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The time has come for the A-League to embrace an existence as a pure football competition by doing away with its finals system, and adopting a ‘first past the post’ system of determining its champion.
Football in Australia shouldn’t align itself with competitions such as the AFL and NRL, where a Grand Final win is the ultimate goal, as this is not the case in almost every other football competition around the world.
Currently, the ‘traditional’ champion of the A-League – referred to as the premiers – receive far less acknowledgement than the winners of the Grand Final.
In the seven year history of the A-League, the team finishing as premiers has also gone on to win the Grand Final four times. Based on such data, an argument could be made that nothing needs changing; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
However, in two of the three years where the premiers haven’t won the Grand Final, they have failed to even qualify for the season ending showpiece. These teams were the best for the entire season, but weren’t given the recognition the achievement deserves.
Winning the premiership is met with considerably less fanfare. When the Central Coast Mariners secured the premiership this season playing away against Wellington, the A-League didn’t even think enough of their premiers to have the premiership trophy on hand at the game to present to the team.
The team themselves didn’t seem like winning the premiership mattered all that much either, only clapping mildly at the final whistle once the title was secured. Contrast that with Sydney FC’s wild celebrations after securing a finals spot on the final day of the season.
Premiers act nonchalant; the team that finishes sixth cavorting as if they’ve won the World Cup – surely there is something wrong with this.
Adopting a system whereby the season’s premiers were considered the league’s champions would allow the A-League to legitimately crown the best team throughout the entire season, not simply the one who can get their act together for the last few weeks.
This is football after all, and football leagues traditionally crown their champs as those ‘first past the post’. The English Premier League is set for a fantastic final day this weekend, with the league title still up for grabs because a team isn’t ‘past the post’ yet.
In this era of professional sport, money – particularly TV money – rules, and removing the seven games of the A-League finals would undoubtedly cost the league significant revenue.
A solution to this loss of TV dollars would be the introduction of the long-overdue FFA Cup. A knock-out cup competition, comprising teams from the A-League and top teams from state premier leagues would more than replace the games, and therefore the revenue, lost by the removal of the finals series.
Seven finals games would be replaced by fifteen knockout cup games (based on a 16 team cup competition) played throughout the season, culminating with a season-ending showpiece – the FFA Cup final – which would replace the Grand Final.
The removal of the finals series would give adequate recognition to the A-League’s true champions, whilst paving the way for an FFA Cup, which is itself long overdue. These moves would allow the A-League to distinguish itself as more than just another Australian footy code.
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