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Ben Buckley was talking about having a knockout cup and the AFC forced him into thinking about a promotion and relegation system. I support both concepts, but if they’re not executed properly, they could be a flop.
Promotion/Relegation
This is the Mt Everest of the sport in Australia. It will take along time to do and to convince everyone of its merits. The English Pyramid System, where its goes from lads pub teams to Manchester United and Liverpool, will never work in Australia.
It’s too big to support, and if teams that work their way up from park football are too small to be viable A-league or second division clubs, we will be the laughing stock of the sporting world.
But there are other ways of doing it that could work in this country.
I take the example of the Scottish Football League. It has SPL at the top and three divisions below it.
That is too big to copy – I think two or maybe three (including the A-League) divisions is about as big as it can get here
However, there are elements we can copy, including that there is no direct promotion from non-league football.
You have to be voted in on criteria as set down by the league.
The numbers of clubs are about 10 to 12 per division and only one or two clubs get promoted to the next division.
I think clubs should not arbitrarily be voted out of the League because the damage could be too great to that club and the game’s image in that area.
Likewise, I think expelling A-League clubs to make up the numbers in the lower divisions is a political minefield that we shouldn’t go through
I think people will accept relegation if they aren’t good enough to survive, but not getting clubs relegated for no good reason.
Expansion of the league should be done in five year stages, which gives clubs that didn’t reach League standards five years to satisfy the FFA demands.
We should start with a second division with twelve teams, and if that is a success, introduce a third division.
I think the divisions should not get any bigger than twelve teams, otherwise we will be scraping around for teams.
This system will strengthen football in Australia not weaken it. It will give players a chance to develop themselves at a good level of football and not just be thrown into the deep end going from State leagues to the big time.
Also it will enrich football in Australia.
In the long term, it will enhance the idea of a local team and bring in new rivalries that will be an asset to the league.
Now for the second part, and arguably the easiest to implement in the short term.
A knock-out cup that involves A-League clubs and, in the absence of a football league, clubs from various State-based leagues.
As we know, the FA cup is one of the biggest football competitions in the world and the oldest.
The romance of the small team getting up there and pulling off an upset, and the general excitement of the Cup and the trip to Wembley makes that competition truly great.
Its something that we could do also.
I suggest that we have a regional-based qualifying system, like the FA Cup does.
Anyone can enter the FA Cup, but the smaller clubs get put into the regional qualifying. This makes the competition affordable and viable.
I believe this should be open to any club affiliated to the FFA.
Granted the FFA will have to subsidise travel. But with the money that is coming in, i think shouting plane tickets and putting a team up for a couple of nights shouldn’t be hard.
The final of this Cup could be open to a bidding process and the winning bid will have the final for one year before going on to the next place.
This might be pie in the sky to some people, but if you don’t have ambition to do more and stay conservative, you will eventually fade into insignificance against the more ambitious sports.
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