The essence of football is summarised in a particular moment when a team achieves the promotion to the first division.
In that magical instant the world stops, the fans kneel in the stands and thank god for being alive and being able to witness that feat.
Parents embrace their children, friends sing until they lose their voice, an old man cries in solitude the tears of triumph.
Perhaps some think that the best time of a fan’s life is when his team wins the championship, but it is not. To achieve the promotion is to gain the right to belong, is to earn the right to be part of a sports elite that many can not access.
The author of these lines supposes that almost all the fans of the football in Australia aspire to be able to see this in their own league someday. Eventually they will.
But the sad reality is that this will not happen in a relatively short time.
A-League clubs and their CEOs do not want this to happen. We can get angry and insult them because, with their got position, they are slowing the development of the game in the country.
And we may have some reason to do so.
Now, the CEO must watch over the interests of his club. If this journalist occupied that position in some club of the A-League would take the same attitude.
Relegation implies that we didn’t do our job well. It means that we did not choose the right coach, the right players and that we misinterpreted our chances of success.
For CEOs to accept relegation amounts to making their position much more vulnerable than it already is.
Some may argue that success is not measured only in sports results, but the reality is that if a team loses the category, each and every one of the involved in the club become expendable.
So, should we resign ourselves to the fact that promotion and relegation will never occur in Australian football? No. What must happen is that the discussion should be raised in adult form.
First of all, there must be a sincerity in the A-League. CEOs and clubs must stop putting excuses such as the economy or the viability of teams that make up the hypothetical second division.
We have all read some good ideas on how to implement this new structure. The NPL is a good Test bench, where the most qualified clubs can earn the right to be part of this new division.
Today the FFA is doing a good job in terms of expansion. It is true that perhaps the process could be faster, but you can not deny its success in the last years in this matter in particular.
However the implementation of the relegation and promotion is something else. Club pressure groups and commitments made in advance make it impossible to think of a resolution of this issue in the short term.
In this conflict of interests, all parties must yield something. The CEOs and clubs are right to claim that the economic viability of the competition must first be achieved, but neither can they put their interests to the fore and paralyse the full development of this sport in the sinks.
Fanatics have the right to claim the opportunity that their team can win the right to play in the first division, but they must contemplate realistic deadlines and not seek a quick and disproportionate implementation of the promotion and relegation.
Now is the time, let’s discuss this.
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