After several months of competition, over 600 teams have finally been whittled down to 32 for the final stages of the inaugural FFA Cup. World Cup fever is still alive and well despite Australia being eliminated in the group stages, but when the tournament finishes in July the magic of a very different cup tournament will continue to excite football fans around the country.

The FFA Cup won't receive the same hype and attention as the World Cup, but it has the potential to be one of the most interesting and important tournaments in Australia. It might well lay claim to be the most comprehensive national tournament of any football code, with teams of varying means all pitched together in one competition. The 10 A-League clubs are based in metropolitan centres, but the lower league teams add svariety. The 22 non A-League clubs still in the draw come from as far north as Cairns, as far south as Hobart and all the way west to Stirling and Bayswater in Perth. In Sydney and Melbourne, teams from the outer suburbs dominate, while there are also clubs representing the Gold Coast and Lake Macquarie. Most importantly, by bringing together all the members of the football community in the one national competition, the potential to build bridges between new and old, regional and metropolitan clubs is immense. Friday's draw is only the beginning.

Reform has been a central theme of the past couple of years in Australian football. The member federations and clubs have worked with FFA – with varying degrees of success – to streamline new competitions and standards for the game. The National Premier Leagues have been gradually established over the past two years, however it is still a long way off being considered a proper national second division. Promotion and relegation is little more than a pipe-dream, and so the inevitable fragmentation between the State Leagues and the A-League continues.

The introduction of the FFA Cup provides a small window of opportunity for true competition. The unique challenges football faces in Australia have demanded a closed shop domestic professional league, and this is unlikely to change any time soon, if ever. But the effect of the A-League has a very real impact on the livelihood of clubs outside the top level. Horizons are blocked off, sponsorships are harder to come by and long term investments are more difficult to arrange. Only the most loyal of die-hard fans have continued to support football teams who have no opportunity to ever progress to the top level. In this context, the FFA Cup will help fill this space and nurture dreams for the foreseeable future.

Indeed the most positive aspect of the FFA Cup so far is the excitement it has generated amongst lower league clubs around the country. Many of the exiled National Soccer League teams desperately want to compete against the A-League clubs, while the lesser known sidescrave the opportunities and recognition that come with national attention and exposure.

Take South Hobart FC as an example. They are one of the oldest clubs in Australia, having been established in 1910, and yet barely anybody beyond the football community is aware of them. Yet as a consequence of qualifying for the final 32 of the FFA Cup, it is quite feasible that they will receive more attention than ever before in their 104 year history. South Hobart will play their first round match against at home against the ACT's only entrant, Tuggeranong United, while perhaps the biggest test in the opening round is for Stirling Lions, who host defending A-League champions Brisbane Roar.

FFA, you sense, want to kick off their new competition with a fairytale, and the composition of teams in the final 32 makes that a tangible possibility. Hakoah Sydney City, one of the most successful clubs in Australian football history, returns to the national stage for the first time since 1987, hosting Palm Beach Sharks in the first round. South Springvale FC, a Greek-Australian club that plays in the third tier of football in Victoria, were the first team to qualify in that state, and host South Cardiff FC in round one. "This is most definitely the highlight of my career" said South Springvale coach Bill Lambropolous after his team's qualification. "This has much more significance and this is a fairytale."

The former NSL teams shouldn't necessarily dominate the discussion of the FFA Cup, but it is likely they will in its inaugural year. In total nine of the 22 non A-League sides in the draw participated in the NSL before its dissolution in 2004, giving the competition a 'back to the future' feel.

In Adelaide, where there was just one spot in the 32 up for grabs, the showdown between former NSL clubs Adelaide City and West Adelaide in the final qualifying match added spice and relevance to a historic rivalry. Adelaide City qualified with a 4-1 win in a game that had plenty of feeling at Hindmarsh Stadium, and will face a huge test against Western Sydney Wanderers in the opening round.

Perhaps the most symbolic clash during qualification was between South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights. Two of the biggest clubs in Victorian football, Melbourne Knights won 2-0 at South's home ground to progress to the final stages of the FFA Cup and deny their old rivals a spot on the big stage. The Knights now travel to play Olympic FC in Brisbane, and were immediately welcomed on Twitter by an old rival, Perth Glory, a situation that would've been inconcievable in the first years of the A-League.

Yet the feelgood nature of the FFA Cup draw was darkened somewhat by the recent announcement of FFA's National Club Identity Policy, which gives the Federation power to veto club names and slogans which they deem to be inappropriate. Unsurprisingly, it is aimed at preventing lower league clubs from having any foreign, ethnic or political references in their names and logos.

FFA chief executive David Gallop has packaged this as an "inclusive" move, saying that "football is now a part of the mainstream of Australian society and has achieved that status while also retaining its rich diversity." This, of course, is a warped interpretation of our own history, and we should see this move for what it really is: de-ethnicisation. The reality is that the whitewashing of football clubs has a long and shameful history in Australia, and has affected many of the clubs that are participating in the FFA Cup. Parramatta FC were once Melita. St Albans Saints were once Dinamo. Adelaide City were once Juventus, and Stirling Lions were once Macedonia. In fact, over several decades football administrators have done everything possible to ensure that the game's "rich diversity" is transformed into a safe, homogenous monoculture, with the establishment of the A-League as the most significant step in this long process.

The problem is, bureaucrats and many fans look at this issue through the prism of football, not in terms of what is morally right and good. We are jaded by our own troublesome and complicated history. But the truth is that in a multicultural society, forcing clubs to have Anglicised names and identities is as wrong now as it ever was, and it is to our shame as a sport that it continues to occur. If the decision was made to 'benefit' and grow the game, then so be it, but we should at least be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that it is in contradiction to Australia's multicultural principles. That FFA continues to market itself as a multicultural sport at every opportunity is almost Orwellian in its hypocrisy. Multiculturalism is not assimilation, not now, not ever. This latest move is assimilation, and for many clubs and their fans, it reopens painful wounds.

If anything, this latest policy will only add feeling and ammunition to the FFA Cup, as ethnic-backed clubs hope to project their local communities to a national audience. The tightly controlled draw means that most of the A-League clubs are separated from the State League clubs in the first round, but as the tournament progresses there is every chance a lower league club could eliminate an A-League opponent.

These lower league clubs, their fans, and their volunteers are precious and invaluable to the game. David Gallop likes to call them "the engine room of football", but if we are going to borrow from their labour, their dedication and their passion, it's also time we welcomed their identity and their history back into the game at the top level. The FFA Cup, we hope, will start this process.