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It’s the final match in 2012/13 season for Burgess Hill Athletic.
It is a cool day, the wind is whistling through the trees.
It’s a far cry from the heights of the screaming premier league fans, the Manchester Uniteds and the Chelseas.
But at least, they can dare to dream, and dream they will.
With the premiership sewn up, all that is needed is this match to be completed and they can begin to celebrate.
Their opponents are the side coming last, but never should be taken lightly.
Earlier in the year, it was a 5-3 victory to Burgess Hill, but alas this match would be one of the upsets of the year, Stones would win 3-2, and with that they relinquish the dreaded last spot on the table.
But now the party could start for Burgess Hill, they would be one step closer to their Premier League Dream, they would move up a division.
Anybody that is reading this is probably wondering, where is this?
What is this? And what in heaven’s name is he talking about?
This is the lowest possible tier of English football. Division 11b in the Mid Sussex football competition in the UK.
The champions of the 2012/13 season were Burgess Hill Athletic and in 2013/14 they will be contesting Division 10. But what does that mean?
In Australia, you are playing park football, maybe with some mates.
Would you ever dream of eventually playing in the A-League?
Well, in most cases the answer would be no.
You would have to trial for a club, and if you don’t succeed you couldn’t fulfil this dream.
In the English Premier League however, any side which plays in any of the 24 tiers of English Football has a chance of playing in the EPL.
Yes, in most cases, there is no way a lowly club would make it to the top tier.
But at least they could maybe reach the lower rungs of the very long ladder.
In England there are enough people, teams and money to make this relegation system work.
In Australia it is a much harder prospect. To start this process, expansion of the A-League is needed, and it will take at least a couple of decades to create enough sustainable clubs to push for this tier system.
I think the A-League needs about 20 teams to at least make a full Australia-wide tiered system work.
At the moment a few of those 10 clubs are in danger of dropping out of the A-League all together.
With crowds gradually on the increase there is no doubt that the A-League is growing steadily.
Over the past few years the average crowds have looked like this:
Year Average Crowd Per Game
2010-11 8,793
2011-12 10,819
2012-13 12,658
2013-14* 15,329*
*season ongoing
But, to allow a tiered system to come into fruition the A-League management needs to start their planning now, or later down the track it will take longer to implement than necessary.
The quicker the plan for the future is brought up, the better for the A-League and as shown in the UK a tiered system works, but we still need it to be financially viable.
Over the next few decades the A-League should gradually plan to connect to these local competitions.
Yes, it will be hard to reach the heights of the UK, as football is very popular.
While football might not be as popular in Australia, it is possible. All we need is time.
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