Ah makes sense thanks.....  Speaking of Australia Cup... things are about to get interesting over the next couple of years I think.

I'm inviting roosty to the Cro derbies Sydney and Melb - paulie roosty's +1 in the active either end so its balanced hahaha
Mono beers on me for the greek italian Sydney games your shout in afl territory thankfully @ Lakeside lakeside lakeside  :)

Touch wood we're GO '24 onwardsThunderbirds !

Mono, I have very active business colleague down there involved with ol Preston, yer I know forget about that but do you think they have the resource throwing their hat in the ring ?
Just wondering, I could ask him but whilst I'm here.

Way back hhhmmmm actually not that far back there was talk of a 3 way merger between, Sydney United, Marconi and wait for it White Eagles... playing out of Fairfield Showground in a new stadium with 5K uncover seats funded by Fairfield council with stadium capable of being up sized easily ... 

Where's the source of this announcement?

If true, best thing that attracted my attention is that the clubs need to go pro. Will create a good and proper stepping stone to the AL and improve the standard for players striving for top flight. Can only be good.

The criteria may be tough, hence the rumours of mergers. This will be a challenge however......"high-quality match day facility 12 months of the year".

Perhaps Mono will give you some tips in how to machine gun down Aussies?

Anyway, the announcement is good news, but calm down before you have a cardiac arrest.

awww now why you always need to one up someone...meh shame.
You wouldn't know my state of fitness then again can happen to anyone.
Here's some sauce, mind you we've seen your quick to look up Greek game supporter stats for all, keep up mate KEEPUP.
https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/02/03/fa-takes-big-step-towards-promotion-relegation-for-a-league-with-commitment-to-national-second-tier/
even more bbq one
https://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news/football-australia-opens-expressions-interest-national-second-tier-mens-competition

Generally excited for mono and lfc other guys that love the sport but can't get into the a league. See you at aami park lads 

I guess the FA lost out in the "champions' league model" that they wanted to push.
All in all though the points make sense apart from the first one (imo the idea of P/R with the A-L is long gone)

McKinna and O'Donovan's Sydney Olympic maate!!

Has anybody seen my St George or J.U.S.T. scarves?

Back in fashion maybe?

The ONLY thing that I don't like about this is the demand for full pro from day one.  The PFA have a strong hand in much of what I dislike about the A League and its current path.  I simply don't trust them.

Happy day anyway.

That's the major thing, its all good to talk and ask for applications. But it needs to actually happen or we are doomed. I hope its not just setup to fail.

It will be good to follow this process through to its conclusion now.  The talking about what and when is hopefully over and from now on it will be about who.  I hope we get a good spread of clubs geographically to start off with but not at the expense of getting viable clubs.

I expect lots of rumours and a fair amount of changes in plans and sudden moves to join with other aspirants to put a combined club together.  It should be fun.

This won’t go well for the a league.
nbl rubbing their hands together…

Will not be a problem once they link the football ecosystem. They won't even play at the same time for most of it.

You should read your own post LFC (remember the lopsidiness we talked about) and yes it does sound like you've missed taking your blood pressure tablets...lol.

I look up Greek game stats because I watch Greek games in Greece and I have a interest in it. You're not the only one that loves football ;)

It will be interesting to see if the Brisbane Strikers or Brisbane Lions put up their hands. Strikers would be an eighth NSL Champion in the mix.

I find it interesting that on the Football Australia website it is saying that they are looking for Teams with "a deep connection and demonstrated history in Australian football". Surely this eliminates any new "franchise type" clubs. May also restrict the merging of existing clubs. We shall see.

All the same, very exciting at the prospect, only 13 months away :)

NBL is so far in front of the A-league it isnt even funny. 
BBL also dominated this summer.

A league is number 3 in the summer sports on all metrics

Or Brisbane City is a possibility (forza Azurri)

Regarding candidates with history in Australian football, could this mean the resurgence of Northern Spirit, Fury, Gold Coast United etc?

Well, it's actually still there as a fall back option (mentioned in black and white).

They need the fall back option because the more I look at the criteria, the more I realise just how tough it is.

Going pro is a big enough step (personally, I just don' know why half a squad couldn't remain amateur or as low-pay youth contracts); but some of the other criteria will really push the vast majority of non A-League clubs.

Football Australia to launch national second division | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

A-League clubs will finally face the threat of relegation once a new national second division competition – mooted to start next year – has “matured”.Football Australia announced on Friday it had formally begun the process of creating a “national second-tier men’s competition” and for it to begin in March 2024.

