A-League
Encyclopedia : A : AL : ALE : A-League
| Australian 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 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.
Format
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 2006. The winner of the grand final is considered the Australian Champion. The Champion, Sydney FC was awarded a distinctly new-age style trophy designed by D3 Designs (see image). With Australia now a member of the Asian Football Confederation in 2006, it is expected that future champions and runners-up will qualify for the Asian Champions League. However, no Australian clubs will participate at least until 2007.
Each club has a squad of 20 players, with a salary cap of $A1.5 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 three 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 for the 2006/07 season have changed to state that the number of under-20 players has been reduced to 2 per squad. The salary cap has also been increased 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.
Logo
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.
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 |
Australian Champions
A-League
- 2005-06 - Sydney FC
Top Scorers
All-Time
2005-06 season
| Rank | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sasho Petrovski | 9 |
| 2 | Alex Brosque | 8 |
| 3 | Bobby Despotovski | 8 |
| 4 | Dean Heffernan | 8 |
| 5 | Stewart Petrie | 8 |
| 6 | Archie Thompson | 8 |
| 7 | Ante Milicic | 7 |
| 8 | Damian Mori | 7 |
| 9 | Carl Veart | 7 |
| 10 | Dwight Yorke | 7 |
See Also: A-League all-time records
The future
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.
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 a upgrade to WIN Stadium while the Gold Coast has the newly created Carrara Stadium. If Wollongong was selected for a new team, it's expected the team would be the Wollongong Wolves, who have been Australian champions twice, in 1999-00 and 2000-01. The Wolves currently play in the NSW Premier League.
Before 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 .
A 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 to all Australia national team, A-League and Asian Champions League games involving Australian clubs . 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.
References
External links
- [A-League official website]
- [Football Federation Australia]
- [SBS The World Game A-League section]
- [A-League television commercial]
|- ! colspan="3" style="background:#BFD7FF;" | Football (soccer) in Australia |- ! style="background:#ffdead; width:19em;" | League competitions ! style="background:#ffdead; width:19em;" | National ! style="background:#ffdead; width:19em;" | State Federations |- | align="center" | Hyundai A-League | align="center" | FFA | align="center" | Capital Football - ACT |- | align="center" | Victorian Premier League (Div 1) | align="center" | Australia (men) | align="center" | Football Federation Victoria |- | align="center" | New South Wales Premier League | align="center" | (women) | align="center" | Soccer New South Wales |- | align="center" | Brisbane Premier League (Div 1) | align="center" | PFA | align="center" | Football Queensland |- | align="center" | South Australia Super League | align="center" | List of clubs | align="center" | Football Federation of South Australia |- | align="center" | Western Australia State League | align="center" | | align="center" | Football West |- | align="center" | National Soccer League (Defunct) | align="center" | Hall of Fame | align="center" | Football Federation Tasmania |- | align="center" | | align="center" | | align="center" | Football Federation Northern Territory |- | colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" |
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