He also said they needed to get a promotion/relegation system, we all know that will never happen.[/QUOTE]Yeah, unless you want to have 2 leagues with 8 teams in them each....
It can be done like what they do with J-league and J-league 2. Certain J2 clubs that prove they have infrastructure, financial backing and sporting presence on the field as well as adequate crowd numbers can be promoted into J1. Some of the J2 clubs are never going to be J1 clubs but are happy to just playing in J2 level of competition and so are not eligible to be promoted. .
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You really do see the world through rose tinted glasses dont ya mate? The difference between the Australian and Japanese economy is absolutely massive and with the resource boom beginning to die off it will only get bigger
Sigh, you are really ignorant about J-league and I never mention it would be the same financial bracket. I am just pointing to similarities and expected growth. This has been mention in other forums and frankly we are over six months behind on this forum.
Let me fill in the gaps (I mainly cut and pasted wikipedia excepts but I have the actual main contributor's permission to use it on any blogs and forum [plus it has glu common licence anyway] but that is another story)
The J-league started 1993 with 10 professional teams, prior to that there was no professional football teams. It boomed with the best ever season in 1994 with the highest average attendance of 19,598. However that has not been broken since. The boom dissipate after 1995. By early 1996 as the league attendance declined rapidly. In 1997 the average attendance was 10,131, compared to 19,598 in 1994. A total of eight clubs were added in the four year span from 1994 to 1998. With high paychecks (which we have a salary cap to prevent this) and low attendance, money was bleeding from the clubs, and the league sponsors were becoming very worried.
So what happen next?
The league's management finally realized that they were heading in the wrong direction. In order to solve the problem, the management came out with two solutions.
1.) Announced the J.League Hundred Year Vision, in which they aim to make 100 professional football clubs in the nation of Japan by 2092, the hundredth season.
encouraged the 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 believed that this will allow the 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. (something that A-league has learnt and encouraged)
2.) The league acquired nine clubs from the semi-professional JFL (former) and one club from J.League to create a two division system. The topflight became the J.League Division 1 (J1) with 16 clubs while J.League Division 2 (J2) was launched with ten clubs in 1999.
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. In fact, clubs like Mito HollyHock only draw an average of 3,000 fans a game and receive minimal sponsorship, yet still field fairly competitive teams in J2. (Obviously A-league will have different club numbers and many of the top existing state league sides will start in the second division)
Other notes;
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.
Clubs such as Oita Trinita, Albirex Niigata, and Kawasaki Frontale accomplished the scheme successfully. All these clubs originally started as J2 in 1999 and were comparatively small, but they eventually earned J1 promotion in 2002, 2003, and 2004 respectively. Now they are all well established in the topflight.
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. (well ahead than expected, however it may stop at that number)
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.
For the A-league, they have salary capping and reduce the club numbers to mantain the league attendance at an adequate number to work with. Their progress will follow very similar to what J-league is doing especially when they will introduce the promotion and relegation. The promotion and relegation will happen, the FFA has originally announced their intention, it's just the details to release. It was suppose to have been released at end of 2008 but with the Nix problems with the AFC, it has thrown a cat among the pigeons.
There is no real reason not to have a budget semi-pro national league with less strict criteria to build the clubs up into A-League material. I don't like having different semi-pro state league and much prefer to match them up in a national set-up to stimulate interest in get into the A-League.
That should at least be happening.
The old NSL survived without the correct set up for years and without clear off-field objectives. With the A-League criteria as an objective and the high interest in the country for the last 4 years, It's not a horrible idea to have another national league under the A-league at a budget/testing/building stage, surely there are very solid clubs in the VPL and NSWPL etc that could cover their traveling expenses at least?
The second division can easily have semi-pro teams like in the J2 and the USL which can travel on a nationwide basis and have only half the crowd we presently have in the A-league.
This has been discussed in another soccer forum among other Australian posters and in fact Edgar was the one that started a thread related to an article.
Anyway; here a bit of the latest back on 28th October. . .
[quote]"We said to the AFC we would get back to them by October this year as to what our plan is via promotion-relegation,'' Buckley said.
"They understand our situation and they've accepted that we will have a plan in place by October this year and that will be for an implementation for a promotion-relegation system, not at this point in time but for some years to come.
''It's something that will be assessed over time. After we've got through the next phase of expansion then we'll be looking to a promotion and relegation system.''AAP
It's October and...
A-League �will meet criteria� according to Rob Abernethy.
Speaking to the-afc.com on the sidelines of the AFC General Managers� Seminar, Rob Abernethy said the A-League would go flat out to make the grade for the continental showcase which will sport a new look in 2009.
�We are very confident that we can meet it (the criteria),� Abernethy said.
�We have engaged in several meetings with officials of the AFC Pro-League Committee and we will satisfy the criteria.�
Promotion and relegation will go ahead after we get the four expansion teams and it should be at a lower criteria than what it is at A-league. Afterall, they should have plenty of bids by then that will fullfill the second division criteria.
. . . It will be more than just 8 teams in each division. As you can see, there is an infrastructure that allows a flow down effect to create professionalism in lower clubs. of course Australia will not have as many clubs due to population but they will have more than what everyone on this forum is saying. The main estimation is that A-league would have 12 teams and then A-league2 will have start with 8 teams. It is expected that A-league2 will be actually bigger in club numbers than A-league, so it should be 12 teams at least with extra bids because of the lower criteria to play in A-league2 and that only half of those teams will be able to have applications for promotion to A-league each year.
Take what you will from this, but the template is drawn up but not released to the public. I only know bit of it but heard enough to know that it would not be just 16 teams split in two division. That is just too laughable because it might as well be one division which is not equate to anyone's plans.AllWhitebelievr2008-12-25 17:11:11
but Perth might be worried.
just send all your cash to me , quickly now!
