Party like it's 1985 - FFA considers nationwide cup competition

As a good anarcho-syndicalist according to the Political Compass site (something like -7.8 and minus -8.6 on their scale), it's not inappropriate to recycle old news articles like yesterdays.

FFA considers cup tournament


A domestic cup competition along the lines of England's FA Cup is one of the issues being considered by Football Federation Australia after it met yesterday with a group of former Socceroos.

The informal forum included FFA chief executive Ben Buckley, several past Socceroos including Alex Tobin and Charlie Yankos, and players from previous eras including Ray Baartz, John Watkiss, Ted Smith and Doug Wendt.

Buckley said the issues discussed included the mentoring of current players by their predecessors, the new national youth league, recognising the game's history and the establishment of a Socceroo Club. Tobin said a new cup format could allow teams from state leagues a crack at the A-League clubs, in much the same way the FA Cup allows lower division and non-league minnows a chance to upset English Premier League giants.

So many ways of looking at this. Firstly that it will never happen, because of the natural obstacle that Australian sport has always faced, the tyranny of distance and the costs associated with that. But one also needs to take into account the difference in class between the A-League and leading state league competitions, but perhaps more importantly the difference in class between the states, and then add the fact that the FFV can't even be bothered in resuscitating the Dockerty Cup (so we can get results like the 1988 upset of then state league 3 Clarinda defeating then NSL-era Preston 2-1).

Anyway, this meeting sounds like they were sitting round the barbie pissed off their tits, just coming up with random ideas as you do in that environment. After all, they've tried to destroy almost everything that came before, and now they want us, gasp, to be part of the system? Highly doubtful. But then again, the mere existence of the arcade game Ninja Clowns (which was surely created by some guy high as a kite sitting on a beanbag watching music videos) always leaves hope.