Money or your shirt?

These days, the A-League average (salary) is more than $100,000 — a marked increase in a few short years on the sort of wages that were offered (and often not paid by bankrupt clubs) in the old National Soccer League.

Michael Lynch writing in The Age looks at where the A-League can source their next players from. He points to Africa, Asia, including Thailand as a promising recruitment zone.

And while everyone tells you our wages can't compete with Japan, China, and of course Europe or even USA, remember Fred, maybe it's also time to recognise the A-League place in the Australian sporting market.

$100,000 salary average puts the players easily on a par with the National Rugby League and of course John Aloisi, Mile Sterjovski, Craig Moore, Robbie Fowler and many more would be on salaries far higher than most if not all NRL players running around at suburban clubs in Sydney.

And broadly, Union players would be comparable to the A-League due to Wallabies contracts, but only AFL at the top end paying a larger number of players in their squads more than $500,000.

So the message is clear for football in Australia; football is as lucrative a profession as any other football code after just 4 years, and of course only football, and to a lesser extent Union in Europe and maybe Japan, and League in UK, can offer an increased overseas wage.

Either way if it's about money, these days football is right in the mix, for Aussies playing in Australia.

And of course for the Union/League boys, a lucrative overseas contract at a young age means no Wallabies ticket. A dilemma football, it seems, has already solved.