Fans of the Australian Hyundai A league are being given the opportunity to help pick an ‘All-Star’ team to face Man Utd in a friendly in July.  The ANZ stadium has sold out it’s 77’000 allocated tickets in preparation for the match which will make up part of United’s pre season training.

Fans have already selected who the coach is to be and voted in Melbourne Victory head coach Ange Postecoglou. Along side his selection, fans will make up 50% of the vote of who makes the cut in the team through an online selector, 20% will be made from an ‘All-Star’ Committee, a further 20% from the PFA team of the year and 10% from Postecoglou himself.

The online selector allows for fans to pick from all the teams, choose a formation and also pick a captain.

Any amount from each team is allowed and from any nationality. They don’t have to be purely Australian.

Over 10’000 fans have already used the team selector and with over a month still to go to pick a squad that number is likely to continue to rise. After you’ve made you selections and submitted, users are invited to inform their friends or highlight the team they’ve picked through Facebook and Twitter.

Allowing for fans to pick who makes the squad is a fantastic bit of fan engagement. Not only does it bring the fan closer to the selection process but it also helps to unite rival teams. By allowing a fan selection percentage it will make it hard for any set of fans to cry bias and to avoid the game based on team loyalty. This way, the FFA have insured that the stadium is sold out, that TV views will be high and that (likely) kit and memorabilia on the day will be bought in the bucket loads.

Coach Postecoglou has already said that his team is “going to have a go at Manchester United” and with a fan selected set of all stars we’re hoping they win too.

Could you ever see this working in the Premier League? If so, who would make the team?

This article was written by Christian Baker from www.weplay.co