Leading into the final round of competition for the 2013-14 A-League regular season, Adelaide United’s Spanish-born manager Josep Gombau has come out with an interesting argument, suggesting that the Australian domestic league is need of a greater number of teams.
In this, his first season in the A-League, Gombau believes that while the competition’s quality is at or above the level of many European leagues, the low number of teams and high frequency of repetitive fixtures are holding back further advancement in Australian and New Zealand domestic football.
He is proposing that the league need expand to 14 teams from its current number of 10.
While consciously trying to avoid the mistake of taking anything and everything a European says about football as gospel, this is still a man that has had significant experience coaching youth squads in Spain and had a head coaching role in Hong Kong. He certainly has experience to speak on the issue.
So then, would the A-League benefit from a greater number of teams?
If we were to base our answer purely on the practices of the most successful leagues in the world, then yes. The top ten leagues from this list, typically considered some of the best-supported in the world, each have a minimum of 15 teams in the competition. Six of them are at the 20 team mark.
Typically this means that every team plays each other twice only, once at home and once away, leaving any further showdowns to be played out in domestic or international cup competitions.
However, in the current format of the A-League, teams play each other a total of three times, with chance deciding which club gets the advantage of two home games.
It is a system that cops a significant amount of criticism, with complaints that it erodes the intensity of fixtures in the minds of fans and players when they know they will meet a certain team once or twice more.
The repetitive nature of the competition can also lead to ‘fan-fatigue’ in attendance and support early and late in the season.
An A-League competition with 12-14 teams would likely revert to the standard two matches against each opponent, with a slight reduction in the total number of rounds (currently 27).
Under this arrangement, one would expect notable fixtures to be more greatly anticipated by fans given their relative infrequency on the calendar, and result in greater interest and attendance.
One only has to imagine the added atmosphere of a Big Blue or F3 derby if fans considering attending know it may be one of the few opportunities to see these two teams play.
However, in comparing the A-League to that of the premier competitions of Europe and Latin-America, I may be getting ahead of myself.
After all, we are also talking about leagues with a significantly higher population base from which to draw fans, with only the Dutch Eredivisie coming from a country with a lower headcount than that of Australia or New Zealand.
If we look at leagues from countries with similar demographics to our own, leagues like those Gombau was comparing the A-League to, the message remains that more teams are required.
For example, Belgium, a population of around 11 million people has an First Division football competition with 16 teams and an average match attendance of close to 12,000 in 2013-14. Portugal, with a population of 10 million also has a 16-team competition with 10,000 average attendance.
But even then, we are talking about leagues with over 100 years of competition and Europa Cup and Champions League places to play for.
They are also countries and leagues with an ingrained football identity and strong supporter foundations, not a country only just coming to terms with a new and exciting past time and currently locked in a battle for the hearts and souls of sport-saturated Australians.
Closer to home, countries from Asia with comparable demographics, like Malaysia, or Saudi Arabia or even Singapore, all tend to hover around the 12-team mark, meaning that by the standards of our neighbourly competitors, the A-League is still perhaps two teams short of a party.
However, at the end of the day, every country is different and the question of whether the A-League can or should have more teams is a question of domestic sustainability. Are there areas within the country that could have a strong enough following of football to sustain a domestic-competition football team?
As we have witnessed in the past with failed experiments like the North Queensland Fury, the New Zealand Knights or, more recently Gold Coast United, the issue is not just one of finding a suitable city to deposit a stadium and a football team.
There needs to be a strong grassroots potential, and beyond the eastern coastal states of Australia, I do not see anywhere in Australia or New Zealand which has this sort of areas with potential to compete against the traditional sports of Aussie rules, league and union.
The only other option then would be the further separating stronghold footballing cities Sydney and Melbourne. This could be a return to the days of the National Soccer League with its often ethnically-divided loyalties through franchises like Parramatta Power, Marconi Stallions or Sydney Olympic.
In its defence, the arrangement has been successful for NRL in its competition, with a total of eight teams operating within Sydney alone. Such a move would allow the A-League to draw upon existing club loyalties and rivalries in an effort to drive support and development of the game.
All the same, I would think this would be a a short-sighted move. While the introduction of Melbourne Heart and Western Sydney Wanderers have been extremely positive moves by the FFA and have yielded great results for the growth of the competition, I do not think the A-League ready for any further division.
I believe it would have the effect of weakening existing clubs and diluting the current competition, rather than developing unrealised fan-bases.
The reality is, that in its current format, the A-League is most likely at its optimal size.
Crowd support this season has been incredibly strong (a league average of 13,000 per game) and as Gombau points out, the play is of high quality.
