The Isuzu UTE A-League has been identified as the most competitively balanced league in Asia, with “a range of positive trends” since the Australian Professional League (APL’s) takeover increasing the investment in young players and strengthening contract stability.
Professional Footballers Australia (PFA’s) annual A-League Men report found investment from clubs in player payments returned to pre-pandemic levels last season, with the competition rebounding from the financial impact of COVID-19 to provide longer player contracts and put sustained focus on youth development.
Key findings: PFA A-League Men report 2021-22
- The A-League Men leads all other Asian competitions for providing opportunities for young talent
- The competition is the most competitively balanced league in Asia
- Investment into player payments has returned to pre-pandemic levels
- The establishment of a five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has resulted in a downward trend in player churn
The PFA’s annual report comes as excitement builds ahead of kick-off to the 2022-23 season on Friday, October 7, when champions Western United host premiers Melbourne City in a Grand Final rematch.
The report found the A-League Men leading all rival AFC domestic leagues for fielding players aged 21 or under, sitting eighth on a list of 60 leagues from around the world.
Meantime, the league’s average age dropped to the lowest in competition history (25) over the past three seasons, with 42% of match minutes earned by players aged under 25.
The 2021-22 campaign was one in which clubs invested $52million into player payments, up almost $14m from the season prior, whilst the percentage of players coming off contract at the start of the 2021-22 campaign was the lowest recorded in eight seasons (down from 68% the season prior to 48%).
The report also identified the A-League Men’s on-field product as the most competitively balanced league in the AFC, with an even distribution of quality throughout the 12 teams leading to the tightest points spread on the 2021-22 ALM table recorded in the past 10 years, closer than any other top league throughout Asia.
The improvements in youth development, investment from clubs, on-field product and contract length came with a challenge outlined in the report by the PFA: for the A-Leagues to nurture the sustained development of young players both on and off the pitch.
After the recent emergence of players including Kye Rowles, Garang Kuol, Bernardo Oliveira and Nestory Irankunda who have all flourished into talented young players via the A-League Men, this task is taking on new weight heading into the 2022-23 campaign.
The PFA conducted their annual research through both player feedback and data analysis collected from statistical data source InStat, the CIES Football Observatory and FIFA, as well as a research partnership with Twenty First Group, and are encouraged by the findings that lay “solid foundations to build and capitalise on” in the future.
PFA co-chief executive Beau Busch says the finding’s of last season’s report show how the five-year CBA struck in late-2021 is already bearing fruit, as the players thrive under a stable working environment where opportunities are given to young players to shine.
“The objective of agreeing to a five-year CBA was to provide both a genuine partnership between the players and the clubs and crucially to provide the professional game with a stable platform to rebuild the industry,” Busch said.
“Encouragingly, we continue to see a range of positive trends in relation to increased investment in players, the emergence of a host of talented players and improved contractual stability.
“Whilst these are welcomed signs, there remains much to do to establish the professional game in this country and this report provides the evidential basis to assess our progress as a football nation and benchmark ourselves against our international rivals.”
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