{"id":360736,"date":"2024-01-17T22:45:59","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T23:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360736"},"modified":"2024-01-18T04:04:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T04:04:00","slug":"a-leagues-imploding-as-slater-blasts-30m-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=360736","title":{"rendered":"A-Leagues imploding as Slater blasts $30m 'disaster'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Socceroos<\/a> great Robbie Slater blasted the Australian Professional Leagues management of the A-Leagues and football's broadcast deal with Channel 10, labelling the current state of domestic football a "disaster".\ufeff<\/p>\n

Following a report from The Sydney Morning Herald that stated close to 50 per cent of the job force at the Australian Professional Leagues will go<\/a>, along with the APL's digital and content arm 'KeepUp', a bewildered Slater, who was part of the former broadcast team at Fox Sports, took aim at the current administration for mishandling the promotion of the game.<\/p>\n

While the the Socceroos, Matildas and grassroots football are all on the uptick, the A-Leagues have not followed and have become a non-factor in the minds of sports fans across the country.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

The APL took on money from investment firm Silver Lake, to the tune of $US120 million, and spent over $30 million on its digital arm, with a fuming Slater telling 2GB's WWOS Radio <\/em>that had been an "abject failure".<\/p>\n

"Unless you're a football fan you wouldn't have heard of it," he said. "It's something that wasn't needed. The football news they were putting out you can get anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

"I've spoken to two owners, and they're absolutely filthy because decisions were made without the owners being informed. They're the ones who invested their money and put their trust in these people.<\/p>\n

"The Keep Up app reportedly cost $30 million. I've been informed by two IT experts that you can build an app that can do everything for $1 million.<\/p>\n

"Now I've heard it's more than 40 (million). How do you waste money on something like that and keep it going for three years and paying people exorbitant wages is beyond me."<\/p>\n

\"Jackson<\/p>\n

The A-League Men will expand to 14 teams next season with a new Auckland franchise, to be run by US billionaire and AFC Bournemouth owner Bill Foley, the only club confirmed.<\/p>\n

With more teams set to be introduced, Slater highlighted the lack of promotion of the A-League under its agreement with Channel Ten as a worrying sign for the league.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/wide-world-of-sports\/former-australian-soccer-player-robbie-slater-fire\/embed<\/a><\/p>\n

"I've got friends of mine who ask me has the A-League started? When I tell people I've got to go home and watch the game they say what game? It's embarrassing.\ufeff Nobody even knows it's on," he said.<\/p>\n

"How have you spent $120 million and you haven't even promoted the game? They just had Unite Round (the A-Leagues version of Magic Round).<\/p>\n

"I drove past about four buses the other day on the way to the city it had a sign on there for the BBL, Sixers against Thunder come and watch the game. You would have thought months ago you would have promoted Unite Round."<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/p>\n

The former Blackburn Rovers player, who was part of the EPL title winning side in 1995, also urged the FA to rethink its broadcast strategy surrounding the country's national teams.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Channel 10 last night, maybe I didn't see, but there were plenty of ads for the movie Gladiator but the Socceroos are playing tomorrow night, nobody knows," he said.<\/p>\n

"I don't know if this is true but I've heard Ten has a get out clause after this season. I'm hearing FA boss James Johnson is close to re-signing the Socceroos and Matildas to Channel 10.<\/p>\n

"That would be a big mistake. I'm hearing they're offering more money, that's short-sighted. If they sign with Channel 10 that would be a disgrace in my opinion."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Socceroos great Robbie Slater blasted the Australian Professional Leagues management of the A-Leagues and football's broadcast deal with Channel 10, labelling the current state of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":360738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360736"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360740,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360736\/revisions\/360740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/360738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}