It would seem that what I believe to be the biggest move from Football Federation Australia, in terms of club football, since the launch of the A-League has been missed by all and sundry. Over the weekend Michael Cockerill reported that Football Federation Australia had “set up a task force to investigate the viability of establishing a national second-tier competition within two years.”
Cockerill goes on to explain that, among other key points, the task force will look into promotion and relegation.
Personally I think it’s is a wonderful concept. In fact I think it’s absolutely necessary for the long-term success of the A-League.
The regularly mentioned ‘Battle of the Codes’ is something FFA and the A-League will always be faced with.
In my opinion the best way for the A-League to set itself apart and gain traction with the general public is by using every positive point of difference to it’s advantage.
An example of this is the recently scrapped pre-season cup. While FFA only dropped the tournament because A-League clubs weren’t keen on it, this decision has proven to be a massive boon in terms of media coverage and for fans.
The hole the pre-season tournament has left has been filled with tours from Fulham, Wolverhampton, Celtic and Shanghai Shenhua. I also understand that two other international clubs are still in negotiations to come to Australia with confirmation due in the next fortnight.
FFA didn’t realise it at the time but, by not towing the line with the NRL and AFL with a pre-season competition, it had used a point of difference with it’s rival competitions to gain valuable media exposure and breed excitement among fans.
Promotion and relegation would do a similar thing.
While the AFL media and fans would still be discussing whether a bottom four team should throw it’s last few games in hope of getting better draft picks, those who follow the A-League would be able to enjoy a run into the season where every game counts.
Imagine Sydney FC travelling to Melbourne Victory on the last match day of the season with one club vying for the title and the other for survival.
I’d rather watch that than the meaningless Carlton and Melbourne game at the end of the 2007 AFL Home and Away season.
On top of that, promotion and relegation will fend off the staleness which we saw infect season four of the A-League.
With one or two new clubs promoted to the A-League, each season squads and fixtures would get a shake up.
It would also enable FFA to bring the A-League in line with the rest of the world and drop the finals series.
The AFL and NRL need a finals series to keep excitement running because relegation and promotion aren’t possible. Nor do those competitions have the incentive of qualification for continental competitions (don’t even bother mentioning League’s world club challenge).
Meanwhile the FFA Cup, which is also under consideration by the national governing body, will fill the desire for knockout football.
Certainly there are many elements that need to be considered here and any roll out needs to be done gradually (bearing in mind the 2012 review of the Asian Champions League).
However, the thirst for these changes from the football public, and their benefits, can’t be ignored.
Lets hope FFA and this task force decide to stop expansion at 12 clubs and instead look to create a second division with relegation and promotion. One without the other is meaningless.
While this morning many are waking up for work (or calling in sick) tired from staying up to watch the end of the English Premier League, I’m hoping we can soon enjoy a similar experience at home in the A-League.
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The Answer said | May 25th 2009 @ 7:26am | Report comment
The NRL doesn’t have a preseason competition.
I’d be surprised if most A-League fans weren’t a fan of the finals concept.
Redb said | May 25th 2009 @ 8:43am | Report comment
” While the AFL media and fans would still be discussing whether a bottom four team should throw it’s last few games in hope of getting better draft picks, those who follow the A-League would be able to enjoy a run into the season where every game counts.”
- The AFL media and fans are focussing on the finals towards the end of the season not the wooden spoon.
“I’d rather watch that than the meaningless Carlton and Melbourne game at the end of the 2007 AFL Home and Away season. ”
- who wouldn’t, but instead AFL fans will be watching the AFL finals.
“magine Sydney FC travelling to Melbourne Victory on the last match day of the season with one club vying for the title and the other for survival.”
- P & R may work in England but Australia’s travel distances will make it very hard for a 2nd league to be sustainable. If either Sydney or Melbourne are at the bottom of the ladder no matter much interest you perceive would be in this do or die game , the damage to the club’s stature, crowds and Tv ratinfs throughout the season would in no way compensate.
Only the diehard fans would value it, all the bandwagoners would be long gone. Finals are part of the Australian sporting pysche not P & R which is part of the English pysche in what is a very small country dominated by one football code.
