The shot in the arm so badly needed by football in Australia has been administered with confirmation of two successful A-League expansion bids, Western Melbourne Group and Macarthur-South West Sydney. But the instant hit wanted by some will be more of a slow drip, with just the former to be introduced into the competition next year.
Football Federation Australia’s newly-formed board met on Wednesday before announcing on Thursday afternoon the A-League would grow to 11 teams for the 2019-20 season with the inclusion of a team from Melbourne’s west, and then to 12 the season after, when a Campbelltown-based club with a heavy local flavour will join.
The two other bids from Victoria – South Melbourne FC and Team 11 – along with Sydney’s Southern Expansion and Canberra were passed over following lengthy discussions involving FFA directors, led by new chairman Chris Nikou. Six bids remained on the table before Wednesday’s meeting after 11 had been presented at the initial phase of bidding a year ago.
At a press conference on Thursday, Nikou also confirmed that as part of an ongoing commitment to expansion, the FFA would consider the merits of a second division, with more details to be released next week. “Our work on expanding the Hyundai A-League does not stop here,” Nikou said in a statement. “This is the start of a journey which will see our competition grow beyond 12 teams in the future.”
After several years of stagnation in the competition, set against a backdrop of bitter infighting, constitutional upheaval and waning interest, confirmation of expansion – the first since 2012 – represents some rare positive news for the game.
Western Melbourne Group’s major selling point was the lack of reliance on government funding; its intention is to fully fund a rectangular boutique stadium through private investors, based on the successful MLS model in the US. The team will play out of Kardinia Park in Geelong while its own stadium is constructed in Tarneit in the west of the city.
“There were very attractive aspects to each of the bids, but the prospect of a facility owned by football for football will be a significant new milestone for the game in Australia,” FFA CEO David Gallop said. “Football-specific stadia have been extremely successful in league expansion in other parts of the world and we are excited by the prospect of such a facility in Melbourne.”
In a move that will please Western Sydney Wanderers – who wanted a chance to cement their fan base after their move to the new Parramatta Stadium next season – Macarthur-South West Sydney’s inclusion will be delayed by 12 months. Their bid, backed by billionaire property developer Lang Walker, includes a proposal to redevelop Campbelltown Stadium.
Bid chairman Gino Marra confirmed Macarthur-South West Sydney’s interest in luring former Socceroos captain Mile Jedinak to the A-League. “Mile’s a legend. Any team in the A-League would love to have him,” Marra said. “The chances of him coming back [to Australia] are strengthened by this bid. We’ll have a discussion and see how he fits.”
Nikou said the two winning bids would “connect new communities in our two biggest markets, create new rivalries, bigger television audiences, more derbies and importantly, further opportunities for Australian footballers to play at the highest level in this country”.
“One of the key factors in our decision was the long-term growth opportunity for each club in each new geography,” Nikou added. “South-West Sydney and Melbourne represent some of the biggest growth corridors in Australia.”
Of the failed bids, Nikou in particular acknowledged the Canberra submission. “We continue to view Canberra as an attractive opportunity for potential future expansion,” he added.
FFA has previously expressed a desire to further expand the league to 14, and even 16, in the future but there are question marks over which of the failed bids would enter another race. A report earlier in the week suggested two of the current bidders – Southern Expansion and Western Melbourne Group – would not enter again if they were overlooked this time around.
“Southern Expansion ticked all the boxes,” said the bid’s chief executive Chris Gardner. “We started with the late and great Les Murray as our chairman. We had guaranteed financial backing with $20m cash up front. That’s why it was so surprising that the FFA has voted against its own assessment data.”
An announcement was scheduled to be made on 31 October but the decision-making process was delayed amid uncertainty over the make-up of FFA’s board. That uncertainty ended when Nikou was elected FFA’s new chairman and Steven Lowy’s successor at last month’s AGM, after which Nikou immediately made A-League expansion his “No 1 priority”.
When asked whether any of the successful bidders had plans to put forward teams in any future W-League expansion, Greg O’Rourke, head of the A-League, said that had not been part of the recent discussions.
