Expanding the A-League Men competition is a no-brainer, Adelaide United coach Carl Veart says.
Veart believes the Socceroos’ future is linked to more teams in the ALM and heartily backs teams from Canberra and Auckland joining in 2024/25.
Canberra and Auckland are poised to enter the league and the former Socceroos striker believes their arrival will have an invaluable flow-on effect for the senior national team.
“The league is ready to expand,” Veart told reporters on Thursday.
“We need more games – the more games we have, the more opportunities we have for younger players.
“The more teams that we have, the more opportunities we have for younger players.
“And that is where our growth as a nation to make that next step as a national team is – we need these younger players coming through and playing more game time.”
Veart, whose Adelaide United have become an ALM benchmark for developing young players, said longer seasons created by new franchises was pivotal.
“We’re only playing 26 professional games and overseas their league seasons are close to 40 plus cups – they are playing 50, 60 games a year and all the young players are playing that many games as well.
“So one season of ours is six months in Europe. It’s important we can get more game time and more development into our players.
“I would love to see ours close to 40 games a season.
“I know this (expansion) will get us close to 30 and with cup games that will get us more games – and that is what we need.
“We need more games and I’m sure our fans would love to see us play more games.”
ALM hierarchy have outlined expansion plans with Canberra and Auckland their preferred markets.
Both cities are on track to host an ALM club pending finalisation of licence applications in June.
Source: AAP