The new CEO of the FFA, David Gallop, proudly announced earlier this year that FFA staff and officials were working out the details of an FFA Cup, scheduled to begin in just 12 months.
The lower-ranked state teams will be in action first, with the A-League teams joining the competition in the latter stages in September-October next year, when their regular season begins.
About 700 teams from Australia are expected to compete, ranging from the A-League to state league teams, and even amateur teams.
Great news you say, as the competition will be just like the FA Cup.
However, Gallop warned that there were logistical and financial challenges to be overcome before the competition could go ahead. “We need to make sure it works commercially,” he said.
It’s an undertaking of huge proportions, with nearly a thousand teams across Australia expected to enter. Australia is a massive island, with travel times and travel costs beyond the reach of most clubs.
How is the FFA going to structure such a national competition to minimise costs and maximise revenues?
Is it going to be a series of intra-city or intra-state rounds that will then merge with the A-League teams to help minimise that effort and cost? Details are scant at this stage, but a lot of thought needs to go into it. The FFA also needs a healthy level of sponsorship to meet the large costs of running such a competition.
Gallop expects the romance of a competition in which the lowly and the mighty each have an equal chance of taking the trophy to have great appeal for an Australian public culturally predisposed to supporting the underdog.
“We all grew up watching the FA Cup and we recognise the connection point it makes for every football club in England,” Gallop said. “There’s a fairytale element of the competition in terms of what’s possible and it will add another dimension to the Australian football calendar.”
One of the key strategic objectives of the FFA Cup is to help connect the massive base of two million participants to the professional level of the game, and maybe get them interested in the A-League.
“You only need to take one look at this idea to see what a boost it would be for that connection. There’s no doubt we are on a growth trajectory unrivalled in Australian sport. This kind of competition is not available to other sports.”
The FFA Cup is a great idea, and I basically support the concept.
The biggest risk though is not the financial or logistical challenge, which I’m sure Gallop and Lowy are well up to meeting in good time.
The biggest challenge for the FFA Cup, dare I say it, is the ethnic problem. There, I’ve said it.
More specifically, the damage that the wayward football fan and the Australian press can do to football and the good progress the A-League has made in the public’s eyes.
While the FFA has done a great job in cleaning up crowd behaviour at A-League games, it’s still a problem.
In two pre-season games with the West Sydney Wanderers at Campbelltown and at Sydney United, the fans and the press were more interested in the crowd disturbances.
Tom Smithies and the Daily Telegraph got some nice photos of several Sydney United fans being capsicum sprayed and headlocked while trying to work out who threw a firecracker on to the pitch.
A firecracker! Yes, it was completely over the top, but that’s how the public and the police perceive football and its fans. By the way, Smithies and his Daily Telegraph photographer were seen leaving well before half time. Once they had some good pictures and a story to print, they hurried back to the office, and obviously didn’t go there to report on the game or the result.
The front page story in the Melbourne Herald Sun after a huge crowd of nearly 42,000 witnessed a thrilling first Melbourne A-League derby reported on how “soccer fans were shaming the game” because a few chairs were broken.
The classic line in the second paragraph read “and it’s called soccer not football. Football is played with an oval ball on an oval field”, referring of course to that other Melbourne game with a huge superiority complex.
In fact, there have been several front and back page articles in Melbourne newspapers proclaiming how soccer is shaming Melbourne and maybe even the whole world, of course laced with choice snippets of wisdom about how that other Melbourne game is much better and the fans behave a lot better than soccer’s shamed hooligans.
Let’s face it, we do give them some ammunition to fire back at us.
From an FFA Cup perspective, let’s also note that Football Federation of Victoria’s 2012 showpiece, the Victorian Premier League grand final between the Dandenong Thunder (Albanian community) and Oakleigh Cannons (Greek community) was remembered by the Victorian press for two spectators being injured by flares and firecrackers, and not because Dandenong won their first ever VPL title 2-1.
Dandenong have had three points deducted this season and have to play the majority of their first round games in front of no spectators as punishment. The Dandenong club members are also required to undertake and complete an anger management course and an FFV Respect and Responsibility Course. They can’t get into any VPL games until they show proof of completion.
