Eight years after former Football Federation Australia Chair Frank Lowy "first mentioned a second division as an option, the governing body seems to be taking the first baby steps" toward the creation of a "desperately-needed" national second tier, according to Michael Cockerill of THE AGE. Is it "because a joint FIFA/AFC delegation will be in town this week to push the barrow for a second division" with promotion and relegation and the FFA simply wants "to be seen to be doing something?" Maybe. Does "it matter what the motivation is?" Not "at all." The pressure for a second-tier "is building to fever pitch, both internally and externally." The "only other serious football country apart from Australia without promotion and relegation to the top tier" is the U.S., but the Americans "still have a popular second-tier competition, the NASL." FFA will "cry poor until the next broadcast deal hopefully supplies enough of a windfall to accommodate a second-tier" but money has "never been a good enough reason to prevent planning for the eventuality." Indeed there is a view -- a credible one -- that a second-tier "will loosen a lot of wallets." It may be that "ultimately the requirement for FFA funding will be minimal" (THE AGE, 9/18).