Once the envy of every football club in Australia, Perth Glory is now at is lowest ebb and is a club in turmoil. Back in the early days of the current millennium, Perth Glory set the benchmark for football teams here in Australia. During the dying days of the now defunct NSL it had the crowds, the money, the results and the professionalism that most teams east of the Western Australian capital could only dream about. Fast forward to the 2008/09 A-League season and after seven rounds, this once proud club is now sitting at the foot of the table and come the end of Round 21, it wouldn’t surprise this author to find them still there.

They also have the ignominy of being the worst performed Australian team in the brief history of the A-League, having finished the last two seasons in seventh position. The paltry crowd of four and a half thousand in their last home game clearly had Ben Buckley and FFA worried and this week it didn’t get any better with their insipid performance last weekend against league leaders, Melbourne which had co-owner Tony Sage vowing to “cut the cancer” from the club’s playing group. But what should the FFA do with a problem like Perth Glory?

In part, a lot of the Glory’s current predicament can be placed fairly at the feet of those who are running the club on and off the field. As one commentator put it simply in today The Age:

“On this sort of performance the Glory barely merits a place in the A-League, and Football Federation Australia must surely be casting worried eyes west wondering how much the club’s recent insipid performances have damaged the game in a marketplace in which soccer used to be a big deal. But that was in the past, when the Glory was like an A-League team playing in the old, underfunded National Soccer League. Now it is like an NSL team playing in the more professional A-League.”

Disastrous signings and an exodus of quality players has contributed to the Glory’s poor on field performance which in turn has lead to dwindling crowd numbers. Names such as Brian Deane, Jorge Drovandi, Mate Dragicevic and both Steve McMahon Jr and Snr would make most Glory fans cringe. Whilst most teams have learnt from their recruiting mistakes, the Glory administration seems to not have learnt anything at all. Whilst the recruitment of Dadi and Amaral are an improvement on previous imports, their age limits them to being any more than an attempt at a quick fix and not a long term solution. Also one must question their recruitment of local players, many of them whom appear not up to A-League standard.

When looking at the dwindling crowd numbers, some finger of blame can and should also be pointed at the FFA. Their failure to acknowledge the club’s NSL history prior to the beginnings of the A-League has put a number of long term fans offside. It also appears that the FFA’s introduction of the Home End Membership has had an impact on “The Shed”, which up until this season was one of the league’s most dedicated and vocal supporter groups. As one fan puts it:

“The Shed was once the envy of every other club in Australia with its supporters passionate and the atmosphere it provided almost magical. Even the past players would agree that there was a relationship between player and fan. Go back to your roots Glory, don’t expect people to follow if they do not like the direction you are heading.”

Constant sniping between the FFA and the Perth Glory administation is also not helping matters along with the FFA’s subtle threat to use or lose it after the Glory’s recent poor crowds. In a national competition, the FFA cannot afford to be without a team from the largest state in Australia and most certainly won’t have the crowds (and those long term fans rushing back) with threats. The FFA should also acknowledge the past history of a club that was once the benchmark of all footballs in Australia and the template for the professionalism that now exists in the A-League.

The Glory administration must also take a serious look at the way that it runs the club at all levels, from players right through to the coach and the treatment of fans. It must bite the bullet and admit that they have stuffed it up so far and bring back some of the professionalism that has been lacking. They must look long term and not short term. It will be a difficult time for all involved, especially the fans, but the club must change the way it does things and the results should follow, along with those passionate fans.

Neil Zimmerman is the editor of the84thminute and also runs the Victory In Melbourne site. On most weekends Neil can be found at a football match, be it either A-League, Victorian Premier League or a match that he happens to come across whilst walking his dogs.