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Wellington Phoenix are devastated but Football Federation Australia is delighted with Melbourne City’s unlikely progression to the A-League semi-finals.
City’s 2-0 win in New Zealand guarantees their best ever finish and a Melbourne derby for the semi-final, a result A-League chief Damien de Bohun believes is tremendous for soccer.
With a crowd of over 45,000 expected to attend Friday’s semi-final at Etihad Stadium – likely 20,000 more than if it was a Victory-Phoenix fixture – there would understandably be some high fives happening at FFA offices.
Not simply for the financial windfall, but for the improvement in City’s stature.
Until last January’s sale to Manchester City, Melbourne Heart was a problem club for the league.
Reborn as Melbourne City, Friday night’s match now brings a defining moment in one of the league’s biggest rivalries.
“It’s massive for the game,” de Bohun said.
“It’s great to see how much Melbourne City have come on this year and Melbourne Victory really are the strongest team in the competition in many ways.”
“To have them playing off is huge and tickets are flying out the door on the back of that.”
De Bohun also confirmed that AAMI Park would stage a Victorian-hosted grand final, ensuring that if the decider is in Melbourne that less than 30,000 fans could attend the game.
The league boss said he’d fought to secure the 53,000 seat-capacity Etihad Stadium for the grand final but the ground was ultimately unavailable because the AFL had already scheduled the Western Bulldogs-Fremantle clash there that day.
“We want to make sure as many people can come to see these games in the flesh because it’s a fabulous spectacle and the atmosphere is tremendous,” he said.
“Commercial is one issue but really it’s about the fans.
“Unfortunately there’s no other stadium in Melbourne available that weekend and having worked through all the issues, (AAMI Park is) where it will be.”
As grand final hosting rights are given to the highest-placing team during the regular season, should Melbourne City qualify they will head to either Sydney or Adelaide.
Ticket allocation looms as an issue ahead of the match, Victory seemingly hard done by in only being able to access one ticket per each of the club’s 20,000 members.
Melbourne City members, who number far fewer, can access four tickets each.
The allocation discrepancy has yet to be fully explained by the A-League.
`Active’ Victory fans – those who come together as a supporter group but are not necessarily members – have also received a smaller than expected ticket allocation.
It has lead to suggestions of a protest of sorts at the match, with Victory fans grouping together on the top tier of Etihad Stadium rather than singing from one end of the ground as they would normally.
Despite the ticketing issues, de Bohun said he hoped for a sell-out crowd.
“The way the membership packages are structured, we want to make sure the most loyal Melbourne Victory members, and they’ve got the biggest membership base, can access the premium tickets first,” he said.
“The good news is, the broader tickets go on sale to everyone (on Tuesday) and no one will miss out.”
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