AAFC says path still open to national second division for Hunter clubs

Football Australia (FA) this month started its process to create a second-tier from next year by asking for expressions of interest and setting out terms of participation for clubs. They include professional contracts and year-round salaries for all players, fulltime administrators, investment in and operation of a full talent development pathway and access to a suitable high-quality facility at all times.

FA will then assess the level of interest and refine their vision for the second-tier. If interest is insufficient, FA will consider instead a phased group-based Champions League model using the National Premier Leagues.

The opportunity for promotion and relegation between second division, the A-League and the NPL is to be considered once the new competition is "mature".

However, the second-tier's initial terms and likely financial burden, which could include sizeable contributions to a shared travel-cost pool, appear out of reach for existing Hunter clubs. Edgeworth were the only club in the region to show support for a second tier in September 2020 by contributing $4000 to the AAFC to become an NSD Partner Club.

Novocastrian Patsan, a founding director of the AAFC, which has been a driving force behind the push for a second tier, conceded the initial criteria "might be difficult" for local NPL clubs to meet. But Patsan believed the region "should be represented in second division" and NPL clubs would have the chance.

"It won't be a closed shop, like the A-League is now," Patsan said. "Even if there's not a Newcastle presence at the start, we're not precluded or stuck for the next 20 or 30 years before we can get in.

"At times it requires people to see something up and running before they can say 'we can do that, or we can find a way to do that'. Within the first five years there's no reason why we can't have a local team in it."

He said strong football regions outside of Sydney and Melbourne were already talking about collaborations to form new teams, which "could be something that might work for us".

He had no doubt a representative team of young NPL talent from the region would "be very competitive" in the league, especially given the flow of Hunter players to the strong Victorian NPL in recent years.

"The advantage of smaller centres like Newcastle, if there's a club in the second division, young guys with ambition are going to want to play for that club," he said.

"The potential benefit of that is the cost of paying that player are negligible because it's someone who wants that opportunity."

He said the AAFC was working with FA "and talking more about the reality of" the proposed second-tier model.

"It has to be structured that it's not a money pit," he said.

"The AAFC and the clubs we've been working with the last two and a half years, we're still talking with FA about the whole design of the second division because one of the core principles we've followed all along is let's learn from the mistakes of the A-League ... where the overwhelming majority of clubs, even now, almost 20 years down the track, are bleeding money.

"Sustainability of the competition has been paramount, and setting it at a level that clubs can manage.

"What goes beyond that is that it's just not a few big clubs in Sydney and Melbourne, because if you're going to be a national competition, it's got to be beyond Sydney and Melbourne.

"And then beyond the capital cities, there are two strong footballing centres in Newcastle and Wollongong that have a long history.

"When I talk to people outside of Newcastle, they all think there needs to be a team from Newcastle in it. And what we've also said all along is there needs to be pro-rel to the NPL."

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