Football’s second coming will be great
Columnist By Davidde Corran, 25 May 2009 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- A-League, A-League expansion, Asian Champions League, football, Football Federation Australia, Relegation
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.
Recommend this story.
May 25th 2009 @ 11:16am
Finno said | May 25th 2009 @ 11:16am | Report comment
We can talk about 2 divisions all we want but the reality is that we are struggle with one. I can see the reason for 2 divs but I cant see Sydney or Melbourne getting dropped to the 2 div a marketing success. We cannot compare ourselves with Japanese or Korean Football Leagues they are well supported and dont have League, AFL or Rugby. Lets get the 1 div up and running well first and then maybe, I would think it would be 50 years away. I still think a FA cup style comp would help to get some of the State clubs stepping up and playing at A- League level.
May 25th 2009 @ 11:39am
Pippinu said | May 25th 2009 @ 11:39am | Report comment
I would never say never (in regard to a 2nd division). There are scenarios that might just work (but I’m probably talking well into the future).
The most likely scenario is where Fox comes to the party and pays an additional 50% in broadcasting rights for a 2nd division.
You will most likely want to have already been at 14 teams, and drop two off, and add another six to get an 8 team 2nd divvie (with 12 remaining in the first). That would be a sensible starting point.
You then want a situation where the 2nd division teams have a salary cap around 66% of whatever it is in the first division, with a commensurate share of the TV rights.
This means that a team dropping down has a better than 50/50 chance of actually surviving long term.
You are also likely to have a situation where a “big 6″ is rarely in danger of relegation (and does not suffer it for a very long time) – needless to say, they are the ones participating regularly in the ACL.
You then have another 6 to 8 clubs regularly swapping promotion and relegation, and then at the bottom of the heap, you have a revolving door of small clubs coming and going – the latter would be an economic reality – absolutely no club would survive a few years at the bottom of the 2nd division with the likely 2,000 in attendance that would mean (if you’re lucky).
This is a best case scenario.
May 25th 2009 @ 11:41am
Robbos said | May 25th 2009 @ 11:41am | Report comment
Let’s remember that the FFA are setting aside a task force to investigate the possibility of a 2nd tier. Please understand these words.
I too am sceptical of a country our size & population with 3-4 other sporting competitors can support a 2nd tier competition. However, I’m all for them to investiage what would be the best possible solution, eg, say a zonal competition where the winners of each zone than meets in the final. This could be a possibility for a 2nd tier competition. But to add this to promotion / relagation into the A-league, in Cockerill’s article he did say the FFA says that is still along way off.
So the FFA are setting a taskforce together to look at the possibility of a 2nd tier competition, no talk of P & R yet.
May 25th 2009 @ 11:46am
Pippinu said | May 25th 2009 @ 11:46am | Report comment
I’m not a fan of a zonal competition. We tried it with the NSL. At one stage, we basically had on zone consisiting of a glorifeid NSW league, and the other zone was everyone else.
We can’t have a situation where potentially the Victory aren’t playing AU or SFC just because of zones.
May 25th 2009 @ 11:51am
Albert Ross said | May 25th 2009 @ 11:51am | Report comment
Finno – attendances at K-L games are a joke but everything else you said is spot on.
P&R would make an Australian competition unviable.
There is a reason why the NSWRL resisted P&R in the Sydney comp in the 60s and 70s even though there was a strong second division with most clubs having a rich leagues club behind them and they could have easily expanded the comp’s catchment to include Newcastle and Wollongong. The NSWRL concluded that the population was too small, good players and coaches would not contract to clubs for more than 1 season so as to avoid having to play in a second tier, the code’s supporters would not not like it, sponsors especially the Leagues clubs were vehemently opposed.
The value of P&R in the UK at least is much over-rated what with the yo-yo factor which has got much worse in the past few years.
May 25th 2009 @ 11:57am
jimbo said | May 25th 2009 @ 11:57am | Report comment
Most of the “Best of the Rest” are ethnic clubs and don’t meet the FFA’s elegibility criteria.
May 25th 2009 @ 12:22pm
Finno said | May 25th 2009 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
Albert Ross
I watched a gamba v reds game and stadium was chockers, it look like a massive game. But to be honest i have not seen the average attendence for the J – League games..
we have seen some big club disappear this week’
I never though Newcastle would get relegated?
It a nasty part of the game i the UK as some of the bigger club will know, Nottingham Forest never really has recovered fro thier relegation to the Div 1 and is struggling in the Championship, Leeds, Southhampton, Norwich etc etc, Where all big in thier day but are know facing relegation and a a possible bankrupt club But the Championship is well followed in the UK and if the ITV deal went through it would probably be even stronger.
The A- League would never endure this, it would crumble.
May 25th 2009 @ 12:30pm
Pippinu said | May 25th 2009 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
Jimbo
in 10 years time, that won’t be the case – clubs are growing and declining all the time around the country – there would always be new cannon fodder to ender the 2nd divvie as other clubs disappeared into obscurity.
May 25th 2009 @ 12:34pm
Ryan Steele said | May 25th 2009 @ 12:34pm | Report comment
Finno, Gamba and Urawa aren’t Korean. And J. League attendances can be found on the official website.
J1 attendances for the season to date: http://www.j-league.or.jp/SS/eng/j1f/2009010001_W0307_E.html
Not major, but they’ll knock out a good amount for the big games (like Gamba-Urawa, where it was over 53,000).
Also, Finno, Japan may not have a professional Aussie rules league (although they have an amateur league that gains a little popularity as the years pass), but rugby is relatively popular, and baseball is still the #1 sport of the country. Not to mention other sports, continually building notoriety, like basketball (and its humorously-named ‘BJ League’). Korea also has, among other sports, a fairly popular baseball league.
They’re definitely not one-sport countries.
May 25th 2009 @ 12:35pm
Albert Ross said | May 25th 2009 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
Finno
Gamba and Reds are J-L where attendances are much higher than K-L (12,901 ie only just higher than HA-L)
The truth is that very few clubs (both Football and Rugby) in the UK are really financially viable. Most survive because they are owned by a hobbyist with deep pockets. That is to say gate money, TV revenue, prize money, are not adequate to cover the season to season running costs.