Yeah I dunno, it's not like not having a cup comp makes the league unprofessional. Though I agree it's more ideal to have one. For Pro-rel I can say helps, cause it keeps the league more interesting and promotes stronger football in the top division if you're letting go of the weaker team. Like some team at the bottom half-way through the season would be able to just do bugger all for the rest of the season once it's clear that there's nothing to play for (with no punishment for being crap). Also from a fan perspective having cups and pro-rel promotes interest. Though I think cups way way more interesting if it involves more than 1 division. In Japan Emperor's cup involves shitloads of teams which is really nice to see giant-killing from time to time. Or like Arsenal going down to Bradford from League 2. Independent body is probably about not having too much power to one focus, like some division of powers thing to lessen possibility of corruption. Also lets the organisation have it's own focus and not have other issues on the agenda. Thing about AFC's decision I agree with you, or at least agree that the FFA should decide it's rep (which would be Brisbane). I'd say once a cup competition starts in Australia they should get rid of the finals series.
Although the last team does have something to play for here- That's the dumb thing about a final 6 final system, even the team coming dead last half way through the comp is still in with a shot of making that last semi spot. Even Sydney this year who have been very poor are only 1 win out of the semis. And that's not a good thing unless you're a supporter of the said team coming last.
Well North Queensland are back in the new APL. So eventually the APL may evolve into a second division.
I agree 100% with Akitod, insofar as his post in the ACL Criteria thread goes: "I don't know about all the criteria" But one thing's certain. Two, actually. Akitod prompted a more careful look at the criteria and it seems that Qatar has a problem with attendances, with an actual average of less than the minimum stated in the criteria - 5000. Despite employing an Audience Marketing supremo to improve the woeful statstics, the Stars League still refuses to publish crowd figures, stating a vague 5000 as the league average. Coincidence? With a high percentage of free tickets & paid 'spectators', non-publication of QSL match attendances and sub-par average, Qatar should not have scored 50.4/100 for this category. By failing specific criteria, ought to have received, at the very least, a 30-point penalty. This would bump 2nd-placed Qatar down the MA ranking list to 3rd with an entitlement of 3+1 spots, losing a direct-entry place for a play-off slot. Iran would be elevated to 2nd and receive the full grant of 4 direct-entry slots. Also, UAE was not entitled to 2+2 places; as the 4th-ranked MA should only receive 2+1 according to AFC statutes. Similarly, Uzbekistan was only entitled to 1+1 as the 5th-ranked MA. An Uzbek team should not have been forced upon the East Zone, by the AFC's own regulations. If UAE was granted a 2nd play-off spot from the two vacated by India & Jordan's non-eligibility, then Uzbekistan should have received the other. That is unless, of course, UAE fudged a criterion or two, like their chums from the neighbouring peninsular may have done, thereby dodging penalty bullets...
The ACL criteria requests that a "League has a system for promotion/relegation". This does not necessarily mean automatic relegation. One way the FFA could potentially get around this is have the champions of the state leagues playoff with each other to determine a nationwide "state league" champion (or winner of this APL that seems to be picking up speed) to play a home/away series with team that finishes last in the A-League. Winner plays in the A-League, loser goes to the state leagues. If the state team beats the A-league team... they have earned their spot in the A-League. Of course this will never happen, and would require a rejig of the A-League / State League calendar so that both sets of leagues finish at the same time. But if they do, Australia would gain 70 points on the ACL criteria (gaining 35 points each on having a promotion/relegation system and having a second division; it doesnt say the second division has to be a single league...). This would give Australia 637 points overall, passing the magic 600 points total and a 2+1 (at least) ACL allocation. Another thing that bugs me in the ACL criteria, is that no MA got full marks overall, so all MA's must have failed some criteria, but according to the AFC, 7 MA didnt fail any!!!!! Either the AFC are crap at maths or "forgot" to apply penalty points..... This is just a thought, what the FFA is doing is great, and will slowly get to where they want to be, but these are just some suggestions to keep the AFC fatcats happy.
AFC has bought into the theory that pro/rel is an important aspect of player development and that implementing pro/rel will make the sport more popular over all. Given that, it is understandable that they would require pro/rel.
