The A-League is the major Australian domestic football (soccer) competition, which kicked off its inaugural 2005/6 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.[1] FFA has indicated that, if successful, this bonus points system may be used in the main league season from 2007-08. [2]
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 eight foundation clubs are:
| Team | City | Region | Foundation Chairman | Home Ground | Capacity | Avg Crowd 05/06 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adelaide United | Adelaide | SA | Gordon Pickard | Hindmarsh Stadium | 16,500 | 10,947 |
| Central Coast Mariners | Gosford | NSW | Ian Kiernan | Central Coast Stadium | 20,059 | 7,899 |
| Melbourne Victory | Melbourne | VIC | Geoff Lord | Olympic Park | 18,500 | 14,157 |
| Newcastle Jets | Newcastle | NSW | Con Constantine | Energy Australia Stadium | 28,000 | 8,486 |
| New Zealand Knights | Auckland | NZL | Anthony Lee | North Harbour Stadium | 25,000 | 3,909 |
| Perth Glroy | Perth | WA | Nick Tana | Members Equity Stadium | 18,450 | 9,734 |
| Queensland Roar | Brisbane | QLD | John Ribot | Suncorp Stadium | 52,000 | 14,785 |
| Sydney FC | Sydney | NSW | Walter Bugno | Aussie Stadium | 41,159 | 16,668 |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "A-League".
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