Chris Nikou comments shows A-League clubs and FFA at odds over promotion/relegation timeline

FFA chairman Chris Nikou’s remarks have unwittingly whipped up a whopping furore that’s served less to offer clarity on the promotion and relegation issue and more to highlight just how divided the domestic game’s key stakeholders remain.

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Confusion reigns over the timeline for promotion and relegation, with A-League club owners adamant they’re protected against it until 2034 but Football Federation Australia insisting it can introduce it at its discretion.

FFA chairman Chris Nikou has unwittingly whipped up a whopping furore since opining on Sunday at the inaugural Football Writers’ Festival that promotion and relegation is unlikely for 15 years.

The storm that’s subsequently played out — Nikou’s public dressing down by his own board member Remo Nogarotto on Twitter and a hasty ‘clarification’ by the governing body he represents — has served less to offer any sort of clarity on the issue at hand and more to highlight just how divided the domestic game’s key stakeholders remain.

Moreover, it reveals just how knotted a web the New Leagues Working Group (NLWG) must untangle to map out the future.

FFA CEO David Gallop and chairman Chris Nikou. Pic: AAP

As a practising lawyer, Nikou’s understanding of the Club Participation Agreement (CPA) was that it safeguards the existing Australian clubs against being relegated to a yet-to-be-created national second division until the expiration of their current licences, which FFA extended by 20 years in 2014.

“They’ve got an entitlement until 2034, so if I was at a club I’d say ‘you can’t do it because I’ve got a contractual right to be in this competition’,” he told the audience in Jamberoo.

A number of club owners spoken to by The Daily Telegraph are of the same view, that the CPA prevails and the clubs — including new franchises Western United and Macarthur South West United — have complete control over their own destiny.

FFA, however, holds a divergent view.

A letter from David Gallop in March 2014 claimed “the A-League licences expressly provide for the introduction by FFA of a promotion and relegation system at the appropriate time”.

Further, in its own clarification on Sunday night, FFA said “the CPA also provides for the introduction of promotion and relegation during that period at its discretion”.

It also stated “that the New Leagues Working Group and the Second Division Working Group are currently considering the future structure of the top two tiers of Australian club football, including what provisions for promotion and relegation should be established”.

That point is key, because the only way promotion and relegation can occur is if the NLWG reach agreement on it, which one owner told The Daily Telegraph requires consensus from all clubs.

A-League clubs thought they were safe from promotion-relegation. Pic: Getty Images

The Australian Professional Football Clubs Association (APFCA)’s A-League blueprint states that “for promotion and relegation to be achieved, it is imperative that a second tier of Australian football is established and evolved in order to create appropriate football and economic proximity between the two tiers”.

It also contends that “the investment and time horizon for achieving a second tier of this calibre should not be underestimated”.

Nikou, in line with the views of Second Division Working Group chair Nogarotto, also stressed caution in the creation of a national second tier, arguing it must be built on solid commercial foundations that would boost the local game’s growth and widen development pathways.

The Association of Australian Football Clubs (AAFC) representing the country’s NPL clubs, for one, reaffirmed its plans to push forward with the introduction of a national second division by 2020-21.

“As successful business men, we’re sure the A-League club owners can see that it makes sense,” AAFC chairman Rabieh Krayem said.