FFA announce National 'FFA Cup' knock-out competition

People, who are knowledgeable about football, understand the nature of a knock-out cup match - in 90' of football, anything can happen. As Michael Lynch writes in today's Fairfax Media: "Anyone who thinks this will be a walk in the park for the A-League clubs is kidding themselves." Only football ignoramuses would think upset results won't happen in the FFA Cup, which is why I have no regard for the musings of football ignoramuses. Full Story: http://m.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/chance-for-underdogs-to-take-on-the-big-boys-20130831-2sxo6.html

I am wondering if the "NSW" number is referring to both NSWF and Northern NSW Football state federations. A 5:5 split of qualifying teams, or 6:4 perhaps. Also this might include the ACT as part of the "NSW" team allocation...

As a matter of interest: The winners of the 2013 Northern NSW State Cup this year were the Urunga Raiders - first team outside of Newcastle to win the knockout cup. If the FFA Cup was being run this year, they would be in the final 32...an amazing thought for a small town club. http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/cockerill-opinion-display/Urunga-Raiders-exemplify-Cup-spirit-with-fairytale-win/71701

Simply awesome - if the details leaking out are right what we have is: (1) State cups identifying the 22 of the national round of 32 teams (The FFA Cup, name and naming rights sponsor to be identified). (2) A-League clubs making up the final 10 (including NZ). (3) Knockout based draw with potential for lots of suburban games. (4) Schedule running from July to December (this year) with potential for an Australia Day final in subsequent years. (5) Phased introduction from community, to NPL, to A-League. (6) Foxtel broadcast deal. My only problem is something I read in the media about the distribution of teams among the federations that will be drawn from the State cups. 1o of the 22 from NSW? QLD and Vic on 4 each? I am also torn about a potential Australia day final in years to come because the success of the Unite Match as 'showpiece event' in the Al-League, but we have to put the broader interests of the game first. Overall an amazing future awaits this competition IMO. I personally am very excited about it.

Very happy it has your interest!!!!

Also Brad what is very annoying is people who don't read a full post & shoot from the hip. If you had continued on after "I'll informed" you would have seen that I agreed with you about Josh's comment. Perhaps that makes your reply somewhat ill informed don't you think.

Lol, As far as football goes I think the aim is to be a strong number two in each state, and as a consequence have a strong aggregate presence nationally I would say it is a Victorian thing as you can probably tell by the AFL's penchant for spending tens of millions of dollars to ram their code down NSW and QLDers throats, just look what they've done to the banners of this very website

Depends on the format, they can create one where a non a league team can be facilitated through for "romantic" reasons and to make it interesting

Actually I think they were slow to come to the rebellion party and initially submitted an Eoi, think Knights might be considered more of a ringleader, and that was a member vote too from what I can tell too so fair enough From what I can tell of the issue my current support is with the clubs, just make it like the NSW model and get on with it, instead of trying to be political, I also find it suspicious that the FFA have dragged their feet until they have come up with some kind of "reform" which once again affects the old guard but don't want to let that get in the way and spoil a great announcement

Personally I think they should have like Europa cup, make it state based knockout, then have a state based group stage where you bring a league teams in but have heaps of a league away fans flooding grassroots venues bringing heaps of trickle down cash with them,have say 3/5 teams progress to knockout stage again so non a league teams are guaranteed for romance factor, but still small and hence it is viable to subsidise their travel costs interstate but there aren't too many of them Give the tv rights to SBS as well, it won't gain any traction of on Fox Sports, there will be a bit of loss of money but getting traction with the football fraternity is more important

MVFC vs smfc in a competitive match would be bigger in truth than the manufactured a league derby with Heart placed in it Just like they are trying to manufacture the so called "big red" though in time I think the MVFC vs wsw rivalry can outstrip the MVFC vs sfc rivalry aka the "big blue" which I a term only the media use MVFC vs Melbourne a knights would be great too Just as I'm sure wsw vs Marconi, Sydney Olympic et al would be too in those parts This match on 2007 was a friendly with barely any publicity on a weeknight, yet bigger than many regular a league fixtures have been. If people think back they will recall that pre-season cup games were smaller, eg MVFC vs ccm at the old op with about 6k is one figure I recall

It is pathetic to see so much AFL talk on the Football comments. TC/ Stavros/ Cattery I gather you are wasting everyone's time with your vendetta against Fuss, and it has nothing to do with Ian Brenner.

I trust that you are not referring to me fellas?

Only match I want to see is Melbourne Croatia v Perth Glory

Fair call AZ_RBB, but there is one person who keeps engaging fans of other sports. He does this because loving soccer is not enough for him, he must slag off other sports as well.

No its not. The SANFL and WAFL titles are more highly sort after.

someone please tell me i'm not the only one who hates it when i look down the new comments part of the Football page and all i see are comments about AFL and other sports from so-called football lovers?

@ Brad The NAB Cup is the 2nd most prestigious ARules trophy for clubs, players & fans ... not just in Australia, but anywhere in the world!

"The views of people outside football are irrelevant." Thats the spirit. I'm sure soccer in this country will win over many more people with that attitude.

Josh said: "A fairytale (i.e. an amateur club getting in the round of 16) is what will be the dream of the FFA Cup, can’t see it happening really, unless the clubs above rest the best XI’s." How is that a comment that is ill informed? You don't need to be a soccer true believer to know that it's unlikely that an amateur team will make the final 16 of the FFA cup. I wouldn't be particularly offended if a soccer die hard pointed out that it is unlikely that a VAFA team would struggle to match it with one of the 18 AFL teams - it's a self evident fact. Time to chill out. It's ok to like more than one sport.