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Ten teams named on A-League expansion shortlist

Expert
29th June, 2018
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FFA CEO Dave Gallop. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Expert
29th June, 2018
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Football Federation Australia has officially confirmed a shortlist of ten bids that will be considered as possible locations for expansion of the A-League competition in the 2019-2020 season.

The ten bids will now have two months to put together full proposals before a due date of August 31. The FFA will then deliberate on which bids to accept before announcing two new A-League teams on October 31.

Notably, the FFA advised unsuccessful bids that it does intend to expand again in the future, and encouraged them to submit bids again at that time.

The ten bids that have been included on the shortlist are as follows:

A-League expansion shortlist
South West Sydney FC
United for Macarthur (Sydney)
Southern Expansion (Sydney region)
Team 11 (Melbourne)
South Melbourne FC
Western Melbourne Group
Brisbane City FC
Ipswich Pride FC
Canberra and Capital Region
Wollongong

What’s notable is that the ten shortlisted bids come primarily from areas already boasting at least some degree of A-League representation.

There are for example already four teams in New South Wales, but four of the shortlisted bids would be NSW-based sides (and one from the ACT).

There’s also a further three bids which could potentially be based in Melbourne, which already has two sides, and one in Brisbane, already represented by the Brisbane Roar.

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Shortlisted bids from Canberra and Ipswich appear to be the options that are most distinctly separate from the territory of existing A-League franchises.

This is opposed for example to the bid that was put forward from Tasmania, which would’ve represented an otherwise entirely untapped market for a new team to be placed in, but has been disregarded.

Other notable regions to have missed out on the short list include Fremantle, Gold Coast, and West Adelaide.

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