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Queensland Roar's Tahj Minniecon (second from left) fights for a ball against Central Coast Mariners during their A-League match in Gosford, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009. Queensland Roar won 4-3. AAP Image/Aman Sharma
To a mixed response, FFA Chairman Frank Lowy revealed this week he wants to introduce an A2-League in the “not too distant future” allowing for promotion and relegation in our top flight. And while the idea shows ambition, it’s totally premature in the Australian market.
In Wednesday’s address, Lowy outlined several plans for the game, including free-to-air television and changes to the scheduling of the season.
But Lowy surprised a few when he remarked relegation and promotion was ‘vital’ for the Australian game and strongly floated the prospect of an A2-League being created in the medium-term future.
“We need to support teams by developing a second division which can allow for promotion and relegation, which is the lifeblood of national football competitions around the world,” Lowy said.
“Some people might have suggested that this might be growing the league too quickly. I accept that there is a risk, and I know better than anyone else how fragile some of our existing A-League clubs are.
“But we could not continue forever with an eight-team competition and be taken seriously in world football.
“The larger competition will generate greater interest around the country, not just in isolated pockets of Australia, but a truly national game.”
There’s no denying Lowy’s ambition and plenty of the responses from his comments have had bloggers and forumers dreaming up A2-Leagues of their own with clubs from every pocket of our wonderful land.
But, like Lowy acknowledges, creating a whole new bunch of clubs from scratch to form a completely new league is risky business.
Indeed, Lowy’s latest additions to the A-League, the new second Melbourne and Sydney franchises, have been greeted with some skepticism, so creating another string of clubs for another division seems outrageous in that context.
But, of course, Lowy isn’t proposing an A2-League tomorrow. It is something the FFA should keep in the back of their minds and work towards but realistically in the next 5-10 years it simply isn’t viable.
The current A-League season has shown us that the novelty has worn off the competition and clubs need to knuckle down and find a way to make a profit year-in year-out.
And in terms of expanding into regional areas, the two newboys from Townsville and the Gold Coast are finding it tough although the example of the Central Coast (who are making an annual profit) is the ideal regional prototype, but executing that example is clearly easier said than done.
Plus, as we know, football isn’t the number one dog in Australia, whereas in Europe football is a religion and second or third divisions work because the people make it work. So elevating the game in Australia requires the people to embrace it and the recent calls for free-to-air coverage are central to this.
So right now is the time for consolidation rather than an A2-League (which ultimately requires mass expansion), with TV deals, crowd figures, the quality of football and sponsors, all important factors which need to be stabilized.
Lowy’s arguments for an A2-League include the boost it’ll give to the competitiveness, intensity and relevance of the A-League (relegation battles make good TV!), the nation-wide interest it’ll add via new regional clubs and how it’ll make the league more European.
But these points pale in significance when compared to the risks which the game would face with an A2-League, when we the competition isn’t stable with 12 teams just yet.
Indeed, the risks which would come with an A2-League in the next 5-10 years would include the possibility of clubs failing and folding, which would do so much harm to the public perception of the code.
Maintaining, the A-League’s image of professionalism is crucial right now, because currently image is everything as the game tries to convince the Australian public of it’s worth.
Nevertheless, of Lowy’s argument for the A2-League the first point is the strongest, as that added intensity would do a lot for the competition, but at this stage it is a pipe-dream because it simply isn’t viable as there are other priorities.
Sure the FFA should aim towards an A2-League, but for now let’s focus on the immediate matters at hand which will facilitate the game reaching that dream, as long as that may take.
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