nothing MINOR...

[d3@t3h]

I found this Article where you on the A-League web site about how you can vote for the design of the A-League trophy

http://mk.a-league.com.au/mk/get/HAL_TROPHY_ENTRY

I happend to notice this peice in the article:

"The Hyundai A-League trophy will be awarded to the winning team at the Grand Final (who will be referred to as the Champions).

The team that finishes at the top of the Hyundai A-League after round 21 will be deemed ‘Premiers’ and will also receive an award, the ‘Premiers Plate’ on 5 March, 2006."

seems to me that there's nothing MINOR about THE A-LEAGUE PREMIERSHIP!

http://mk.a-league.com.au/mk/get/HAL_TROPHY_ENTRY

 

[TiTTieS_[CNTDN]]

It's a very weird set up they have going. But I guess they can't really use the European set up as there in basically no one nearby for A-League teams to compete with in a UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup style competition. Teams have to be kept interested - if a team did a Chelsea on all others and were basically "premiers" with 5 or more rounds to go, then the other teams would lose interest a bit.

Although, they could possibly do something in the same format as the world cup by having the top 4 teams qualify to compete in a competition at the end of the season. If they had a thing going with countries like the following:
Denmark
Austria
Sweden
Hungary
Poland
Croatia

All these leagues rank between 16 and 25 inclusive (but not in the order above) in Europe. If they made a partnership with 7 of these leagues from anywhere in the world (so long as they are of similar quality), then they could play a shortened form of the world cup. Maybe they could have the 3 group matches played over 7-9 days with only the group winner going through to the knockout stage. That is, 8 groups of 4 with 8 teams progressing to the knockout. That would then leave quarter finals, semi finals and the grand final. So a maximum of 6 games could be completed in 2-3 weeks.

The tournament could be held in a different participating country each year on a rotational basis.

Interested to see what poeple think

 

[weasel]

I voted for the staff.

Reminds me of Lord of the Rings.

I can't wait to see Chad Gibson holding that high. Someday.
http://mk.a-league.com.au/mk/get?_A=10394&_D=10293&_V=0&_F=10060&_EALANG=en_AU

 

[Southern Rooster]

I voted for the staff.

http://mk.a-league.com.au/mk/get?_A=10394&_D=10293&_V=0&_F=10060&_EALANG=en_AU

Reminds me of Lord of the Rings.

I can't wait to see Chad Gibson holding that high. Someday.

Gandalf should be presenting that.

 

[d3@t3h]

TiTTieS
they are definately alluding to an Australian treble by splitting up what the NRL & AFL calls the minor premiership and the premiership.
(Definalty "football but not as you know it")
by having
A-league[pre-season] Cup
A-league Premireship
A-league Championship ( the top 4 play- offs & GF)

They are setting up how they are going to distribute spots in Asian competitions
i.e. A-league[pre-season] Cup ->ASEAN Club championship
A-league Premireship ->Asian Champions League spot 1
A-league Championship ->Asian Champions Leauge spot 2

The best thing about this setup is they do not have to think up a convoluted finals system like the AFL & NRL who have to think up a convoluted finals system so they can appropriately reward the minor premiers apart from a cheque and a pat on the back.

 

[Schillaci]

I like it how they've named it. It brings the compeititon more in line with the rest of the world.

 

[TiTTieS_[CNTDN]]

Cheers for the info, d3@t3h. Actually seems like a pretty good idea to me. I assume that if the champions were also the premiers, then the other grandfinalists would take the second spot (or second at the end of the regular season). Any idea about that one?

Hopefully SBS buys the rights to it - them or some other FTA station.