What's Sydney FC's motivation?

17 February 2010 | 15:00 - By Jesse Fink

Do the minor premiers have anything to play for in the finals series now that Asian Champions League qualification has been secured?

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Six teams will play in the A-League finals series, but one of them has already got what it wants from the season [GETTY]

Matthew Hall has written an interesting piece for SBS Sport this week, questioning how Newcastle Jets, a team that finished 14 points behind the "minor premiers", for want of a better term, can still win the "championship", i.e. the finals series.

Does it provide a fair indication of who the best team of the year really is or, as Hall argues, reward the one that "can put a run together over the next four weeks"?

I think the answer is obvious. The finals system is a joke.

But I want to take the debate a bit further apropos of some startling comments made by Melbourne Victory chairman Geoff Lord that his club could have "boycotted" the series altogether had they prevailed over Sydney last weekend and secured that coveted Asian Champions League berth for a second year running.

The series conflicts with Melbourne's pre-existing commitments to the 2010 ACL, their first match against Beijing Guoan next Tuesday, days after their first-leg semi against Sydney. The return leg is scheduled for March 7 and two days later Melbourne play Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma.

"We might have pulled out of the Australian championships if we had won the Premiers' Plate," said Lord.

"I raised the idea in a tentative way with a number of people to see what the response was. But we would only have considered it if we had won the Premiers' Plate.

"Why wouldn't the FFA play that second game against Sydney on Friday, March 5, to give us more time to prepare for the Asian Champions League game the following Tuesday?

"We are representing Australia and we want to do the best we can but we have a smashed-up squad, we have lost eight first-team players who have either left or are out through injury since the season started.

"It's impossible to do this. You can't go into Asia with half a side. It's a herculean task and we can't do justice to both tournaments. This needs addressing for the future. It's not just Melbourne Victory, it's for all Australian teams."

Lord, of course, is right. The scheduling for the series needs serious review if Football Federation Australia is fair dinkum about giving Australian teams a fair go in Asia. And quite apart from anything else, having the chairman of the country's biggest club come out and arguably undermine the integrity of the finals series like this is highly damaging. Such comments are poison.

But this then raises another issue: if Melbourne had considered pulling out of the series if it won the Plate, what now is Sydney's motivation?

It has made it first past the post. It has proved it is the best team in the comp. It has booked its passage to Asia. And that, at the end of the day, is what is really motivating all Australian teams: the prospect of over earning US$2 million in the bank and a berth at the FIFA Club World Cup, which itself gifted last year's winner, Barcelona, US$5 million. Even coming last in that seven-team tournament guarantees a payday of half a million.

Now Sydney is being asked to fire up once more and duke it out with Melbourne, again, twice, to probably end up playing Melbourne again in the final for a prize-money pool of… well, nothing.

The FFA told me the real driver for Sydney would be in attracting more members, sponsorship money and boosting their profile, as well as the honour of taking home the "toilet seat".

But is that enough?

In 2009, when he was still coach of Brisbane (then Queensland) Roar, Frank Farina admitted: "The Champions League is the carrot every club is aiming for… getting into the grand final is a bonus."

The biggest game of the year should never just be a bonus for the best team.

It's high time for the A-League to rethink its format. The current one just isn't working.


:: For more Fink musings on the big issues in football, check out Half-time Orange on The World Game.

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Comments (9)

19 Feb 2010 17:12 AEST

George

From: Melbourne

Why there is no need fo finals

The finals series is a complete and utter joke - I have always beleived this. The sooner it is scrapped the better. The reason that the AFL and NRL have a finals series is because otherwise there would be no incentive to finish anywhere but first. Football is different. There is an an incentive to finish not just first, but second: the ACL. Also, the introduction of a second division would add extra incentive to not finish in the bottom 3 and be relegated. So the FFA should scrap the finals, and start looking to introduce a second division (a cup competition wouldn't hurt either)

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19 Feb 2010 16:08 AEST

AGO74

From: Sydney

Get over it!

