FFA exclude Victory, Heart from Mirabella Cup

Yep, +1. First instinct is to curse but without knowing the ins and outs, we're not really in a position to comment. We can be disappointed but that's about all we have right to be. Does Mirabella no longer being involved with Heart qualify as the change in the landscape? Couldn't FFA have sucked in their pride and let Victory & Heart compete this year but not next year? Would that have affected their sponsorship deals?

not just that, it would have been sold to sponsors with that in mind. No heart, no victory takes quite the gloss off what was going to be a very different mirabella cup. The other cup is a fair way off and this should not have impacted it. No i fear the concern is that if FFV could have made this work, then FFA may have felt the pressue to get their system working before the other states did the same thing.

The FFA may have had reason to do this but its a shame and rather than getting the Victorian football family back on side its alienating them further. Why would they change their minds - commercial reasons from sponsors of the new FFA Cup, fears of ethnic uprisings or being upstaged by the state league teams? What?

There simply has to be more to this than meets the eye. Even Buckley wouldn't do something this transcendently stupid. Anyway, if FFA do have a real reason for doing this, apart from the laughable nonesense trotted out so far, they'd better get it out and about quickly. Quite funny really - Lyall Gorman, who must be in this up to his eyeballs, was appointed partly because of the record of the Mariners in community connection. Mind you, the Mariners' crowds last season were an exercise in community disconnection, particularly the disgraceful preliminary final crowd, so I guess Lyall is simply continuing his streak. The central coast finally got a team that could play football and they reacted by staying away. Memo to Lyall: it takes more than shunting around a few surveys over the internet to restore credibility. Credibility requires that you engage your brain, Lyall, which doesn't seem to happening right now.

You're right about the first point, but anyone with a reasonable and practical understanding of the business of sport would have worked that one out already - but that makes this decision even more perplexing becaause the Mirabella Cup is a possible template, i.e. each state goes through the same rounds as the MC is currently doing, and either the six winners join the 10 A-League clubs in a round of 16, or you do something very similar to what the MC is doing right now with A-League clubs playing off against local clubs before the final rounds which are conducted on a national basis. Whichever way you look at it, it still doesn't make sense that you stop Heart and Victory from competing - it would not detract one iota from any future FFA cup in any way, shape or form - the reason put forward lacks all credibility.

Kasey has stole my thunder really. I just can't see the FFA getting NSW state league team vs WA state league team to work money wise. It would either be the 6 state winners joining the 10 A league teams like Kasey suggests or something like the Mirrebella cup with A league teams participating earlier in order to play more local games and garner more publicity. Then when the champions of each state come together for the national part of the competition the marketers can sex it up with names like "cup winners cup", "champions _______" etc etc instead of the FA cup knock off name. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

In and of itself, if the FFA has previously stated that the Mirabella tournament would include Victory/Heart and now it does not, then that's utterly daft. Here's a chance to build interest in a Cup comp 12 months out from the FFA Cup (which I've been wanting for a couple of years and hope will be absolutely brilliant), but yet again someone somewhere in the Oz footballing administration sphere has metaphorically shot the sport in the foot (so to speak).

I'm yet to be convinced that the logistics of an FFA cup can be solved by the FFA, they haven't exactly covered themselves in glory with past decision making. I reckon they should pass it down the chain to the state feds to whittle down the number of teams that enter to essentially find the state champions who then move into the open draw containing the HAL teams. this reduces by an order of magnitude the travel costs until the very pointy end of the comp, where prize money or the FFA could come to the party. Again, I'm not convinced that this particular decision is anything other than a petty get-square at Joe Mirabella, but of course the cone of silence routine from the usual gang of idiots in the FFA hasn't helped us the fans to figure out whats going on; we're disappointed, so we lash out and attack BB and the FFA(no wonder fans of other codes point and laugh at us on a regular basis) ...again I call for the lines of communication to be opened....isn't this what Bonnie Mersiades used to do and now Kyle Patterson has been employed to do? So Communications manager, where are the comms?

To BB ... my uncle leo had a favorite saying he took from and old Blues song... Song title was ... Your Funeral and my trial ...... well thats how I feel this is as close as I have ever come to thinking evil tho's ... for pities sake this is sooooooooooooooooooooo bad.... Did BB make this decision alone or is the hand of FL in this at all.............. what a F..ing mess.... Enjoy the song anyway .... some say the God of Harp players ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFRMBWgyH-M&feature=related

good points Futbanous, the first proper cup comp the A-L clubs play in should be FFA Cup. That's what we've all been waiting for. State-based cup comps do devalue the national comp in prestige, more so in its debut year. Maybe down the track include them. I doubt anyone will care soon enough ... provided the FFA Cup involves many teams down to the grassroots. Regional qualifying rounds can see the same teams in the Mirabella Cup in the national cup potentially. I'm keen to see the format of the national cup to see how many clubs can potentially qualify. The more, the better ... especially so now.

