By ALEXANDER HATZIKOSTAS
Fresh calls for Football Federation Australia to expand the A-League into a two-tiered competition using National Premier League sides have amplified with the start of the 2016 FFA Cup.
A-League outfits Adelaide United and Central Coast Mariners were dumped out of the opening round of the knockout tournament by semi-professional teams Redlands United (QLD NPL) and Green Gully SC (VIC NPL).
Hume City FC captain Nick Hegarty, who led his NPL Victoria team to the semi-final stage of last year’s inaugural competition, said teams like Hume are, football-wise, capable of matching it with the big boys.
“We’ve (Hume City) have got an infrastructure set up at the club which is second to nobody in Victoria … and probably some of the A-League clubs around the country,” Hegarty said.
“We are ready to go.”
Many NPL teams are keen to have the chance to play on the national stage, with South Melbourne and Wollongong Wolves flagging their intentions to join the premier Australian football competition.
The major obstacle in the way of a second division made up of NPL teams is financial, with the costs of converting themselves into professional outfits too much for most.
At present, the 10 A-League clubs are owned by a combination of private consortiums, wealthy investors and international conglomerates, each with varying levels of financial stability.
Fox Sports football presenter and writer Adam Peacock said it was financially impossible for NPL teams to sustain themselves at the highest level.
“It’s going to take money and you've got to wait for maybe ... the next TV rights deal,” Peacock said.
“It’s all about finances and you simply cannot just pluck something out of thin air, but one day I would love to see a second division.”
Mr Peacock said despite the great successes of NPL teams like Redlands United and Green Gully SC, it was a very different task to match it with the A-League teams week-in, week-out.
“You can’t have a semi-professional second league and then expect those teams who happen to get it right in any given year, they get it right and they come up to the A-League. They are a semi-professional outfit,” he said.
“If they were given the chance to train as full time professionals then those teams would become much better, but that is just simply not the case given the finances at NPL level at the moment.”
The A-League 2016-17 season commences October 7 with Brisbane Roar hosting Melbourne Victory at Suncorp Stadium.
Division 2 dreams are just dreams for A-league fans
OPINION
ALEXANDER HATZIKOSTAS
Now about to start its 12th season, it is clear the A-League has gone from strength to strength.
Replacing the old National Soccer League (NSL) in 2005, the A-League was the brainchild of then Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman Frank Lowy, and it started the football revolution in Australia. For the most part, it has been a success.
Similarly, many fans are happy with the way things are, with the exception of Melbourne Victory fans, who are notoriously hard to please (I should know, I'm one of them).
But some are starting to grumble.
For a couple of years now fans have been upset that there is no real punishment for the team(s) that finish at the foot of the 10-team ladder.
In most professional football leagues around the world, the bottom three teams at the end of the season are relegated to the division below them and the top three teams from the lower division are promoted up, therefore providing an incentive for teams of all divisions to develop and improve.
This is not the case for the A-League.
Everyone involved in football in Australia is conscious that a second division is the next step in developing the game – there is no debate in that. It is the when that is the problem.
Many commentators have had their say on the matter and all of them are right. Every single one. It's not an easy issue to resolve, and at the moment there is no single right answer.
But what we can do is to take a greater interest in the game – make football a discussion point, a topic on the agenda for more Australians. That might force TV broadcasters to wholeheartedly support the game and fight for the rights with their wallets.
Once more money gets injected into the sport, then we can start realistically talking about how to expand the league and to develop it further.
But if we were to build a second division now, this is how I think it should be done:
A PLAN FOR THE A-LEAGUE Starting next season (2017/18), create a second division with NPL teams such as South Melbourne, Hume, Wollongong, Sydney Olympic and others, teams with a rich football history and an evident desire to improve and evolve. These teams would play in a competition structure mirroring the A-League. There would be an an initial probation period of three-five years before the introduction of promotion/relegation rules. This would allow the clubs to:• develop a club infrastructure appropriate for professional club football;• develop a large-scale fan base; and• help recruit a squad worthy of professional football. After this time and after the next TV broadcast rights deal elapses, these clubs would be in a position to take on the challenges of professional football. It's not a foolproof plan, but it is a start.
For football to develop in this country, we need to be having a meaningful discussion and most importantly significant action to get the figurative ball rolling.
For too long, those in favour of a second division and those against it have just been bickering at each other with little result.
Enough is enough. Let us just play football.