I think this national pyramid, NSD and under will never happen unless the clubs themselves get strung along until tbey cannot be appeased any more and they decide to finally break away and form their own keague. This extended NPL finals system may very well be the straw that breaks the camels back..... 

The FA needs to stop wasting the money they are entrusted with for the development of the game and green light the visionaries to go ahead with the risk. There is the need, opportunity, and will to create an NSD without the FA having to do anything other than rubber-stamp it and yet they are going to waste more time and money to create a bastardised administratively stupid "compromise" system that no one wants to be a part of.

But the NSD is kicking off “with or without the FFA”.

Not really, it has been mere lip service.
It's sort of like:  of course I support it, but we have to be smart about it, we want to make sure it's going to work, etc.  etc.
It's not as if he has been championing it, busting down all doors, crashing through, smashing his fist on the board table, or anything like that.
We all have to understand, ultimately, both the Chair and CEO are in their positions because the more powerful clubs have deemed it so.
They are not there for any other reason.
The will do what the club owners want them to do.

If the FA doesn't endorse the competition then it won't be in the FIFA umbrella and will go no where.

He knows that, but feels joy at the "ETHNICS" being ignored by a federation he despises .... I know, hes a complicated man our old Bulgarian world traveller. 

Helllooooo Dopey Greg, Fat Nick, Weasly JJ anyone.???? it was only 50 or so pages, has no-one read the report to make a comment yet..... Rugari??? Will you ask the question (you know as a cough* cough* journalist) or are you too busy looking through the trash of a former NSL club so you can publish a groundbreaking story about how the Aleague provides a better brand of tampon for their female staff than the amature NPL clubs do?  
What about the merry band of yes men who write the often ignored
"Stories"  that appear here?

Go to your GP and change those meds before it’s too late Con.

What a vile thing to say Paulie, mental health is not a laughing matter. 

Interview with JJ on Shim podcast
https://play.acast.com/s/shim-spider-and-so-much-moore

Non committal, as always the case with the FA. Seems unlikely we'll see a proper Div 2 in the next few years. More likely this strange NPL play-off garbage will be the initial configuration. Current licenses pretty much take P&R off the table until 34.

When did it become the FFA’s job to launch the second division and not the AAFC’s? I refer you to the title of this thread:

“National second division is kicking off with or without FFA”

It was always the FFA's job.

It seems to me that the member federations are the party not in support of the AAFC NSD model. They likely fear that this will set them on a path toward irrelevance, as the NSD eventually grows the need for a 3rd national division and so on. The member federations have more than 50% of the Congress vote between them and likely have the FFA by the balls on this. JJ said on the podcast interview that the discussion on the NSD  is between FFA and the member federations (and not the APL). The play off configuration is surely the member federations idea, as it keeps them in control.

Incorrect. The APL taught a war to get independence - AAFC should just get on with it 

They fought a war to get independence for the A-League, W-League and NYL.  There is nothing within that process and its conclusion that includes other Leagues or competitions.

It would be fantastic if they did. However, I get the sense that they don't want the responsibility or accountability. They seem to be happy to come up with the conceptual stuff and write a nice white paper, but are less than happy to actually do the boring work to get it off the ground.

No one in authority is championing this.
The Chair and CEO are in their current positions because of the more powerful A-League clubs, they will do whatever those clubs want them to do - that's why they always sound so non-committal.

Yep just listened. I have lost a lot of faith in a national second division and not a champions league format. Just beyond ridiculous now. 

This is what bothers me; the roadblock now being held up is the FFA which is nonsense - football clubs the world over form their own leagues/competitions and just get on with it but here we need some suit in Sydney to do it?? 

As someone posted earlier - the AL clubs have a minority voice in football in this country making this comment nonsense. 

Best you and the other AAFC bitters contact JJ and tell him as well because he seems to think its an FFA responsibility


Football Federation Australia chief executive James Johnson says it's no longer a case of if but "when and how" an A-League second tier will begin, but reminded aspiring clubs that the ultimate power rests with the governing body.

