Canberra A-League bid backed by former FFA board member

[Joey47]

Former Football Federation Australia director Danny Moulis has thrown his support behind A-League expansion hopefuls Canberra and South Melbourne, declaring the bids "streets ahead" of the four others. Moulis spent three years on the FFA board but was not re-elected for a second term at the highly-publicised annual general meeting last month.

New chairman Chris Nikou and Moulis were the only members seeking re-election after former leader Steve Lowey and four of his directors stepped down.

Moulis played for the Socceroos and Canberra City before serving as the Canberra Cosmos chairman and starting a successful law firm in the capital.

Canberra are one of six bids - and the only outside Melbourne and Sydney - left in the expansion race with two teams expected to be announced following an FFA board meeting on December 12.

Team 11 are one of three bids from Melbourne in the hunt for an A-League licence, alongside Western Melbourne Group and South Melbourne. Southern Expansion from Sydney's south, South West Sydney and Canberra round out the six.

It is still unknown if the new teams will come into the A-League next season or the following year.

A-League boss Greg O'Rourke was initially set to recommend two teams for the FFA board to ratify in October but that meeting never went ahead after Lowey announced he'd step down.

It is understood Canberra was right in the mix two months ago and Moulis believes his hometown is one of two clear-cut choices for expansion.

"The A-League needs football-focussed organisations that speak to the fans, come from areas with deep national league history, have the necessary stadium infrastructure in place, and will create the kind of contests that will ignite the competition," Moulis told The Canberra Times.

"On those measures, South Melbourne and Canberra are streets ahead of anyone else.”

Canberra are considered the only "ready to go" bid after securing significant investment from the ACT government, signing more than 7000 members and inking a deal to play at Canberra Stadium.

They've also signed memorandum of understandings with Capital Football and former expansion bid the Wollongong Wolves.


There is speculation that as many as four teams could be added to the league to solve a scheduling headache

Teams currently play each other three times in a 27-game schedule. A 12-team home-and-away season would see teams play 22 games which isn't enough football.
Another spanner in the works is the Wellington Phoenix who were set metrics by the previous board to extend their licence past next season.The Phoenix signed a 10-year conditional licence with the FFA in 2016.

The first four years, ending in 2020, were guaranteed, while further three-year extensions were contingent on meeting metrics such as attendance figures and television numbers.But the A-League are keen to become independent of the FFA which would see the metrics scrapped.

The new board could also decide to not enforce them.
It is understood Wellington have the support of the current clubs but that could count for little after Perth Glory owner Tony Sage claimed they had not been consulted in the expansion process.

It seems no scenario is off the table and it is believed the FFA have discussed adding three teams, which would somewhat resolve the scheduling predicament.
Scrapping the Phoenix metrics and adding teams from Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney would form a 13-team competition and make a 24-game home-and-away season. Just enough to keep almost everyone happy

It would also see the A-League come good on their promise to "expand into new territories".

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/former-ffa-board-member-danny-moulis-backs-canberra-a-league-bid-20181203-p50jt2.html

[Golden_CU]

Nice to have a bit of activity back up and running on the forum, feels forever since i've been on!. interesting article too, does it provide insight into how other FFA minds will be thinking? certainly provides insight into the strength of the bids, however having closely followed te expansiion process Canberra and SM and perhaps too SWS seem most logical, most well prepared and most sound. My bet is that it does not transpire as we may expect... 13/14 teams? or maybe staggered expansion.

[Chris1822]

Good to be back and welcome back Golden_CU!

Will be very interesting to see what happens from here. I note that December 10th is looking like d-day for us with the FFA due to make a decision.

I'm really thinking that our bid stands a very strong chance pending the right investment, FFA politics not getting in the way (maybe even working to our advantage now that the a-league clubs have a vote) and us being able to stump up a competitive licence fee

13 teams seems likely to me considering the scheduling and all. 1 from Sydney, 1 from Melbourne and us. Potentially with the bid from Melbourne coming in from the 2020-21 season so they have a chance to establish their stadium

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