edit: sorry wrong reply button :-)

It's simply not credible that the FFA has put the kybosh on Heart and Victory involvement because they are concerned that it would somehow hinder their own attempts of getting their own national cup comp off the ground. To understand what's really going on here, one need only look at the recent goings on of the man behind the Mirabella Cup.

they might get a chance in the FFA cup but the mirabella cup was all about the local derbys. a MV game against South Melbourne, Melbourne Knights or another team here would be highly anticipated because its easy for fans to get to these games as opposed to interstate. Rivalrys and Derbies are what fans live for and the mirabella cup could give us this huge boost during the A league off season.

Futbanous, I see your point, and it's a valid one. However if this was the case all along, why did it take this long for the FFA to let the FFV and the supporters know? Everyone was looking forward to this. My mate is an under 14's coach at a club in suburban Melbourne, and he says everyone at the club was looking forward to seeing Heart and Victory up against clubs from regional Victoria or from the burbs! He says from the juniors all the way up to the seniors, everyone has been talking about it, and I dare say this would be the same at most other lower grade clubs. FFV was finally seen to have done something good for the game. I'm always supported most things that the FFA have done, knowing they have restricted contracts, restricted funds, and all their other limits. But this decision, or at least the timing of it defies logic. I'm sure contracts are in place, and that this venture might not be possible due to those contracts, but surely someone would have checked this when the FFV rang head office to get their approval on this competition!!! It's this sort of reaction instead of action from the FFA which gets people angry, and makes football lovers question exactly what they are doing at College St. If they had come out after the idea of this competition was put to them, and explained the decision, being a NO due to contracts or whatever, people would understand. But the fact they've let it get this far, to only pull the pin at the 11th hour is a disgrace. Leadership and Management is just like the Government in the sense that it's as much a perception game as anything else. If you're not going to do the right things, at least say the right things, and show a positive attitude which can win you votes. The FFA says nothing, stays quiet most of the time, does very little, and when it does, you could question whether they have the best interests of Football at heart when making certain decisions! It's this lack of accountability which really gets to me. We are not running an independently owned shopping centre chain here, this is the Football Federation of Australia. It should serve it's members and supporters, who pay a heap in registration fees every year. Over to you Ben Buckley, for gods sake say something...

Perhaps you are right and it is FFA Cup sponsorship that is being alluded to by "changed landscape" Nevertheless, even if that is the case, it is daft, in England for example we have many clubs that compete in a variety of domestic oriented club competitions, eg the League Cup as well as the FA Cup for Football League teams and the FA Trophy as well as the FA Cup for League 1 teams and lower, while there is an argument the FA Cup and EPL often compete for the same TV rights pie, in terms of the various cup competitions one isn't barred or deemed commercially detrimental to the other in any significant way, they are understood as different cup competitions with a different spirit and it would have been the same in this sense This kind of reminds me of how A League clubs are limited in the types of commercial sponsorship they can seek and negotiate because of the A League sponsors, putting them at a disadvantage. Similarly, this also puts clubs at a disadvantage because it limits their ability to engage with the grassroots football fraternity. All in all a dissapointing decision, and once again epitomises why the clubs need a tad more autonomy and independence from the FFA now

The only reason my club paid our fee to play in the Mirabella Cup it was because we dreamed of playing one of the A-League teams...mind you we lost in the first round, but our sheer motive for joining the Mirabella Cup was because we were promised Victory and Heart as potential contenders. This is not good enough by the FFA. They're doing more backflips than a dodgy politician. They approved the Mirabella Cup with the FFV with the conception that Victory and Heart would participate - they should stick to their promises.

In actual fact, the English League Cup is, in theory, a HIGHER quality cup competition than the FA Cup; but does not have the prestige or fairytale of the FA Cup. Whilst the FA Cup is open to every registered team in England & Wales (over 750 teams) participation in the League Cup is only open to EPL clubs and the clubs in the next 3 divisions of the English Football League (92 teams total).

MOST PATHETHIC NEWS ive heard since "Qatar wins World Cup". Fans Forum can not come soon enough, im hoping there will be some of the Melbourne Heralds most Violent fans there as well. Those of you that are attending...please do not forget the tomatoes! How long can Football Fans live with this regime? Its corporate first and fans second. i dont really care what was the reason but this was the only positive story to come about for some time and they screw us again. FFA, from the bottom of my heart, i salute you with thy middle finger and FU2!

Decent article about a relevent issue (Check!) Gratuitos political attack completely irrelevent to everything else in the article (Check!) There is enough controversy on the Roar already without courting it for no reason! No one gives a toss about your politcal views.

Should be "unproven unlike" above