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AFF Super League is an opportunity for the Top End

Roar Guru
16th January, 2014
10

Momentum is gathering for the establishment of the AFF Super League in 2015. The AFF’s desire is for two Australian teams to join the competition.

One of them should be from Darwin.

The AFF Super League is a concept that has been on the ASEAN drawing board for a long time.

The current plan is for the league to kick off in 2015 with two teams each from Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar and one from Cambodia, Philippines, Brunei and Laos. It is only logical that East Timor would also be included at some point.

Whether this is achieved from the beginning is doubtful, however some form of the competition is likely to kick off in 2015 with teams in a number of these countries already preparing themselves to meet the minimum entry requirements.

What this presents to the Top End is an opportunity.

The costs of running a viable A-League side are beyond the current demographic and economic capacity of the NT, as are the costs of offering domestic professional football at any level.

The costs of competing in the AFF Super League, however, may not be.

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Support from the ASEAN region in terms of television revenue and corporate sponsorship will be available. Costs of flying to and staying in the ASEAN nations will be covered.

Jetstar’s usage of Darwin as a hub has provided affordable, direct links throughout the region.

The AFF Super League provides the opportunity for a talent pathway for young athletes in far Northern and Central Australia, a pathway that has too often been overlooked by this code.

The club could operate in a similar fashion to the NYL sides, playing predominantly younger athletes from the Top End.

This would encourage the identification, development and promotion of youth from some of our most remote communities.

This would also allow for the club to use players with lower wage demands to improve the viability while remaining competitive.

A club in the Top End would become a hot bed of indigenous talent and prove a treasure trove for scouts from A-League clubs.

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Attempts at professional football in the NT have been made before.

A side in the then Singapore Premier League, the Darwin Cubs, folded in 1995 after less than two years despite on-field success.

A subsequent approach by interested parties from the Top End to enter a side in the S-League was rebuffed by the FFA.

The Top End has a limited number of people from which to draw large crowds and while this has changed dramatically in the intervening years the population remains low. Gate takings and merchandise are unlikely to make any significant contributions to the bottom line.

Care will needed to be taken with the business model.

The mistakes of the past need to be carefully considered as even with the economic buoyancy of SE Asia providing support, there are no guarantees.

Yet for all this the people of the Top End will support their own side with enthusiasm and will bring pageantry and true character to the game.

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The AFF Super League offers an opportunity that the A-League nor NPL are able to provide. It is one that we should grasp, as unless the FFA is prepared to support a NYL side in Darwin then the alternative is no professional football for the Top End.

And that is no answer.

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