The resources and power of Sheikh Mansoor makes this deal a seismic moment for the A-League
Tom Smithies, Analysis The Daily Telegraph January 23, 2014 10:01AM
IF you want to understand the seismic changes to the landscape of the A-League this morning, then you need to understand the sheer power of the resources and vision that have been thrown behind Melbourne Heart.
Manchester City's billionaire owner, Sheikh Mansoor, has sunk a fortune into the club since buying it in 2008, and while a lot of it has undoubtedly gone on buying star players, many more millions have been spent City's youth development plans.
Nearly 18 months ago, this correspondent reported from the scene of a huge campus being built on reclaimed land next to City's stadium, with every one of the club's youth teams down to age 8 training at the same hi-tech facilities.
What City's purchase of an A-League club does is open up that resource to the players and coaching staff of Melbourne Heart, and bind the Australian entity into a global beast with consistent philosophies on how the game should be played.
So while the initial focus will undoubtedly be on the future of coach John van't Schip and his players, in the background there will quickly be money spent substantially on the creation of a Heart academy, with a dedicated head coach who reports to a similar figure at City.
The youth teams at Heart, New York City and Manchester City will all be mandated to play in the same way. The Heart first team will get to spend part of their pre-season training at City's campus in Manchester.
"We get locked into players, that's the epicentre of everything, but there's a lot of people that work at a football club," muses City's academy director Brian Marwood. "Why not get the benefit of their experience?
"The cross fertilisation of ideas and experiences is huge, whether it's a player, coach, physio or masseur. We want people to experience all kind of opportunities."
For the A-League as a whole, this is also a seminal day. One of the giants of world football has effectively put millions of dollars behind its judgment that Australian football has enough growth potential to warrant investment but also is enough of a first-world league. Many more shirts could be sold in other parts of Asia, but none offer the "stable environment" - their words - in which City want to do business.
With Football Federation Australia also believed to be less than three weeks away from announcing the sale of Western Sydney Wanderers, it's a tumultuous start to 2014 for the A-League.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/footbal...-for-the-aleague/story-e6frf423-1226808309758
