I'm not sure he intentionally tells porkies.

I think as captain of the ship he doesn't have a map and keeps changing course. He always has the best intention when he changes course so he always doing the right thing...

😳

Nah hes got a map alright. Its just that hes telling us that we're on our way to "engage the participants land", when reslly hes plotted a direct course to the mls. No grassroots in the ocean either. All makes sense :P

FFA Cup needs to grow from 32 to 64 teams, writes Matt Windley

THE FFA Cup needs to expand.

A total of 64 teams playing third round FA Cup matches in England at the weekend should provide inspiration for Football Federation Australia to double the number of teams playing in our own knockout competition.

And this is especially so if, as appears to be the case, promotion and relegation is nowhere near the agenda.

Hundreds of clubs around Australia attempt to qualify for the FFA Cup.

The Cup’s “final rounds” concept, where the A-League clubs and Fox Sports get involved — presently has 32 teams — 10 from the A-League and 22 local clubs.

That number needs to grow to give as many local teams as possible their time in the spotlight.

The biggest imposition on FFA increasing the number of teams is money — and that is fair enough considering head office funds the cost of travel and one night’s accommodation for the semi-professional clubs for each of their “final rounds” games.


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Liverpool held scoreless

But there is a cost-effective way to expand.

By doubling the club allocations each state gets in the present format, you could make the Round of 64 an intrastate round, with no air travel.

From the Round of 32 onwards the same draw principles that apply now could be continued.

Devil’s advocates would argue this is just an extension of the present qualifying process that takes place in each state.

But there are two reasons why this is not the case.

1) By making it so that, in the Round of 64, all A-League teams play against a local team from the same state — Wellington would obviously need to be thrown in randomly — an extra 10 clubs get their David v Goliath moment.


A-League clubs, such as Melbourne Victory, could play against a local club in the Round of 64 of an expanded FFA Cup competition. Picture: Getty Images
2) As much as the state federations do a great job publicising the qualifying rounds, the attention the competition proper gets increases exponentially.

An added benefit is A-League teams also get the chance to play extra competitive fixtures before their season starts.

Obviously not all games are going to be broadcast.

But imagine the excitement of as many as eight games being played simultaneously around the country on a Tuesday or Wednesday night.

Or, like the FA Cup, why not have an FFA Cup gala weekend where all Round of 64 games are played some time in July?

With a new broadcast cycle commencing at the start of next season, now is the perfect time to look at it.


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John Terry sent in Chelsea win

How increased FFA Cup allocations could work

NOW

A-League: 10

NSW: 5

Victoria: 4

Queensland: 4

Western Australia: 2

South Australia: 1

Northern NSW: 2

Tasmania: 1

ACT: 1

Northern Territory: 1

NPL winner: 1

PROPOSED

A-League: 10

NSW: 10

Victoria: 10

Queensland: 9

Western Australia: 5

South Australia: 5

Northern NSW: 4

Tasmania: 4

ACT: 3*

Northern Territory: 2

NPL winner: 2**

* Wellington could play one of the ACT teams

** NPL winner would win an automatic berth as well as an extra spot for their state’s federation to keep Round of 64 draw principles intact

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/a-league/ffa-cup-needs-to-grow-from-32-to-64-teams-writes-matt-windley/news-story/fd33d229976aad672284fec666113170

I am an advocate of the intra round, but think it should be same zone only. So Brisbane play a Brisbane team and CCM SFC WSW play local teams and not Ballina etc.

Also there is little to warrant Tas getting 2 teams in r32. Like he suggests. I would keep it and ACT at 1 and let WP play against an extra SA team.

So Tas 2 ACT 2 SA 6 (4 + 2 v AU & WP). The 2 extra spots should then be for WA or SA imo.

I like expansion but I think there's better blueprints than this tbh. 

I've always been a fan of this concept tbh and would like to see it implemented.
The chances of a cupset dramatically increase as well as it would be earlier in HAL sides pre-season than the R32 where some sides do struggle.

It would be basically be a win win situation for grassroots football and the cup itself.

I'm against this idea.  By forcing the derbies to happen at the Round of 64, it reduces the importance or excitement of the rest of the competition.

