Definitely! I was getting worried as the clock ran down that this good crowd rocked up and it'll end up nil all... but what a way to send everyone home buzzing!

There's probably no system the APL would agree to in the current environment, but I think we're much closer to the time when it will be possible. The franchise model is like a shark - it needs to keep moving forward or it drowns. Continued club ownership issues, no interested investors in...

I can only imagine the positive press if we had P/R here and the underdog club from a regional area gets promoted. It's such a unique opportunity the sport has in this country to stand out from the rest... if only we could take advantage of it. As for Kalamata FC, I'm sure they'll be pitted...

From the quarter finals onwards all are single knockout matches and all are played in Jeddah Saudi Arabia. I believe there will be a draw to decide the quarter final matchups with cross-region games possible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025–26_AFC_Champions_League_Elite_knockout_stage Note...

Sounds like they do P&R like they do political parties... :LOL:

In terms of timing, if the Championship runs over summer alongside the A-League (30 rounds plus promotion playoffs would be October to May), the NPL's could play over winter and the champions league promotion competition could run over the period that the Championship currently does. This will...

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...

The key difference with Japan's approach - as @Monoethnic Social Club points out - is that they set their 100-year vision and stuck to it. They set clear requirements for associate status into J2, and same for J3. This means clubs are able to see what they have to strive to achieve and begin to...

It's not as specific as that (at least not from my perspective). Any professional league in Australia will revoke a journalists access if they bring to light things that significantly undermine the league's power brokers. The journalists have to weigh up the benefit of publishing something...

In Japan, clubs are given differing licenses depending on which level criteria they meet. A club may have J3 status, but if it wins the league and doesn't have a J2 license, it can't be promoted. The separate license doesn't make it a franchise - it just governs the highest level a team can play...

And the important thing to remember about the $500k is that it was evidence of financial commitment and capacity to finance a H&A national league, in the form of a bank guarantee. A 10 team, 18 round home and away league will cost about $1 million in travelling costs, assuming the two...

I will probably bang on about the JFA and the J-League structure a lot (forgive me if I do), but the reason they started the J2 league was to give semi-professional teams a more attainable level to step up to. Without that, a range of clubs would likely never have joined the J-League structure...

If you don't have the backing of the local clubs, a new franchise is always going to really struggle to get people in the gate day one. Local people playing in the region (or associated with clubs e.g., parents) are the low hanging fruit a new franchise should be getting on board from day one...

It reads like AI generated content that had very few details to work with. The amount of repetitive points (just shuffled around to not sound exactly like repetition) is very suspicious.

100% - I'd say the only time to allow a franchise/new club is if it has the full support of the football association(s) because no one existing club has the ambition or resources to sustain a club at a national level. Being from a regional area, I know there can be issues where an existing...

This is controversial for some, but for me, if there was a promotion pathway to the A-League, a national second division is the perfect breeding ground for areas like Canberra that don't have the population or commercial interest to justify the risk to pay the license fee and fund the $8-10m...

Spot on. It's self-interest and greed - pure and simple - and it's the sport and the fans that suffer as a result.

Couldn't agree more. They've realised several times they need to embrace that tribal element (even using it in their marketing), but they don't seem to know how to react when there are issues in the media. The moment there is, they throw the fans under the bus. I'm not saying just let the bad...

The MLS is definitely a unique eco-system and one that may not translate to Australia for the exact reasons you mention @Monoethnic Social Club and @Glenardo. I know they tried very hard early on to make the experience as 'family friendly' as possible, and the clubs and leagues saw the active...

You make great points. There was less than 5,000 people at the Wanderers game against Wellington. The same weekend there are NPL games getting 1,500 to 2,000 attending. There isn't a lack of interest in football - it's a lack of connection to a-League clubs. The FFA and now the APL's lack of...