A-League Season 2017/18 Thread [R]

The league is dead. There's nothing to play for. Sydney FC are killing it, 60% of the teams make the finals and there's no pro/rel. Another few years of the same thing over and over again.

 

Look at the decrease in crowd numbers and TV audiences. People are tired of the same thing.

 

It shouldn't be this hard to figure out. Our AFC neighbours, Japan, introduced it recently enough. The FFA could have asked them for some guidance!

 

There are commercial reasons that make it difficult. If FIFA reorganize us to give the A League clubs more power then pro/rel will be even further down the track. In any case, there isn't much real pressure from levels below to have a promotion system. We don't have professional clubs outside of the A League in this country, and despite what a few officials and supporters think there aren't many clubs who can become professional outfits in any meaningful sense. Introduction of promotion and relegation at present would more likely result in the end of professional football in Australia, rather than its expansion.

 

That's called fear mongering. How can you say such a thing when there is no proof of promotion/relegation ever failing or working in Australia?

Seriously, if that is what the issue is, the FFA should have at least opened up bidding process for a second division with terms (clubs have to be professional) and wait for bids. If there were 10 bids, a second division could be formed.

The proposed "Championship" by the AAFC is not too far from that. It's now up to our governing body to come in and help improve the model instead of just dismissing it like they initially did. The fans want this so it's time to help, not dismiss. Are the FFA working for us or themselves?

 

Promotion and relegation was used at various times in the old NSL but didn't work that effectively. The biggest problem was the concentration of teams to Sydney and Melbourne during the times when it was applied indiscriminately. Often there were restrictions in who could and who couldn't get relegated which they put in place to avoid this where protected teams saved money to build up a war chest so they could buy decent players for when they lost the protection. We also saw teams finishing 4 places from the bottom get relegated when the teams below them stayed.

I don't have a problem with expanding the league to build up a second division that way if enough new teams are there. I agree that if we can get to 16 fully professional teams we can have a second division with pro/rel between them.

The Championship concept needs a bit of work, but if those involved can raise themselves up to a point that they have a fully professional second tier league then I have no issues with pro/rel to the A League from there. Its an alternate way of getting a professional second tier to just expanding the A league.

The biggest issue I have with promotion and relegation in our structure is that there is a big divide between fully professional clubs, and part time clubs where most of the players need other jobs to make a living. The gulf is too great. A professional club that drops back to a part time league wont be able to stay professional, and a part time club that goes up because they have one good year will also find the gap way too much.

 

As you said, the NSL's "pro/rel" was very selective. It was more about replacing teams like we've had with Wellington replacing NZ Knights and WSW replacing GCU.

In Portugal, there are two professional divisions and the third tier is a mix of semi professional and professional clubs depending on the ambitions of each club.

How does this relate to Australia? Get rid of the cap, if we can't have a fully professional second division, we should form a second division with the best clubs and then they can choose depending on their circumstances (financial, support, facilities) if they want to be professional or semi professional. They can't get promoted until they are professional so clubs will work in the background to get to that level.

There should be pro/rel to the A-league and to the State NPL's.

 

Agreed. I coach in the NSW NPL. Only 5 of the 12 teams (42%) make the finals in NPL 1 and only 6 of the 14 teams (43%) make the finals in NPL 2 and 3.

In the A-league, 60% of the teams make the finals. Ridiculous.

 

I think 5 is sufficient and they should adopt the macintyre 5 team system that AFL and NRL used for years before they went for the extra games (and money). With that system if a team lower than first wins they must have beaten every team above them at some stage in the finals.

 

What's the point of having VAR if they allow off side goals to stand.