quentinFFA Cup Proposal and other issues
April 3rd 2010 09:36
The A-League season has come to an end and ever since that pulsating finish to the season where Sydney beat Melbourne on penalties there's been a lot of talk from people concerning the future of the game.
Sporttalk commends the fact that people are so knoledgable about these issues and that they aren't afraid to post them and express their views.
Besides the customary expansion talk, there's also been some talk concerning what would either be known as the "FFA Cup" or "Australian Cup." In other words, what is being discussed is the idea to ditch the Grand Final and create a seperate cup competition. At the same time, there's also the mandatory talk about promotion/relegation and it's about time that I weighed in with my views
FFA Cup or Australian Cup
In my view, this is an absolute must. The pre-season used to contain a competition and while not well attended, it still had a competitive edge to it and some could consider it a form of a cup although just for A-League teams.
Having said that, I played a computer game called Football Manager 06 and in FM 06 it had an FFA Cup and frankly, even though it's a computer game, it was actually exciting to be managing the Melbourne Victory and playing against the likes of Essendon, Green Gully or South Melbourne. Inevitably the A-League team (Melbourne Victory) would win something like 4-0 or 7-0. Still, it added a bit of spice to the season and even better, the Grand Final was still mantained in the season.
As it currently sits though, there is no link whatsoever between the A-League teams and the State League teams of Marconi, South Melbourne etc and an FFA Cup would be the most ideal way of reviving this link and showing the disenchanted people out there that the FFA do care in their own way about the clubs that were in the game from 1977-2004
So how would the FFA Cup work in my view?????
Pre-Qualifying Round 1
- State teams from all leagues start their own state qualifying competition (32 teams)
Pre-Qualifying Round 2
- Winners of Round 1 (16 teams - teams play locally)
Pre-Qualifying Round 3
- Winners of Round 2 play (8 teams -teams play locally)
Pre-Qualifying Round 4
- Winners of Round 3 play (4 teams - teams play locally)
Pre-Qualifying Round 5
- Winners of Round 4 play (2 teams - teams play locally)
Pre-Qualifying Round 6
- All winners of state qualifying play (8 teams - travel between states)
Round 1
- A-League teams enter competition (12 teams)
- Winners of Pre-Qualifying Round 6 (4 teams) to join them
Round 2
-Quarter Finals
Round 3
- Semi Finals
Round 4
- Final (to be played at conclusion of A-League Season)
Obviously there's lots of rounds involved in this tournament and for this to work you would be potentially looking at some mid-week rounds. I've also allowed for this to start when there are 12 teams in the league (22 matches) and with the potential for the later rounds to take place on weekends (working it similar to the FA Cup)
When you look at what's been going on with the trend of crowds in the FA Cup, you wonder how such a cup could ever work in Australia especially when there's the potential for state league teams (not much money) to travel between states. The answer for this is pretty simple and can be highlighted in a few points
- The local state federation should pay all travel costs for the state league team required to travel to another state (i.e. FFV would pay costs for South Melbourne to travel to play Marconi in NSW).
- The FFA would need to offer all losers in each round a participation fee (i.e. Pre-Qual 1 losers would get $500, Pre-Qual 2 losers would get $1000 etc)
- The Cup competition would need to be heavily promoted with free-to-air TV coverage essential
- The final would need to be played at a venue with minimum capacity of 25,000 with the potential to up the minimum capacity for later years.
- Each city who wanted to host the final could bid for the rights to host, with money to be paid to the FFA
- Sponsorship $$$$ would need to be somewhere in excess of $250,000 to enable the FFA to make some money on this concept
- This would be slated to start in 2011/12 when Sydney Rovers enter the A-League to get a 12 team competition
Personally I am of the view this could work but a tournament such as this would require the great injection of $$$$$.
