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Football Federation Australia. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
There’s been some well-written prose in the last few months on why Football Federation Australia not just should, but MUST adopt a national cup competition.
As this discussion has been going on for some time now, I’m not going to re-list those arguments here, but I think there is hope that FFA will start looking at this idea again.
I say that because the main reason FFA have continued to turn a deaf ear to the public’s calls for cup football is that they’ve been otherwise occupied with their 2018/22 World Cup bid and I think that may be coming to an end.
Ben Buckley has been forced into turning his attention back onto the A-League again following the collapse of Queensland’s two expansion clubs.
With the most logistically demanding part of the World Cup bid now wrapping up, once the bid book is submitted, it all comes down to political wrangling, FFA employees should have time on their hands to work on matters closer to home.
Lord knows we need them to.
So with there being every chance that FFA will look at the idea of a national cup competition again over the coming months, I say to them: Beware!
Right now I’m in Washington D.C. to interview Danny Allsopp and Lisa De Vanna. On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of attending RFK Stadium where Allsopp’s DC United defeated FC Dallas 4-2 in the US Open Cup.
All I can say is, what a disaster. There were a pitiful 2,000 fans in attendance, almost no media presence, and not even those 6 goals could save this game.
It had me thinking that FFA must ensure that the creation of any similar competition in Australia doesn’t turn out the same way.
From looking closely at the main factors that led to the poor crowd and general disinterest in Wednesday night’s game, we can learn a lot.
First of all, the scheduling was all wrong.
While FFA insist on not allowing the A-League to clash with the other football codes, mid-week football will be inevitable. That’s not what led to a drop of around 15,000 on DC United’s average attendance last night, however.
The reason for the empty stadium was the Washington Capitols were playing game seven in the playoffs at the same time.
Considering that there was Cup football on the night before, the question is, why didn’t US Soccer change the fixture to Tuesday?
Furthermore, both teams put out weakened sides. There just isn’t the prestige in competing in the early stages of a knockout cup competition when you’re also battling in your league. A similar problem is leading to the corrosion of interest in England’s apparently “magical” FA Cup.
FFA must ensure that clubs who are in the tournament want to win it.
Even more alarming for the state of the US Open Cup is the lack of a national TV deal. Even more so than back home, in the US if your sport isn’t on TV, then it might as well not exist.
Without any television presence you can’t reach out to the mainstream.
As many on this site have already discussed, a lack of Free to Air TV exposure is one of the main problems facing the A-League. Not only must a cup competition avoid that trap, it can help to rectify the A-League’s lack of presence on FTA.
Now, despite these warnings, I’m a big supporter of an FFA Cup. I believe it’s imperative for the growth of the game. Furthermore, any significant point of difference to the NRL and AFL should be exploited to its fullest and this is one of those opportunities.
However, Ben Buckley, if you’re going to do this, do it properly.
I’d hate to see FFA muck up a perfectly good idea like they have done with A-League expansion.
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