Australian Professional Leagues (APL) chief executive Danny Townsend doesn’t envisage the A-League Men (ALM) adding further major marquee names ahead of its new season, but has said the luring of high-profile signings remains a part of its strategy moving forward.
Coming off a season in which significant COVID headwinds and a series of self-acknowledged “own goals” compounded waning fan interest, Townsend revealed in May that the APL had drawn up a list of 35 “world-class” players it would target in the offseason in order to put “bums on seats.”
Marquee names had been hit in miss in recent times, Daniel Sturridge‘s calamitous period with Perth Glory in 2021-22 an example of the latter, but in concert with the leagues’ investment in a digital arm, a COVID-restriction-free season, and its newfound independence from Football Australia, the belief was that it was in a much stronger…