Ditching the Finals Series
People have talked about a proposal to ditch the Finals Series. Some have argued that the best team doesn't necessarily win it (in terms that the team on top after the regular season doesn't necessarily go on to win the Grand Final - see Adelaide 2005/06 Central Coast 2007/08) and that it should be decided on a European style of first past the post. Looking at the regular season the number of games are set to increase from 88 (2005/06) to 135 (2009/10) and with 12 teams by 2011/12, you'd expect teams to be playing each other twice which equals 132 games. There is a possibility of midweek rounds, but to be honest, the finals series is an Australian tradition. While I get excited over the likes of Man United battling Chelsea in a first past the post battle, I still get just as excited about the finals series.
In terms of ditching the finals series, with the decrease of games (by 3), coupled with the introduction of the FFA Cup (which could have a combination of midweek and weekend rounds), there is still a place for the finals series.
Promotion/Relegation
This in my mind is the big issue that currently affects the game in Australia. Promotion/Relegation is followed in every league around the world besides the USA but it's the issue that is threatening to torpedo our participation in the Asian Champions League and could somehow torpedo our chances of hosting the World Cup.
According to the AFC Champions League regulations, for a country to enter teams in the competition, they have to be in the top 8-12 countries in Asia but also they have to have a league which contains promotion and relegation.
In terms of what teams would play in the 2nd division (should there be one), you would be hard pressed to find enough businessmen willing to put their own money into creating a new franchise so you would have to start looking at introducing teams from the state leagues into a 2nd division containing around 8-10 teams.
This then could create a whole new set of problems in that a lot of the State League teams have ethnic backgrounds. While this was considered a strength in that it created that tribal feeling back in the early days of the old NSL, it was also the NSL's biggest weakness in that you had teams of Serbian and Croatian background (as an example) playing each other and the fans would start fighting each other which isn't a good look for the game. Sadly because of this, there is the perception that admitting these teams could derail all the hard work that the FFA have done in revitalising the sport in this country.
Personally, I don't believe that there is enough talent and enough money in the sport to introduce a second division (called the B-League) and add to that the problems with ethnic tensions and you'd basically be looking at a derailing of everything that the FFA has done to give the game a better image.
Overall, these 3 issues are the ones that most dominate the professional aspect of the game in this country and you could add the issues of youth development, youth coaching, decline in refereeing standards and numbers, developing an Australian style of play and also producing talent for the Socceroos (men's) and Matildas (women's). The FFA have already put in a lot of work but it's clear they still have a long way to go
Sporttalk commends the fact that people are so knoledgable about these issues and that they aren't afraid to post them and express their views.
Besides the customary expansion talk, there's also been some talk concerning what would either be known as the "FFA Cup" or "Australian Cup." In other words, what is being discussed is the idea to ditch the Grand Final and create a seperate cup competition. At the same time, there's also the mandatory talk about promotion/relegation and it's about time that I weighed in with my views
FFA Cup or Australian Cup
In my view, this is an absolute must. The pre-season used to contain a competition and while not well attended, it still had a competitive edge to it and some could consider it a form of a cup although just for A-League teams.
Having said that, I played a computer game called Football Manager 06 and in FM 06 it had an FFA Cup and frankly, even though it's a computer game, it was actually exciting to be managing the Melbourne Victory and playing against the likes of Essendon, Green Gully or South Melbourne. Inevitably the A-League team (Melbourne Victory) would win something like 4-0 or 7-0. Still, it added a bit of spice to the season and even better, the Grand Final was still mantained in the season.
As it currently sits though, there is no link whatsoever between the A-League teams and the State League teams of Marconi, South Melbourne etc and an FFA Cup would be the most ideal way of reviving this link and showing the disenchanted people out there that the FFA do care in their own way about the clubs that were in the game from 1977-2004
So how would the FFA Cup work in my view?????
