Considering the relative success of the Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Heart, it seems worth asking whether Football Federation Australia’s strict ‘one-team one-city’ policy was flawed from the beginning.
Should there have been two Melbourne and Sydney teams from the outset?
Last Saturday’s derby day in Sydney seems to support this view. With both ends of the stadium pulsating from start to finish, the Wanderers victory – deep in Sydney FC territory – was a vindication of their place in the A-League. It was a moment of self-realisation for a club steadily on the rise.
Similarly, the Melbourne derbies have already provided some excellent contests since the arrival of Melbourne Heart last season. And despite the Heart’s recent troubles in attracting crowds, few would advocate a return to a single Melbourne team.
One-team one-city, a very American concept, was a necessary step in the evolution of the game in Australia. For many years the old National Soccer League (NSL) allowed promotion and relegation, which served to entrench the influence of the many clubs from Sydney and Melbourne, who benefited greatly from drawing upon the largest and most diverse catchment areas in the country.
While a system of promotion and relegation may work in countries where football is deeply embedded as the number one sport, in Australia it only created a lopsided league which could hardly be described as ‘national’.
Strategically placing teams around the country is vital to the game’s success in Australia. Administrators from other football codes woke up to this reality in the mid-1980s, resulting in some controversial but necessary club mergers and relocations.
The survival of Australian Rules and rugby league hinged upon expansion. In football, the opposite is true. Rationalisation ensured the survival of the national competition.
Indeed, one-team one-city existed as an idea among football commentators and analysts for decades. In 1977, Soccer World editor Andrew Dettre called for Hakoah, St George Budapest and Sydney Olympic to pool their resources and create a Sydney super-team ‘Wentworth United’.
In 1990, the Bradley Report into the game’s administration recommended that clubs represent a geographic district, the scrapping of promotion and relegation, and the inclusion of sides from all states to make the competition ‘truly national’.
Yet, as Les Murray commented at the time, ‘there is no central communal ideology, and no vision’. The strength of existing clubs and the impotence of the game’s administration prevented any real change until 2004, when Frank Lowy and John O’Neill were blessed with a tabula rasa to completely restructure the competition.
“Everyone would be pitched together,” O’Neill promised wary football fans.
Indeed, with the success of Perth Glory in the dying days of the NSL, one-team one-city became increasingly hard to ignore. However, in 2002, the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) commissioned a report that recommended a ten-team league, with a team each from Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, one club from New Zealand and another selected on ‘business merit’. Importantly, the PFA also advocated three teams from Sydney and two from Melbourne.
Titled ‘For the Fans: Australian Premier League’, the PFA’s recommendations have, a decade on, become a reality (I include the Central Coast, who have echoes of Northern Spirit, and draw much support from Sydney’s northern suburbs, as the ‘third’ Sydney team).
Of course, it took FFA several blunders in Queensland before settling on the current model. Considering this, should Lowy and O’Neill have listened closer to the PFA back in 2003?
The truth is, the Western Sydney Wanderers owe much of their success to the hard lessons learnt from North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United. With a generous grant from the Gillard Labor government, FFA have embarked on a hearts and minds mission to ensure that the west is won, once and for all.
Had the Wanderers been there from season one, they certainly wouldn’t have been such a well-oiled outfit, both on and off the pitch. The name, badge and colours of the club is a far cry from the tacky Fury and Gold Coast, whose image seemed straight out of an undergraduate sports marketing assignment.
Melbourne Heart, too, have put together an attractive package while prioritising community engagement programs and developing young Australian talent. Both sets of fans have quickly established an independent, innovative and colourful presence, which provides an important cloak of credibility for both clubs to project their image to the wider community.
In particular, it is easy to get carried away with the initial progress of Western Sydney Wanderers Already, commentators are calling them a ‘red and black wave‘, ‘the new kids on the block‘ and a ‘fairytale‘.
Credit must be given to FFA for learning from its mistakes. Let us hope when a buyer is found for the club, they will respect and contribute to the culture being built in Parramatta.
One-team one-city, it seems, is dead. Derby days have proved an enormous boost to the competition, and will only intensify as the A-League grows. After eight years, should the Heart and the Wanderers have been there from the start?
Da`
Roar Rookie
I agree. Lots of good points, Dizza. The BBL teams for Melbourne and Sydney have meaningless distinctions between them with arbitrary colours and fan bases. The Heart still struggles due to it's unclear geographical distinction, but at least the Victory's head start and meaningful colours allows for a clear distinction, and built the base for a second team. SFC and MVFC's initial one team, one city status (and their colours) were a good idea at the time, before the league grew and expanded. Probably the five year exclusivity period was too long, and MH could have been launched earlier. Possibly WSW could have been launched earlier, however much of it's amazing success is due to the existence of the West Sydney demographic base (there at any time) coupled with lessons learned from the incompetence of the handling of GCU and NQF.
