A-League
| Australasian Hyundai A-League |
|---|
|
| Founded |
|---|
| 2005 |
| Current member clubs |
|---|
| 8 |
| Current Champion |
|---|
| Sydney FC (2005-06) |
| League system |
|---|
| Triple Round Robin of 21 games each.Top 4 teams at the end of Round 21 enter Championship playoff. |
A-League is also the former name of the USL First Division, a North American football (soccer) league.The
A-League is the major
Australasian domestic
football (soccer) competition, which kicked off its inaugural
2005-06 season on
August 26,
2005. Football has had a troubled history in Australia, and has not traditionally been a major spectator sport. The A-League aspires to improve its status. Following the end of the
National Soccer League, the former governing body
Soccer Australia (now
Football Federation Australia) announced the formation of a new 8-team competition to revitalise the sport. Clubs are from one city in Australia or
New Zealand, in an attempt to concentrate player talent within regions. The cities represented are:
Sydney,
Perth,
Brisbane,
Melbourne,
Adelaide,
Newcastle,
Gosford and
Auckland (New Zealand). The average crowd for the inaugural home and away season was 10,861.
The league has attracted corporate support with
Hyundai as major sponsor, and is televised on
Fox Sports. Additionally,
Reebok have provided the playing kits for all 8 clubs. An AUD$3 million dollar advertising campaign was also launched, with the television and film advertisements produced by
Ridley Scott's production company. The theme for the campaign is "Football, but not as you know it".
The
IFFHS list ranked the A-League as a tier three competition out of a possible four, where tier four competitions included the
English Premier League, Italian
Serie A and Spanish
La Liga, while the A-League was deemed in the same tier as the
Dutch and
Portuguese first divisions. Lower-ranked leagues include those of
Norway,
China and the
USA.
An Australian version of
FourFourTwo magazine was launched to coincide with the new league.
A Pre-Season Cup is held in July and August, as a precursor to the main season. In the Pre-Season Cup, the eight teams are placed into two groups. Each team plays the others in the group once over three rounds.
Beginning in 2006, an additional bonus round is then held, with each team playing a cross-over match with a team from a different group. In addition to the standard points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw), there are special bonus points on offer for the bonus round matches: 1 bonus point for 2 goals scored by a team, 2 bonus points for 3 goals scored by a team, or 3 bonus points for 4 or more goals scored by a team.
has indicated that, if successful, this bonus points system may be used in the main league season from 2007-08.
All eight teams then enter a knock-out round, culminating in the final in late August.
|
The inaugural A-League Champions Trophy was awarded to Sydney FC, who beat Central Coast Mariners in the first Grand Final on March 5, 2006. |
The competition consists of a triple round robin (21 home-and-away rounds), with the top 4 teams entering a finals series. The season ends with a grand final in March. The winner of the grand final is considered the Australian Champion. The champion of the first season, Sydney FC, was awarded a distinctly new-age style trophy designed by D3 Designs (see image). With
Australia a member of the
Asian Football Confederation from 2006, champions and runners-up will qualify for the
Asian Champions League, starting in 2007.
Each club has a squad of 20 players, with a
salary cap of
$A1.6 million for the whole squad - much less than the millions of dollars a year that individual star players (including a few Australians) earn in Europe's top football leagues. The squad must include at least two under-20 players. In order to combat fears that the salary cap would reduce the capacity of the clubs to attract crowds through big-name players, the league allows each team to have one 'marquee' player, whose salary is privately funded, and not included in the team's salary cap. The best-known example in the initial season was
Dwight Yorke, who played several seasons for
Manchester United and
Aston Villa in England. The salary cap is expected to increase to $2 million in the fifth year.
The conditions were changed before the 2006/07 season to reduce the minimum number of under-20 players from 3 to 2 per squad. The salary cap was also increased from $1.5m to $1.6m.
Unlike most European leagues, there is no system for promotion and relegation of teams, nor a knockout cup competition along the lines of the
FA Cup.
The A-League logo, designed by Coast Design Sydney, is a
three-dimensional sphere in the shape of a football. The two toned ochre colours represent the sun, earth and desert while the 'glow' emanating from the centre of the logo depicts the playing season's
spring and
summer time span. The eight 'A' figures that make up the ball shape represent the eight foundation clubs.
