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There have been many questions and debates raised over whether or not the A-League should have finals series or not.
Really there’s only one answer and that is yes, particularly at the moment.
In order for the A-League to compete against the NRL and AFL, the A-League finals are essential to draw both revenue and attention.
You don’t have to look far to see how much media attention has been given to the Melbourne Derby semi-final taking place this week to see that the A-League finals are a good thing for the code.
Even though the EPL and other major leagues in Europe do not have finals and instead have the ‘first past the post’ approach, the A-League cannot afford to go with that option until it becomes more popular in Australia.
The finals in their current state, are completely flawed and are in need of immediate change.
As good as a Melbourne Derby semi final is for the A-League, it really shouldn’t of been a possibility.
A team that finishes sixth out of 10 teams, should not be able to qualify for the grand final.
People will argue that we should look at the A-League and the A-League finals as two different competitions, but that’s just stupid.
If, for example, Sydney FC win the grand final, who do you think will be happier? Sydney FC, the A-League champions, or Melbourne Victory, the premiers who weren’t good enough to win the Final?
Therefore the only teams that should possibly be allowed to qualify for the A-League are the top four teams from the season. This should be the case regardless of how many teams the A-League expands to in the future.
Keeping it at four teams will ensure that only the best teams that have performed well all season are able to win the A-League championship.
This way also ensures that the A-League continues to compete with the NRL and AFL in terms of TV interest in a finals system and crowd revenue.
In terms of how the finals system should be formatted, the simplest and fairest format, is 1 versus 2, 3 versus 4, the way the A-League originally contested the finals with two legs at only this stage.
The winner of 1 versus 2 will proceed to the grand final and the winner of 3v4 will verse the loser of that match to determine the second grand finalist.
The grand final will also obviously be just the one leg.
This format of finals is the only effective way to keep the A-League fair, as well competing with other football codes in terms of TV revenue and crowd interest.
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