Mr. Sharkman
Roar Rookie
Kylsy SFCFan, the last part of your comment is something I have thought ever since the Western Sydney Wanderers were given the nod to enter the A-League. In all honesty, Wanderers fans are being very lazy or they spent 7 years fast asleep during high school geography class. It is high time, Wanderers fans stopped peddling this bullshit of Sydney FC being an eastern suburbs club. I have lived in the Sutherland Shire for all bar the first 2 years of my life and I have been a Sydney FC fan since Day 1. Same goes for a lot of people in the Shire and St George areas as well. I went to the game against Melbourne Heart last night and there was plenty of people going back to the Shire on the train wearing Sydney FC shirts & jerseys. Were these people asleep in their caves when Sydney FC beat Brisbane Roar at Win Jubilee Oval last season? Where is Win Jubilee Oval located again? Ah yes that's right it's in Kogarah which is part of Sydney's "SOUTH". Not forgetting Sydney FC's W-League side has played quite a few games at Toyota Stadium in Cronulla over the years. This whole East v West bullshit being peddled by Wanderers fans is just as bullshit as Queenslanders claiming everybody in NSW live in big houses and drink lattes to pysche themselves up for State Of Origin.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
The problem with Melbourne is it doesn't split into two geographically like Sydney, Brisbane and arguably Perth. If you go with a geographic split, you need at least three teams, a western, an eastern and a central (or northern, incorporating the city). Maybe you could have an east and a west, with the two fighting over the centre. Melbourne also only has one rectangular stadium to the desired standard, and like all Melbourne's main sporting centres that is central. If you have 3 Melbourne teams you need 4 Sydney teams, which you probably need to have 2 Perth or Brisbane teams - and you're almost back at the NSL, all because of trying to split Melbourne geographically.
Jaredsbro
Roar Guru
Manifest Destiny...anyone? That's what comes to mind with regard to the WSW situation. There's little else in history besides in terms of uncanny outcomes (usually good for the propogaters and bad for everyone else). They have support, which isn't directly connected to on-field success (think American Civil War) on-field success (think the second greatest President of the United States) and right time/right place (think the hordes of Europeans escaping potentially the worst calamity to face the second greatest continent on Earth) and you've got history repeating itself...in a very local way, but a revolution perhaps.
Jaredsbro
Roar Guru
But what about places like Brisbane and Auckland. Smaller...but with the same difficulty of uniting as one (real entity) and I say this deliberately because both cities are now 'super cities' as in one governing council to rule them all. Just because you have diversity/heterogeneity doesn't mean you should have a certain number of teams to reflect it. The one team per city idea worked at the time because the NRL and AFL (still) refuse to go there. And Super Rugby doesn't draw the crowds in NZ (anyway) anywhere anymore...go figure!
jbinnie
Guest
Joe- I've misplaced your e-mail but hope you don't take offence at this little "entry". I dug out an A Dettre annual summation for the 1983 season and he does mention West Adelaide being "relegated" (because they finished bottom) but then goes on to say the were "re-admiited on application". I think it may be this system of "relegation and promotion" that Bradley may have been referring to. Maybe a good excuse to contact AD and get his opinion. Have a good Xmas.jb
Neil Coutts
Guest
FFA messed up in melbourne, cause they are not in melbourne, putting two teams in melbourne city was a joke, the second team should of been in Geelong or Sth East Melbourne, ( a place where alot of socceroos have come from) FFA seem to put alot of effort to their own backyard, but not much brains go into the rest of Australia.
Rusty
Guest
Overall I tend to agree with you there Johnno. Not sure about a Cairns team and not sure about Nth Sydney (they have Syd FC or CCM to support) - Maybe WSW could move to penrith or campbelltown and you start a Nth West Syd side. I love that WSW is in the competition but their choice of stadium and name combined make it hard to bring in a third Syd team.
Griffo
Roar Guru
The Jets are from the NSL. The Newcastle Breakers folded in the NSL, but Con Constantine took up a licence and formed Newcastle United in 2000 which played in the NSL until the comp closed. Being accepted to the A-League, Con rebadge the NSL red and blue Newcastle United as the gold and navy Newcastle United Jets.
Mazzalenko
Guest
I will stand corrected on Adelaide and Perth however both of these clubs had no 'ethnic' links so I did not mind them playing at all I was alluding to the SMHFC and Melbourne Croatia's of these worlds. Secondly Newcastle Jets are not an ex-NSL team as Newcastle was represented by Newcastle Breakers in the NSL who have nothing at all to do with the Jets. Thirdly Brisbane Roar have nothing to do with any other Brisbane entity as Brisbane was represented by the Brisbane Strikers in the old NSL.
jbinnie
Guest
Joe - look forward to reading the report for I am not convinced there was AUTOMATIC promotion and relegation even at that time for , from memory,such was the turmoil in the game at the time,with name changing,ethic cleansing,money worries,etc,etc.etc clubs were being "dumped" another word used regularly in my investigations in fact indications are that West Adelaide were "dumped" due to the 2 conference set up being talked about and Blacktown were a financially spent force when they left in season 90.When JUST departed they only lasted one year before going defunct and only in Heidelberg do I find the terms promotion and relegation used,and as it was outside my time frame in football at that time I am left unsure. To be honest that is why I walked away from the game for,knowing the inside workings as I did, it was an utter shambles. jb
Joe Gorman
Expert
haha, and Sydney FC, for that matter
Joe Gorman
Expert
not to labour the point, but in the period when Graham Bradley was writing (1990), there did seem to be promotion and relegation. At the end of the 1989 season, JUST and Heidelberg finished in the bottom two places. The next season, neither team were in the NSL. A year later, Blacktown and West Adelaide finished bottom, and again, they were relegated. Read Bradley more closely - “It is generally agreed by the clubs that promotion and relegation, AS IT CURRENTLY EXISTS, leads to instability in the league." I won't dispute you pre-1984 or 1996-2004, however, as you are right there. But, it should be noted that the fact that there wasn't promotion and relegation in the dying days was probably because of the Bradley Report's recommendations. I've sent you the full report by email.
