20 Apr “Gone nowhere”: Socceroos greats’ grave concerns for Australian football

Members of the Socceroos’ “golden generation” have voiced their concerns at the current state of Australian football.

Mark Viduka, Mark Schwarzer, John Aloisi, Craig Moore, Vince Grella and Josip Skoko took part in an Optus Sport Facebook live debate and did not hold back in assessing the game – on and off the pitch.

“Gone nowhere,” Skoko said, when asked what has Australian football done in the past ten years.

“Things have gone up and down but on the whole, we aren’t getting more players into Europe, we’re not developing better players, I don’t think the quality of the A-League is improving, I don’t think the quality of the national team is improving.”

The former Wigan midfielder also questioned the lack of passion in the A-League, calling for a promotion/relegation system to be introduced.

“I think there’s no passion in the A-League,” Skoko said.

“It’s a problem. You need a second league, you need promotion and relegation.”

John Aloisi agreed with Skoko’s suggestion of restructuring the competition.

"We're celebrating mediocrity. If you are finishing last and nothing happens, what's the point of that?” Aloisi said.

Craig Moore feels the A-League is “not an exciting product” and believes all competitions across Australia should run concurrently.

"It's (Australian football) at a crossroads," Moore said.

"The product we've seen over the last few years has not been an exciting product, so there's a lot of uncertainty about the future of the game.

"The seasons currently cross over and it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever in terms of the progression of players, and the flow from second-tier NPL football to the professional ranks.

"So I think the whole of football in this country must be played at the same time and this as good a time as any to get all of the stakeholders together to discuss what that looks like."