Is the FFA Cup promotion and relegation in disguise?

Yes, the NPL will be the feeder for promotion/relegation into the A-League in the future. I'd expect something along the lines of: 2017: FFA will open 2 additional spots in the A-League & invite NPL teams who satisfy performance benchmarks: on-field success over next 3 years, membership, sound capital structure to join the competition 2018: 2 more A-League teams added 2019: 2 more A-League teams added 2020 * ALeague is a 16 team competition * 30 match A-League competition (teams play H&A once) * plus FFA Cup * plus A-League Cup (knock-out final series for the top 8 teams in the competition, winner qualifies for ACL) Promotion/Relegation: * bottom A-League team plays 2-leg knock-out against NPL champions to decide who plays in the ALeague future promotion/relegation could be * bottom A-League team relegated * NPL Champion promoted * 2nd bottom HAL team plays 2-leg knock-out against NPL runner-up to decide who plays in the ALeague The possibilities are endless, if the NPL is a success.

If you dispute MVFC's membership figures, you should contact ASIC and inform them MVFC is lodging inaccurate financial statements. The club currently has 22,021 members. This means for 13 home games, 22,021 seats are already taken. AAMI Park: Capacity = 30,052 Seats allocated to Season Tickets/Members = 22,021 Dining & Corporate Boxes = 1,569 Free tickets allocated to promotions & sponsors = 3-4k (approx) Seats that cannot be used due to Foxtel WorkSafer requirements = 0.5-1k (approx) Tickets available for sale to the public = 2-3k per match This is pretty basic arithmetic, so I'm assuming you don't need further explanations?

I think anything's possible at this stage. I think the FFA will definitely be watching this competition with an eye on the state league clubs, to see if some of them could potentially move up to the top tier one day, with a bit of work of course. I don't think Promotion & Relegation is possible in Australia in the short term, but you just never know. What this competition could give us is new entrants to the A-league, instead of the FFA having to take the massive gamble of ploughing resources into new identities with little guarantee that they will work. Also, perhaps a 2nd Division could be born out of this. The possibilities really are endless. But I think the first 2 or 3 seasons of the FFA Cup will be to get it up and running properly, with the best format and regulations in place, and then we can breathe from there. For a football fanatic like myself, just having an extra 10 games of domestic football per year on Foxtel is music to my ears! But it's even better that it'll be new teams, new players and a new cup competition on our TV screens. Can't wait!!

I think that is where the FFA has to take the initiative and say to our confederation that P/R won't work here for these reasons, but here is our alternative plan on growing our professional league and why it is a better fit for our circumstances than an imposed P/R. While I think P/R won't work here, there are a lot of things that need to fall into place over many years before P/R is possible. Growing the number of teams in the A-League is one. Having 20+ professional teams is another...

I keep hearing that there aren't walk up tickets available for MV games (at AAMI Park), which i think is bogus, as apparently there are so many full season members that no one else can get in. though some of their crowds are about 18,000. so can't see how they lose casual (walk up) fans of 4 to 5000

The reformed national football pyramid (for which the FFA deserve huge credit) does many things. It: (1) Connects the tiers and the federations (vertically and horizontally) through the FFA Cup and NPL Finals Series; (2) Closes the 'professionalism gap' in competitive, technical, governance and financial terms between tiers 1 and 2 through the NPL; (3) Extends and unifies the football calendar for a range of important reasons; (4) Provides a unified development pathway while also creating multiple points of entry; (5) Creates a number of discrete, higher quality and 'national' football products to extract revenue for the game; and (6) Responds to AFC requirements to grow our participation in their various competitions - in particular the AFC Champions League. While P&R is NOT the reason for these reforms, together, and with time, they WILL create the right conditions for promotion (of a sort). My view is that we will see A-League expansion come from these reforms as up to 6 of the very best existing 2nd tier clubs are offered licenses. I will be long dead before these reforms to the pyramid (or the market more generally) create the right conditions for relegation from the A-League however. If it ever happens at all.

P&R will have to be coupled with a removal of the salary cap. It will increase the chances of the the biggest clubs staying up, making the impact of any relegation a little lighter.