Also of note for future FFA Cup games was the report that the Oakleigh Cannons (Greek community) forfeited their FFV Victorian State Knockout Cup tie against arch-rivals South Melbourne (Greek community) on a Saturday night because it clashed with Greek orthodox Easter celebrations.
Both clubs have historically strong Greek ties, but the Cannons’ committee had requested the match be moved to another date as many of their volunteers and supporters had family and religious events to attend. But the two clubs weren’t able to find a new time, so the Cannons forfeited the match, handing South Melbourne a passage to the fifth round of the competition with a 3-0 imagined victory.
I respect the Oakleigh Cannons’ decision to forfeit, but how would the commercial press report on that if it was an FFA Cup match?
There will be enormous scrutiny of the behaviour of clubs in the FFA Cup, and if there is repeated bad behaviour and crowd trouble, the FFA says they will be expelled from the cup, or at worst it could mean the end of the FFA Cup.
There is a risk about the FFA Cup and what it will do to the image of the A-League and football in general. For sure and certain, if you get two rival or historically-opposed teams from ethnic communities playing each other, there will be trouble.
The reporters and camera men from the Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and Courier Mail will be there in anticipation to film it, photograph it and write it up for the front and back pages.
Nickolas
Guest
I drop a comment when I appreciate a post on a website or if I have something to add to the conversation. Usually it is caused by the passion displayed in the post I read. And after this article Don
me
Guest
They even had a midweek, knockout rugby league tournament in the 80s with teams from Papua New Guinea and Illawarra
Peter Wilson
Roar Guru
Yes, these issues need to be addressed to make it a success and not a great drain on FFA finances.
Nick
Roar Guru
The biggest problem and biggest success for the FFA Cup and FA cup is geography. It is very easy and cheap to host an FA cup in England...its tiny. It is impractical here. Are we to expect that a local team in Cairns is going to rustle up the coin to go and play a local team in Hobart?
Bob Anderson
Guest
Religion haters and militant atheists would probably spout off about the Easter forfeit as well. They are often the most intolerant people of all.
j binnie
Guest
Griffo - No argument from me there,it is credible,non-financial risk, and does what any good competition should do,add something for the lower divisions to strive for. What the hold up is I don't know. jb
Griffo
Roar Guru
My thoughts jbinnie have always been to let the state-based cup winners from each federation progress to the 'FFA Cup'. If more teams are needed then either losing cup finalists or the premiere league winners could qualify. While more a 'cup winners cup' style, the states already organise a competiton to find out their knockout cup winners (sponsorship and travel arrangements already known). A 'state' team is matched to an a league team; A-League teams travel away. It is a smaller beginning, less cost, but with more room to grow, while linking the amateur and professional sides of the game.
Brendo
Guest
Always thought this is the most likely format. 32 teams with a number of slots allocated to each state federation. The state fed then run comps to fill the spots. The devil will be in the details 1. A-league play away games in R1 Would love to see this applied but cannot see this being applied across the board. FFA will want to ensure higher profile games get TV coverage and they will want to showcase these games at venues that are likely to draw well and are TV "friendly". I suspect in first couple of years FFA will determine venue will be the rule. 2. A-league teams cannot play each other in R1 Yep pretty much a done deal I would suspect as the FFA try to keep the A-league in it as long as possible. I would guess they may even go further and have seed the A-league teams to ensure key teams don't meet until R3 (Quarter Finals) 3. 10 A-League teams Will Wellington get a spot? I am not sure that the FFA will be allowed to offer a spot to a NZ team. Can see this being a sticking point for the AFC as they only reluctantly agree to them in the A-League. 4. Timing With the State league playing in winter and the A-League in summer how you marry the two will be difficult. No doubt the preliminary rounds will be in winter and the R1 and R2 rounds in A-league preseason. But when do you play the QF, SF and Final. The logical time would be Nov-Jan but this will disadvantage the state teams who won't have games to keep them fit. You could play the whole comp in A-league preseason but imo that takes away from making the cup a prestige event and relegates it to a preseason cup. Personal I would love the final to be played on Australia Day but I just cannot see how this would work if a state team made it that far. 5. Extra Time and penalties That is a done deal. It won't be home/away in the first few years as the FFA will want to contain costs
Lucan
That same media may also follow up and see Oakeigh ran training at their venue that very night, and call Oakleigh out for their hypocritical stance. :)
Steven
Guest
You said it. Since when should we care what racists in and out of the media think anyway. Whenever I've heard negative comments about our game they are always from people that have never been to, or watched, a match and NEVER WILL. Stop worrying about them. My life has taught me that you can't back down and say yessirr. They just take strength from that and get worse. Stand up and do what you know is right. And the FFA Cup is a dream whose time has come.
