I agree with what you say but AGAIN why are we protecting Aleague franchises, even after 20 years? Why is THAT the consideration in anything?
My intent was more about wanting a long-term vision and transparent criteria that about protecting the A-League franchises. In my haste to post I didn't do a good job of making that clear.
My intent was to say that there is some protection for the A-League clubs due to the fact we won't get to two full divisions for some time. It is purely coincidental and not a deliberate mechanism to protect them. If they can't have methods for surviving potential a drop out of the second division in even 10-15 years time, then they really do deserve to be relegated and if that means no longer existing... I'm not sure they were ever a viable proposition.
I think most of us agree two of the top things our football eco-system needs (or to at least try) is a national second division, and a connected pyramid with promotion and relegation. The moment the Championship becomes a home and away league I'd say we've achieved the first.
I don't think P&R is possible with a singular national league above the NPL's. The talent and exposure is spread too thinly over too many leagues to create the proper breeding ground for ambitious clubs. The question becomes how many clubs is 'enough' for the top two divisions? Is it 32 (16/16), 28 (14/14), 24 (12/12)?
Until you get to whatever that number is, you have no need to relegate anyone. If you think 28 is the right number, and you get there but have 8 more clubs ready and able to play on the national level, do six of them miss out and two from the NSD get sent down to NPL? Or do you find a way to add them into the national structure? What happens when the 8 clubs becomes 10 clubs, 12, 14 - do we stay at 28 over two divisions forever?
I understand there's a sweet spot where you need to start relegating teams from the national leagues back to the NPL to incentivize against mediocrity. Getting the balance right would be a critical part in the whole structure - too many clubs/divisions and it dilutes the whole purpose of P&R, but too few and you create a bottleneck at the NPL level that stifles ambition.
As another poster mentioned, the chances of getting clear objective criteria that don't suddenly shift to suit the APL and FA's agenda does seem unlikely at this current point in time. But if we had it, as
@grazorblade mentioned, we'd start to see money flowing into clubs and football infrastructure. It already is... just look at the improvement in the quality on the pitch and the off-field work NPL clubs are doing. Imagine that, but with clear goals and ambitions to aim for!
It's all just hopes and dreams until we get some sort of clear strategy and vision...
Actually, do they even have promotion?
. You did say that the APL clubs need protecting to survive, now it's they can survive via relegation. And I've done the same thing haha! I need a coffee.
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