Stadium stoush to leave thousands of Aust'n fans out of Grand Final

Australia's premier football competition reaches its climax on the coming Sunday, when the A-League's biggest and oldest rivals from Melbourne and Sydney face off in a Grand Final... in a stadium that can only hold 30,000 fans.

As a result, tens of thousands of football fans will miss out of seeing the match live in Melbourne, as experts have predicted that more than 65,000 people would have attended if it had been held at a larger venue.

Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC boast more than 35,700 members between them but a scheduling clash with another code - Australian football's AFL - has forced the teams to square off in a stadium that not only cannot fit all of both teams' members, but would not qualify as a World Cup venue.

Instead, the two teams have been shunted to the boutique-sized AAMI Park, the third-largest venue in Melbourne, despite Australia's footballing body, the FFA, preferring the 56,000-capacity Etihad Stadium. (The Melbourne Cricket Ground holds 100,000 people.)

But Etihad Stadium was booked out by the Australian Football League (AFL) for a scheduled match on Sunday afternoon, and while the MCG was available on Friday night, the FFA preferred to play its showpiece match in a Sunday twilight timeslot.

Given soccer's growing popularity in the country, the indigenous AFL code has been reluctant to accommodate the FFA's wishes regarding its Grand Final.

The AFL has argued that it booked Etihad Stadium months ago, and that the FFA and the A-League should have covered its bases long before the AFL schedule came out in November.

Playing the match at the 30,000-capacity AAMI Park is expected to cost the FFA nearly one million U.S dollars in ticket sale revenue.

Melbourne Victory has admitted that all of its 24,000 members should be able to secure one of the 26,500 tickets allocated for Victory supporters and dignitaries, but tens of thousands of Victory fans who didn't sign up as members will be unable to attend the match.

Melbourne Victory won its semi-final last week against cross-town rivals Melbourne City, at Etihad Stadium, in a blockbuster that drew more than 50,000 fans - a vast majority of which were dressed in Victory's navy blue.

Sydney FC has been allocated just 3,000 seats for the match, despite boasting more than 11,000 members, causing CEO Tony Pignata to slam the AFL for not giving up the stadium, labeling them "scared" of football's rising popularity in Australia.

"I'm from Melbourne, I follow AFL and enjoy it - just as a lot of the fans who go to the game will be AFL followers," Pignata told News Limited earlier this week.

"But I just don't know what the AFL are scared of. Really it's a disgrace they wouldn't agree to move the AFL game."

He said the stadium was perfect for regular season matches, but not for finals, when tickets are in high demand.

"AAMI Park is a great venue from a footballing purists' point of view. It'll be packed to the rafters and a great atmosphere," he said.

"But we have 12,000 members, and only a quarter of them will be able to get tickets. They're really angry and understandably so."

Melbourne Victory Chairman Anthony Di Pietro labeled the AFL "mean spirited and small minded" in its decision not to move its game, with an expected attendance of just 25,000 - less than half than the capacity of Etihad Stadium - to another venue.

Tickets to the match are hot property, and scalpers have been found offering tickets for more than 480 percent higher than face value.

The two teams have faced-off in a Grand Final just once before, in a match that Sydney FC won on penalties. They played three times during the 2014/15 regular season, but all three matches ended in a draw.

Melbourne Victory is the slim favorite to win the match, which kicks off at 4pm local time on Sunday. Endi