They can and would, I'm going to assume you're an outsider, what MVFC would lose is the casual fans which is about 4k-5k every game, I'm 100% sure the core fans would stick to the club, as real football people do.

The other side of the coin though is that the AFC want us to have it. The balance will be in how it is orchestrated. It's not difficult to have promotion and relegation beyond the straightforward way it happens in a lot of leagues... you can have all sorts of measures in place to make sure that teams like victory don't get relegated. For eg, do something similar to Argentina where you have to have a number of bad seasons before you are considered (ours could be 5 without a top 6 appearance for instance). Then that has to coincide with a team in the PL of the same state having a number of good seasons. And then they have a two leg playoff. And the team being promoted has to have a certain number of standards fulfilled - finances, ground condition etc etc. This would still be promotion and relegation but the changes would be almost non existent until a club was really in a lot of strife anyway and there was another ready to take it's place.

Exactly. End of dicsussion

I thought WSW were way better than the scoreline implies. The Koreans took the 3 chances they were gifted. That was the difference. I think WSW were actually the side that played the best football or at least had the best passages of play. It's just that those 3 lapses were also the worst football of the match. Take your chances and you win, it's the same in any league

Well I think now the FFA Cup is a reality that numerous streams of support and exposure of hidden talent open up -cross-town rivalries , pressure form the grass-roots to have their team promoted , whole towns/regions of the country following the progress of the local side , possibilities now are exponential -everyone knows this -this is a time to rejoice for football in this country -a truly open door to a a 'Golden Age' of Australian Football

Victory were 2-0 away, against the best team in Asia. That's not a pasting. WSW did lose 3-1 at home, so I get your point.

With clubs have their licence extended to 2034, the promotion and relegation debate can go on hold for about 20 years...

I really wish people would forget this notion of promotion and relegation and 2 tier football. It will simply not work in this country. Lets take the Melbourne Victory for instance. The A League's, best supported club. Does anyone really believe that the powers that be at the FFA/ A League will allow the competiton's best supported team to drop down to a second tier, if by chance they would end up in the relegation position. They will never allow this to happen. Apart from the fact that the Victory in this case would lose their players, sponsorship's, membership's etc. The club would simply disappear off the radar. The A League will never allow this to happen to their competitions best supported team.

Dating before marriage?

Nail on the head, more exposure to the top level, more to play for in those games. If you're a youngster playing for one of the less fancied teams, more often than not you're overlooked, if you perform well against an A-League club while in one of these cup games, you might get picked up by that, or anther A-League club.

It provides a higher grade of competition and incentive for footballers amongs the lower tiers of professional football, among whom reside a number of young, developing Australian footballers that are often missed by the A-League clubs. The fact that from time to time such players are snapped up directly by European Clubs suggests there are a few gems out there.

Considering the pasting Victory & West Sydney got last night, how does an FFA cup competition improve the professional standard?

A simple question would be “would You support your team in the second division ?”, If the answer is yes then we should have one, but ONLY if the NPL proves to be successful and if so then promo relegation could be no less than 10 years away, and here are my reasons. -Ambitious Clubs in future will enter through the state leagues and NPL before licences are given to the A1-League. Just as Northern Fury are currently doing. - certain criteria will need to be met upon entry ie- membership numbers, stadium/training facilities, youth academy, $$$ for licence and sustainability plan for the 2nd tier. -“ Fishing where the Fish are” means Clubs in the NPL will already have a visual supporter base for the FFA to determine the clubs viability (insert GCU here). That said it wont matter if the A-League is dominated by NSW or Victorian teams, the most ambitious will rise. 40% of the A-League is already from NSW and if we look at the other codes it works as their strength, rather than against them. If Clubs of the NPL prove to be successful, then Promo/Relegation would appear to be less of a risk for the FFA rather than gambling on new regions, having to nurse the club and building the brand from the ground up. This article is way early , I love it and I want it but with the announcement of the FFA Cup its like Christmas Day and im already thinking about my birthday present in July. I just want to enjoy the moment. Will add more in 5 years time after the launch of the FFA Cup and NPL.