A 442 member and Phoenix supporter asked in another thread why the NSL fell and the A-League was created.

That question prompted me to start this thread and direct whoever is interested in the subject to a link that might help provide you with some answers.

What set in motion the dismantling of the old NSL and the creation of the A-League is contained in a very detailed report that came after the Crawford Report and it was called The NSL Task Force Report.

The Crawford Report was commissioned by the then Federal Government and its task was to investigate governance issues within australian soccer in general.

As a result of the Crawford Report, a new Federation was created called The Australian Soccer Association Limited (it replaced the then ASF and later became the FFA), and its Board through chairman Frank Lowy appointed a Task Force to investigate the NSL exclusively and recommend ways to improve our national club competition.

That task force was called The NSL Task Force and its members were exclusively soccer people, including the late great man Johnny Warren.

When the report of the NSL Task Force was handed down and delivered to ASA's chairman Frank Lowy, it marked the beginning of the end of the old NSL and the birth of a new competition, the A-League.

You will find going through this report that the FFA appears to have been given a mandate by the NSL Task Force back in 2003 to deliver something very close to the national competition we have today and that the A-League and its destiny are not the product of any one individual's personal likes, dislikes and agendas, but the implementation of the NSL Task Force's recommendations.

Everything is there: The importance of a sound business plan for the selection criteria of fully professional teams, the issue of the marquee, enticing Socceroo players back home to play in the A-League, the National Cup and future promotion/relegation, everything.

My personal opinion is that the A-League we had to have has a lot more to do with the vision of the NSL Task Force Recommendations of 2003 and a lot less with that of John O'Neill, Ben Buckley or even Frank Lowy, who were simply selected to deliver on a specific mandate.

It's good reading if you want to know what led to the death of the NSL and the creation of the A-League and maybe what still lies ahead.

Here's the link.

http://tinyurl.com/27n7r8m