March 16 – Australian FA (FFA) chief executive David Gallop has confirmed that bidding for places in the expanded A-League will begin by the end of March, with 10 groups having already declared their intention to bid for the extra 2 places which will be on offer.
The A-League will be expanded from 10 to 12 teams beginning with the 2019-20 season and Gallop said details of the process and criteria for application will be released to interested parties, leaving several months for bids to be formulated before the successful bidders are announced at the end of the year.
Speaking at the Business of Sport Summit in Sydney, Gallop also revealed the FFA was investigating the possibility of introducing a second tier competition and also looking at bringing high profile players from abroad to increase the A-League’s popularity.
With the A-League in the doldrums Gallop expressed his view that, “I’d love for football in Australia to be like it is in other parts of the world. But it’s not. This is football in Australia.”
In related news, it has emerged that A-League bidders Southern Expansion have signed a memorandum of understanding with NRL club Cronulla to stage some of their home matches at Southern Cross Group Stadium, meaning the club would split its games between three home stadiums whilst a new 30,000 seater stadium being built with funding from Hong Kong property conglomerate JiaYuan Group is completed.
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