LOL at your conspiracy theories. 

Instead of of blaming everyone else for their ills, why don’t you encourage SMHellas to broaden their base and grow into an all encompassing club for other communities as well. One day it may be treated seriously if it does.

Typical shithouse report from the AAFC (Association of Arseholes, Fuckwits and Cockheads).

No thanks. There are already 5 NSW teams in the AL. they were cut early in the process during the last round of expansion because they do not have the $$$. I have never been to WIN Stadium, but I have heard people say the stadium is tired and outdated and is in need of an upgrade. Let them enter the second tier and see how they perform before giving them the opportunity for promotion. 

For mine, team 13 must be Canberra and team 14 must be either Brisbane2 or Tassie. And I would start the expansion process now. we need to go to 14 teams by no later than 2023.

Dont worry Paulie. No need to follow the Greeks in the NSD, most of the other clubs participating will be monoethnic too...  You must feel like the naughty kid on Christmas morning holding your lump of coal... hahahahah

Hahahaha thats awesome dude... agree with you, let the real football people at FA and APL grow the sport , they've been killing it for the last few years.

Lollllllll

Your first point is meaningless: yes, there are 5 NSW teams, but none are in Wollongong, which is its own city, just like Canberra, Hobart, Gold Coast, etc., and should be considered on that basis. The reason it didn't make the grade for the last expansion was that Fox explicitly wanted teams from Melbourne and Sydney due to ratings (apparently people outside the big metro areas don't count), and Gallop wanted more derbies. Which has backfired, since neither expansion side is exactly going gangbusters, and the excitement of the derby has been significantly diluted in the process.

You should get some better information about the stadium. It was recently upgraded with a new main grandstand on the western side. I think the eastern side could do with seating to replace the grass hill (although apparently there are issues with soil erosion since it is situated right on the beach). It has the feel of a proper football ground, has a perfect capacity for A-League matches, and is ideally located in the Wollongong CBD. You can't ask for more, really.

If you want to fast track expansion, then Wollongong and Canberra are the best options. Both are essentially ready to go. Both have viable stadiums and serve decently sized population areas. The Wolves have one of the best NPL squads in the country, and Canberra already has a set-up for W-League and Y-League teams (and a whole NPL division of its own to draw players from).

Tassie needs to build a rectangular stadium to be in consideration. And Brisbane needs to focus on building its first A-League appropriate stadium, let alone its second. They can be considered for expansion to 16 teams.

Irrelevant to the comments I made.

Some would like to run it like a whiff from an oily rag which won’t serve it’s purpose. It needs to be a good, clear stepping stone to the A-League but from the figures thrown around it seems to be marginally better than the NPL and not close enough to the midway point.

I don’t think it has to be fully professional albeit it is preferred, but it has to be a quantum leap to where they are now.

while they say it will start at 12, I think they will start at 8 clubs because if the NSD fails you could merge it into the A-league easily into a 20 team comp

Realistically how many clubs could be sustainably professional in a second division? Enough to have a whole division? Why not at least start out with a structure that allows clubs to compete while remaining semi-pro, and if they have the wherewithal to move to a fully pro set up over time then they can. Much like how the National League works in England.

Just giving you more options. You wont follow South because they are Greek.

BTW Apart from Arnie saying that the AAFC plan wont work because nobody mentioned goalkeeping coaches and medical staff (or some such bullshit, sorry I never can understand what that muppet is saying) has anyone heard a single peep from FFA or Rugari on this? ANYTHING AT ALL? 

Arbor has quite rightly come out and said any NSD must be professional.

The only people who don’t want full professionalism are the NPL clubs.

All real football people want a fully professional NSD.

im pretty sure they'll be stuck in 3rd teir when 2nd division happens.

NPL clubs who has the drive and the vision will help Australian football strive to be the best it can be

just leave the slackers behind

So by your logic  the Aleague owners and the FFA must NOT be real football people as they dont want ANY second division in this country, let alone a fully professional one. Well said I agree with this.

Is Mick Lynch a football person would you say?
https://mobile.twitter.com/MickLynch_Age/status/1352415651000803328  
The FFA mouth piece ( or should that be douche nozle) Rugari  pops up  in a little whiney defensive cameo on this one too... 

Who benefits from semi professionalism?

Not the players. They lose out as they can’t train and play full time.

Not the fans as they see a lower quality than fully professional players who are improving through full time training and playing.

Not the juniors as their fees are used to subsidise the payment of semi professional seniors.

Only the board members and ‘big men’ of the mono ethnic social clubs in the NPL benefit. They can promote their businesses without spending too much and tell everyone what great people they are for supporting their ‘community’. 

isn't the npl already semi-professional? It is not clear if this helps. I hope it does

Dont forget to mention the pumpkin seeds and also the flares and ethnic cleansing in the stands..... The real football people care about preventing such things. Dont worry mate Id be bitter about NPL if my kid got passed up for a better one too (which is what I assume is your story otherwise I cant understand your bizarre  obsession with npl and "professionalism") but sometimes you just have to accept it and move on. Go watch your better standard of 26 games of "professional"  football knowing full well that the players actually shinning this year came from that very same shit, semi pro, self serving ethnic shitstorm called the NPL.....
You see division and hatred and exclusivity in the tiers of soccer below Aleague, I see unity of purpose. If you dont feel involved or included at a particular club thats on you and suggesting otherwise is a f#cking bigoted cop out.... 

