APL with a later 2025 season start advantage, but struggling at the moment with existing FOR SALE signs

NST having to find more ready having taken over 18 months to find 8.

4-2 but if APL feel squeezed it may go to penalties.

:laugh:

1 - 0 to the APL
1 - 0 to the APL


It's official! An A-Leagues club is coming to Auckland in 2024

The Australian Professional Leagues has today awarded a full A-Leagues license to Bill Foley!

Should be 0-1 to APL, they are in another country and clearly the away team :P

You gotta to love an American franchise owner just like Liverpool FC instead of those nasty middle eastern ones?

Franchises, Franchises, Franchises.... get your Franchises here............. there all as bad as each other mate... I laugh at all of them. Maybe this Auckland guy can buy Rolando and bring him to Australia.... that would be awesome.

But you follow a team with one, even though you laugh at them, ironic, no.

"follow" from 17 thousand kilometers away... hahahah who cares. Of course I laugh at them... 

Great I'm glad we cleared that.

??? Cleared what? I follow lots of teams from overseas .... its called the internet and television mate... its not rocket science. 

That you follow lots of Franchise teams O/S but not in Australia.

Liverpool isnt a franchise team mate WTF are you talking about? Do you know what a Franchise is?

Liverpool  FC is a football club owned by a foreign investment group _Fenway (just like most other EPL clubs that have other foreign ownership groups)
Panathinaikos is football club owned, partially, by a Greek billionaire and partially by a supporters alliance
Napoli SSC is a football club owned by an Italian film director

all these are football clubs, established as football clubs, have their own assets whether that is in membership, academies, stadiums and whatever else.  Just like clubs in Spain, Saudi Arabia (although 4 of these are owned directly by the royal family) Ukraine, Trinidad and Tobago, Poland, Uzbekistan and on and on and on and on ........

Aleague and MLS are the ONLY two "leagues" that have a franchise system (IPL in India has, or is going to, get rid of it) where the FFA (and now the APL) control not only the whole league but all the participants in it.... What they are called, what their website looks like, what colour they can wear, what geographical region they are allowed to play out of and crucially what series of events they get to call a "league" every year...... This new Auckland dude is being sold a piece of paper with an agreement on it that he gets a share of the APL revenue provided he sets up a pretend franchise....thats ALL he gets for 25 million.... a geographical catchment area and a share of the profits .... sounds just like buing a Subway store or a Mcdonalds.....

Dont tar Liverpool FC with that American garbage.... its beneath you. 

Knights still want in,

dunno how much wiggle room each side has

and dunno what the 'key elements' are yet

https://www.melbourneknights.com.au/news/club-statement-on-the-announcement-of-the-national-second-tier-competition/

Knights should stick to their principles if they feel that this is not in their clubs best interest... I would love to see them participate but if they prefer to play in the state leagues they are well within their rights to stay as a big(ish) fish in a small pond. 

I think at the beginning of the process JJ was talking about trying to convince the ALM to move to winter. That the ALM and the NST are not aligned seems to be the biggest bugbear for Knights. JJ couldn't convince the ALM and the other clubs wanted winter. TBH I think winter is the way to go because that's where I think the ALM will end up as well after it has expanded sufficiently and will end up running from February - November with the Australia Cup Final the last fixture for the season.

That’s my fervent hope too. Could be some way off but will eventuate.

Must be tiring living in your world.

So in other words you have no idea what a franchise is? Maybe instead of spending so much time trying to "play the man" you could debate the issue bud?

I fully understand what a franchise is, I want Pro/reg just as much as you do, However we don't have it. Fullstop, from what I can see James Johnson is trying to build a pyramid, but he has stated it will take time. Not much I can do about debating about it.
I'm not playing the man I'm playing your attitude, because unless your team is in the top tier you are going to bag it out at every opportunity. You bag out the A-League, you bag out the clubs & your attitude towards the new Auckland team is playing the man.
Your club with it's great history & great production of players & managers (the greatest coach this country has produced) has got a sigma, you accuse everyone of racism if they disagree. I can tell you if this new Auckland team with foreign ownership starting chanting U.S.A, U.S.A during games. it would struggle for fans NZ.
You scream racism but honestly why would the FFA, the FA now, consistently knock back Sth Melbourne for an A-league berth, Australia's most famous club of the last century? You refuse to answer that.

Not at all ... Ill answer it for you... "Its because South Melbourne Hellas was founded by Greek Immigrants and a large proportion of our mebership base still has Greek Australian ethnicity"
Can I ask you though, for example, if you were prevented from getting a job, ordering food, signing up for the dole, voting in the next election, having access to any governemnt service or whatever because your parents where born in Portugal would you NOT see it as racism???  Why would you think you were excluded and would you be OK with it? Just asking?

So, self-announced interest in the NST spots so far

1. Melbourne Knights
2. Brisbane United
3. Sunshine Coast Fire

4. Gold Coast United

Answer this though:

South Melbourne were in the mix to take over Melbourne Heart.  It was reported widely that they withdrew.  It was never reported that they were excluded.
Why?

Please enlighten me!!!!

Racism in this country is still rife I give you that, but mainly now against the Asians, Blacks, both indigenous & O/S & sectarianism against Muslims.
The Europeans, Greeks, Italians Croatians & Portuguese are pretty well accepted these days, international travel has done wonders for that, so what is the reason for Sth Melbourne?
Are you an Aussie club or are you a Greek club? I have no idea about Sth Melbourne, never seen them play, but if you asked me about Sydney Olympic, I can tell you they are a Greek club not an Aussie club founded by Greeks.
Like I've told you I am an Aussie with an ethic background, I never followed an NSL club, but I went to NSL matches, Socceroos & Olyroos matches during this time, I followed all the Aussies O/S the likes of Farina, Slater, Okon Zelic, Arnold, Viduka that played in the NSL with glee. I never criticised the clubs or the players, just the administration. This is where we differ. 

Sorry just so I understand you, Sydney Olympic are a Greek club? Does their president know that? Do their fans? Do their players?

I dont understand by what you are asking me below:

"The Europeans, Greeks, Italians Croatians & Portuguese are pretty well accepted these days, international travel has done wonders for that, so what is the reason for Sth Melbourne?"

What do you mean what is the reason for South Melbourne? Are you saying we dont accept Italians, Croatians and Portuguese???? WTF? Where does this come from now?

Do you mean the Initial Southern Cross bid when despite almost being assured by FFA of a license a caravan salesman's bid appeared at the 11th hour and despite monetary offers being the same, a "fresh mainstream" consortium was awarded the 2nd Melb franchise?
Or perhaps when Heart was being flogged off to all and sundry (like Newcastle and Perth are now) and the only financial offer on the table was from South Melbourne ... I guess a foreign "group" smelling of oil was preferable to tru blu dinki di second generation Aussies ..

Or maybe the Newcastle license, which to date South have been the only financial offer on the table, rejected twice.

Or the recent 2018 expansion bid, 20mill on the table from Ross Pelligra, ready made stadium, academy, womens team, fanbase, membership and a bid document that Fox execs and Deloitte thought was a shoe in.....  lost out to..... welll no comment anymore.

Money hasnt been a problem apart from 2005 when, on our knees from having no competition to play in for two season and no mean of income we where in no position to bid to joint the new Aleague  (despite being politely told to not bother bidding anyway) .. Funny how a "non-effendiffnik franchise was funded by FFA and despite not putting any money down managed to set up a whole club in months ... but eh well maybe it was because they had better history.


Would you care to explain what, exactly, about my club has stopped ALL of these bids ........ ? Happy to hear a reasonable answer that doesn't involve the number of vowels in my surname.