As of next season the A-League will be a solely Australian affair.
The Board of the Football Federation of Australia has announced today that it “has determined that an application from Wellington Phoenix for a 10-year licence extension to compete in the Hyundai A-League will not be granted.”
The current licence expires at the end of this 2015/16 season.
According to the FFA Press Release “Under the CPA, the Club has the option of requesting that FFA lodge an application to the relevant football authorities to seek approval of Phoenix’s participation in the Hyundai A-League until the conclusion of the 2019/20 season.”
“Such an application is required in order to seek exemptions from various statutes of Football New Zealand, Oceania Football Confederation, Asian Football Confederation and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).”
One wonders if this is worth pursuing as it is clear that the club is not going to get the support of the FFA if it goes down that path. Also the Asian Football Confederation was none too happy when New Zealand knocked an Asian team out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Some in Asia felt that Australia had indeed assisted in Asia’s loss, by having New Zealand have a team in the A-League, a team that then national and Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert had full of his international squad.
CEO of the FFA David Gallop has been quoted as saying that ‘the Board decision was taken in the best interests of Australian football.’ This may well be so, and the decision was made to protect Australia’s place in Asia.
The question is where will the twelfth team come from in 2016/17? An Announcement needs to be made soon as the club will need to start planning now. The word is that the FFA have been talking to South Melbourne for the past 18 months and that they may be the preferred option. It would be an interesting move allowing a former NSL club back into the fold, especially as the FFA gives this precursor to the A-League scant recognition.
One question doing the rounds in Victoria is can Melbourne sustain three A-League clubs? Should Canberra or even Tasmania be given a licence? IF they were then maybe the FFA could test the water making the club a community based club rather than a Franchise.
This is certainly an interesting move by the Board of the FFA as pressure from the AFC is expected to mount in the next two years, for Australia to have a proper second division to the A-League -rather than the quasi one the NPL – that will see teams promoted and relegated. In addition to this move there has been talk of the AFC wanting to see a further two teams in the A-League. If these murmurings are true that means that the competition could see three new franchises in the next three years at a time when the economy is tight and clubs in the A-League are still struggling to make money.
