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The fans want it. The FFA wants it. Ange Postecoglou wants it.
A-League expansion has been on the lips of many in and around football in recent months, and now with the FFA boasting more financial resources thanks to the new TV deal, it’s now only a matter of time until it occurs.
There has even been fleeting talk of promotion and relegation.
However, expansion has had a rocky past, and with lukewarm response to Melbourne Heart and the abject failures of North Queensland and the Gold Coast still fresh in the memory, there is cause for trepidation.
I have an alternative to A-League expansion that instead of relying on the risky business of building a club from scratch, allows for a more natural growth to the game, letting the fans and market drive its direction, while also building solid foundations for the future.
The FFA should move to introduce an A-2 league.
By taking the cream of the crop from the existing NPL clubs, they create a national B-League that fills the gulf in quality between the A-League and the NPL. This would allow our best young players more ability to grow and develop into A-League stars.
While it will impose a greater financial burden on the clubs with the increase in travel costs, these could be offset by some FFA grants to allow the clubs to continue operating as they are currently.
Promotion-relegation would occur with the NPL leagues. The league wouldn’t necessarily need to be large, maybe 12 teams, with the clubs playing in the FFA cup and other regional state cups as well.
There would be no need for clubs to be fully professional. The aim would be to keep the financial burden down on the clubs such that it doesn’t become a burden on the FFA.
Allow top performing A-2 teams opportunities to gain promotion to A-League.
There are a number of barriers preventing relegation being introduced to A-League. The current A-League licences expire 2034, which could be a roadblock to this happening in the near future.
However, there is nothing preventing a limited promotion system being implemented; it gives purpose to the A-2 league, a carrot for the clubs to chase, a reason for investors to invest.
For a club to be granted promotion, they will have had to have shown that they can meet a strict set of objective criteria, to show their promotion will be of benefit to Australian football.
– Performance on the field. Winning the league, or consistently good performances over a number of years.
– Existing stadium deal. Stadium must be of sufficient size and meet FFA requirements
– Fan backing. Have demonstrated appeal to the fans, whether through meeting and maintaining a membership goal, consistently good crowd figures over a set figure or good TV ratings. The value of these requirements would be set before the start of each season by the FFA.
– Proven financial support. They must be able to show they have the resources to last in the unforgiving A-League. Team must be fully professional or show they have to capacity to become so on promotion.
Promotion would be a rare event; it would allow A-League growth to be measured and controlled. This system allows the fans to dictate what clubs make it to the A-League, removing the need for trying to artificially create franchises and allowing them to grow organically on their own.
It would make the A-League more inclusive, with a set of criteria potential new teams can aim for. It would make investors think long term, it forces them engage with the fans, and if a club can meet all the criteria, it will have shown it will be good for football as a whole.
Some smaller regional markets may find it impossible to ever reach the criteria for promotion, but they likely wouldn’t have made it under the current obscure “metrics” driven system regardless.
And, best of all, it lays down a stepping stone towards expansion ambitions for football in Australia in the future.
Want a team in Wollongong? Well, if the fans come out and support it, and the team shows its stable enough financially to warrant it, the market can drive the team into the top division.
While there will obviously be plenty of tweaks that could be made, and plenty of obstacles in the way, I think that this could be the best move forward. What do you think? Have an alternative suggestion on how we can go forward with football in this country?
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