games a week.
Now in its 16th year, we take a closer look at the A-League and some of the latest transfers coming out of the Hyundai sponsored Australian league.
The professional football league in Australia has survived many a scare in its 16 years. Not least teams getting kicked out, scandals, and this year the wrangling over a new broadcast deal with Fox. Now able to focus on growth, there is talk of expanding the competition from 12 to 16 teams and also adding a 2nd division so that there will be promotions and relegations to play for. This would also give a vital boost to transfers and player trading in the domestic game.
Right now, many players leave for free and typically go to bigger European clubs, even the J-League in Japan. Last year, the clubs in the A-League generated only 1.9m USD in transfer fees, that is not even a 15th of what Japanese clubs turned over in 2020 and in Asia, even Korean clubs turned over 26.6m USD.
With more youth academies and homegrown talent coming out of local sides, the A-league should be able to benefit from bigger transfer fees and reinvestment of that money. Let’s look at some of the biggest moves for this season.
Staying up to date with football transfers is easy these days thanks to a variety of social media and sports websites dedicated to following the latest movement of players between football clubs. Some of the best football transfers resources are sites that offer streams You can read their news blogs with transfer info and tune into streams they recommend and stream match of the Day, BBC sports, BskyB rounds up, ESPN football pundits, and more.
Adelaide’s forward line has been reinforced by Tomi Juric coming from CSKA Sofia for free and the 2 biggest exits are James Troisi going to rival Western Sydney and Riley McGee going to the MLS. At Melbourne City, there has been a high-profile import from England’s Burnley FC Aiden O’ Neil who should add some steel to their midfield and what looks like a major shakeup of the midfield after Denis Genreau, Ramy Najjarine, and Joshua Brillante all departed.
Melbourne Victory also added some English players from lower divisions in Goalkeeper Max Crocombe, Striker Ben Folame, Defender Ryan Shotton and journeyman Jacob Butterfield who played for Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough, and Derby before coming to Australia.
Sydney hasn’t done much in the transfer market and may not have reinforced enough to make a good defence of their title. Other than some U21 youths making the step up to the first team, their business has been restricted to a 35-year-old Brazilian Bobo and Adam Le Fondre from the Indian League and he is only on loan until the end of this season.