If it was up to Football Today's readers, Canberra and South Melbourne would get the nod today when the Board meets to decide on the two expansion teams to join the A-League.
In an online poll with 855 unique responses, Canberra topped the count with support from 28.9% of readers, with South Melbourne not far behind with 26.7%.
Team 11 was rated third in the online poll with 17.8% support.
In a surprise result, Macarthur South-West came in fourth with 15.5% of the vote. This compares with a poll conducted by us in March this year which put south-west Sydney on top with 30% support, and Canberra second with 22%.
Football Today's writers
Canberra was also popular amongst Football Today's team of contributors with seven of ten writers (Pablo Bateson, Sally Freedman, Charlie Laurendi, Roger Sleeman, Stuart Thomas, Mike Tuckerman and Paul Williams) also putting Canberra at the top of the list.
Team 11 was the second most popular choice amongst Football Today writers with a vote from Bateson, Freedman, Laurendi, Thomas, Trevor Thompson and Williams.
Macarthur South-West Sydney was supported by only three of the Football Today team (Thompson, Matthew Galea and Bonita Mersiades), while Western Melbourne Group and Southern Expansion receiving support from only one writer each (Tuckerman and Sleeman respectively).
When it comes to the question of what the FFA Board will decide, our Football Today writers had remarkable unanimity of agreement. Everyone tipped Macarthur South-West Sydney to make it, while eight of ten also tipped Team 11 to be selected by the Board. FT teamIndividual choiceTip for FFA Board choicePablo BatesonCanberra, Team 11Mac SWS, Team 11Sally FreedmanCanberra, Team 11Mac SWS, Team 11Matthew GaleaMac SWS, South MelbourneMac SWS, Team 11Charlie LaurendiCanberra, Team 11Mac SWS, CanberraBonita MersiadesMac SWS, South MelbourneMac SWS, Team 11Roger SleemanCanberra, Southern ExpansionMac SWS, Western Melb GroupStuart ThomasCanberra, Team 11Mac SWS, Team 11Trevor ThompsonMac SWS, Team 11Mac SWS, Team 11Mike TuckermanCanberra, Western Melb GroupMac SWS, Team 11Paul WilliamsCanberra, Team 11Mac SWS, Team 11
The Board meets today where it will receive a final briefing and report from FFA management, before making its decision. According to a report from Ray Gatt in The Australian today, the Board had not received any papers on the matter as of Sunday night.
Football Today understands that the decision will be announced on Thursday morning, with bid team members asked to be prepared to be in Sydney on Thursday morning for the announcement.
In making their decision today – and we trust that there is a decision – we hope that the FFA Board does the right thing for football. We believe we need expansion, and we need it sooner rather than later.