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The league table is the only metric that counts

Can Sydney FC do the double? (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Roar Guru
1st October, 2017
69

A second division in Australia without promotion and relegation is doomed to fail.

Beware any proposal for a new second tier without the one major factor that will make it viable.

The wild and fascinating unpredictability of football’s open league model.

Whether it’s a relegation scrap in the English Premier League, or any promotion playoff around the world – football fans know deep down that a competition without promotion and relegation is missing that special something.

The real opportunity in FIFA’s recent visits to this country is the possibility that it may spur an opening up of Australia’s league system to competition.

Forget FFA board composition, league structure is where FIFA really need to intervene.

A club selection process based on footballing ability is part of what makes leagues around the world so appealing. And FIFA knows it.

After all, we can all sit here and theorise over who the most worthy applicant to a football league might be.

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Imagine a ‘closed shop’ English Premier League where the participants were decided on a subjective basis.

Does Newcastle upon Tyne offer the most potential subscription television subscribers, or does Birmingham?

Is the football pedigree of the south coast superior to Yorkshire?

These are ridiculous questions that have no place in deciding which teams deserve a place.

Especially not when in football there is an in-built objective mechanism to decide who the most deserving regions and clubs are – the league table.

It’s even enshrined in FIFA statutes. That’s how intrinsic promotion and relegation is to football culture.

“A club’s entitlement to take part in a domestic league championship shall depend principally on sporting merit,” Article 19 of ‘Sporting Integrity’ states.

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Other factors relating to administrative or financial issues should only be in addition to the meritocracy of the league table.

(Dave Howarth/PA via AP)

Australia is exempted from this for now.

Why won’t FIFA do Australia the service of bringing us the ‘football way’?

You can think of the possibilities but be guaranteed that you won’t be able to predict how interesting it could be.

What could be more compelling than that?

The potential of Australia’s current second tier – the National Premier Leagues – has been highlighted by the addition to the local football landscape of the FFA Cup.

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And these modest but promising steps are only with the current league structure in place, that does not incentivise performance in the way a pyramid system would.

Imagine the opening up of the club football system here during an era where there is more interest in club football than ever? Forget comparisons to the old NSL, it’s a whole new time for football in Australia.

Granted this is partly due to the A-League’s start-up ‘closed ecosystem’ phase which has been a nursery for potential mega clubs of the likes of Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC.

But to realise their full potential, they need an open ecosystem that promotion and relegation provides. Open-style league football is where they can finally grow up.

Because while it is an entry point for lower tier clubs, it also removes the tendency toward equalisation in the current closed league model.

The closeness that is contrived in the old system is replaced by the higher top end performance and lower tier inclusiveness of the football league pyramid model.

As the game has found all over the world, promotion and relegation is not only the fairest means of entry – it’s also proven to be a commercial success.

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If the economic parameters are correct, it allows top level clubs to grow exponentially and lower and mid level clubs to individually find the level that’s sustainable for them.

It’s a classic entrepreneurial model. Accessible at the base with the potential for growth at the top.

Would lower tier clubs around the world ever accept football without promotion and relegation? I doubt it.

Why does FIFA condemn lower tier clubs in Australia to a season that does not allow them the dream of rising to the top?

The football principle of open competition does not just have to be the future of the game in Australia. It can also be the now.

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