You go from a game between Victory and South Melbourne in Round of 64, and follow that up with Bentleigh vs Edgeworth in the next round?  Unless you get another derby through the random draw, the most anticipated games will have already happened in the first round.  Excitement should build towards the final, not the other way around.

Not to mention it just feels like another articifial way to create the games that we want.  Isn't this one of the biggest complaints people have with rigging the draw to force a non-A-League club into the Semi Finals?

I say just make it all random and let it happen naturally.

Except costs and expenses will mean an open R64 is near impossible.

As a nation we cover a huge amount of land mass. You can't expect part time clubs to pay their way all over the place in the round of 64.

At least if you regionalise it, costs stay down but interest increases.
It may not be Melb Vict v South Melb, it could be a South Springvale or Cobram that's in the first round.

It actually give a better emphasis on the winners as they now have to win at least 5 cut throat ties to be the holders of the trophy.

Currently it seems a little underwhelming winning a trophy for winning 4 consecutive games. It's not exactly a tough road to the top.

Really it's just making A-League clubs qualify out of their state, which is what every single other team has to do anyway. As long as the draw isnt further fixed than I'm all for it.

Would open more opportunities for the proper grassroots clubs outside of the NPL to host A-League teams instead of being inevitably whittled away by NPL teams. 

The chances of eg SM drawing MV would still be slim. AU v AC and BR v BS would be more likely.

Using Brisbane as an example- currently their are 2 teams in the r32. Double that and add a Roar opponent. 5 teams. It means that 10 teams play the round before knowing they will get the chance to play Roar. It is an extra carrot.

It could work with the HAL clubs Qualifying out of their state without disrupting the State Cups. I agree with TheSelectFew in that some of these State Cups having been rnning for such a long time it would be a shame to see them disrupted. Whilst the FFA Cup is important the State Cups shouldn't be sacrificed for it.
You could keep the State Cup/Qualifying exactly the same but at the appropriate point split from the State Cups and run a concurrent Qualifying sect for the FFA Cup - similar to how the Waratah Cup worked this year with Blacktown City joining a playoff round prior to the Semis after the NSW Ro32 spots were decided.
The only 2 clubs guaranteed to the Ro32 being the NPL Champs and the Reigning Cup Holder. The Nix can then replace whichever team is the reigning cup holder in their State Qualifying Round. 

	CURRENT Ro32	PROPOSED Ro32
A-LEAGUE	10	1*Reigning Cup Holder
NPL CHAMPS	1	1
ACT	1	1
NNSW	2	3
NSW	5	8
NT	1	1
QLD	4	5
SA	1	2
TAS	1	1
VIC	4	6
WA	2	3
	32	32

Using last years Dockerty Cup as an example in the 6th Round of FFA Cup Qualifying/Dockerty Cup there was

Bulleen Lions (2)	1–1†	Avondale FC (2)
Bulleen Lions advance 4–2 on penalties.
Melbourne Knights (2)	3–1	Dandenong City (3)
Green Gully (2)	2–0	Heidelberg United (2)
Malvern City (4)	0–4	Hume City (2)
Richmond SC (2)	3–1	Kingston City (3)
Murray United (3)	0–3	Bentleigh Greens (2)
St Albans Saints (3)	2–3	Port Melbourne (2)
North Geelong Warriors (3)	0–2	South Melbourne (2)

At this point the cups could be split with the Dockerty Cup continuing as is and the 8 winners above joining the FFA Cup Qualifying Rounds. Whilst the losers of this Dockerty Cup Round could play off for the final 2 spots. It would look like this

FFA CUP Ro32 QUALIFYING ROUND
Green Gully
Bulleen
Melb. Knights
Port Melbourne
Bentleigh
South Melbourne
Richmond
Hume City
Melbourne Victory
Wellington Pheonix (Melbourne City guaranteed in Ro32)

Then Avondale, Dandenong City, Heidelberg, Malvern City, Kingston City, Murray United, St. Albans, North Geelong could enter their own little pre qualifying knock out for the final 2 spots.