Well our discussion was actually about my statement which you denied which we've obviously completely settled seeing as you've done an entire post in favour of my argument, so i'm glad you've come around Though through agreeing, you've started a completely new discussion about singing the tune of corruption in the AFC. Which is a totally different kettle of fish lol and requires no argument from me that there is certainly corruption. Passing doesn't mean 100% in the criteria, you could get an 90% most likely and still pass.
Agree with you that you know nothing about the criteria, however as usual, in your rush to give the appearance that you're the smartest guy in the room, you miss the point. Perhaps the corruption is not at the AFC, but at the MA level, with the regional body adapting to what the assessing teams observe & are provided with by each MA
Passing doesn't mean 100% in the category, you could get an 90% most likely and still pass. Each category consists of key criteria, some of which have a mark which goes to the total, and a threshold, which if passed not reached, results in a failure. Each failed criterion attracts a 30 point penalty. It's easy to work out when you refer to the marking scheme document outlining each criterion.
Well I made the initial point, which you've attempted to rebut completely unsuccessfully. And in the process somewhat accidentally providing evidence to support exactly what you were trying to argue against. Clearly the only thing stopping you admitting this is your own pride/arrogance. It's quite interesting to watch somebody when they're only disagreeing on principle despite supporting my argument. I almost didn't need to have input into the argument in hindsight cause you've given plenty of evidence by yourself to support the statement: "Technical standard isn't the be-all of ACL criteria" Despite the fact that was the very thing you protested against. You've given no evidence to the contrary other than the random claim that I don't know the criteria without any background or even attempted correction. Unfortunately you believe claiming this is an actual argument lol. There's nothing more chief. Accept that the statement "Technical standard isn't the be-all of ACL criteria" is true and move on.
For lack of protest I'm guessing you are happy with the statement if we use category. If your only protest has descended to just this after everything else, then that's about as good as we can get from you . Lol though I'm pretty sure there would be criteria regarding technical standard anyway within the technical standard category.
I'm sorry, could you please re-post this using the English language? And that is: Akitod still hasn't done his homework and read the ACL assessment marking criteria; tut tut...
I certainly see your points, and at least there's some logic behind the AFC's decision; however, I'm more in favor of rewarding spots in the federation's premier club competition based on actual performance in said competition. It just seems odd that to me that, in a year where Qatari teams went a combined 5-3-16 in the group stage with a goal differential of -22 and without a single team advancing to the next round, they are rewarded with the maximum possible guaranteed spots. Do six clubs make a proper second division? How many games does the Qatari D2 actually play in a season? Seem like it's just set up for show. Maybe Qatar has so many cup competitions because the Star League's season is only 22 games long. Even the A-League manages to fit in 27 (a full 20% more). And in truth, the HAL could have a "cup competition" tomorrow if they simply treated the Finals Series as something separate from the regular season. Or they could simply bring back the Pre-Season Cup. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that 2 of the 4 Qatari cup competitions don't even involve the second division at all. Point taken. However, 77% of the time Qatari clubs don't advance out of the group stage (i.e. 10 out of 13 clubs since the 2008 edition). In those 5 competitions, Qatari teams (by my count) were a combined 20-19-37 with a -35 goal differential in the group stage. Half of those wins were against the eventual 4th place team. Four of those wins each were against the 2nd or 3rd place teams in their group, respectively. In five years, only 2 of those 20 wins were against the group winner. Hardly impressive to my eye.
The rules weren't just whipped up the day before announcing that X team got Y spots, they were made a few years ago so if the A-League gets less spots they had it coming for a while. If your season is short, then a cup comp is a all the more better idea. I don't see your objection to that. The fact that Australia has 27 games is retarded cause it's pretty much the only reason why a finals series is justified seeing as your league standing is actually influenced by luck of the draw (by who you play away twice vs. who you play home twice). You don't like the D2 but it's there and more than Australia, so be it. lol I don't think it's that impressive either but it fits the bill better than most leagues thus it got a reward for it. Regardless of any of that though I think your thoughts are that it should be only performance like the UCL. Which isn't a bad argument. I can see why they don't do that at the moment with the lack of professionalism in asia as a whole. They believe it'll foster more growth of quality if they create a better environment for it to occur, so they're rewarding creation of that environment more.