[size=8]COMMENT: Victorian Premier League future in crisis18.11.10 | Andrew Slevison[/size]

The future of the Victorian top flight competition is in doubt after existing clubs found out about plans by Football Federation Victoria to dismantle the Victorian Premier League in the format that has operated for over 20 years.

These plans could spell the end of great clubs such as Melbourne Knights, South Melbourne, Green Gully and Oakleigh Cannons to name but a few.

The plans involve dropping all existing clubs back into the lower State League competition and then replace the VPL with a new elite competition and a whole set of new clubs.

These new clubs will start with a clean slate and no history. They will be sought out by a new tender process and it is believed the current VPL clubs are holding crisis meetings to counter FFV plans.

If this occurs, it will put a dampener on the plans to hold a nation-wide ‘FA Cup’, which tribalfootball.com commented on earlier this week.

We wanted to know what would be the best name to give the competition but this news indicates the Cup may now not even go ahead if these touted plans come through, or if it does, established outfits as mentioned above may not be a part of it.

The major support of clubs such as the Knights, South Melbourne, Oakleigh and Sunshine threatens to be derailed which will affect the mooted national cup competition and deny fans of these VPL clubs any A-League interaction.

Melbourne Knights and South Melbourne didn’t make the cut when the A-League was formed in 2005 and may now be completely disregarded if this sensation comes to fruition.

Will Victorian clubs rich in history accept this? I doubt it.
Clubs who have nurtured the development of players who are now running around on Australian pitches week in-week out in the A-League and who have gone on to represent the national team will feel aggrieved if they are to be so easily disposed of.

What FFV should do is try and copy the model of football (soccer) in the United States and Canada. It starts with MLS (Major League Soccer) at the top end with USL (United Soccer Leagues) sitting below. Clubs have to apply to get in, rather than promotion and relegation, representing regions rather than communities.

To completely erase a current competition would be an absolute farce and FFV must reconsider what they are about to do.

It will be a sad day for football in this country if the VPL is shut down and Football Federation Australia must step in to disallow this potentially damaging event.

What a great idea. Maybe many A-League supporters like myself who don't follow the State League because they can't relate to their local ethnic state league club, might at long last find a club to follow in the new competition as well. What a great idea to start with a clean slate and new clubs. I bet the new League won't have any trouble attracting media, business, television and supporter interest. Just like the A-League did. Please make it happen for the sake of the game.

What a great idea. Maybe many A-League supporters like myself who don't follow the State League because they can't relate to their local ethnic state league club, might at long last find a club to follow in the new competition as well. What a great idea to start with a clean slate and new clubs. I bet the new League won't have any trouble attracting media, business, television and supporter interest. Just like the A-League did. Please make it happen for the sake of the game.

you sir are an ABOMINATION !!

no chance in hell FFA will aprove of this and nor should they.

I imagine Bozza just spat up his coffee after reading this [-(

Don't think this will effect the 'traditional' clubs at all.
We will compete against each other to be the best of whatever league we are allowed to play in.

No sir. I'm not an ABOMINATION!! I'm simply a football fan who believes a move to to start the state league with a clean slate might be the very thing the state league needs so it can attract more sponsorship and more people to its games, just like the A-League proved to be what the national league needed to attract more media coverage, more dollars and more fans to its games. But that's all too much for a SILLY KNOB like you to comprehend, I bet.

donlt stress Arthur - in this game its who throws the last punch that counts - not the first

And what grounds will these new private clubs use? Are the ffv going to legislate the state leagues clubs must forfeit their community grounds and assets to a private owner?

But on the latter, then again, I kind of think in my kind of 'new convert' kind of way, that why can't the Knights, South Melbourne fans and co, be ALSO Victory or Heart fans - why can't they be both?

What an odd comment, turn of phrase to use especially one that evokes a more conflict driven nature the very thing the old NSL clubs should be trying to leave behind them (Ala flares, fights and ethnic conflicts on the news).

Absolute bloody rubbish, Glory. A phrase that means they will be survive long after generic clubs have not. And for God's sake leave flares out of it. I've seen more in the last 6 years, and on television at that, than a few decades of attending nsl matches. And may I say, mainly by the fans of the other, non ethnic, generic, private Victorian club, Victory.

Stop the ridiculous and intentional fearmongering that only looks at home on Pauline Hanson and her uneducated, 'white or wrong" ilk.

Well maybe I did jump to interpret it that way (And you are somewhat right, yes, some Victory fans have done so too - but the media don't jump on it, isolate it, like the past - though don't mean to go on that tangent), but really, as I described above, these moves could well relate to the FFA Cup and wider goings on, and maybe, just maybe, as part of the reforms they are not too keen on seeing, say, a Knights or South Melbourne facing the A-League clubs especially Victory? Though IF that is the sole motivator, then this is a mighty step to take JUST for that. I'm guessing they were planning to do this for a while obviously.

And why do the media not jump on it? Well, ask the tabloid television, like ACA or TT, what has the biggest ratings and sells the most advertising?

Ask the tabloid newspapers if some biff at anglo aussie clubs, regardless of the sports, sells newspapers and will the same biff at a perceived ethnic club, be it Marconi in soccer or the Bulldogs in NRL be pushed by the paper from a very different angle and therefore sell more?

The tabloid media and to a less extent, most of Australia's media, play on an underlying bigoted sentiment that exists in Australia and rears it's ugly head if and when given a vehicle to do so. The fault of both the media and the target bigots.

Now, other than bleaching olive, brown and black skin nice and white, ( I don't know how to achieve that) change non British sounding names by deed poll and never, ever, speak in public unless you have a nasally, slow moving accent overflowing with true blue slang, I don't know what the hell 'ethnic' people can do to prevent uneducated, classless bigots from being what they are.

Do we solve bigotry by simplistically removing the target of the bigotry so we can say it doesn't exist any more or do we tell the bigots to get the hell over their irrational complex and not make policy according to their wishes?

If you are trying to turn this into a go at the A-League, then that is a whole 'nother, well run, tangent. And ofcourse yes, if people are still going to insist on being unfavourable to the code and the influence of migrants on it, then they will never be favourable. But that hardly accounts for the majority ofcourse and tying in, yes the tabloid media's views hardly reflect the interests of the majority, though with poor trends in the wider media these days, that can be hard to tell.

Edited by gloryPerth: 21/11/2010 06:11:37 PM

Great idea. Wish it could happen here. I could support a club for Fairfield as a whole, and not feel excluded because I'm ethnically Australian (even though I've lived in Fairfield my entire life).

I'm ethnically Australian