Why Australian football needs a promotion/relegation system to survive

Promotion and relegation is one of the few constants in nearly every single soccer country across the globe. It makes the sport unique and it gives each team something to play for each season. It also makes it one of the most cutthroat sports on the planet. Why is that? Well, to prove this statement, let’s take a look at the Australian Football League.

Teams will often rise up and drop down the ladder over the years, with no club recognised as the club to beat every year (like Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United). It’s much more of a lottery. Yes, coaches, players, fans etc. would suffer as a result of a club doing poorly. But unlike soccer leagues across the world, there’s no punishment for poor performance. If you finish bottom of the ladder, you get rewarded with the number one draft pick.

The system works but imagine if the same system was implemented for a soccer competition. Would it work as well as it does in the AFL? The answer is simple, no.

For starters, fans wouldn’t be as invested as we see in the European leagues. Even if their club is fighting off relegation, fans will come in droves to cheer them on. In Australia’s A-League, if a club is struggling, you’ll very rarely see packed out stadiums.

The league itself would feel like it was coming off a conveyer belt each season. It would be the same teams, the same stadiums and the same league each season. Again, we see this in the A-League, but they also have the FFA Cup and there are new teams entering the competition, starting with Western United next season.

These two factors are what makes the European leagues so successful. Who would’ve thought that Bournemouth, a club that not too long ago was non-league, would now be a mainstay in English football? What about how Huddersfield Town, who despite already being relegated this season, would’ve had the season from heaven to get promoted to the top flight.

It’s the beauty of European soccer, that there are the big teams that have been the benchmarks for so long as well as the battlers who scrap their way through the divisions.

This is where the A-League is losing so much potential to create a strong, multi league soccer country that is outside of Europe. FFA Chairman Chris Nikou recently suggested that promotion and relegation may not enter Australian soccer for up to 15 years, a suggestion that could harm the sport’s future in the country.

 

Soccer has grown exponentially in the last few seasons in this country, especially at the community and grassroots levels. Junior participation is at an all time high and interest in the National Premier Leagues across the states has never been greater. If anything, the next few seasons would appear to be the perfect time to implement some sort of promotion/relegation system.

The FFA, in refusing to create a system, is neglecting the people that have madder soccer in this country what it is today. Those at the grassroots and community levels are the heart and soul of Australian soccer and have been ever since the early NSL days. Clubs such as South Melbourne and the Melbourne Knights defined Australian soccer for decades and now, when they, along with a host of other clubs want to change soccer for the better, the FFA neglects them.

The FFA should take a leaf out of European leagues books, but sometimes the evidence is right in front of them. In the last two seasons, the NPL in Victoria has seen some crazy final days and some clubs in promotion and relegation fights that are simply unbelievable.

In 2017, the Melbourne Knights struggled and finished third last on the table, entering the promotion/relegation playoff against Dandenong City. Despite winning 3-2, to see such a historic club almost leave the top flight was a massive surprise. 2018 however, was far more remarkable.

Green Gully are another revered NPLVIC side who have won titles in years gone by. They finished third last and entered the promotion/relegation match against Moreland City. They were down 2-0 in the 90th minute and looked a certainty to be relegated.

But through sheer force of will, they scored two quick goals, sent the game to extra time and scored a late winner to secure safety in the top flight. That level of drama has never been seen before at the NPL level and if the FFA could open their eyes to the possibilities a pro/rel system would create up, we could see it in the A-League.

Instead of going through the motions, every A-League season could have extra meaning with clubs knowing that there is always something on the line. Because in recent seasons, the desire from players, clubs and officials behind the scenes appears to have been non-existent.

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Melbourne should have been apart of Women’s Asia Cup 2026

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Image credit: Shutterstock.com / Dans Destinations

On Wednesday, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will ratify Sydney, Perth and the Gold Coast as hosts of the upcoming Women’s Asia Cup 2026. Games will be played across Stadium Australia and Western Sydney Stadium, the Perth Rectangular Arena, Perth Stadium, and the Gold Coast Stadium.

While the Women’s Asian Cup is a momentous occasion for Australian football, the exclusion of Melbourne stands as a missed opportunity.