Pre-Qualifying Round 1
- State teams from all leagues start their own state qualifying competition (32 teams)
Pre-Qualifying Round 2
- Winners of Round 1 (16 teams - teams play locally)
Pre-Qualifying Round 3
- Winners of Round 2 play (8 teams -teams play locally)
Pre-Qualifying Round 4
- Winners of Round 3 play (4 teams - teams play locally)
Pre-Qualifying Round 5
- Winners of Round 4 play (2 teams - teams play locally)
Pre-Qualifying Round 6
- All winners of state qualifying play (8 teams - travel between states)
Round 1
- A-League teams enter competition (12 teams)
- Winners of Pre-Qualifying Round 6 (4 teams) to join them
Round 2
-Quarter Finals
Round 3
- Semi Finals
Round 4
- Final (to be played at conclusion of A-League Season)
Obviously there's lots of rounds involved in this tournament and for this to work you would be potentially looking at some mid-week rounds. I've also allowed for this to start when there are 12 teams in the league (22 matches) and with the potential for the later rounds to take place on weekends (working it similar to the FA Cup)
When you look at what's been going on with the trend of crowds in the FA Cup, you wonder how such a cup could ever work in Australia especially when there's the potential for state league teams (not much money) to travel between states. The answer for this is pretty simple and can be highlighted in a few points
- The local state federation should pay all travel costs for the state league team required to travel to another state (i.e. FFV would pay costs for South Melbourne to travel to play Marconi in NSW).
- The FFA would need to offer all losers in each round a participation fee (i.e. Pre-Qual 1 losers would get $500, Pre-Qual 2 losers would get $1000 etc)
- The Cup competition would need to be heavily promoted with free-to-air TV coverage essential
- The final would need to be played at a venue with minimum capacity of 25,000 with the potential to up the minimum capacity for later years.
- Each city who wanted to host the final could bid for the rights to host, with money to be paid to the FFA
- Sponsorship $$$$ would need to be somewhere in excess of $250,000 to enable the FFA to make some money on this concept
- This would be slated to start in 2011/12 when Sydney Rovers enter the A-League to get a 12 team competition
Personally I am of the view this could work but a tournament such as this would require the great injection of $$$$$.
Ditching the Finals Series
People have talked about a proposal to ditch the Finals Series. Some have argued that the best team doesn't necessarily win it (in terms that the team on top after the regular season doesn't necessarily go on to win the Grand Final - see Adelaide 2005/06 Central Coast 2007/08) and that it should be decided on a European style of first past the post. Looking at the regular season the number of games are set to increase from 88 (2005/06) to 135 (2009/10) and with 12 teams by 2011/12, you'd expect teams to be playing each other twice which equals 132 games. There is a possibility of midweek rounds, but to be honest, the finals series is an Australian tradition. While I get excited over the likes of Man United battling Chelsea in a first past the post battle, I still get just as excited about the finals series.
In terms of ditching the finals series, with the decrease of games (by 3), coupled with the introduction of the FFA Cup (which could have a combination of midweek and weekend rounds), there is still a place for the finals series.
Promotion/Relegation
This in my mind is the big issue that currently affects the game in Australia. Promotion/Relegation is followed in every league around the world besides the USA but it's the issue that is threatening to torpedo our participation in the Asian Champions League and could somehow torpedo our chances of hosting the World Cup.
According to the AFC Champions League regulations, for a country to enter teams in the competition, they have to be in the top 8-12 countries in Asia but also they have to have a league which contains promotion and relegation.
In terms of what teams would play in the 2nd division (should there be one), you would be hard pressed to find enough businessmen willing to put their own money into creating a new franchise so you would have to start looking at introducing teams from the state leagues into a 2nd division containing around 8-10 teams.
This then could create a whole new set of problems in that a lot of the State League teams have ethnic backgrounds. While this was considered a strength in that it created that tribal feeling back in the early days of the old NSL, it was also the NSL's biggest weakness in that you had teams of Serbian and Croatian background (as an example) playing each other and the fans would start fighting each other which isn't a good look for the game. Sadly because of this, there is the perception that admitting these teams could derail all the hard work that the FFA have done in revitalising the sport in this country.
Personally, I don't believe that there is enough talent and enough money in the sport to introduce a second division (called the B-League) and add to that the problems with ethnic tensions and you'd basically be looking at a derailing of everything that the FFA has done to give the game a better image.
Overall, these 3 issues are the ones that most dominate the professional aspect of the game in this country and you could add the issues of youth development, youth coaching, decline in refereeing standards and numbers, developing an Australian style of play and also producing talent for the Socceroos (men's) and Matildas (women's). The FFA have already put in a lot of work but it's clear they still have a long way to go
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