Steven
Guest
To Ben and Towser - Hallelujah!!!! You both just nailed it. Peter, move on mate. Football fans will come. It's them we want. Non-football fans may rant and rave but they do anyway. And their media always will too. First week of the AFL season and on the Sunday I had to go in 22 pages from the back of the Herald Sun to find anything about our game!! Oscar Wilde :There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
West
Roar Pro
Interesting article from Mike Cockerill out west and a test case for your theory http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/cockerill-opinion-display/A-chance-for-sanity-to-prevail/66762 I think its more likely that there will be trouble again at A-League games and the FFA Cup next season, but its no reason to call the whole thing off. I'm sure the FFA will continue to manage it and keep it rolling along. The culprits are usually the big minority and they will be weeded out. The vast majority will enjoy it and have a great time, especially if they go all the way to the final, one knockout game at a time.
The Truth
Guest
Supporting Football? Dream on mate, the Murdoch Media Mafia will ALWAYS be Football's deadliest enemy until Football finally unites the tribes and uses the overwhelming power of social media to obliterate them.
Bondy
Fuss, What the Germans have done is extended out from world or euro formatted pot and group stage draws, I like the element also of killing the game on that day with extra time to decide who advances. Rd 2 there fuss could be tricky you could possibly miss a regional club coming to a HAL club they would generally be knocked out by the quarters or semis , the regional clubs may complain about not getting an opportunity of hal home ground games. QF @ SF; random draws ,correct from then on its open slather. Interesting, things can be tinkered with marginally with time.
bergkamp
Roar Rookie
Chivas crowds are the lowest in the MLS now. Not sure what that means, just saying.
Realfootbal
Guest
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Personally, I think that the possible risk factors are so far outweighed by the benefits that they barely exist in relative terms. A big plus for A-League squads will be more games added onto the season - and, mostly likely, a kind of de facto extension of the season with cup rounds in pre season as well. As such, the FFA Cup will go a long way to addressing concerns over the length of the A League season, hopefully thereby encouraging promising young players to stay here longer.
Simmo
Guest
I agree with the guys who reckon 'away' games a better for the A-League clubs. Costs are the key to the sustainability of the cup in the short term. The costs of hiring full size stadiums are not likely to be covered by the smaller crowds we'd expect for HAL v state league opponents. And playing away in front of a packed local ground has a kind of appeal that an empty big stadium can't give.
Peter Wilson
Roar Guru
I've spent a lot of time in Victoria (have relatives there and in Adelaide and Perth) and played lots of football in Melbourne. I've agreed with you guys in all of my posts that its not an ethnic question and I'm not the racist. Its the way that the media report it as an "ethnic soccer hooligan violence" problem and how that will limit the success of the A-League and the FFA Cup.
Peter Wilson
Roar Guru
Thanks oly, never been there to see a game, just an example. I don't think the FFA or A-League will have time for Cup replays, especially if they are played mid-week with the A-League in full flight. I agree with you and Fussball that they will have to do extra time and penalties, which I think adds to the excitement.
nordster
Guest
In some ways though their limited base may be part of their role and appeal. Do all clubs have to appeal to a broader constituency? Now we have these broader clubs it gives them a natural advantage over any niche club. Assuming the ex NSL clubs are happy with their niche, some may look beyond that. Id like a league that embraces a bit of everything, especially once a second div comes along.