"We encourage the AAFC to work collaboratively with FFA who, ultimately, will need to sanction any such competition and its composition."

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa-chief-urges-collaboration-over-a-league-second-division-plans-20200915-p55vyk.html


Just in case there is any doubt about what sanction means here it is:
1. verb
If someone in authority sanctions an action or practice, they officially approve of it and allow it to be done.

He may now be ready to sanction the use of force. [VERB noun]
He seemed to be preparing to sanction an increase in public borrowing. [VERB noun]

Synonyms: permit, back, support, allow   More Synonyms of sanction

Sanction is also a noun. The king could not enact laws without the sanction of Parliament (or in this case The AAFC could not enact a NSD without the sanction of FFA)

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sanction

Absolutely. However, hypothetically if the AAFC setup a 2nd tier comp, the FA could just sanction it. It doesn't need to be setup by the FA at all, it just needs to be sanctioned by them. The question then is, why wouldn't they sanction an AAFC run Div 2.

It appears to me that the AAFC want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the comp outlined in their white paper, but they want the FA to do the heavy lifting and implement it. That way the FA can take on the administration and financial burden.

The A-League clubs might have a minority voice, but the more powerful clubs definitely have the Chair and CEO in their back pockets.

I think it's unrealistic for anyone to have the expectation that a national 2nd tier can be established without the imprimatur of the FA.
That the FA is dragging the chain suits the A-League clubs, and that's precisely why they would be dragging the chain.
A watered down version of a national 2nd division suits the A-League clubs, and that's precisely why the more absurd ideas for the 2nd tier are coming out of the FA.

So 4 years on and we still don’t know “when or how”.

The indecision and lack of transparency is beyond belief.

Just had a listen to the JJ interview.
Talk about dragging the chain.
That he sees the two phase "champions" league option as worthy of discussion tells us everything we need to know.
Don't forget, this is on top of the A-League clubs lobbying to use the national 2nd division as their reserves comp.
Previously JJ has talked about state-based or conference ideas, referring to models in other parts of the world.
Do not expect to see a proper league structure any time soon.
The ideal national 2nd division, as we would prefer to see it, ain't happening.  Stop dreaming about it.
It all boils down to:
- protecting the club owners' investment (or perhaps more accurately, curtailing their losses)
 - continuing to squeeze as much money as possible via the sale of licenses for top dollar, a la the MLS model.

Boycott the A-league and anything associated with the FA until football changes in this country. That is the only way to get them to change their ways. 

JJ is taking an conservative approach as it doesnt want to harm the state feds and the clubs competing, at the end of the day this would lead to high costs which therefore put pressure on the grassroots.

Hopefully both parties AAFC and Football Australia find a medium from this, clearly there is a desire for it but both have different ideologies for different reasons.

If only the aleague had around 16 to 20 teams during this time, it would have been easier to split up both leagues and therefore using the Championship model as the ideal way of linking the rest of the NPLs to a real 2nd division which would come from an expanded aleague set up.

We are paying the price for a poorly developed aleague and poor club development thanks to the likes of Gallop, Buckley and O'Neill which tried to make the aleague into a franchise league 'fish where the fish are' mentality whilst giving the NPL a nice paint job with increasing costs, instead of trying to make the aleague as a way of growing the professional foot print throughout the country.
They should have looked what Japan did with its J-League model which went from building up its 1st division, then its 2nd division before going pro-rel and linking the provisional leagues after that. (Now they going on with J3 league)

And now the AAFC model is a way of getting there quickly but there is seems to be some sort of concern from the FFA now and comprises are needed which will be tough.

With no aleague is no league and therefore professional football will be end in this country, we are just paying the price for a poorly development league system which was half attempted.
Needed a more holistical approach from all parties in growing the professional football print probably from the beginning in 2005 but I think Lowy blew it.

What’s been shown now is that nobody appears capable of fixing it. Not easy. The time will come when you’ll stop blaming Lowy for the basket case football is.