A Cup Of Our Own

With plans for the 2009/2010 season well under way, its time for the FFA to drop the preseason cup in favour of a knockout competition that incorporates teams beyond the A-League.

Next season will see the A-league move to a 10 team league and will almost certainly see the regular season stretch to 27 games. These significant changes allow the FFA to take a critical look at the league's current structure and do away with some aspects that are just not working.

The preseason cup competition in its current format is a lame duck and the FFA needs to replace it with an alternative that not only provides a much more marketable package but also can potentially incorporate a qualification spot for the Asian Champions League in the longer term. The answer of course is a knockout cup competition. There has been speculation in the press for a while now that the FFA will look to introduce a cup competition this year or next but the time appears ripe to go earlier than later. A limited Cup Competition would solve a number of issues while providing the FFA with another marketable competition alongside the A-League.

Of course in this current economic climate the FFA need to err on the side of safety. The first year a 16 team competition would provide a four round competition and would fit nicely into our sporting calendar. The 10 A-league clubs plus 6 teams from across the country would provide a small but interesting competition for the first year. This would mean excluding a couple of the state federations from the initial cup but similar to the A-league, a limited approach in the first year may be the wisest move.

So who would be the six clubs? Below is a sample list of the 6 teams who are the current champions of their state leagues.

VPL Champions ………………………………Altona City
Captial Football Champions……………....Canberra FC
QSL Champions……………………………….Sunshine Coast FC
NSWPL Champions …………………………Wollongong FC
NNSW Champions……………………………Broadmeadow Magic FC
SA SL Champions…………………………….Adelaide City
* Apologies to WA, TAS, NT and NZ

The first round could be contested in July (when the state leagues are fully match fit and the A-league is in preseason mode), with the quarter-finals in the first week of October after the state leagues finals have been completed. The semi-finals and final could then be scheduled for November/December dates.

One of the issues with the Preseason Cup is that it ties the A-league teams into practice matches with other A-league clubs and therefore leaves them little room to maximise revenue by participating in preseason competitions with other foreign clubs, something which the fans of all clubs would love to see. By only committing them to one match in late July the Cup Format would allow them to schedule their own preseason matches with whoever they like.

Of course though the biggest bonus of a Cup Competition is that that we could use it as a qualification spot for the Asian Champions League. With the A-league expanding to 10 this year and then most likely to 12 the year after we are by the AFC Rules for the Champions League eligible for 3 and 4 places respectively (Of course there are some other provisions beyond the size of the league that the AFC has laid down that we would have the meet). A Cup Competition lays the ground work which would allow the FFA some leverage to convince the AFC to grant Australia a third place for the 2010 or 2011 Asian Champions League (most likely a play off spot would be the best foreseeable outcome in the short term).

The last but certainly not the least compelling reason is from a publicity point of view a Knockout Cup Competition provides the FFA with another marketable product. By placing the TV rights for such a competition on FTA they would be able to increase the exposure of the A-league teams without hindering the commercial arrangement with Foxtel. With Channel’s Ten’s “ONE Sport” kicking off in the next couple of weeks, you can’t help but speculate that it would provide a prefect vehicle for the new competition.

Of course as the competition will need to be expanded in future years. A 32 team (5 Rounds) competition would be the logical goal and this could further be expanded by introducing a qualifying round.

But baby steps first, come on FFA make it happen.
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