Personally I can’t see the wisdom in going to the trouble of setting up a totally separate second tier competition in the faint hope that sometime in the distant future a group of club owners from a totally separate league (ALeague) will, out of the goodness of their hearts, agree to put their own businesses at risk of relegation and total collapse.
Even if the tier two concept gets off the ground, after a few years clubs will wonder why they are spending so much on travel and accommodation for a standard of football that’ll be about the same as the various NPLs. Three years in and still with no guarantee of P/R the desire to keep investing will wane.
Other than Sydney and Melbourne clubs, most fans of these clubs will actually see less live football as away games will be interstate (potential for average crowds to be smaller rather than larger with no away fans).
It’ll only ever work long term if they get a locked in agreement with the ALeague owners first, so that there’s an actual guaranteed P/R at the end of the rainbow to keep the light at the end of the tunnel flickering.
Otherwise, it’s not worth the trouble. Spend your money on improving players and coaches, and increasing local fans, instead of on travel and accommodation to play interstate away games.

Wrong on all counts.
I just support football.
That's why I'm involved with two real football clubs (who also have ethnic backgrounds) , but who are strictly amateur. We play for the fun of the game.
It's the semi-professionalism aspect that is the reason I don't like NPL plastics.
If tomorrow, South Melbourne went fully professional, I'd be the first to welcome them into the A league and I'd love it.

Semi-professionalism is indefensible.

Therefore you would know that all your comments about  NPL clubs exist as extensions of their mono ethnlc cultural social clubs and to benefit their owners financially (apart form 3 or 4 very obvious examples in Victoria) are falsehoods as are claims that junior fees subsidize the first team payments ... does it happen at some clubs sure, but tarring all of NPL is dishonest. 
As for your sticking point about what is professional and what is semi professional why then this rabid obsession?  You realize that what with "scholarship" players, age restricted NPL squads and a salary cap in the Aleague the average 20 year old is better off financially signing with an NPL club dont you? 

Becuase these 32 clubs are clubs and their members demand that they play at the highest tier possible.. Its not hard to understand really.  It happens all around the world. You follow a club from birth to death and you just want that club to win trophies and play finals and create memories..... Some of these clubs have been around for 90 years, therr not going anywhere.

The A-League won't agree to pro-rel out of altruism, they'll do it because otherwise the league will shrivel up and die. Clubs at the bottom need something play for, and this will be even more the case if and when the A-League expands to 14-16 clubs. Fighting off relegation for clubs in the bottom half of the table will actually keep their fans engaged way more than if they're moored at the foot of the ladder, with nothing to play for in the entire latter half of the season.

In the first few years of the league, you could keep up the façade of a franchise style system where every club had a roughly equal chance of winning the league, because everyone was new and the clubs were still finding their feet, so if a team did poorly one year, they could be challenging for the title the next year. But this is football, the big clubs have now figured out how to assert their dominance, and the smaller ones are being left further and further behind. 

And sure pro-rel means that every year 1-2 clubs will be demoted to a national second division. But is that so bad? Their fans will be treated to winning football for once. They can experience playing different clubs in different parts of the country and dream about mixing it with the big boys again. Most years the relegated teams will be the most favoured candidates to be promoted straight back up again, so it doesn't have to mean a death spiral for the clubs that go down.

16 years and counting .... So why would the top clubs agree to change if they have it figured out? I agree with P/R. I just don’t see the point in establishing a ‘second division’ when there is no real first division. It’d be like a few local rugby league clubs joining forces and claiming they are the NSD to the NRL. Equally pointless.

My point is that playing teams of the same standard just in other states is not going to raise the standard of football and it is still not going to permit them to play in the ALeague. It’s a pipe dream.

Well, for two reasons: firstly, up until a few years ago the A-League model was working reasonably well. But since then crowds have dropped, ratings have nosedived, the main broadcaster has lost interest and media coverage is harder and harder to come by. Covid has only exacerbated these issues. It's time for something new to shake things up. Expansion is not the panacea the FFA thought it was going to be. Moving to a winter season is a start, however. But pro-rel to an NSD could be the real game changer.

Secondly, up until now A-League clubs had nowhere to be relegated to, apart from an eight-division NPL where the gulf in class was too high and there was no clear way back to promotion. And the A-League clubs had enough issues trying to establish themselves without focusing on building a second tier from scratch. But if the top NPL want to give it a try, why not see how they go? If it produces good football and the member clubs are financially sustainable, then pro-rel can be on the table.

You take the top 4-5 clubs from the NSW and Vic NPLs, the top 1-2 from Qld, SA and WA, and maybe statewide teams from ACT and Tassie, and surely you have a higher standard of play than any of the existing NPL divisions can presently offer? I don't see how you wouldn't. It would also give existing clubs a reason to be ambitious rather than tread water.

Shouldn't we first look to expand to 20 teams? That means a lot more australians are playing in a professional environment.