Football Australia’s planned National Second Division in collaboration with the Australian Association of Football Clubs is likely to come via a Champions League format.
How this actually looks hasn’t been decided as yet, though it is unlikely to satisfy the AAFC and its member clubs.
The AAFC recently published a report into the feasibility of a NSD, and in it were multiple proposals for how it would look.
The AAFC have made it clear they want 12 clubs initially with a traditional home-and-away format, with 22 games and finals to decide the champion. This proposal would eventually see expansion to 16 clubs via promotion from the state-based NPL competitions.
This plan will see clubs expect to spend up to $1.8 million. Whether this is realistic or not is a different story. The PFA’s white paper on a NSD suggested it would cost clubs $5.4 million to do it properly. The huge discrepancy between the two figures is a cause for concern.
PFA’s figures would factor in employment law requirements for minimum wages as well as costs needed to provide suitable facilities, medical services and appropriate travel requirements.
The report prepared by the AAFC also outlined what they considered to be FA’s Champions League-style plan, which is proposed to have 20 clubs from the top NPL tiers around the country, to play over the course of 11 weeks in a group format.
FA haven’t publicly confirmed if this is accurate but insiders say this will likely be the initial look of the NSD, though not the final version in the long run.
FA’s initial plan is to have four groups of five clubs, where each team will play one game against other clubs in their group (two home and two away). The AAFC report appears to have a typo on page 20 where it says the first phase will see each club play each other twice, but then the financial figures in the table below only caters for each club playing once.
The top three in each group will progress to the second round, where the 12 teams will be in three groups of four where they will also play each other once.
The third phase will see the top two of each group form two groups of three. The final will then be over two legs with the top team from each group.
Clubs are still expected to compete in their own state-based NPL competitions, with some games switched to mid-week to cater for clubs playing in this NSD Champions League format.
The cost, player fatigue and practicality of NPL clubs competing in such a competition will be a major challenge.
The cost of this format will range from $896,000 to $1.48 million, depending on how far each club makes it (page 20 of AAFC’s report). This will be on top of the cost of competing in their state-based NPL competition.
Based on the AAFC report, clubs currently spend $500,000-$950,000. This means clubs who compete in this type of NSD could end up having costs totalling nearly $2.5 million.
Essentially clubs that go far into that Champions League-style competition will have a higher cost than they would if they had a straight out 12-team NSD.
(Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
The APL, the organisation who control the A-Leagues, has welcomed dialogue between FA, AAFC and the APL regarding the proposals. APL chairman Danny Townsend has been vocal publicly in keeping communication lines open.
The interesting thing is, the issue of promotion and relegation hasn’t been closely examined by any party. Fans of a proposed NSD make the valid point that it will only be worthwhile if there is eventual promotion and relegation.
An insider from one of the clubs who would be favourite to make the NSD made the point, “The NSD is simply the NPL on steroids.”
For clubs in any second division to eventually be part of any promotion or relegation, they will logically need to compete with A-League clubs.
It is estimated A-League clubs spend around $15-$25 million per annum. How any NSD club would eventually get to that figure is anyone’s guess.
Apart from a handful of NPL clubs – South Melbourne and Preston for example – most rarely get more than a few hundred at games. APIA Leichhardt, a former NSL powerhouse, only have 62 members so far in 2022 according to their Facebook page, and had 125 last season.
Other former NSL clubs like Sydney Olympic, Wollongong Wolves, Marconi and Adelaide City are a shadow of themselves in terms of crowds. They do however attract the odd big crowd for games between themselves.
The 2019 NPL NSW grand final between APIA and Sydney United saw 6426 turn up at CommBank Stadium.
Clubs like Perth SC and Bentleigh have a hardcore group of fans, but whether they have enough to generate the dollars required to compete on a national stage remains to be seen.
South Hobart don’t seem to feel that many football fans want them to be there, with the feeling they are there just to give the proposed NSD a truly national look.
