FFA rules out playing FFA Cup finals on Saturdays despite Sydney FC seeking switch to this weekend
THE FFA Cup final will remain a midweek fixture, despite calls for it to be played on a stand-alone Saturday before the start of the A-League season as a showpiece event.
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THE FFA Cup final will remain a midweek fixture for the foreseeable future, despite calls for it to be played on a stand-alone Saturday before the start of the A-League season as a showpiece event.
Adelaide United will host Sydney FC on Tuesday October 30 in this year’s final, sandwiched between the Sydney derby three days before and a trip to face Melbourne City three days later.
The Daily Telegraph has learned that discussions were had to play the game this Saturday after the success of last Saturday’s derby in the semi-final, which attracted 14,436 fans to Penrith Stadium.
But the fact Sydney also travel to Adelaide a week later for the opening game of the A-League season — and a determination to observe the integrity of this weekend’s international break — meant FFA officials decided to proceed with the Tuesday evening final originally slated when the competition timetable was laid down earlier this year.
With the fall of the international calendar in future years, the international break will come immediately after the NRL grand final for at least the next two seasons, and FFA has ruled out playing the FFA Cup final in those FIFA windows.
Ironically, if the semi-final draw had kept the Sydney teams apart and they had subsequently made the final, the game would almost certainly have been played this weekend to avoid a near clash with the round two derby on October 27.
Sydney FC CEO Danny Townsend said his club had lobbied to play Adelaide on Saturday and give the game as much publicity as possible, but acknowledged that no one date would have satisfied all parties.
“We felt playing the Cup final on a stand-alone Saturday would be the right thing to do,” Townsend said.
“We did understand FFA’s side of things and their concern that duplicating the opening fixture against Adelaide risked diluting it.
“Equally I’m sure (Adelaide CEO) Nathan Kosmina wouldn’t have wanted two home games against Sydney on consecutive weekends from a marketing perspective — in all these things there are equal and opposite reactions.
“But to us, the positives of a Saturday night game outweighed the negatives compared with squeezing the showpiece final in on a Tuesday night. We made our point and we accepted the FFA’s decision.”
Speaking before Saturday’s semi-final, Wanderers coach Markus Babbel had expressed incredulity that the final would not also be played at a weekend.
“I don’t understand the Australian football federation because how can you do a semi-final on a Saturday and a final on a Wednesday?” Babbel said.
“It makes no sense in my eyes. Why not give the Cup a weekend? You have a week before the season starts, you can have a final there. Brilliant. All the time a week before the season starts is the Cup final. I don’t know, on one side it’s important, on the other it’s not.”
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