What the A-League can learn from Uzbekistan

Former A-League midfielder Steven Lustica is locked in a relegation battle in Uzbekistan but believes the promotion and relegation system is something Australian football should embrace.

Steve Lustica in 2017 celebrates scoring for the Wanderers. Source: Getty Images

Lustica, who joined Qizilqum Zarafshon in July, is fighting to keep his Uzbek club in the country’s top flight. After 22 rounds the Red Sands sit in 11^th spot in the 14-team competition, just one point above 12^th-placed Kokand 1922 in the relegation zone.

Lustica has been relishing the experience of trying to keep Qizilqum Zarafshon up, and feels its one the A-League needs to replicate to help improve players.

“Of course I like it as you’ve got that added pressure to perform and to get the points,” he told The World Game.

“It’s a different feeling when you know you’re in a relegation battle – if there’s no relegation you sort of, you’re not really thinking about it. But this way there’s added pressure to get results.

“The A-League definitely needs it. A second division would be ideal with a promotion and relegation system.

“Every country in the world has it, except for Australia, the USA and a few others, but the main countries in the world all have relegation and promotion. I see that as the path for Australian football in the future.”

 

Lustica was named in the Team of the Week in the Uzbekistan Super League last week. The former Western Sydney Wanderers and Brisbane Roar is thriving in the pressure-cooker atmosphere to get results and enjoying his time in the Asian nation.

“Everything’s been going well,” the 28-year-old.

“The club is all good. We’re towards the bottom of the ladder, but we’ve got a few good results in the past few weeks, which have helped. When I came in we were sitting like second-last, or something like that. 

“But we’ve managed to get a few good results in the past few weeks and now we’ve got five games left, hopefully we can get some more results.

“We’re now out of the relegation zone, which is good. So with five games left hopefully we can get some more wins.”

“I’ve been playing every week, I scored the winner last week when we won 2-1 away. It’s all been going well.

“It’s a very high standard of football in Uzbekistan, there’s a lot of technical players here. They’ve got a lot of Russian and Uzbek players who are very skillful, nippy and sharp.

“Probably the physical side, the A-League is maybe a faster tempo. But over here the technical side, all the players here are very technically gifted. The standard’s quite high, I was quite surprised when I arrived.”

A number of Australians have played in the cashed-up Uzbekistan Super League in recent years, including Rostyn Griffiths and David Carney.

“The league’s got a lot of money,” he said.

“It’s getting bigger and bigger each year.”