They had 2600 turn up to an FFA Cup game against Marconi at Blundstone a few years ago. Whether this sort of crowd will turn up regularly is an important issue.
A number of clubs have ‘white knights’ who are going to fund their initial NSD existence, however most agree this is not a sustainable way to exist. Revenue from streaming deals, memberships, matchday and merchandise is the most logical way clubs can survive.
All of this comes down to fans.
Being part of a brand new shiny competition like a NSD will definitely generate more interest, however whether it is enough to bring in thousands of fans willing to watch online or pay more than what they do now to go to an NPL game, is the big question. These fans will determine revenue generated by broadcast deals and gate takings.
The good thing though is that at least there is progress being made. The ‘Champions League’ format proposed by the FA is probably a good way to test the waters, and get things rolling. How well it succeeds will then determine if it is worthwhile going forward.
Janakan Seemampillai
Roar Guru
QLD is a key strategic market. Can’t believe an NSD can be successful without a team from there
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
The only 4 Clubs that expressed intrest in the NSD from QLD were Peninsula Power, Gold Coast United, Sunshine Coast FC and Wynnum Wolves out of those 4 only Power and GCU play in NPLQ but Gold Coast United did not sign off on the Final Report meaning there no longer interested/no longer in contention for NSD, Sunshine Coast FC play in QPL which is Queensland's 2nd division and Wynnum just got relegated to QPL2 which is Queensland's 3rd Division that only leaves Peninsula Power but there based out at Redcliffe where the Roar currently play and play at AJ Kelly Park which just down the road from Moreton Daily Stadium
Janakan Seemampillai
Roar Guru
I think we have moved on from AIS days, we have Full time professional football clubs now and NPL programs so would the AIS really work now!?
Waz
Roar Rookie
Always felt this is where the AIS could have focussed, regional. Instead of being closed down.
Janakan Seemampillai
Roar Guru
Yep and again the cost benefit analysis may not be favourable
Waz
Roar Rookie
NNSW has the critical mass and does not have the geography of north Queenslander. Who would compete in a North QLD NPL? Cairns (pop. 150k) Mackay (125k) Townsville (180k) Rockhampton (80k) Bundaberg (70k) Gympie (53k) Gladstone (33k) Emerald (14k) The distance between the two furthest points is 1,600km. Most of the towns in northern QLD have one club and they play inter-club games only. A northern league would be a tough ask.
Janakan Seemampillai
Roar Guru
They need to explore new markets but it seems they are hell bent on bringing back some old NSL clubs and clubs from Melb and Sydney before anything else
TenTribesOfTexas
Guest
Unless the Championship teams are aligned with regional broadcast zones like the whole of Tasmania, Canberra/ACT, Woolongong, Gold Coast, the whole of Adelaide and Perth etc and with broadcasting zones in the big cities, it is a pipe dream and destined to.fail.
Janakan Seemampillai
Roar Guru
The League will bare those costs, Which will be funded partly by the $200K fee each club has to pay up front. Interesting, the fact 12 Teams is almost half the travel cost compared to 16, and the AAFC want 12 to begin, it says to me the AAFC initially want a predominately east coast comp. And guessing mainly melbourne and Sydney centric. This is why three of Qld’s biggest clubs aren’t interested in the NSD. Lions FC, GC Knights and GC United.
Nick Symonds
Guest
The travel costs on page 43 are interesting as well. Estimated average travel cost per club of $164,127 and $2,626,026 in total for all teams, for a 16 team national home and away season plus finals.