Known as the sporting capital of the nation, Melbourne holds an incredibly passionate soccer fanbase and has continually delivered excellence on the pitch.

Zealous and Loyal Fanbase 

Most recently, Melbourne hosted six Women’s World Cup games at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, otherwise known as AAMI Park, in 2023 for hungry audiences. Of the six games, five reached over 90% capacity according to AuStadiums, illustrating the desire Melbournians and Victorians have for more football.

Furthermore, Victorians have consistently shown up to support their teams across both the men’s and women’s A-Leagues. According to AuStadiums, in last year’s ALW season, AAMI Park was on average the most attended stadium of the grounds which had hosted 10 or more games, averaging 3,500 people per game. This accomplishment built off of the 22/23 season where AAMI Park had also averaged the largest crowds for stadiums for which had hosted multiple games.

In the men’s competition, AAMI Park has been by far the most played at stadium, with more than 30 games played at the stadium each season since the 21/22 season. Through this, AAMI Park has consistently achieved the highest total attendance of any A-League stadium and has additionally maintained strong crowd averages.

AAMI Park was the third most attended ground on average last year for stadiums which had hosted multiple games. Additionally, AAMI Park also appeared the most in the top 10 attended games of the year, hosting four of the largest crowds of the 23/24 season.

To deny such a passionate fanbase the opportunity to see their national team, and other elite Asian teams, locally, would be a travesty. Compounding it, the decision to neglect one of Australia’s most beloved, professional and modern stadiums on a global stage is another disappointment.

World Class Facilities

In the latest Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) 2023-24 A-League Men Report insights from players, executive teams and coaches, AAMI Park was one of the highest scoring stadiums across Australia and New Zealand.

In terms of pitch quality, measured by the pace, smoothness, hardness and overall quality of the surface, AAMI Park scored above average. Depending on the hosting team, the stadium was rated between 3.5 stars to 4 stars placing it above the 3.2 average across the league.

Additionally, AAMI Park recorded the best atmosphere leaguewide when Melbourne Victory played, achieving a 4.4-star rating. Nearly half a star higher than the second-best atmospheric stadium.

These sentiments were similarly echoed in the most recent PFA A-League Women Report from the 2023-24 season. The report illustrated AAMI Park as one of the premier stadiums in the country, with the ground achieving a 4-star and near perfect 4.9-star rating, across its two hosts.

Australia’s Most Liveable City 

In combination with providing a world class stadium for some of the world’s best teams, hosting games at AAMI Park in Melbourne at the Women’s Asia Cup would have propelled Australia’s image on the global stage by highlighting one of the world’s most liveable cities. Ranked fourth in the world for most liveable cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index 2024, Melbourne continues to showcase the very best of Australia.

Travelling fans would get to enjoy the cultural events and sights Melbourne has to offer, while also finding their way to and from games easily due to Melbourne’s simple public transport system.

Furthermore, Melbourne would not only highlight the best of Australia to travellers, but to an ever-increasing global audience. With the rise of interest in women’s football, the amount of people watching and interacting with games has increased exponentially.

According to FIFA, over two billion people engaged with the Women’s World Cup in 2023. Furthermore, the tournament produced over 2.72 billion viewer hours, a 9.2% increase in consumption from the 2019 Women’s World Cup. With so many eyes now on women’s football, it makes sense to put forth Australia’s best.

Conclusion 

Fortunately, as Australia’s most loved team, the Matildas will draw crowds wherever they play, having now sold out 16 home games in a row.

Yet the neglect of Melbourne from the Women’s Asia Cup will prevent one of the country’s most fervent fanbases, which has repeatedly supported the national team and the A-Leagues, from witnessing one of Australia’s most important sporting events.

Unite Round: A-League’s Bold Vision Faces Challenges

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Image credit: Western Sydney Wanderers

The second-ever edition of the Unite Round sparked some interesting debates and narratives about whether the A-League can properly host an inclusive event of this scale.

As the contract with Destination NSW expires, the question remains; Is the experiment worth committing to or should it be scrapped?