If the AFL used the VFL as a second division for Victorian AFL clubs, as soon as say North Melbourne was relegated it would lose it’s sponsors, merchandise sales and membership numbers (not completely lose fans), but the drop in revenue would kill the football department, players, coaches and administrator wages,etc in this market making it very difficult to rebuild. What makes you think a similiar outcome would not happen to an A League club.
Redb
Tom said | May 25th 2009 @ 8:47am | Report comment
We are a long, long way away from being able to run a viable second division.
I doubt there is a club in the A-league that could survive the financial shock of being relegated at this stage.
Promotion/relegation is an issue for the next generation to deal with.
Brian Munich said | May 25th 2009 @ 9:02am | Report comment
This is fairytale stuff. A romantic notion that flies totally in the face of economic reality. For goodness sakes, we’ve just had two A-league teams needing the league to bail them out financially. So we’ve not even proved that 8 teams are financially viable, before we go to 10 teams, and you want to duplicate the league into a second tier?
Does anyone have memories as long as mine that hark back to the bad old days of the NSL? 25 seasons of clubs on the brink, collapsing, ambitious clubs coming up from lower leagues and then falling over. One of the more “brave” experiments was the Northern and Southern divisions, which was simply an exercise in how unsustainable 20+ clubs would be at a national level.
We’d all love to subscribe to the pipe dream of promotion and relegation at the national level. But in our geographically-challenged country, one where we can barely sustain 16 financial clubs in a dominant code like AFL, can’t sustain a national basketball league and 25% of last season’s A-league clubs are in financial difficulty, talk of a second tier is quite ludicrous.
Millster said | May 25th 2009 @ 9:45am | Report comment
I am, as you all know, a football tragic and as a long-term vision I am thoroughly behind this type of concept.
But I joint those who don’t think it is realistic in the next decade. And I think we have to be very careful not to implement things too fast just to achieve outcomes at AFC level if this risks our domestic structure too much. In any case since when has 2 ACL spots out of 10 teams (ie 20% qualifying) not been sufficient?
I would prefer to see the first step in a more ‘linked up’ heirarchy of leagues being achieved through a Cup format which included state representation. I think that is a more realistic proposition, plus it gives the domestic fans an exciting format within which this can occur.
MVDave said | May 25th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Agree with the posters so far…at this point in time it would do more harm than good to bring in P & R. At least 10 years away (if ever) IMO, otherwise more clubs will be killed off rather than created.
Midfielder said | May 25th 2009 @ 10:03am | Report comment
Have to agree the P & R is at least 10 years more likely 12 to 14 years away … some how each year Mike comes up with an article that lends support to the state league teams.
On a side issue Davvie…. why in the article did we need to talk about the AFL, and in a negative way… it amazes me why we are so concerned … the truth is football needs AFL & NRL folk to come and watch football as well .. meaning we do not need them to change codes just engage with football as well..
Towser said | May 25th 2009 @ 10:06am | Report comment
Having a foot in both camps having been brought up on P & R in England but having also experienced the finals system in Australia, I dont see them as one issue or interlinked in any way. Whilst I believe & always will believe that first past the post is the fairest system for any sport,acceptance of it is historical ie passed from generation to generation,much as finals are passed on here. Same as an FA cup competition. That is built on history. You just cant replicate that overnight in Australia,because much of its appeal is the fact that small towns with long historys(not linked to football by the way) can use their football team as a means of expressing who they are against larger opposition. As 95% of Australian towns are younger than the invention of professional sports that element is missing.
This article briefly mentions the ACL & somehow manages to link up what the FFA is suggesting as a point of difference with AFL/NRL. Just who are you aiming your points at DAvidde. If your aiming them at me a football fan, I dont see your point about how other sports feel or are affected in any way. These are football issues as related to Australia. The reality is that it should be all about the ACL ,because the main reason the FFA are considering changes it is to get more brownie points with the AFC to get more A-League teams in the ACL.
The bottom line is that the future of the A-League is linked intrinsically to Asia & the ACL. So whether it is not historically part of Australias sporting psyche to have P/R & a cup competition, a way has to be found if football is to progress on the Asian highway to meet the criteria for more teams in the ACL.