Would probably have to start the NPL seasons and State Cups a few weeks earlier to fit in the extra games but I dont think anyone will mind that.
Will definitely be a different scenario for each State Cup where the HAL clubs join and the split happens dependant on Ro32 Qualifying numbers and when the HAL expands you can just adjust when the Cup split happens according to where the new HAL clubs are.

I've got too much time on my hands.

After my last post I looked up how the Waratah Cup breakdown could work with the split I spoke about. 130teams entered all up and I've broken them down into the tiers they are from. 

 

			FFA	WARATAH
				2
				4
			8	8*	Bye Team from previous round + SU58(NPL CHAMPS) join					NPL1/2	22
		A-LEAGUE CLUBS JOIN	16*	13						NPL3	12	=	34
				26						STATE LEAGUE	12
				52	22 NPL1&2 Clubs Join					TIER 5	12
				30						TIER 6	54
				60	NPL3 Clubs Join					TIER 7	16
				48						TIER 8	2	=	96
				96									130




Queensland should be broken up when written down imo

It's not Qld 4 or 5 with BR
It's Brisbane 2 Southern Qld 1 Central & Northern Qld 1. Then BR should be added to Brisbane because it would work for a statewide regional r64.

Apologies, I didnt realise thats how they worked it out - never paid to much attention to be honest, makes sense though. 

Hey cuties,

The PFA have released the first (or inaugural if you want to sound like a wanker) report into the FFA Cup for 2014 - 2016. Link:

http://www.pfa.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2016-PFA-FFA-Cup-Report.pdf

On the PFA's Twitter account they have two videos that are cool to watch.

Yours truly from your enemy and mine,

TheSelectFew.

Member Federation clubs are TWICE as more likely to field teenagers in the FFA Cup than A-League clubs are in the regular season. FMD.

R.i.p. FFA Cup
2014-2016

You had three years tops. Many fond memories, we will miss you.

Best corner shop I ever went to. Sad to see it close down despite growing. :'(/

Y u do this 4 FFA.

#ScottyBoysOut #TwitterScaresMe #NewTechnologyHurtsMySafeSpace #DespiteItBenefitingTheALeague

Brisbane to draw Hellas away next time pls

Hellas to win. Egg everywhere. 

Great article on regional participation in the cup. 

http://fan-attic.riverineherald.com.au/2017/01/23/5577/youre-dreamin-but-what-a-dream

What do you mean great article? Its rambling rubbish

Look, it probably not well written but the content and ideas it provides is what i refer to. 

The only point he is making is that one coach is refusing to give his players the opportunity to play in the nationwide cup because he doesn't think they can win it.

The fact of the matter is over 700 clubs entered the competition this season and will continue to do so. 

http://www.cornerflag.com.au/additional-qualifying-round-added-ffa-cup-entries-soar/

The 2017 Victorian football season will see record numbers participate in the FFA Cup, with the qualifying phase expanded to two rounds as a result of increased interest and participation.

Two factors contributed to the bumper numbers. Given that there are now nine new State League 5 clubs – which are automatically included in the competition – combined with a spike in interest from Regional Affiliate and Metropolitan League Clubs, in total there will be more than 20 additional clubs on 2016 figures.

Therefore, in the Victorian stage of the FFA Cup there will now be two qualifying rounds accompanying the seven regular rounds.

Regions such as Warrnambool, Shepparton, Mildura, Bendigo, La Trobe Valley and Albury-Wodonga will all be represented.

The competition’s expansion regionally extends as far as the Irymple Knights Soccer Club from the Football Federation Sunraysia.

Ballarat regional teams include Ballarat North United, Daylesford and Hepburn United, and Victoria Park, while the Bendigo League sees Epsom SC.

The additional qualifying round takes place on the weekend of Saturday, February 11.

All draws will be live streamed on the FFV Facebook page, starting with the qualifying rounds 1 and 2 draw on Tuesday January 31 from 12:30pm.

NPL clubs enter in the fourth proper round of the tournament.

 

Go the Panthers!

Better start those Wiki edits bro. 

Every time I make a page for any Ballarat team other than Red Devils/City or about the local league it gets deleted straight away. Someone is jealously guarding it.

Flogs. Try again now they are in the cup.