Australian football fans hoping for promotion-relegation in the A-League will likely have to wait over a decade, Football Federation Australia chairman Chris Nikou declared.

Nikou hinted without going into detail that fans wanting promotion and relegation might have to wait till 2034 for their dream to come to fruition.

"The current A-League clubs have a licence till 2034 so promotion and relegation earlier than that is not likely," he said.

"I might point out that the FFA has a right to change that but in the current climate it would not be right for me to take this any further."

The FFA chairman was the special guest speaker at the inaugural Football Writers' Festival in Jamberoo, on the NSW south coast, at the weekend

Nearly four months after becoming the game's leader at the end of an acrimonious battle for power that divided the football community, Nikou said that never did the game need a united front more than now if it was to reach its full potential.

"We need a unified sense of purpose to get out there and sell our sport," Nikou told an audience of about 100 media and fans.

"We have been living in paralysis for far too long and the reason we have not moved much is due to that that we have a broad church.

"We have a history in our game of talking about what's not right in our game but we have to focus on what is right.

"What we are seeing is that everyone is doing what they think is tight in their neck of the woods.

"So you get situations where governments are faced with five approaches about, say infrastructure, from the same geographical area at the same time, each saying give me this and give me that. Governments do not operate that way."

Nikou said (federal or state) governments preferred to deal with one entity at a time.

Nikou said he Australian Football League were a prime example of how sport can achieve much more by presenting a sole front.

"Our competitors like the AFL do it in a much better way because they go with one voice," he said.

"Governments know that when thy are speaking to this one voice this voice is actually speaking on behalf of many others."

"We are not doing that."

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/promotion-relegation-not-likely-until-at-least-2034-says-nikou

50 pages of outrage?

P&R 15 years away
who wooda thought?

Bold strategy. Regression is very risky in the global game.

Can we defy the critics and win the world cup with such a negative  strategy. 

Highly doubt it.

Nail-coffin for the A-League, that there is a guy saying what the franchisee's want. Great idea ,protect your investment in your franchise while killing the competition you've invested in.

Yeah, plenty of outrage to follow lol.

But it’s not that far away tbh.

2020 - 11 teams.
2021 - 12 teams
2022 -
2023 - 14 teams?
2024 - new tv contract commences
2025 -
2026 -
2027 - 16 teams?
2028 - 2033 to bed things down (5 seasons)
2034 - pro/rel

The burning question is can a Div2 prosper without promotion??

What competition? This is a high cost round Robin in a global sport.

I was pointing out the irony

By that time Thailand will be tea bagging the shit out of us.

Remo Nogarotto starting s twitter storm saying it’s not an FFA position, and must be a “private view” lol.

This DC has no fucking clue.

Says in one sentence that their cannot be promotion and relegation because of the A-league teams licenses until 2034 and then in the next sentence that the FFA have the right to change it.

It is either one or the other, it cannot be both. 

So we have had the NSL and the A-league, what is the name for the new league? the Australian Football League, oops that one is taken, the Australian Soccer League perhaps.

Pretty much🙄

Yeah who would've thunk it.  Owners need protecting and would doubtless lobbying against it.

The league will be dead before then.

No way Fox will pay anywhere near 60 million again.  Never.



.

Here's hoping the whole thing collapses.  I'm officially over it.

Pathetic, 
weak,
no vision,
gutless,
flogging a dead horse.

Fuck you FFA.

Baby steps. its pretty much how i see it. these things cant be rushed and we have to get it spot on

Makes no difference what gear we are in.....a fish rots from the head down. We need a head that doesn’t stink.

How soon is 2nd division?

How soon is the HAL outside the FFA remit? (this will encourage the FFA to change it).

Crazy decision, if true. The league won't last fifteen years without pro/rel. Fans are drifting away now.

Isn't it sort of irrelevant what the FFA think about pro/rel given that we're going to an independent A-league soon?

What a slap in the face for all you nuvo new dawners...

Regardless of what their grand plan is, these guy have NFI how deflating almost everything they say is to fans. DG is the worst, but they all talk like lawyers and accountants and expect us to be excited about the future of the game. I simply refuse to believe they are as passionate about football as they are about metrics and consultants.

FFA Statement trying to put the worms back in the can:

“FFA then sent out a statement to the media in an attempt to clarify the controversial comments.

"Under the terms of the existing Club Participation Agreement (CPA), existing and incoming Australian Hyundai A-League Clubs are entitled to participate in the Hyundai A-League until the year 2034," it said.

"Whilst the CPA also provides for the introduction of promotion and relegation during that period at its discretion, FFA notes that the New Leagues Working Group and the Second Division Working Group are currently considering the future structure of the top two tiers of Australian club football, including what provisions for promotion and relegation should be established.

"These provisions are expected to include the specific timing of the establishment of a Second Division, targeted commencement of promotion and relegation to and from the Hyundai A-League, and the prioritisation of Second Division Clubs as part of expansion of the Hyundai A-League beyond 12 teams," it concluded.

In February A-League clubs released a blueprint for an independent competition beginning later this year.

In the blueprint a growth to a 16-team home-and-away competition is viewed as the first step to bringing promotion and relegation to and from a national second division.

Under the model developed by A-League clubs' umbrella body APFCA, 75 per cent approval would be needed from existing clubs to make promotion and relegation a reality.

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/ffa-attempt-to-clarify-chairman-s-controversial-promotion-relegation-comments

I don't disagree with the length of time til it's brought in,  but how long it takes shouldn't be a time frame but more a point of hitting targets like developing a 2nd division,  pushing for a 14 or 16 team league and making them viable,  raising and then getting rid of the cap (, which may be after p/r).

The league wouldn't get stale if it were a home and away league,  finals in my opinion can be a part of it but at the same time if they really developed the ffa cup into something more prestigious that would give you your knock out and we can get rid of finals. But that will be a tough ask, and for the ffa cup a proper final venue needs to be developed which is a pipe dream. But everything is intertwined. (Not to mention the governance 

Its a tough job and i understand how slow its going but we are going too slow at the moment. 

2034? By the time that comes along it won’t surprise me if there was no aleague by then.

There would be a good chance more clubs could collapse because there won’t be a parachute to fall into a 2nd tier or the TV money might not be enough to cover them potentially.

Either way I can see the aleague continually falling down no matter what an independent version could do as the product won’t be enticing enough in the long term.

Also there would be no point of having a second division without pro-rel into it, otherwise the FFA will might as well turn it into a expanded national youth league if not many clubs want to join in without an incentive.

Do we need any more proof FFA are a joke?
We already have one board member relieved of duty for tweeting .We have the Stajcic fiasco and now the boss doesnt know what the FFA position is on p/r?
You can't make this up.The boss sayshow we need to present a single front like AFL then gets corrected by other colleagues?

Apparently the FFA got Our Watch to survey a random selection of untraceable stakeholders, and the 3 who responded agreed that this is the only course of action. Gallop press conference to follow.

Can’t wait until 2034 for there to be no promotion and relegation and foe the board to say it’s a ten year plan.

They didn’t see the ftbl survey 

This guy still practicing law.....how’s his win loss record.....wouldn’t  feel too confident with this clown in a suit representing you or your best interests