Lets try & find a middle ground. The finals system has to stay. It is an Australian tradition. On a personnel level I have grown to like it. It can still be used as a means of a place in the ACL.
Next a cup competition. Whilst you can argue,well why bother we have finals, it is a means of interlinking grass roots football to the upper strata of the game. So whilst it would not have the deeper connotations of Doncaster vs ManU,it would still provide a David & Goliath/sense of local pride element. The turnout for SFC vs Mcarthur Rams gives an indicator of this sort of match. I leave it to others for a format. Like Japan it gives a place in the ACL.
Next P & R. Much more difficult & only doable with a crap load of “Prop up” money. That is to prop up a second division. NO Moolah forget P & R in this country. The Japanese have one, but its still propped up,by I believe big corporations & wouldn’t exist otherwise. In other words it will always run at a loss. THe big end has to support it constantly. That big end means larger TV rights,sponsorship etc. At this stage that comes from the Socceroos not the A-League. It may also have to come from outside Australia. My opinion is that as the AFC is the instigator of these changes they should also bear some responsibility for finding the cash for countries like Australia to have a first & second division.
Supposing the cash can be found on an ongoing basis. Can it work? It can ,but theres no place for ethnic teams. Having spent the last 40 years here trying to understand why Aussies call an English game a “Wogs” sport I’ve no wish to go there. But then again I do have some understanding because 95% of trouble at football matches here has involved teams from “Ethnic” backgrounds. Whether we like it or not mud sticks,even though those “Ethnic” clubs in my book are probably responsible for the strength of football in this country today. A Double edged sword. Not to say that they cant be involved in one off cup competitions,if theres trouble, the game will have to cop it sweet. Just not the week to week diet of the A-League. Mud thrown once can be washed off,thrown constantly you need a big quick sponge & you always miss a bit.
So how do you do it presuming the “Prop up” cash is in place.
First you decide on the required number of clubs for a first division,say 12 as Davidde suggested. Then the second division,say 8 starting off with 6 initially. What this means in effect is that you virtually have to start a new league from scratch,much the same as John O’Niell had to do with the A-League. Whats more these clubs must have to meet the same criteria as GCU & NQF did financially. Also it goes without saying that another reason that State League clubs ethnic based or suburban cannot be considered is that their audience(potential fans) is limited ,compared with a club representing a geographical area. So in practice a second division club is no different to a first division club. You can argue well why bother just have an 18 team A-League. I refer back to the AFC & more brownie points for getting more clubs into the ACL, by having a P & R system.
Pippinu said | May 25th 2009 @ 10:08am | Report comment
It’s all been said – two years seems hopeful in the extreme.
Ryan Steele said | May 25th 2009 @ 10:39am | Report comment
Tom: “I doubt there is a club in the A-league that could survive the financial shock of being relegated at this stage.”
Likewise any club promoted to the A-League/second division.
To have any success in this kind of idea, we would need 10+ more clubs, and adopt MLS-style Eastern/Western conferences.
The size of the country isn’t the same as England, or the rest of Europe/most football nations, as a flight from Melbourne to Adelaide is the same as a flight from one side of a country to another. Most teams use buses to get from one city to another – a luxury Australian clubs (possibly aside from Queensland clubs) cannot have.
Eastern/western conferences wouldn’t even work, though. It would lose the massive rivalries that the likes of Adelaide and Melbourne have (assuming Adelaide are in the Western conference), and Perth would rarely face any recognisable/significant teams. “Bandwagon” fans who come to those big games wouldn’t see it as appealing as before.
If a second division – or country-wide cup, including state teams – were to be implemented, it needs to be done in the far future, when both teams and the league itself are more stable. Even then, it would probably need to introduce a second division similar to the J. League, where additional teams are slowly introduced through success in the “third tier” (Japan Football league), so long as the club has an Associate Membership (which is granted after the applicant meets certain guidelines, covering the likes of financial status, club management, and stadiums, to ensure a sustainable future in the league).
I’m all for a second division, but it just won’t work at the moment. We need to make sure the top flight is secure, first.