Asia hates the A-League.

1) The league should have a system for promotion/relegation

You could have clubs that have won their respective local state leagues e.g. the semi-pro victoria premier league and the NSW premier league and then have them have a playoff competition which includes the A-League last placer getter to determine the overall winner. The winner can then have access to an viable nearby stadium as determined/graded by the FFA and a pool of interested local investors as well as having designated "floating investors" that would have indicated that they will move their investment from the relegated A-League side to the new promoted A-League side to keep the professional A-League system afloat. Their investments will be at higher returns. compare to "fixed investors" that are devoted to a particular franchise, as their services are to A-league competition as well as to cover the usual money shortfall that occurs with a defeated side rather than service to the franchise itself. This way the newly promoted franchise would not be out of pocket start the new A-League as well as attracting a new breed of investors.

It only means that the newly promoted side would be a bit on the back foot having a short off season leading into the A-league season but it can be certain that at the last moment they can take the relegated A-club's place at pre-season cup.

. . . Then again, you could take Japan's approach when in the 90's when they launched the J-league in 1993.

But they have their hiccups at first, but the FFA should be aware enough to learn from their mistake.

Here's some notes about the J-League . . . we could learn to take something on board.

[quote]Japanese football had a good first three J-League season and then for the next three seasons clubs were losing money. This was due to clubs continue high wages to the foreign players and low league attendance declined rapidly maybe due to rapid expansions of new clubs (from 10 clubs to 18 in six years).

So they restructured the J-League.

1.)J.League Hundred Year Vision, in which they aim to make 100 professional football clubs by 2093.

2.)Clubs to promote football or non-football related sports and health activities, to acquire local sponsorships, and to build good relationship with their hometowns at the grass-root level. The league believe that this will allow clubs to bond with their respective cities and towns and get support from local government, companies, and citizens. In other words, clubs will be able to rely on the locals, rather than major national sponsors.

3.)The topflight became the J.League Division 1 (J1) with 16 clubs while the new J.League Division 2 (J2) was launched with ten clubs in 1999. The second-tier Japan Football League (former), now became third-tier Japan Football League.

4.)The criteria for becoming a J2 club was not as strict as the top division. This allowed smaller cities and towns to maintain a club successfully without investing as much as clubs in J1.

5.)J2 Clubs took time to build their teams for J1 promotion as they also tried to gradually improve the youth systems, the home stadium, the financial status, and the relationship with their hometown.

6.) By 2005, J1 had 18 clubs and so the number of relegated clubs also increased to 2.5 from 2, with the third-from-bottom club going into promotion/relegation playoffs with the third-placed J2 club.

7.) J. League Division 2 started to expand to fulfill the demands of lower-level clubs becoming professional. At the end of 2004 two clubs were promoted from the Japan Football League (semi-pro league).

8.)At the beginning of the 2006 season, the league took a survey to figure out the number of non-league clubs interested in joining the professional league. As it turned out, about 40-60 clubs in Japan plan to be professional in the next 30 years.

9.)The league management formed a committee and looked at two practical options; either expand the second division or form a third division. In other words, the league had a choice between letting the non-league clubs catch up to the J2 standard or form a third division with non-league clubs where these clubs can prepare for J2.

10.)Professional assessment that it is the best interest of the league to expand the J2 to 22 clubs before forming a third division.

Reasons;

a.)Japan Football League, the third-tier in Japanese football league system was already serving the purpose of preparing the non-league clubs.
b.)At the time, most non-league club interested becoming professional were in the regional leagues or Prefectural leagues, two to four level below J2.
c.)Twenty-two clubs is the perfect number as it allows enough number of home games for annual revenue, while keeping the competition at fair double-round robin format.
d.)Most European leagues have similar football pyramids where there is more clubs in 2nd- and 3rd-tier leagues than the top flight.

11.) Committee also reintroduced Associate Membership System to identify and assist such non-league clubs. The membership is exclusively given to non-league clubs that have intention to joining the J.League and also fulfill most of the criteria for J2 promotion.

12.) Associate members finishing top 4 of JFL will be promoted to J2.

The league believe this strict system will prevent financially unstable clubs and also allow the league to maintain certain standard as a professional league without having to adopt the "closed shop" franchise system like their baseball.