The eight foundation clubs are:
| Team | City | Region | Foundation Chairman | Inaugural Manager | Home Ground | Capacity | Avg Crowd 05/06 |
|---|
| Adelaide United FC | Adelaide | SA | Gordon Pickard | John Kosmina | Hindmarsh Stadium | 16,500 | 10,947 |
| Central Coast Mariners FC | Gosford | NSW | Ian Kiernan | Lawrie McKinna | Central Coast Stadium | 20,059 | 7,899 |
| Melbourne Victory | Melbourne | VIC | Geoff Lord | Ernie Merrick | Olympic Park | 18,500 | 14,157 |
| Newcastle United Jets | Newcastle | NSW | Con Constantine | Richard Money | EnergyAustralia Stadium | 28,000 | 8,486 |
| New Zealand Knights FC | Auckland | NZL | Anthony Lee | John Adshead | North Harbour Stadium | 25,000 | 3,909 |
| Perth Glory F.C. | Perth | WA | Nick Tana | Steve McMahon | Members Equity Stadium | 18,450 | 9,734 |
| Queensland Roar FC | Brisbane | QLD | John Ribot | Miron Bleiberg | Suncorp Stadium | 52,000 | 14,785 |
| Sydney FC | Sydney | NSW | Walter Bugno | Pierre Littbarski | Aussie Stadium | 41,159 | 16,668 |
The
premier is the team at the top of the league table at the end of the regular season. The
champion, and overall winner of the season, is the team that wins the Grand Final.
| Season | Pre-season cup | Regular season | Grand Final |
|---|
| Premier | Runner-up | Champion | Runner-up |
|---|
| 2005-06 | | | | | |
See also the
list of champions from 1997 to 2004 in the previous National Soccer League competition.
AFC Champions League
Two Australian clubs will participate in the 2007
AFC Champions League competition.
The two teams will be the
2006-07 champions (grand final winner) and premiers (the team at the top of the ladder after regular season games). If they are won by the same club, then the other grand finalists will go through.
All-Time
2005-06 seasonSee Also: A-League all-time recordsAlthough there are no
local derbies, due to the league's one-city one-team policy, many rivalries have formed between A-League sides:
*
Sydney FC v Melbourne: The clash between Australia's two biggest cities. Sydney and Melbourne have been historical rivals for over a century, and their football teams are no exception.
*
Newcastle v Central Coast: The two regional clubs in the A-League are also big rivals. Just one hour separates the two cities, and the supporters of each club love nothing more than to knock off the local rival.
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Sydney FC v Adelaide: Two of the higher-placed teams from the larger cities for the 2005-06 season.
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Queensland Roar v Sydney FC: This is seen as the football version of the rivalry seen in the
State of Origin (Rugby League) *
Adelaide vs Melbourne: Much like the Queensland/Sydney rivalry, the historical
Australian rules football rivalry between the cities has passed into a general sporting and cultural rivalry.
While making a relatively modest start in order to ensure future stability, the league is interested in introducing more teams to the competition. The eight foundation clubs have exclusivity clauses for their respective cities valid for 5 years, but there is room to add more teams. With Australia qualifying for the
2006 FIFA World Cup there has been some media speculation that
Football Australia may expand the league after the 2006/07 season. This is looking very possible with upcoming changes to the number of Asian Champions League spots avalible from 2008.
Townsville &
Canberra are possibilities, having large populations and modern football stadiums, respectively
Dairy Farmers Stadium and
Canberra Stadium.
Wollongong and the
Gold Coast could also be considered, with Wollongong pushing for an upgrade to
WIN Stadium while the Gold Coast has the newly created Carrara Stadium. Many people felt the twice Australian Champions the
Wollongong Wolves should be the team from the Illawarra, but according to media reports the Wolves are planning on staying in the
NSW Premier League, and are fully supporting a new club for the region. This club will be backed by Bruce Gordon, Australia's 14th richest person.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/afl/winwin-situation-to-get-wollongong-into-aleague/2006/08/08/1154802888135.htmBefore the introduction of the A-League, ASA chairman
Frank Lowy speculated that he hoped to expand the league into additional areas, mentioning
Canberra,
Hobart,
Wollongong and
Far North Queensland. On August 10, John O'Neil was talking up the support football would enjoy in Townsville.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,20081770-5000940,00.htmlA representative of
Capital Football has been quoted as saying
"Canberra, Geelong, Wollongong and Far North Queensland were "on the radar" to join the comp for the 2008/09 season."
A
A$120million deal between the
FFA and
Fox Sports was reached in 2006 after the end of the first season. Under the deal, Fox Sports will have exclusive rights from 2007 to all
Socceroos home internationals, all A-League and
Asian Cup fixtures,
World Cup qualifiers through the AFC, and all
AFC Champions League matches. The deal will allow the FFA to increase the amount of TV money to each of the participating clubs in the league and increase the revenue streams for those clubs.
The creation of the A-League has allowed for many past and present
Socceroos players to return and play on home soil. So far the A-League's second season has seen the return of such current
Australian international players as
Stan Lazaridis,
Tony Vidmar and
Joel Griffiths which has boosted the media attention of the league. The
FFA is also toying with the idea of sharing the expense of some of the wages of Socceroos players to bring them back to Australia.
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A-League official website*
Football Federation Australia*
SBS The World Game A-League section*
A-League television commercial
