A-League expansion has just been put back on the agenda, with Greg O’Rourke more or less repeating David Gallop’s apparent preference for expansion teams in major cities as opposed to regional centres.
Yet this sentinment is unlikely to go down well in Sydney and Melbourne. Certainly not when Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory are two of the country’s best-supported sides in terms of membership – each already counting over 12,000 supporters for 2016-17 and with more to come.
There is an even greater absurdity in the claim that football markets should be where there are millions, as opposed to thousands. If this criteria were applied anywhere else, most professional football clubs would be denied access to the highest level. What of Bournemouth, Burnley, or for that matter Leicester City, all three of which will be gracing the Premier League next season? What of clubs like Eibar in Spain, SV Darmstadt 98 in Germany, or Sassuolo in Italy? Would such teams be excluded from the highest level of football based on the sort of criteria apparently being suggested here?
Such decisions, in fact, would kill off the very beauty of football for many observers. There was much complaint about the original one team per city format, rectified with the admission of Melbourne Heart (now Melbourne City) and then the Western Sydney Wanderers – which proved not merely a game-changer but a coming of age for the competition. For the first time, genuine cross-town rivalries would come to exist in the A-League, mirroring much of the football world. It has not only helped embed the code firmly in the Australian sporting landscape, but has also contributed to the improving international stature of the competition.
It would be folly to dilute the supporter bases of existing Sydney and Melbourne clubs, especially those that are the biggest and best-supported in the country. By contrast, such markets as Wollongong and Canberra boast long-established football community and tradition, while revisiting areas such as Townsville cannot be discounted. The initial failures of North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United should not deter the A-League from trying again at some point, while Ipswich is another potential candidate. Clubs serving larger ‘regional’ markets can add variety to the competition.
Expansion to Wollongong and Canberra would mean five clubs located within a four-hour drive of one another. By contrast, the north-west and Midlands regions of England have more professional sides located within a shorter distance of each other. In Japan, the plan to expand the ranks of professional football will result in many regional centres of varying sizes being served by clubs with theoretical potential to ascend to J1 status. League structures like those of England and Japan provide a valuable insight into how the national game can be grown.
The FFA should not put all its eggs in one basket. Having abandoned its one team per city strategy after five years, it should not risk the dilution of already established clubs and instead look to fill gaps in serving the needs of the football community. Both cross-town rivalries and strong regional clubs exist in most of the world’s leagues. It should in Australia as well.
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