A potentially unfair comparison would be to NRL’s Magic Round and AFL’s Gather Round who managed to succeed with the concept in its first two seasons. It’s quite simple, the A-League don’t have the wide-ranging committed supporter base to reach those heights just yet.

But will they do so quick enough for this investment to be worth it?

Challenges that undermine Unite Round

It was a weekend that had a few positives, as mentioned in the A-Leagues press release last week but was certainly marred by a slew of negative and/or embarrassing moments.

Whilst match-going fans, who spent the weekend in Sydney, anecdotally seemed to truly enjoy the experience, there simply weren’t enough that flew out to watch their team play.

The 45,000-capacity Allianz Stadium had a rather empty look for most of the games, mirroring Covid lockdown football, and the lack of atmosphere really took away from the experience that was promised when the concept replaced the controversial Sydney Grand Final deal last season.

For a league that has constantly struggled with attendances since the horror 2021-22 season (which saw attendances slashed in half post-covid), the ability to hold a full-scale weekend of football in one city is realistically never going to work, especially in a cost-of-living crisis.

Another issue that is increasingly being brought up in media and fan spaces is the NSW Police releasing a statement before the weekend had started, ensuring that they were going to crackdown on pre-game marches, flares, banners and flags in an attempt to ‘keep everyone safe’.

Baffling for any hardcore fan, it was a truly tone-deaf action that stripped football of its core: intense and passionate tribalism.

Highlights of the weekend

Focusing on the positives, in the A-League press release, they revealed the numbers behind an improvement on last season’s first-ever United Round.

– 33 goals were scored across 12 games between both the Ninja A-League Women and Isuzu UTE A-League Men.

– Attendance was up 50% on the first-ever Unite Round with a cumulative match attendance of more than 71,000 fans. This was certainly helped by an amazing 30,777 crowd to watch the Sydney Derby.

– Over a thousand fans take part in grassroots clinics, tournament and fan zones.

Commenting on the overall feel of Unite Round 2024/25, Nick Garcia, A-Leagues Commissioner, said:

“It was a turbulent build up with a ticketing outage, a change in venue for our six Ninja A-League Women matches and a planned train strike – but we’re really proud to have welcomed 50% more fans from across Australia and New Zealand to Sydney compared to our first-ever Unite Round,” Garcia said in a press release.

“We really believe in the long term potential of this partnership with the NSW Government and Destination NSW, establishing a new tradition and welcoming football fans from across Australia and New Zealand to electrify this incredible city.

“This event really resonates with our young and diverse fanbase and aligns with our drive to unite communities through a shared love of football. It’s the pinnacle weekend of professional football, and we hope this is a tradition that we can continue to build on and grow in the coming years.

“It’s been a really strong start to our 20th season. Crowds have grown by 30% year-on-year across the first four rounds of the Isuzu UTE A-League Men, while the new Saturday night doubleheader on 10 Bold has also increased the free-to-air national audience by 34%. We look forward to continuing this momentum across both leagues as we move into the summer period.”

The path forward for Unite Round

The words from Nick Garcia suggest that the A-League are committed to making this concept work and are hoping the progress made in the last 10 months can be replicated over time.

The direction in which the United Round goes in is still unknown with the expiration of Destination NSW but it also could lead to an innovation that bursts this weekend into life.

Do they try it in New Zealand for a year? Or up in the Gold Coast where people might have more incentive to enjoy a weekend up in the Sunshine Coast?

The chance for experimentation surely has to be attempted considering the trends suggesting that this weekend won’t be considered an outright ‘success’ in the short term.

Conclusion

In the end, the future of the Unite Round hinges on bold experimentation and a commitment to creating a uniquely football-centric spectacle.

Whether it’s exploring new locations like New Zealand or the Gold Coast, or innovating to better engage fans across the country, the A-League has an opportunity to redefine what a national celebration of football can look like.

The league’s struggles with attendance and atmosphere are real, but so too is the potential for growth in a competition that resonates with Australia’s diverse and passionate football community.

The Unite Round has shown glimmers of promise amid its challenges—now it’s up to the A-League to seize that promise and turn it into a tradition worth rallying behind.

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