The A-League has announced a major revamp of the finals series for the 2016-17 season.
Speaking at a media conference in Sydney the outgoing FAA chief Damien de Bohun said “following criticism of the finals format from some stakeholders we felt duty bound to make changes to the current format so as to address these concerns”.
He continued “Australian sport has a long and glorious history and we have taken this into account in devising the new format. With that in mind we take great pleasure in launching the new format which we have called the Stawell finals series.”
Based on the handicapping system used in the Stawell Gift races the new format will use a combination of league placing and other ‘key metrics’ to determine the six teams that will participate in the finals.
“While the league table is important in determining the best side over the length of the season we felt that it wasn’t totally representative of which teams were truly ‘the best’. The new system will more accurately reflect this and, rightly, reward those teams that could miss out under the out-dated system we currently use”.
The new system will carry points loading for league position as well as a variety of key performance indicators. These will include corporate footprint, level of media fawning, closeness to Frank Lowry and club history, with points being awarded to each team depending on their eligibility in each category.
If the new system had been in operation this season the play-offs would have looked rather different to the ones being played out now. The six qualifiers would have been: Sydney F.C – Melbourne Victory – Western Sydney Wanderers – Melbourne City – Adelaide United – Brisbane Roar.
Sydney FC would have been the biggest winners under the new system thanks to them topping the key metrics of corporate footprint, closeness to Steve Lowy and most attractive footballing side.
Melbourne Victory took out the ‘Archie Thompson’ and ‘Kevin Muscat’ adoration bonuses, while Wanderers took out the media fawning section in a close run battle with Victory.
Melbourne City were given extra points due to their creative recruitment policy and because Manchester City payed for some.
Perth Glory missed out due to losing a lot of points via the “os it on the east coast?” coefficient.
With Wellington having points deducted for being a long way away and making a fuss, they did, however gain points for the duty free opportunities available.
The Mariners suffered due to David Gallop having a high intolerance to BBQ sauce and Newcastle payed the price for, well, being Newcastle. This left the last two spots for Adelaide and Brisbane by default.
Once the finals kick off another rule change will take effect. The top two teams will each start their matches with three goals already awarded and Ben Williams as referee.
Adelaide and Brisbane will have a two goal deduction at kick off to ensure a fair playing field.
The new rules were welcomed by many with Sydney coach Graham Arnold saying “This is the change we had to have. This season the footballing public were denied the chance to see the best footballing team in the league take part in the finals series, we appreciate that the FFA have noticed this and acted accordingly”.
Sandra Smith, spokesperson for the corporate hospitality association of NSW and Victoria was another happy with the new system “it’s never nice when decent, well-heeled business people miss out on a chance to eat free canapés and drink copious amounts of alcohol while studiously avoiding watching a football match. With Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory playing such an important role in the new finals system we look forward to an increased number of opportunities for tax deductible ‘business development’.”
“Football has to adapt to survive in a tough and competitive marketplace.” Added de Bohun.
“These measures may not be popular with all stakeholders but they are vitally important if we are to combat the effects of AFL’s match in China and the omnipresence of Eddie McGuire. This new system will be my lasting legacy to football; I think it is a worthy testimony to my time in charge.”
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