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"Football Federation Australia has today confirmed that deliberations about the establishment of a new Community Club representing Western Sydney in the Hyundai A-League have advanced significantly in the past few days.

FFA will issue a statement at 2.15pm today in relation to the latest developments. Until such time, FFA will make no comment on today’s media coverage on the topic."

from football 'stralia' website.

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Rather thy kept Gold Coast instead of destroying a club again.

But West Sydney was always going to happen. Smart move by FFA funding it all themselves, as this is actually a club that could be profitable in the medium term.

I really dont know how a West Sydney team could end badly, but if someone will find a way to fuck it up it will be the FFA.

Rather they kept NQF over GCU ffs.

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Completely agree cadete. I think this is going to be massive if executed properly.

Can't skip a step thought, NQF was hard to fuck up in terms of initial execution, but now WS has AFL and NRL to compete with, it makes it that much harder, but yes IF done properly, it will be successful for sure.

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We need to stop looking over our shoulder at what the AFL and NRL are doing; if we do that it means we're not looking where we're going.

Almost none of the people coming to Australia these days have any interest in or connections to either AFL or NRL. There's never been a better opportunity for our sport to grow than now.

Even here in Melbourne, where we are subjected to a relentless 24/7 barrage of AFL rubbish, the closest most of the population get to a match is their weekly footy tips.

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Not that it can't compete, it's about the initial reach out & execution, can the FFA compete with the AFL when it comes to that?

The AFL can have the best club set up in the world and reach out to as many Westies as they want it still does not mean people are actually going to give a shit about a game that they think is like watching seagulls fight over a chip.

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Personally, watching seagulls fight over a chip is pretty funny.

Announcement was fairly meh tbh. I wonder how long they will keep the stream up for? Might be able to watch foxsports all arvo.

Personally, I love a good seagull chip fight. And I dont mind a bit of AFL either.

But anyway. Back on topic. I honestly dont know how I feel about all this. My head tells me that it is great and a huge leap forward, better TV deal, etc. but my guts are telling me something else. I am pretty nervous, because if this venture does not work it will have massive repercussions.

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The A-League does need to compete with AFL or NRL, people can follow both sports as their seasons barely clash.

Just look at Yarraside and you can see many people who support AFL insanely, and I know it’s the case with the Northern Terrace as well.

As for AFL not having appeal to new ppl coming to this country, I reckon this is pretty much a wrong statement as the ability AFL has at converting once foreigners into supporters from what I have seen is pretty powerful.

One major factor being AFL’s ability to not only attract female fans but create passionate female fans – lets face it no other sport including Football comes close to having this ability with the fairer sex.

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Oh and Buckley saying they are looking at community ownership? After what happened at NQ?

Ownership or engagement?

The mistake the FFA made with NQF was that they did not give NQF enough time to get the community ownership going. They had already vetoed a takeover of NQF by Singaporean interests.

IMO they've learned from those mistakes. Brisbane is now owned by Indonesian interests.

This move in Sydney is what the game needs. Have faith.

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Ownership or engagement?

The mistake the FFA made with NQF was that they did not give NQF enough time to get the community ownership going. They had already vetoed a takeover of NQF by Singaporean interests.

IMO they've learned from those mistakes. Brisbane is now owned by Indonesian interests.

This move in Sydney is what the game needs. Have faith.

Pretty sure he said community ownership. I agree that he didnt give the NQF community ownership enough time (I dont think they realistically gave it a chance at all), which is why I found it a bit of a slap in the face.

Yes, it is exactly what the game needs but I worry that this is a roll of the dice by the FFA which could easily come up snake eyes if they are not smart about this.

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"From day one of its existence the new club will have a core focus on community engagement. The community will have a say in the culture, colours, name and logo of the new entity and we will explore a model that would allow for community ownership"

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/buckley-opinion-display/Hyundai-ALeague-coming-to-footballs-heartland/46703

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Great news for the league and the FFA will move hell and earth to get it to work ... otherwise it will be a worse failure than the World Cup bid. I wouldnt be suprised if Harry Kewel is poached from Victory to give the new club its profile.

Maybe GCU could be kept around as a Youth League club. They seem to be very successful in this regard. They could move to a smaller stadium, so their handful of diehard supporters would be able to generate some atmosphere and still have a club to follow, and they could continue to be a good feeder resource for players for the rest of the league. Then, in a few years, they may grow enough in support to get back into the senior level comp.

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Great news for the league and the FFA will move hell and earth to get it to work ... otherwise it will be a worse failure than the World Cup bid. I wouldnt be suprised if Harry Kewel is poached from Victory to give the new club its profile.

Maybe GCU could be kept around as a Youth League club. They seem to be very successful in this regard. They could move to a smaller stadium, so their handful of diehard supporters would be able to generate some atmosphere and still have a club to follow, and they could continue to be a good feeder resource for players for the rest of the league. Then, in a few years, they may grow enough in support to get back into the senior level comp.

The GCU NYL Youth idea is not a bad one, North Sydney Bears do this with Melbourne Storm.

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The GCU NYL Youth idea is not a bad one, North Sydney Bears do this with Melbourne Storm.

North Sydney Bears actually have a history and culture, whereas cold toast, well nothing.

In regards to the expansion into Western Sydney, it's rushed and I'm worried.

Canberra would've been the ideal solution:

a) They've got the stadium

B) W-League team

c) The AIS can be manufactured as the youth team

d) Next to no competition.

e) The consortium have been floating around for 4 or so years.

2 of the 3 expansion teams have so far been destroyed, hopefully we can get this fucking right.

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All i can say about this is that the FFA are simply out of there fucking minds. They are now just making teams just for the sake of making teams. Instead of going into damage control after the loss of Gold coast they decide to make another team. Why not wait until the other 9 teams in the competition are stable before expanding. Simply seems like a rushed decision to me. The a-league at the moment seems to be following the NBL team model: Make as many teams as possible even though you don't have the money to back them up.

Edited by kingofhearts
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I cannot see that great a Active Supporter culture coming out of Canberra as one that could come out of West Sydney so I much prefer WS to come into the League.

That is all I care about when opposition club's are discussed, not which place has more supporters and which is better for the league etc...

Atm only three sides in this League have passable Active scenes which really is pathetic so it would be great to have a fourth.

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I cannot see that great a Active Supporter culture coming out of Canberra as one that could come out of West Sydney so I much prefer WS to come into the League.

Atm only three sides in this League have passable Active scenes which really is pathetic so it would be great to have a fourth.

That really isn't a key criteria, and doesn't justify rushing in the western sydney franchise over the Canberra bid in the slightest. If you really do think that's the most important criterion behind expansion, god bless you mate.

That is all I care about when opposition club's are discussed, not which place has more supporters and which is better for the league etc...

lul what?

Do you want the whole league to fold?

Edited by Hendo
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