A-League side Melbourne Victory Chair Anthony Di Pietro said that the coming A-League season, "the last under the expiring broadcasting deal, is a major fork in the road," according to Michael Lynch of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Di Pietro, who runs the "best supported and most successful club in the league," has challenged Football Federation Australia CEO David Gallop to lift the game's revenue streams and "show a pathway for the game's continued growth and development." Di Pietro: "The clubs are finding their voices and challenging themselves and the FFA to find a better way forward for what is clearly the engine room of the game (the A-League) in Australia." It was a "none too subtle hint that the A-League's 10 team owners" are expecting Gallop and his negotiating team to not only gain an increase on the game's existing A$40M ($30.5M)-a-year broadcast deal but "ensure that a bigger share of it is channelled back into the clubs that underpin the game." Di Pietro also stressed the importance of ensuring that the league is broadcast into as many homes as possible, "making it clear that he and clubs believe that a strong deal with a free-to-air broadcaster or media platform that can deliver widespread coverage should be an important component" of any new agreement (SMH, 10/5).
