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As Yaya Toure wheeled away in celebration at Wembley, did anyone else watching on TV wonder how an Australian FFA Cup final might play out? Will the competition get off the ground? And is it the best way for the FFA to reconnect with disaffected fans of former National Soccer League clubs?
Less than twenty-four hours after Manchester City ended a 35-year trophy drought by lifting the FA Cup, another storied fixture took place at Edensor Park in western Sydney.
Former NSL giants Sydney Olympic saw off hosts Sydney United 3-2 in a bruising encounter watched by around 800 fans, according to the NSW Premier League website.
Ten years ago the fixture might have attracted close to 5,000 fans to the small suburban ground, but it seems many fans disappeared when the A-League was conceived.
Whether that’s because some of those fans now support Sydney FC is anyone’s guess, but judging from the bitterness espoused by ex-NSL supporters on message boards and websites across the country, it’s probably safe to assume that’s not a widespread case.
So if the creation of the A-League still rankles with fans of former NSL clubs, will an FFA Cup competition help mend relations and bring some of those fans back into the fold?
Victoria’s Mirabella Cup offers some clues, with A-League clubs Melbourne Heart and Melbourne Victory set to join the recently established knock-out competition at the quarter-final stage.
Some 119 teams from across the state entered and it will be fascinating to see whether Victory or the Heart manage to see off their amateur and semi-professional opponents to claim the silverware in the end.
It will be just as interesting to note whether Victory and Heart supporters get behind the competition, particularly if their side comes up against either South Melbourne or the Melbourne Knights in one of the decisive rounds of the competition.
I’m all for knock-out football and I’d love to see something like the Mirabella Cup recreated on a national scale.
I just wonder if financial constraints aren’t already a major concern, especially with travel costs starting to seriously affect clubs involved in the AFC Champions League.
Even if A-League clubs are expected to pay their own way in any FFA Cup competition, it remains to be seen just how smaller clubs deal with the financial realities of a tournament played on such a vast scale.
Nevertheless, it’s a competition which has long been on the drawing board at Football Federation Australia and which has received nominal support from fans at both state and A-League levels – even if that’s only on social networking sites across the country.
The real test for the FFA and the clubs involved is to turn all the hypothetical pledges and promises of support into something more tangible, so that more than just 800 fans turn out for fixtures deserving of far greater attendances.