'Flabbergasted': Anger over FA plans to re-write Second Tier script

Football Australia CEO James Johnson’s concession that the new competition - due to be unveiled in 2025 - might possibly take on the characteristics of the Champions League, rather than the previously mooted standalone home-and-away configuration, is seen as a deviation too far by Nick Galatas, Chairman of the Association of Australian Football Clubs (AAFC).

Speaking ahead of an FA board meeting today which will thrash out an increasingly thorny issue, Galatas - whose voice represents that of the eight clubs already enrolled and several others seeking approval - said he was “flabbergasted” by FA’s willingness to tear up the existing script.

“Clubs are prepared for a home and away competition, that’s what’s always been on the table and universally agreed upon, not a Champions League-style format,” Galatas told FTBL.

“There is no interest in the model FA seem to be exploring as a National Second Tier. I was surprised and flabbergasted to read of this change of direction, and at such a crucial juncture where we are trying to get another two to four clubs over the line to swell the numbers to a minimum of a 10-team competition.

“To be honest, I was amazed to see James suggesting a model which as far as the clubs are concerned is far removed from what they signed up to.”

Johnson told the Asian Game of his vision for the second division, amidst suggestions earlier this week that the entire concept might be shelved due to a lack of numbers and a potential drain on resources at a time when FA might be required to come to the aid of the impoverished A-League.

Insisting the concept will go ahead on schedule, Johnson did, however, evoke the disquiet of Galatas and company by stating: “We’ve gone through a process, a lengthy process.

"We’re still in that process, and we’ll have to talk to what the format will be, but we’ll have a second tier, that’s clear.

I think there’s a difference, though, between a standalone home-and-away competition, where clubs move out of the current NPLs, and a second tier where perhaps clubs are guaranteed to play in a model, like a Champions League model, at the back end of the NPL season.

“They’re both second tiers, and these models exist around the world. Brazil is a great example, where the second tier of football is played at state level, and then it filters into a national level at the back end; that’s a second tier, and that could be a second tier here.”

But Galatas insisted the clubs aren’t biting.

“It’s so disappointing to hear this,” he added. “To suggest the Brazilian type model he’s espousing is a second tier suitable for us is naive at best.

"I’m very non-plused by this. We’re not Brazil and that model just won’t float here with the clubs.

"FA unequivocally told the clubs in numerous meetings that the Champions League style model was not its plan and it did not consider it a national second tier, it was seen by FA as a separate property.”

Galatas believes several of the state federations haven’t helped the situation by placing roadblocks in front of several would-be participants who have yet to be ratified under FA’s strict guidelines, throwing into confusion the route ahead for the ambitious project slated to reside beneath the A-League but without a straightforward promotion/relegation pathway into the top division.

“The Tassie bid, for example, is being impeded by Football Tasmania, which has said publicly it doesn’t support the team that’s applying. If it just kept out of the way it would get over the line," he said.

“The same has been true elsewhere with clubs complaining of the impediments put in their way by Football Queensland. That’s what the clubs have said.

“If you add all the hurdles and legal requirements placed on the clubs by FA then it’s a case of so near yet so far. The process has been dogged by criteria which isn’t clear and is over complicated.