FFA chairman Frank Lowy is looking to introduce a relegation-promotion system to the A-League to strengthen Australia’s ranking in Asia and enhance its bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
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The system wouldn’t come in for at least another five years but Lowy believed it was the only way for the A-League to be respected abroad.
The billionaire said it was likely the eight-team A-League would grow to only 10 teams for 2009-10 season, rather than the 12 that was mooted by FFA chief executive Ben Buckley.
New Gold Coast and Townsville franchises are set to be introduced next year while second teams for Sydney and Melbourne will likely have to wait until 2010-11.
“I think the first (expansion) will be 10 because with Sydney and Melbourne we need the clubs to agree to it because they have a five-year moratorium,” Lowy said today.
“I think to absorb four teams at the one time may just be a little hard and there will be some risks. We don’t want to take those risks.”
Lowy also suggested 12 teams was only a stepping stone.
“Why stop at 12? The sky is blue, the future is great,” he said.
The Asian Football Confederation this week kept Australia’s representation to two spots in next season’s Asian Champions League, while handing Iran four and India one in the new 32-team format.
It rated Australia seventh of the 46 AFC member associations, according to criteria including governance, marketing, media and stadiums.
China, likely to compete with Australia for the right to be the AFC’s preferred option for the 2018 World Cup, rated third.
Lowy believed the reason for the low rating was the absence of a relegation-promotion system in the A-League.
“Promotion and relegation is the lifeblood of the game, so we can’t ignore it and we won’t ignore it,” he said.
“By the time the (2018) World Cup comes there will be promotion and relegation, we will probably have a lot more teams and … I believe we are going to move forward in big steps, as we are now.”
Lowy did not specify the minimum amount of teams he would need in the league for a relegation-promotion system to function well, saying the most important thing was to create a strong second-tier league and that would take time.
Looking ahead to next week’s FIFA congress in Sydney, Lowy said it was “extremely important” to prove Australia can be great hosts in the long lead-up to 2018.
peter erjok
Guest
With me I think that second division should be introduced because I think that it would give a great opportunity for little kids who are interested in soccer a chance to play for the team and even play for Australia in the world cup and also represent there country and as for having a second division they would be more players to play and that’s why I think that they should have a second division. If Australians have a second division it would make them looks good in Asia and Australia will have more teams. But this is why there should not be a second division the reason why is because if there is a second division the people who are looking after the football association have to spend as much money as possible because they have to pay players and also the coach and to get a second division they have to spend a lot on getting a second division in Australia. The other reason tat there should not be a second division introduced is that because of the crowd would there be a big crown coming to watch the game and also can Australia agree to have a second division what I think of this is that Australia will agree to have a second division because some ladies want there children to improve on what they want to be good at and also some want there kids to get out of the house and make their parents proud it would also give Australia a really good name because all of the people from around the world would be coming to watch them play and also come to play for Australia so I think that Australia would agree to have a second division.