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We're not Europe, so let's move on and embrace A-League finals

Roar Guru
5th May, 2015
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Without finals we wouldn't have moments like this. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Guru
5th May, 2015
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2086 Reads

The 20-year plan dropped today and Football Federation Australia have outlined some bold initiatives in their ‘whole of football’ approach to ensure the ongoing growth and success of the code over the next two decades.

One of the main talking points to come out of the plan was essentially a side-issue in relation to the bigger picture but one that has tongues wagging and various people beating themselves up about just how ‘un-football’ our own national competition is.

FFA have essentially ruled out promotion and relegation from the A-League for the next 20 years, mainly to prevent financial instability among A-League clubs, but also as an acknowledgement that as a football nation, the notion of promotion and relegation is unsustainable due to our demographic, geographic and financial realities.

On top of this came the inevitable talk in the last week on how the A-League crowns its champions as the playoffs began. There are supporters of the game who feel that play-offs are artificial and the real champions are the ones who sit atop the pile at the conclusion of the home-and-away rounds of the completion. Why? Well, because that’s the way it happens in Europe.

Europe also has promotion and relegation. Europe has a lot of things that are magnificent for football, such as a two century history of the game and a population about 35 times the number of Australia, yet playing in a geographical area where almost all of the major playing nations fit comfortably within the geographical area of our one great brown land.

For example, England is two-thirds the size of New South Wales, which goes some of the way to explaining why they can have four fully professional tiers with promotion and relegation and why fairytale romance stories like AFC Bournemouth are entirely possible. It’s a safe bet that in their inaugural Premier League season, the Cherries won’t once board a plane to get to an away game.

The National Soccer League had promotion and relegation in some form at some points in time during its existence. It was largely a sure-fire pathway to oblivion for clubs that were promoted with no chance of assembling the right kind of management and financial structure.

Europe also has – gasp – playoffs. Now I know they don’t crown their top tier champions based on a grand final but coming up in England in four week’s time will be the game dubbed as ‘the richest game of the season’. The Championship promotion playoff at Wembley has an estimated worth to the winner greater than the total TV rights deal recently negotiated for the A-League.

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I understand the traditional mindset of a champion club being the one that emergences on top of the table after the home-and-away rounds are finished. But as a player, fan and coach, my mindset has always been that if you’re good enough to finish first, you’re good enough to win two more games and become champion.

The A-League needs to be able to quarantine a date and time when their ultimate champions will be crowned – it needs the eyeballs and the live crowd to make it the event it has undoubtedly become over the last decade. Imagine an A-League history that was written without that incredible 2011 grand final between Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners? Try taking away the worldwide publicity garnered by Archie Thompson scoring five goals in a championship playoff.

It’s a funny thing about European football. How many sports can you name around the world – individual or team – where the date in which the champion is to be crowned is totally unknown? In Europe, it could realistically happen in a four-week window towards the end of a long season. The English premiers were crowned on Sunday night but it might have happened the following weekend. Or it could have happened without the champions even taking the field (had Chelsea drawn with Crystal Palace and Arsenal not beaten Hull on Tuesday morning).

The A-League needs stability. Promotion and relegation at this stage of the game would have seriously shaken the foundations that have been built over the last decade. The A-League also needs its marquee events. The grand final is the biggest day on our domestic football calendar and is the date all fans know that a champion will be crowned.

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