- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Questions as to the location of a future A-League licence has been filling the blogosphere of late. However, we are asking the wrong questions.
We should be asking where the next National Youth League team or W-League team is going to be based.
As Canberra has boldly shown with its W-League side, if you want football, then get football. They are also showing that if you want to build a club and garner local community support you don’t necessarily have to start with an A-League licence.
It is a lesson that other regions which are loudly declaring their suitability for hosting an A-League club should take heed of.
Unfortunately W-League and NYL sides do not stroke the ego’s of football’s financial backers quite the way an A-League side does. This is understandable in a model where a single owner is paramount and thought of watching your club at Toyota Stadium is forever lingering in the background.
Because of this W-League and NYL sides need to rely far more upon community goodwill and a deeper love of the game in order to survive. In short, these types of sides can form the basis for a strong club with diverse and integrated community backing.
The A-League expansion model needs to change, to one where W-League and NYL sides form the seeds for future A-League sides. It would also offer a chance for former NSL clubs to band together to create such sides for the good of their local communities as well as for a potential shot at an A-League licence.
And it is for this reason that I would love to see a National Youth League team established in Darwin.
The Top End is a remote prospect for an A-League licence. Even an Arafura side which included East Timor would struggle with the commercial realities of the A-League. However this will not be the case in the distant future as the population and economy of the Top End continues their rapid growth.
A NYL side in Darwin would act as a superb draw card for indigenous athletes in Northern and Central Australia and would place football at the centre of commercial and sporting life. In many ways it could be treated as an academy with scholarships for players to come from remote areas of the Top End to develop their skills before being entered into the NYL side.
There are challenges, expensive ones at that, to be overcome. Not least being the need for an artificial pitch as the NYL season is the wet season in the Top End, which is damp to say the least. Another is for the links to A-League clubs to provide the same opportunities and pathways as other NYL sides.
Should a NYL side manage to gain some traction then thought can be given to a W-League side. With both a NYL side and a W-League side a real club with national reach can start to emerge, and who knows, maybe in another 15 or 20 years an A-League licence can follow.
The key is that the FFA will be in a far better position to assess any A-League licence bid from a club which fields two such sides, as will the community who will be expected to support any franchise.
So for frustrated football fans in Wollongong, Western Sydney, Tasmania, Townsville and the like the question isn’t “where is my A-League team”, but “where are my NYL and W-League sides?”
And to fans in Canberra, kudos.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.