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Football Federation Australia should base its Cup competition next season on the UEFA Champions League, if it is going to include a group stage.
If there is an 11-team A-League next season, that would leave 21 spots for clubs from the state and territories. That could be four each from NSW, Victoria and Queensland. Western Australia and South Australia could have three representatives each, while Tasmania, ACT and Northern Territory would have one each. (This is only a rough idea of how the 21 other spots could be made up.)
That would mean a 32-team Cup competition, which would be divided into eight groups of four.
Clubs would then play each other home and away during October and November.
The groups should be decided randomly by a draw, so there could be one group with four A-League clubs or a group with just state league sides.
This would make it easier for state and territory clubs, because the Cup competition would follow on from their various seasons.
For example, the top four NSW Premier League clubs would know that making the finals means they have an extra six games as part of the cup competition.
The top two of each group would then qualify for the knockout stages, which would start in February.
This would mean the state and territory teams that qualify would be able to use the knockout stages as part of their pre-season.
The knockout stages should be home and away before a one-off final. So the two teams to make the final would play a total of 13 games each.
The games could be played midweek, with maybe one or two each round telecast along with a weekly highlights package.
The final, like the Champions League, could be played on a Saturday night at a ground that would maximise the crowd figure.
No doubt people will disagree with this idea and propose an FA Cup-style straight knockout competition.
But this option would provide a minimum of six games for each side and over a few years the FFA would be able to see the difference in standards between the A-League and various state and territory leagues.
That would no doubt help with any plans for a second-tier competition in the future.
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