Lowy Targetting 14 teams

FFA chairman Frank Lowy targetting 14-team A-League

By Marco Monteverde
November 09, 2009

A 14-team A-League plus a national second division competition remains on Frank Lowy's agenda, but even the ambitious FFA chairman admits it is time to take a "breather".

Having only this season expanded from eight to 10 teams with the inclusion of Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury, the 2010-2011 A-League will further grow with a second Melbourne team ahead of the addition of a 12th franchise - based in Sydney's west - a season later.

Despite small crowds haunting both the Coast and the Fury, as well as Queensland's other team, Brisbane Roar, Lowy has no regrets about expansion, saying clubs need to exist "right across Australia".

However, he suggested the FFA would not rush into the jump from 12 to 14 teams, and that his preferred two-division, promotion-relegation model was a "long way off".

"Eventually we need it because we might be asked to have promotion and relegation by FIFA and the Asian confederation," Lowy told The Courier-Mail.

"We're going to 11 teams next season and 12 the one after, and after that we need to have a bit of a breather.

"We need to be a little patient. Eventually I'd like to have 14 teams so we can cover the whole of the country.

"In order to be a force to be reckoned with in Asia, we need more teams."

Concerned by low crowds at Skilled Park despite Gold Coast being among the competition's frontrunners all season, Lowy was at the Robina venue on Saturday night to see United's 1-0 win over Sydney FC.

Only 5364 fans watched the match but it was more than double the attendance at the same venue a week earlier when United's billionaire backer Clive Palmer implemented his controversial 5000-crowd cap plan.

Lowy met with Palmer on Saturday and is confident the Coast is now on the right track with the FFA running the club's marketing department.

"We are working with the club to make sure that we can get the best result for the Coast and the A-League," Lowy said.

"It's all been a little bit of trial and error for the Coast.

"Of course the economy comes into it, but it's more important to get the crowd in first and worry about the economy later."

He stressed that Palmer, Queensland's richest man, was "fully committed" to being United's long-term backer.

"It's not going to happen overnight for United and also the Fury. It's about patience," Lowy said.

He tipped good crowds to again become a fixture at Suncorp Stadium once the Roar started winning matches on a consistent basis.

"Brisbane are a great club and they've had very good results in the past four or five years, but now that the club hasn't been doing so well the crowds haven't been coming," Lowy said.

"But they had a good win against Adelaide and I think they're back on the trail of attracting the Brisbane public.

"There are some very loyal supporters that come regardless of the results, but the majority would like to see the team win from time to time."

A successful A-League is not the only item on Lowy's agenda, with the 79-year-old admitting he's "nervous" as the clock ticks on Australia's bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

"There's some good news one day and a little bit of a setback the next," he said.

"But I think Australia is a special case. The World Cup has never been here before, we are part of Asia, the biggest growth story in the world economically, and I think the same applies in football. We have a good case to put forward."

The decision on who hosts the 2018 and 2022 tournaments will be made in December next year.

There are eight bidders for 2018 - Australia, England, Russia, Japan, the US, Indonesia and joint Belgium-Netherlands and Portugal-Spain applications.

The eight, plus Qatar and South Korea, are also bidding to host the 2022 event.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26322628-5000940,00.html

yeah well it may be a while before we get a team unfortunately...

Same old stuff from Frank Lowy. Always says this. I believe it will happen just not for a very long time.

^^

...which is worrying because slavich has already said he's not hanging around for "a long time"

i'm thinking around 2015-2018 we get a team... that IF we get the world cup because the FFA will want to look good in front of everyone and make sure that the capital has a team... other wise... 2020 onwards

I'm thinking we will enter the league around 2012-2015.There really needs to be a consolidation period in the A-League to keep it stable.

Has anyone heard anymore news from our Bid team of late?? Just thinking when we submitted our bid to the FFA it must have had a number of pages devoted to topics from junior development, community programs, football operations to commercial interests.

I feel it would be good to let the fans/public know what certain components of this was. I understand we submitted a very good bid it would be a waste if wasn't used by Capital Football at least.

The a-league4canberra.com.au site hasn't been updated in a while...

yea mate I agree. I was just thinking the exact same thing today. It is concerning that we haven't heard aything concrete yet, nothing saying, "we will be pushing as hard as ever to get that team" or "we need you help Canberra".

I hope this isn't a sign.