I think the FFA should take the long-term view of this situation, allowing teams to continue to build memberships and support bases, rivalries to grow, and by targeting international success at competitions like the AFC Champions League, Asian Cup and FIFA World Cup.
This is what will continue to draw Australians an New Zealanders to football and the A-League.
The change is coming, but it will take time and I do not think that pop-up clubs with a short shelf life are going to help with building that momentum, despite the Australian competition being at odds with international standards.
Do you think the A-League should add one or more teams?
Boban
Guest
If you take history and grassroots support into account the next two areas for expansion should be Canberra and Wollongong (the fact that the Wolves were not an original A-League team is nothing short of a joke.)
Nathan
Guest
some of the next teams in the a-league should be: + second Brisbane team + second Perth team + second Adelaide team + second New Zealand team [Christchurch or Dunedin] + Gold Coast team + Canberra team + woolongong team I hope the a-league will get new teams about the 2015/16 - 2016/17 seasons. P.S. I watch lots of soccer in the European leagues and I find the a league most enjoyable
IanW
Guest
Anyone concerned about travel and accomodation costs can't count. It costs $500 to send someone across the country and put them up in a hotel. If you have to do that 15 times, thats $7500 - assuming you are paying retail, and not doing contra deals with airlines and hotel chains. Hiring a full time professional costs an absolute minimum of $30 000 per annum. If you cant afford to fly them around, you cant afford to have them playing full time.
Les
Guest
Completed rounds are not essential. Neither AFL or NRL have this format. If they were to go that way NRL would have 30 games per season and AFL 34. Therefore an expanded league should maintain number of games around present levels.. This should hold even if season schedule is changed so it runs into NRL season bringing it in line with europe.. Anytime timeline up to state od origin is ok. There is a line from 'The Castle' film 'tell them they're dreaming' that is appropriate when looking at some of the places for expansion that are posted here. Ridiculos...Ballarat, Dubbo etc. There must be multi millionares, billionaires who are prepared to lose millions in order to support an aleague team. With the huge investment going on around North Qld, new investment being pumped into the local league, vists by high leval officials to see Gallop they will again be at the forefront when the league expands. Wollongong is a viable option. Other areas where there is no competition from other codes and where a decent pop of over 150000 exists ( similar to central Coast) would include Tasmania & Toowomba ( also creates rivalry wit Roar). The latter could be set up with seed capital from FFA and the sold off.
legend
Guest
1. Npl should replace the finals with a champion series starting with 12 teams played the following year, on npl bye weeks and midweek fixtures, thus creating an in between defacto league. in the first season, teams should include the premiers of the state divisions, plus 2 relegated teams(fury or npl playing nsl side) plus 2 teams outside 100 km from the other qualifying clubs( eg Wollongong,Launceston or toowoomba) round 1-3 four groups of 3, round 4 1v2 intergroup,round 5/6 2 leg semifinal,round 7/8 final, as teams get knocked out they play games for ranking. season 2 includes 8 state premiers + the highest 4 ranking teams from the previous year that don't qualify through the state devision. 2. Guest spots. In the first season the 2 highest ranking npl championship sides are promoted. following seasons (in non expansion seasons) one team goes up and one guest team goes down. expansion season sees 2 teams promoted and no relegation. 3.promotion /relegation once the system is stabilised this system should continue with p/r but each state should have a minimum of 1 side protected(2 for nsw, thus keeping the 8 locations of the original a-league), the idea of this is to keep the balance for things like tv deals.(look at perth this year, we cant have a significant part of the country abandoned). if for eg Perth are relegated and freo are promoted the freo becomes the wa side
Jack@hotmail.com
Guest
With finals ACL and FFA cup u would play atleast 23 matches which rivals NRL and AFL
Dan
Guest
CORRECT - I agree. I believe there should be new second teams in Brisbane/Ipswich, Perth/Fremantle and Adelaide to create more local Derbies with new teams in Wollongong, Canberra and perhaps a third team in Penrith/Blue Mountains. I understand that the FFA are not keen on a second West Aussie team because of the extra travel and accommodation costs involved! But if all clubs developed their own professional training complexes, together with associated hotel/motel and restaurant facilities (just like the Mariners are doing) then the accommodation and meal costs at least, would not be lost to the game because they would simply be circulated around between the clubs, as they visited each other on their regular home and away schedule, because there would no longer be any reason for any team to stay anywhere other than at the hosting team’s hotel/motel.
Dan
Guest
I don't agree. I believe there should be new second teams in Brisbane/Ipswich, Perth/Fremantle and Adelaide to create more local Derbies with new teams in Wollongong, Canberra and perhaps a third team in Penrith/Blue Mountains. I understand that the FFA are not keen on a second West Aussie team because of the extra travel and accommodation costs involved! But if all clubs developed their own professional training complexes, together with associated hotel/motel and restaurant facilities (just like the Mariners are doing) then the accommodation and meal costs at least, would not be lost to the game because they would simply be circulated around between the clubs, as they visited each other on their regular home and away schedule, because there would no longer be any reason for any team to stay anywhere other than at the hosting team's hotel/motel.
