A-Leagues turn to TikTok in bid to ‘supercharge’ football’s appeal to younger fans | A-League Men

A-League clubs will become the “shop window” for core fans, while the Australian Professional Leagues will “supercharge” the broader appeal of football as part of a new vision for the competition due to be unveiled next month.

The A-League Men enjoyed a promising first round over the weekend, and commissioner Nick Garcia said a new overarching strategy will be presented to the APL board once the directors are appointed at the November AGM.

“Our job at the league is not really about talking to core fans, apart from when it comes to our own events, they’re the clubs’ fans. No one’s a fan of ‘the A-League’, right? I’m not deluded,” he said. “But our job is to bring in new fans into the top of the funnel.”

Garcia said one of the strengths of the A-Leagues is the passion at the bottom of its “funnel”, a marketing metaphor where a wide array of casual fans at the top are funnelled towards being more committed at the bottom.

“We [the APL] are going to be very ‘top of funnel-focused’ as we go forward. As an example, that could be about doing campaigns on TikTok – which we will do by the way – because we know that young fans consume there, and they are new fans we can pull in,” he said. “Modern Australia, this young fan base, that’s going to become really important.”

TikTok Australia’s general manager for business Brett Armstrong said the platform would “continue to work with the A-League”.

Marco Tilio was on the scoresheet for Melbourne City on the opening weekend of football. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

The APL’ head office reduced its head count and cut annual funding to clubs by $1.5m this year, and Mariners’ chair Richard Peil handed back the Central Coast licence to his predecessor Mike Charlesworth this month, citing financial pressures.

But two sell-outs in Auckland and Parramatta on the weekend show the competition – at least in some locations – has maintained its appeal. Channel 10’s broadcast of Saturday’s Sydney derby reached 464,000 viewers on secondary channel 10 Bold, according to VirtualOz. Among viewers aged 16 to 38, it reached 103,000 – placing it seventh across all programs for the day, and Channel 10’s top performer.

“What can we lean into that’s going to fundamentally change the game, grow the league, grow the sport in Australia?”, Garcia said. “We’ve got some ideas on that.”

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Garcia said it will be important in coming years to improve how the league works with clubs on the basics of running the competition, including developing the product and attracting investment. “We’re now a much smaller team than we were, and how we work in the ‘league and club’ model to really drive that, and all be aligned on the same objective,” he said. “The second thing is, what are we doing outside of that to supercharge the league through standing up major initiatives that could change the game.”

Garcia said consultation with the game’s stakeholders – including clubs, Football Australia, Professional Footballers Australia and fan representative groups – has been important in developing the vision.

“I think APL in past administration has been accused of sitting in an ivory tower, building a massive workforce, and almost dictating to the clubs,” he said. “I don’t see it that way, I see us now as a a real ‘club and league’ model, when our job is to sit behind the clubs and enable them. They’re our shop window, they’re who the fans support.”

Sydney FC owner Scott Barlow has stepped down from the APL board and will need to be replaced at the November meeting. Garcia said an independent director will also be appointed once the board has been elected, based on the mix of skills of the other directors. Former Labor senator Stephen Conroy was appointed the inaugural independent chair last year.

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