News broke on Friday that Tasmania could have its own side in the A-League within two years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Football Federation Australia announced plans to add two new clubs to the league from the 2019-20 season, and Tasmania is said to be among the front-runners.
With soccer growing in popularity in the junior sides across Tasmania, particularly in the past decade, it is the perfect time to push for a state A-League team.
Soccer has, in fact, grown so much in the state that it has started taking away from AFL numbers in the juniors.
Football Federation Tasmania chief executive Mike Palmer said soccer had the highest number of genuine participants of any sport in the state.
“We have a very active and vibrant state league that’s going from strength-to-strength and we’ve got a huge number of juniors playing, so there’s certainly enough people that have got a real interest in our football to want to see a team in the national league,” he said.
The move by FFA will see the A-League expand from a 10-team competition to a 12-team competition.
The two new teams are expected to be announced later this year.
While news of the expansion came earlier than expected, it sounds like those behind the Tasmania bid are already well prepared.
This couldn’t have come at a better time.
It’s the perfect opportunity to give young Tasmanians, who have chosen to pursue soccer as a sport, something exciting to aspire to.
It would also be yet another drawcard for visitors to come to Tasmania, with matches played at a (presumably) new stadium somewhere in the state.
This would need funding from the state government and unanimous support from the community.
Palmer said the FFT already had “pretty strong” political support, and a “genuine group of people who are well-funded and experienced in football in place”, who have been campaigning with FFA for a couple of years.
“So we’re very confident that we’ll be a serious contender for a team and we’ll be very disappointed if we don’t end up getting one.”
But in order to be successful, it is also important for the whole state to be united – North, North-West and South, as well as the sporting community as a whole.