Steve Gaspi
Guest
No it needs to get canned
lou
Guest
Yes certainly but we need the funds to maintain the league going which is hard as we can never be number one code in sport. But would be nice to maybe get another NZ team and Adelaide and maybe the Fury could come back, why doesn't Canberra have a men's team??
j binnie
Guest
Ian W - Slight error I typed in an extra 0 when giving a cost for Well or Perth's WEEKLY expenditure and it makes a nonsense of the rest of my statement ,sorry..If you allocate half of their gate income $270,000 per home match the $13000 spent on travel represents nearly 5 % of their income, I still class that as "heavy" expenditure. You cannot compare it with the cost of a "professional" player for without professional players there is no successful team.Sorry again for the mistake, jb
j binnie
Guest
Ian -I am not looking for an argument based on your use of figures.Where we differ slightly is on where the amount spent on travel compares with the income generated at gates for instance.Take Wellngton and Perth as examples,who are probably the furthest travelled in a season. Using your figures their travel and lodging expenses would come to $130,000 for that weekend.Next weekend ,drawing their average crowd of around 9000 at $30 they will pull in $270,000 towards meeting their wage bill and on costs so the $160,000 you and I have calculated is actually a significant part,almost half, of their gate income,and remember, players and staff are paid per annum, games are only played half-yearly. Get my point.? Cheers jb
Midfielder
Guest
Griffo Just makes sense the management of the NSL was old when the A-League started .. sems logical to me as the new boys take over the desire to be part of the bigger picture will over ride any ethnic ties ...
keyless sky blues fan
Guest
How can you ignore Wollongong so much? Potential pop to draw from is around 500,000 and previously they've gotten good support in Wollongong and were a powerhouse in the last 5 years of NSL until they got screwed over by their government... Wollongong is above all those places, followed by equal between Canberra and Townesville Fury!
keyless sky blues fan
Guest
One thing I think DavyyG and the rest of FFA might have second thoughts about expansion, is if it happens with say Wollongong and Canberra who are the leading candidates other than Fury IMO, is we go to 12 teams... We currently play 27 games per club. How many games are people proposing we play if expansion to 12 teams happens? We don't really want to go back to 22 games do we, everyone agreed that wasn't enough football. But can we jump to 33 either? That seems like a bit too much now, that would mean kicking off in mid-August again and finishing end of April. I personally think that would be fantastic - but FFA will um and ah about it you just watch. Really hope Fury, Wolves and Ipswich do well in FFA Cup this year and we can see how much support these clubs can garner if they have a big match up at home to a big A-league club. Might give us a guage as others have said. Wolves if they make it have the gorgeous WIN Stadium and if they have a big game I can see 5-6k turning up and possibly getting them to an upset with the A-league clubs in early-season mode. Will be absolutely tremendous! Shame there's no club from Canberra really sticking their hand up. United should.
dd
Guest
The A-league would be like a champions league for state based teams. Or you just revamp the state league to represent district teams just like the A-league was revamped.
Stevo
Guest
man on the inside- I hope your 'contacts' in and around the FFA can spell better than you. Satellite is the correct spelling. What do these ' contacts' of yours do at the FFA?
Man on the inside
Guest
As I have a number of contacts in and around the FFA, I can state that football in this country is moving the right chess pieces to secure a much larger TV deal than previously thought. I can also point out that both Canberra and Wollongong are in advanced talks with the FFA about HAL licenses that will start in 2016, which will be the beginning of the APL formal pro/rel format, however APL that desire to join HAL must meet a required standard, of which includes re-branding away from NSL club names. 30+ locations (satelight cities) have been earmarked for the HAL2 competition, the list is: Wollongong Canberra Townsville Cairns Mackay Rockhampton/Gladstone Sunshine Coast Brisbane Ipswich Toowoomba Gold Coast Port Maquarie Coffs Harbour Dubbo Bathurst Wagga Wagga Albury-Wodonga Shepparton Bendigo Gellong Adelaide Perth Hobart Darwin Just to name a few.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Luke You can tick that off your list of "FFA To Do Items"... the NPL is now up and operating across 6 States & 1 Territory as the 2nd tier football competition in Australia. The NYL is a youth competition for the 9 Australian-based A-League teams.
Luke
Guest
I agree the NPL should not be a second tier its a development league only. the FFA should replace the NYL with a second tier made up of NPL teams as mentioned.