Listen. I know for most of the world in football that it's first past the post but this is Australia and the sporting dynamic or culture is different. I'm not saying that in a dismissive or insular way to the way the rest of the football world operates but in a factual way. Here, the semi finals/GF's IS Australian sporting culture and not 1st past post. Agree that this finals format is very disjointed with 2.5 weeks between 1st and 2nd legs and I criticise FFA there but for the finals itself, commerically in a first past the post system, watch the crowds and hence $$$$ for clubs losing money drop off once a team is out of contention for 1st position. By the way - if Newcastle or Perth win A-League I'll eat my hat. They have no chance.

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19 Feb 2010 9:49 AEST

Eddie

From: Melbourne

Melbourne's crowd

Melbourne's crowd last night showed how much fans care about the finals serries.

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18 Feb 2010 17:00 AEST

Manfred the Milko

From: Lambert Park

FFA - no idea

If FFA think the crappy finals series is attractive to anyone other than fans of those clubs' fans ... they are kidding themselves. The rest of the soccer nation switches off. Sponsors don't give a crap about the A-League either. Star City are about to bail on SFC because the A-League doesn't cut it.

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18 Feb 2010 9:48 AEST

James

From: Sydney

Sydney FC should be very motivated

I agree with some that it would be better to scrap the finals and have a cup competition, albiet with them running concurrently with rounds througout the league season, like in europe. The FFA just needs to sort out logistics and how smaller teams will travel around Australia. Probably needs a major sponsor and will be called the [insert brand] cup....but I'd accept that. Having said that, I think Sydney will be motivated because most of the players grew up here and will have that culture of the finals in them. Fans might be calling it the Premiership but Aloisi called it the minor prem in Sunday, which shows how he regards it. Great but not winning the A-Leauge. And who doesn't want to win the league and cup double!

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18 Feb 2010 9:36 AEST

alexd

From: sydney

off with the finals !!!

how many times have the general football community expressed a desire to have the final series (which does give mediocrity a look in) replaced with a nationwide knock-out cup (a la FA Cup style) comprised of regional teams in the first tier of rounds, followed by the top state sides in the second and A-League clubs in the third and final tier. How exciting would it be for say a Sunshine FC (or similar) come up against a CGU (or similar) in a cup final.

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17 Feb 2010 23:44 AEST

glenno

From: oz

can the finals

i hav thought for a while now that with the small number of teams in our league that we should follow the argentine example and hav a apertura and clausura effectively meaning 2 seasons a year. with a maximum of 12 teams thats 22games each season 44 per year no whining about playing more or less home games everybody plays each other twice each season. season could then run in line with europe more. if wanted u could have a playoff between winners of clausura/apertura 4 grand champion.

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17 Feb 2010 20:29 AEST

TaiwanAlby

From: Taiwan

Cup

If you want a cup final, then have a cup! Leave the league as the league. An FFA Cup, whose final rounds include the A-League sides after the end of the league season, would help bridge the gap at the end of the season and provide a cup final! Funny how nearly every other nation on earth has already figured this one out....

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17 Feb 2010 17:35 AEST

A J Siokos

From: Sydney

Victory should get on with it

I don't think it's a bad move by FFA this season having six of the ten teams play in the Finals series. Only because it's better for the exposure/promotion of the game until the next two teams join (Melbourne Heart and Sydney Rovers) which will then make a Top 6 situation more reasonable. I personally prefer a first-past-the-post format but that's more an issue of Australian sporting culture than fairness. But the Victory just have to suck-it-up and deal with it. In other sports, teams play up to 4-5 games per week.

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About this Blog

The Finktank is more of what you've come to expect from Jesse Fink, The World Game's enfant terrible, but with a bent on the big issues in sport. No sport, no personality, no subject, is off limits. 

Jesse Fink Jesse Fink is one of Australia's most popular football writers and sports columnists. He is the author of the book 15 Days in June: How Australia Became a Football Nation (Hardie Grant, $29.95) and writes twice a week as "Half-Time Orange" for The World Game and weekly for ESPN Star Sports in Singapore. He lives in Sydney.

 
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