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Opinion

How I would overhaul Australia's football system

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Roar Guru
17th July, 2020
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The sheer vastness of our country, let’s face it, is going to make any national second division in football a complex beast.

In order to build the A-League from 12 teams to 16 teams, the existing NPL finals series should be used as the mechanism by which to promote four worthy teams into the top division.

Once we have 16 teams, a relegation playoff between the bottom four A-League teams should be contested, with the loser playing the winner of the NPL finals series in a winner-takes-all game for a spot in the A-League.

NPL state leagues
Currently there are 94 clubs competing in the eight NPL state leagues. Once you trim off the A-League youth squads, that comes down to 90 clubs across the country potentially fighting it out for a spot in the A-League. The first bit of housekeeping to be done would be to standardise the leagues somewhat, perhaps trimming it down to ten-12 clubs per league, or 80 in total.

Additionally, all competitions should be standardised so that the winner of each respective state league finals series is granted entry to the NPL national finals series, with each first-past-the-post winner receiving automatic entry to the FFA Cup round of 64.

(Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

To determine each local champion, a one-versus-four, two-versus-three semi, and then a final should be played in each league, for a total of 24 games. Each winner should also be granted automatic entry to the FFA Cup round of 64, with the runner up granted entry if the first-past-the-point winner and the local finals series winner are the same team (there would therefore be 16 FFA Cup round of 64 spots awarded across the eight leagues).

NPL national finals series
Once you have crowned eight local champions, the next phase would be to contest an NPL national finals series. This competition already exists, and all that I would change with it would be a two-leg fixture for the semi-finals. I think there would be a significance to this extra game, as it is just a way of stress-testing travel demands for the NPL clubs at least a little bit. If a team is unable to play a midweek fixture at home, and then travel away (to wherever in the country) that weekend for the second leg, then a fully national second division has no hope.

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The winner of the NPL national finals series for the first four iterations would be granted promotion to the A-League, provided they met any off-field metrics set by the FFA. Looking at the last few winners (and runner-ups) of the NPL national finals series, teams like Sydney United, Heidelberg United, Wollongong Wolves (or Lions FC as a runner-up example) would not look out of place in the A-League and create some cracking derbies.

This means that to get in, the successful team would have had to go on a bit of a cup run, first winning two finals in their local league, and then three legs in the national finals. Very compelling stuff and totally stream-worthy.

A-League
The A-League would then start to have new teams promoted to it, without any relegation. The finals model at the top end of the table should be a one-versus four, two-versus-three two-leg semi, and then a final. Let’s keep the finals, but reserve it for the top teams only.

Once you have 16 teams in the league via promotion from the NPL national finals series, you would then implement a relegation playoff involving the bottom four teams, 13-versus-16, 14-versus-15 with the losers playing off in a grand final. That team would then meet the winner of the NPL national finals series in a winner-takes-all promotion/relegation playoff.

Ruon Tongyik

(Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)

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This would mean that for any team to stay up, all they would need to do is finish 12th or higher, or win one of three promotion/relegation playoff games. Any existing A-League team that cannot achieve that deserves to drop to their local NPL league.

However, being that the bottom four teams will in all probability be filled with freshly promoted NPL teams, it is kind of unlikely that an existing A-League club would ever actually go down (although how exciting would it be if they did). It also means that some actual promotion and relegation is likely to occur, as it would be two potentially evenly matched NPL teams facing off in this final playoff match.

A team relegated would simply drop back to their local state league and that league might then play with one extra team for the following season. To get back up, they would need to win their state league finals series, and then the national final series, then the promotion/relegation playoff game against an A-League team.

FFA Cup
The FFA Cup should be a totally open draw, but with the 16 A-League teams and the 16 NPL state league winners/runner-ups all joining at the round of 64, with 32 qualifiers from around the country.

The FFA Cup final should be contested on the weekend prior to the A-League grand final, with the semi-finals played over two legs (one mid-week, one the following weekend) a couple of weeks before the A-League regular season concludes, with no A-League matches scheduled on the semi-final weekend.

The winner of the FFA Cup should also be granted a qualifier place in the Asian Champions League.

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The culmination of each season
All of this would then set up a pretty exciting final two months to each season.

Week 1: NPL local league semis (16 games), A-League four rounds to go (eight games)
Week 2: NPL local league finals (eight games), A-League three rounds to go (eight games)
Midweek 2.5: FFA Cup semi-final first leg (two games)
Week 3: FFA Cup semi-final second leg (two games)
Week 4: NPL national quarter-final (four games), A-League two rounds to go (eight games)
Week 5: NPL national semi-final first leg (two games), A-League final round (eight games)
Midweek 5.5: NPL national semi-final second leg (two games), A-League semi-final first leg (two games), A-League relegation semi-final (two games)
Week 6: NPL national final (one game), A-League semi-final second leg (two games), A-League relegation final (one game)
Week 7: FFA Cup final (one game)
Midweek 7.5: A-League/NPL promotion/relegation playoff (one game)
Week 8: A-League grand final (one game)

Sydney FC

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

That’s 79 pulsating games over eight weeks to finish each season. The final three weekends involve an NPL national final, FFA Cup final and A-League grand final (with a promotion-relegation playoff game in the mix for good measure). This would be a melting point of A-League and NPL teams, with some featuring in two competitions at once.

For ambitious NPL clubs, the path is clear. Finish top four in your state league, then win a state league finals series, then win a national league finals series, then win a promotion-relegation playoff against an A-League team, and then fight like mad forevermore to stay up. They will, through all these mechanisms, including automatic entry into the latter stages of the FFA Cup, start to gain exposure on the national stage.

This conference model is a decidedly Australian approach. Let’s embrace the vastness of our country and implement what is a 90-team second division. When the time comes that a fully national second division is viable, it would slot straight in between the NPL national finals series (used to promote teams to the new second division) and the A-League. But in the meantime, we can start to build an integrated football pyramid that rewards performance.

Taking out NPL regular season matches, the proposed FFA OTT platform would then have some 400 games a season to potentially show (although perhaps say 300 are televised only) across the A-League regular season, A-League finals series, NPL state and national finals and promotion/relegation playoffs, as well as a cup competition and Asian Champions League tournament.

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That’s roughly ten-12 games a week over a nine-month season, which does not even include Socceroos and Matildas matches!

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