Must of been an April fools joke. 

That is my concern too. 

I dont know how many of these clubs can go full pro right away, paying salaries 52 weeks of the year. Out of the initial 30 club Applicants I see a lot pulling the pin.

Good luck to the ones that can make it work. 

Wasn't there something like 30 - 35 NPL clubs initially showing interest? Surely 35 - 45% of these teams would be ready and resourced for FT support staff and players. Most of the large teams in Mel Syd would already have full time staff. so, it's really players and coaches etc. that need to be funded. they already own the grounds they use so with increasing interest in the competition they gain from match $ on game day. If the costs are too great for the competition to be "Australia wide' and the teams end up being east coast based, and major capital cities, then so be it. 

I think teams are going to try and meet the criteria with everything they have because if this fails, there will be a decade wait before the game tries again IMO. 

Perhaps a big competition sponsor like Ampol or one of the Banks might see this as their chance to be involved in the world game etc and be the champion of tier 2 rise. this could be a revenue source to meet travel costs. 

I really hope it works out. 

I don't think the pro player salaries will be a problem at all. The FA will almost certainly provide grants to the clubs at the value of the salary cap, just as they did with the AL. Travel expenses will also be covered by the the FA. Where the clubs could run into challenges is with the full time club staffing requirement. It's unclear what the specifics of that requirement are. I'd assume coaching staff, but there would also be a certain level of administrative staff that would fall under that umbrella. That being said, the clubs will have a massive push to get more sponsorship dollars which shouldn't be a problem as there should be a lot of excitement around the league. There will also be huge boosts to current membership numbers and merchandise sales. Club owners may make contributions themselves to cover the increase in expenditure. It's also important to remember that these clubs aren't starting from scratch. Some own their own venues or already have very reasonable agreements in place. Some clubs have very lucrative social clubs which bring in cash flow all year round. Definitely many of that list of 30 won't be ready this year, but I reckon at least 10 will be able to get across the line. 

Aren't some NPL players on $1500 - $2000 a match? What's an NPL season, 20+ weeks?

So 20 x $2k = $40k a year? What's the minimum  they're proposing? Because couldn't they just pay the same blokes the same cumulative fee over the entire year?

35% of 30 is about 10, and I'm starting to wonder whether that might be optimistic.

The criteria are tough.

Put it this way:  would WU meet the criterion of having permanent access to a facility for 12 months of the year?

In fact, does even Melbourne Victory have permanent access to a facility for 12 months of the year?

I'm starting to wonder if the very tough criteria have been created with intentions contrary to getting an NSD off the ground

I'd say the opposite. I'd say they are setting it up in a way that they already know who the clubs will be. Plenty of quiet conversations would have already occurred to get to this point. I'd say they are just making their job easier by limiting the amount of applicants. If they only end up with 10-12 applications that meet every requirement it makes their decisions really easy. 

If it becomes some shitty little Sydney centric comp then it just NPL with more noise, bells and lights.  It isn't a National Second Division.  That won't fly. 
The concept of the FA providing money for wages etc makes me scream inside. Can't happen.  Won't happen. Just no!  Professional Leagues must be fully self-funded and stand on their own coin.

Travel costs are minuscule in comparison to the rest.  Can't understand why it is the first topic raised in these conversations.
Minimum wage in Australia is currently $813/week (42276 pa) but there are other costs on top in respect of permanent employees.  The lowest A League wage is 45k for U19 players. Can't provide any evidence for what I've heard that the minimum for senior players is 65k.
Just basic salary cost in a full time pro-league is going to be north of 1.5M.
Clearly there are a lot of other costs on top of that.

Definitely clubs out there that can run with this, but it provides a massive barrier for the willing.  P&R with the NPL and an internal transfer market will generate mobility within a few years.  IF the whole package is opened it should work.

My feeling about why they went pro is that a semi pro national comp feels a bit exploitative in oz

in england any trip is a few hours by bus, so you can have a national semi pro comp while people work on the side. Its so much harder to balance football and work here where travel is so much further

it would be nice to make it semi pro, but perhaps that is where they are coming from

Surely this just refers to their Senior team though.
A League clubs are permitted a full presence of reserves/academy teams in the NPL so surely NSD teams will too?
It would be to the detriment of player development if clubs had to abandon their NPL presence.