Jaredsbro
Roar Guru
Yes true...but...Sydney probably should have three or four by the same token. Now that might cause headaches, but two is merely an AFL type solution, not a Soccer one. It may be good for marketing/advertisers/media speculation (the quartenary sector of economies these days) but in terms of representing super-communites vs the old NSL actual communities should involve at the very least a South East team as well...and maybe CC can remain as a pseduo-Sydney super-community team.
Omni
Guest
There are already THREE (four if you count Brisbane Roar, who started life as Brisbane Hollandia) in the A-League with Adelaide United, Perth Glory and Newcastle Jets coming straight over from NSL and only the Jets rebranding.
Crimpy
Guest
---In particular, it is easy to get carried away with the initial progress of Western Sydney Wanderers Already, commentators are calling them a ‘red and black wave‘, ‘the new kids on the block‘ and a ‘fairytale‘. Credit must be given to FFA for learning from its mistakes. Let us hope when a buyer is found for the club, they will respect and contribute to the culture being built in Parramatta.--- There should be a large amount of credit to the Newcastle Jets for donating half a team to the new club. Not that it has done the jets much good on recent form.......
Johnno
Guest
Next stage of new teams , in the Organically driven A-league: - The 2nd Melb team with Heart should have a name change or re-locate , even if it wants nothing to do with STH Melbourne, call it something , Melbourne city, or North Melbourne , or STH-Eaat Melb: -Geelong should be looked at too -2nd Brisbane team big time, Brissy is divided by the river think STH QLD Crushers in the NRL, many would love a 2nd bris vegas team -Gold Coast United if done right big time potential -Townsville fury i have not given up on, NTH QLD have 2 NBL basketball franchises. The Fury's mistake was calling themselves NTH QLD, they should of been called Townsville Fury, and marketed themselves as that. Cairns and Townsville, are a big distance from each other and have there own culture. -I'd love to see West Adelaide come back, Adeliade city VS West Adelaide , was the most fierce local derby in the whole NSL, bitt bitter rivals, even worse than STH Melbourne Hellas VS Melbourne Croatia, or Sydney Croatia VS Marconi . -Best local derby in the NSL Adelaide City Juventus VS West Adelaide -Also Canberra, Wollongong, and I would be open to a Northern spirit team playing out of North Sydney oval, the old folk on the North Shore actually love there Sokah , North Sydney Oval used to get some big crowds for spirit games, amongst the biggest in the old NSL. SO here is the complete A-league base/pie what it should aim to look like Sydney FC, West Sydney Wanderers, Central Coast Mariners, Newcastle Jets, Melb Victory, STH Melbourne FC, Geelong, Brisbane roar, STH Brisbane FC, Gold Coast United, Townsville fury, Cairns sting rays, Adeliade United, West Adelaide, Perth Glory, Canberra Deakin, Woolongong Wolves, and maybe a Hobart taste devils , or Launceston team playing out of Aurora stadium. -And a FFA cup with all the state league sides. SO that is team wise: 16-18 teams should be the A-league's goal . And a FFA cup with all state leagues aligned.
Stevo
Guest
The problem with BBL is that it's a new concept to cricket - it's essentially a money making circus. It's hard to see how anyone can feel part of the teams who are flung together with the express purpose of having a slog. BBL seems to have no connection to Test cricket - it's a completely standalone, isolated competition. You can't compare BBL with the HAL. The HAL represents a stepping stone from state leagues through to Socceroos and maybe international football. The HAL is also a progression from the NSL - it's a competition that has some direct links to the past unlike BBL.
Arthur Fonzarelli
Guest
Promotion & Relegation will never work in Australia because the lower tiers of football are not strong enough or marketable enough. We are a very large low density population country which makes travel costs prohibitive for lower leagues. A team in Auckland should be the next target. Its certainly got the population base. Canberra maybe as well. Eventually 3 Sydney & Melbourne teams could see a 16 team A-League at full maturity, maybe 10-15 years down the track.
Stevo
Guest
Couldn't disagree more strongly! There should have been two teams in Sydney and Melbourne from day 1. That was also the model proposed by the players association in 2002 after extensive research. That would have split the supporter base in 2 and today MV and MH would have >10,000 members each and growing. The derbies would have been the best thing since slice bread and would have ramped up the HAL from day 1 . All the current situation has done is put Heart at a 5 year disadvantage, having to work twice as hard as MV had to do to get fans inboard. We'll get there we just need time and some solid few years - with finals appearances hopefully.