FFA: Who's number 12.

The FFA handed, on a plate, the 11th spot in the A-League to a Melbourne consortium.

Hand in your plan and you get the gig. If you're from Melbourne.
No measuring alternative plans, we want Melbourne and probably Sydney and that's it.

The rest of you, Tassie, Canberra and Wollongong can well...go and play other sports for all we care. They haven't said that but they may as well, given no comparison of bids were made. Canberra hasn't even be told if their bid is good enough to succeed, needs more work, or plain won't cut it.

Maybe our bid was better than Melbourne, but market research appears to be guiding the FFA not the quality of the plan delivered. Yes the same Market Research that gave Townsville with it's 3,000 junior players a place in the league.

I'm not arguing against Melbourne. Indeed a second team from Victoria given population and interest in the game would make sense.

But what if the same logic applies for West Sydney. Will we just hand the next place to Sydney?

The FFA should tell us so we can all go home now.

And if so why are the other city/regions bothering to garner investors, present a business model and get community support?

And what about an open process. Or even a process. And when and how is the next spot the crucial 12th to be determined.

Or will it just be miraculously announced....and the winner is West Sydney despite Sydney FC being on it's knees in terms of crowds.

You don't want to upset the Nation's Capital, FFA do you?

The Hyundai A-League is set to expand further with confirmation today that Football Federation Australia (FFA) has granted exclusive negotiation status to a consortium for a second team based in Melbourne for entry into the Hyundai A-League in 2010-11.

FFA CEO Ben Buckley said that the consortium is led by Melbourne businessman, Peter Sidwell.

“We received two very high quality proposals for the second Melbourne license, and we had very good discussions with both consortia.

“We were very impressed with the professionalism and strength of both bids,” said Buckley.

“The level of interest and quality of the proposals reflect the momentum behind the growth and development of the Hyundai A-League,” said Buckley.

The other proposal came from a consortium known as Southern Cross FC.

FFA will now accelerates its discussions with the Sidwell-led consortium.

“We continue to be very encouraged with the level of interest in the Hyundai A-League,” Buckley said.

“The attractiveness of the competition is clearly reflected in the level of interest in the additional licenses and the quality of the bids we are receiving."

Buckley reiterated the FFA’s earlier view that, ultimately, the Hyundai A-League has the capacity to be at least a 12 team competition and possibly 14 teams.

“When and where we expand the competition is measured simply by whether it is right for football, right for the existing Hyundai A-League clubs, right for the new clubs and right for the local community,” Buckley said.