jbinnie
Guest
Igor - Like many others you have been conned into believing the NSL was the brainchild of 2 men ,namely Lowy of Hakoah and the supremo of St George F.C., both bosses of two teams who in 1973 (note the year)had seen their clubs invited to take part in an interesting experiment. A club in Brisbane did all the hard work in proving that a team could fly to Brisbane, play in a full game and fly back to Sydney on the same day using an evening flight. This experiment was successful and in fact Rasic's successful Socceroos team also enjoyed the same "experiment". At no time was the Brisbane club given help of any kind from official football bodies. Having proved it could be done, other Brisbane clubs jumped on the bandwagon and did the same 'experiment". As I have said all this took place 5 years before the NSL came to fruition. It is typical that football "press " ignores these events and credit is given to two men who had nothing to do with those" experiments". Frank Lowy's "troubles' were not sourced solely from the soccer arm of the Hakoah Social Club which was based at Bondi. In the early 80's he challenged for a place at the top table of the ruling body .the ASF and was soundly thrashed in the voting at the Wentworth Hotel AGM. Lowy then elected to walk away from the game, a sojourn that was to last some 22 years until he was ASKED by the national government to resurrect the game which was in danger of collapsing. Lowy's team ,Hakpah Eastern suburbs were withdrawn from the NSL much earlier and the reasons given were many and varied but it is widely accepted that the new committee of the Social Club ,finally closed the purse strings. So Igor ,don't always believe what you read in football reports. Cheers jb.
C
Guest
The members own NPL clubs…
Janakan Seemampillai
Roar Guru
It’s on page 20 of the AAFC report. Have a read. FA will have the final say http://www.australianfootballclubs.org.au/uploads/9/8/8/1/9881717/aafc_nsd_final_report__22.02.22_.pdf
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Well, what we have now was Lowy's creation, and the current Chair was also part of Lowy's board. Now that the clubs control it, more or less, they (along with a foreign equity partner) are in a good position to consolidate whatever aspects of the current structure suits them. And I get the very strong impression that no only do they prefer the current closed shop MLS approach, they would prefer nothing too well run sitting immediately below them. They would much prefer that the current resourcing gap remains between the A-League and everything else.
Igor Oligarchov
Guest
Years ago I read a 1990s text on Frank Lowy's life and he spoke in that about the NSL, how it was formed and the problems he had as President of Sydney Hakoah(Syd City)and Founder of the NSL. A fascinating incite, because a decade or so after the book was written he had another crack at remaking the sport. How often do you get another chance to remake something? He specifically mentioned in the book that he could see within a few seasons it was never going to work due to it being only representing ethnicity, rather than geographic locations. He also mentions that they did look at creating composite clubs representing regions, but chose to just keep the clubs. The Les Murray book talks a lot about the history of Australian soccer since it's earliest days with special attention to the post WW2 era which lead to it's real growth. I grew up with the NSL, but as my ethnicity was not represented I did not have a team to follow. My 'club' was the Socceroos(and still is). My take is that we don't have the resources or interest for more clubs, particularly ones with niche interests. Why doesn't the AFL introduce a 'Anglo-Saxon only club? Imagine the outrage that would cause. Maybe rugby union should do it to stir up some passion in a Pacific islander dominated sport?
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
Did Frank give you this hot gossip as well janakan? Give it a rest, you are just grifting again even though your name is mud now. It's clear as day that the club's have zero interest in a champions league format and will not bother going ahead with it if the FFA insist on it.
At work
Roar Rookie
They won't increase to 10k overnight, but I'd be pretty confidant their crowds would jump to average 3-5k for the season. You could use the same argument for A League teams if they had to play in a 2nd division, how much would the crowds drop off??? Who knows and each team will be different, but the argument is the same. (And I'm no SMFC fan either)
At work
Roar Rookie
You can't compare a knockout tournament to a proper league though, and so what if the NSD ends up averaging 1.5k per game, it's a a positive for the overall health of football in Australia by allowing more higher quality football for players. There's plenty of talent around the country, they just need opportunities and a 2nd div is probably better suited then having a 16 team 1st division (i.e. A League).
Pro Rel NSD
Guest
Do you are saying when the APL say they want the best for football, they really mean just APL? So wasn’t Lowry right about keeping the A League under FA control? Should be interesting how this all plays out.
Redcap
Roar Guru
It will - smarter financial minds than I assumedly have something mapped out.