The FFA’s intention to expand the A-League to 11 to 12 teams has created a lot of interest across the land and speculation as to the location of the new licences.
Some have favoured second clubs in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth, on the basis that more inter-city derbies will generate more fan interest and TV audiences, while there is also talk of expanding the A-League into new frontiers such as Tasmania or Geelong.
Talk of a second Adelaide team in the top tier has piqued the interest of NPL clubs West Adelaide Hellas and Adelaide City.
Current West Adelaide chairman Alex Alexandrou believes that there’s room for another A-League club in the city of churches, and his club is willing to be a part of that in some shape or form.
“It’s in the early stages. If there’s an appetite from the A-League and the FFA to have a second licence in Adelaide, then we believe we can help achieve that. We’d be interested in being involved in that.
“I know they’re talking about a couple of licences in the next few years. That’s probably out of our reach, because West Adelaide wouldn’t be able to go into the A-League − we just wouldn’t have the finances or the support to be honest.
“What the club is gearing itself up for, we’re looking at partners for an A-League licence. We’d need some pretty big partners for us to do that to be honest.”
Alexandrou confirms that the club has sought to gauge interest from some EPL clubs, including reigning premier League Champion Leicester City.
“There has been some interest. For us to go to the A-League, it wouldn’t be as West Adelaide. It’d be a club that sat above us and we’d have some kind of partnership or share in that. West Adelaide would remain an NPL club and we’d offer infrastructure, football department, through a consortium, to a new entity that’s above us in the A-League. That’s a model we’re looking at.”
But Alexandrou says there’s also talk of a national second-tier competition with eventual promotion and relegation, and Alexandrou says that this may be a more viable pathway for West Adelaide to become involved in a national competition.
“More realistically, we’re positioning ourselves for a national second division,” he says.
“That’s something that the club would look at. We’d go into it slowly through a second division.”