Tara Murray
The Association of Australian Football Clubs (AAFC) has released a report it hopes will help in the forming of national second tier soccer competition.
The AAFC released the “A Genuine National Second Division of Football in Australia” final report which has been submitted to Football Australia on Tuesday, after receiving feedback and new material in the past 12 months since their progress report.
The report has been signed off by the 30 clubs in the partner group, including Altona Magic Melbourne Knights, Caroline Springs George Cross and Hume City.
Hume City manager Nick Hegarty had previously said his club wanted to reach the highest level that they could.
“Obviously there is a long way to go in everything,” he said. “As soon as something opens up and suits the club and has the potential to allow the club to develop and grow, I’m sure we want to be part of it.”
AAFC chairman, Nick Galatas said the partner group has considered feedback and assessed new material and information from numerous sources to develop the report.
It’s hoped that the new national competition will be up and running next year.
He said the model outlined is aspirational without being unrealistic and they’ve set out in this report to strike a balance.
“Like everyone, we’ve had to work on this through the COVID pandemic, which compromised our ability to get things done as efficiently as we might have hoped, but nonetheless the partner group [of clubs] has worked together to get to this point,” he said.
“We believe this report will assist Football Australia in its introduction of the much-anticipated new national competition in 2023. “Most gratifying and welcome has been the collaborative working relationship we have developed with James Johnson and his new administration at Football Australia.
“We now look forward to the imminent announcement by FA of its allocation of a dedicated resource focused on the development of this exciting project.”
Under the modal proposed by the AAFC there would be a national competition comprising of 12 to 16 teams from the outset, commitment from all participating clubs to have a women’s team and commencement of a women’s competition from 2026, more than 300 new elite playing and coaching positions and all clubs must have grounds that can accommodate a minimum of 3,000 fans.
The model said that teams to be included would be based on meeting stringent criteria as the basis for entry, with promotion and relegation from lower tiers.
Clubs will pay a $200,000 participation fee.
Galatas said by concentrating the second-tier talent it would offer additional elite, national competition-level playing opportunities for our young players and thereby addressing the ‘performance gap’ recently identified by Football Australia.
“It also offers high-level coaching opportunities for our best local coaches, development of strong clubs across our country, nurturing of our future administrators unleashing funding and sponsorship opportunities and building more football-specific facilities.”
