Source: Radio New Zealand
Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix won’t be part of Australia Cup in the future. Photosport
Pre-season for A-League clubs Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix will look different after Football Australia move to kick them out of the Australia Cup competition.
The Australia Cup is a domestic knockout competition pitting amateur club sides against A-League teams and was played last year from July to October, during the A-League pre-season.
A revamped model for the Cup will come into play this year and Auckland and Wellington are not part of the new-look structure.
Auckland made their debut in the latest edition of the Cup making it as far as the semi-final stage, while the Phoenix had to go through qualifying to get into the competition and lost at the quarterfinals.
The Phoenix and Auckland both said participation in the the Cup was expensive for the clubs and disruptive to pre-season plans.
Auckland FC chief executive officer Nick Becker said he would “not lose any sleep” over being omitted from the Australia Cup.
He said he was neither “blindsided” or “bothered” by Football Australia’s decision.
“It cost us money to do it, any pre-season is going to cost a bit of money, but all our games were in Australia, because of the knockout nature of the tournament you wouldn’t know who you were playing until a week out or two weeks out so it made it incredibly difficult to plan a proper pre-season.”
The the club now had different pre-season plans to play opponents close to home and from further afield.
“It gives us a real opportunity to plan a pre-season where we can actually get some quality opposition, we know what’s happening… create our own little tournaments down here or there will be Premier League teams that are touring that might be interested in coming to Auckland.
“I think it’s more exciting for us than anything else.”
Becker felt that Football Australia wanted to keep the ‘Australia’ in the Australia Cup but also believed Auckland FC’s involvement in the OFC Pro League was a factor in the club being left out.
Auckland’s team in the Pro League is not the A-League side.
“For us the OFC Pro League is a huge opportunity if we win it we qualify for the FIFA Intercontinental Cup each year and if we’re the most successful team over four years we end up going to the FIFA Club World Cup.
“If you win Australia Cup you get something like Australian $25,000, you go to the Intercontinental Cup it’s more like $1.5 million and Club World Cup is a $10 million plus pay day so for us we know where our priorities and our focus lies.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
