Uniting the many different vested interests in Australian football has always been a delicate, and difficult task. Legendary football journalist, Andrew Dettre called the game a “tribal compound” when writing in Soccer World in 1980 – and four decades on, his famous quote still contains many home truths.
So, will the new National Second Division (NSD) bring the tribes closer, and ultimately, together, at least at club level? As ever with football here, hope springs eternal.
That it has taken over five years (since the concept of “The Championship” as it was then called, was launched) to reach even this point, is a fair barometer of the struggle. Football Australia was not the brains behind it initially, but it’s to their credit that they have taken on the mantle of responsibility – and attempted to find solutions to near intractable problems such as finance, geography, and mediate the ever-present factionalism in the room. Akin to herding cats.
It's also a brave move to be preparing to launch a second tier, at a time when the freshly-unbundled top flight isn’t exactly financially stable. But many believe that, if successful, the NSD could actually assist the senior division towards calmer waters.
Closed shop, single tier entities work in competitions such as the NRL, AFL and (in the US) NFL & NBA, because there is virtually no global competition. Ambitious lower tier outfits, (such as Dolphins), or new franchises, are simply assimilated, piecemeal, through expansion. It’s this model that the A-League is generally set up to replicate.
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However, football developed globally via a meritocracy – and thus, promotion & relegation form an essential part of a football supporters DNA. It’s the main reason why the initial European Super League proposals were greeted with such fury.
Ultimately, this must be the aim of the NSD – although it is understandable that it will exist as a stand-alone competition in the short-term. To relegate a club, it must first have somewhere stable to fall.
Promotion is different of course – and while not much is known about the APL’s view on this, it would be no surprise (if the NSD were to be successful), to see an aspirational second tier club invited into the top league. In the formative years, this might be an acceptable compromise – longer-term, probably less so in the eyes of the public.
The thirty-two “Expressions of Interest” in the NSD form a fascinating smorgasbord, representing a broad range of the game in this country. Former NSL clubs dominate of course – and there’s no doubt the likes of South Melbourne, Melbourne Knights, Sydney Olympic and Marconi Stallions have higher ambitions than playing in a second division.
Then, there are other clubs such as Preston Lions, who play in the lower tiers of the NPL, but who have shown remarkable ingenuity in galvanising their local communities, and have attracted bigger crowds than even some A-League teams.
The third category is one of the more interesting. Brisbane United is an idea that brings together Brisbane Strikers, Wynnum Wolves and Virginia United. Football South Australia has put itself forward as the umbrella group for a similar proposal, involving Campbelltown City, MetroStars and West Torrens Birkalla.
Is this pooling of resources the way forward, to gain both public and governmental support? Certainly, if it leads to long-overdue improvements to Perry Park (and perhaps a venue in Adelaide), then they will be positive developments – not to mention the fact that Brisbane Roar in particular, requires a size ten up the backside, if it is to remain the primary club in the sunshine state.
The curious outlier in the bidding war is Sutherland Sharks tie-up with the NRL team of the same suffix. On the surface, this could represent a good deal for football. Shark Park is a perfect rectangular venue, and the area is rich in participation numbers. Yet we’ve been down this road before (see Parramatta Power, Collingwood, Carlton) – and these sorts of agreements with other codes normally end in tears for the junior partner.
Whatever the make-up of the new NSD, it should help heal some of the wounds of the old soccer/new football split of 2005, and provide more opportunities for players, coaches, administrators, journalists. This alone, is a reason to be cheerful – God knows, the football economy needs to expand from its current miniscule footprint, on all fronts.
But questions remain.
Can the clubs raise the estimated $2million in turnover annually (excluding junior fees) FA says is required? Will it run as a full home & away, or a “Champions League” style model? When/if will promotion-relegation happen with the top tier – and in that eventuality, how will the winter/summer seasonal split in the two divisions be rectified?
What happens if Brisbane United (for example) are relegated to the NPL, and come up against one of their constituent parts? Will a television network be interested enough to broadcast the new competition? Will sponsors be even vaguely stirred by a second-tier competition, in a country where they are anathema? Will enough fans turn up to support it?
Football Australia continues to grapple with those problems, and also walk the delicate line between trying to make the competition successful in its own right - but not a rival competition to the A-League. If that were to eventuate, then FIFA would surely intervene (not for the first time in this country), and the fallout would be just the latest chapter in the never-ending inter-fraternal war that is football in Australia. Dettre had a quote for that too…
