FFA Cup

Australia has a long history of regional and state-based knockout cup competitions. However, a sustainable national knockout cup competition that encompassed clubs on all levels of Australian league system has been hard to realise. Prior to the FFA Cup, the first and only Australian national knockout tournament was the Australia Cup. The Australia Cup was founded in 1962 but was abolished in 1968 after just seven seasons of competition. In 1977 a knockout competition was founded to run in parallel with the now defunct National Soccer League (NSL). The NSL Cup involved Australian association football clubs competing in the then top-flight NSL and limited clubs from state based competitions. The NSL Cup ceased after the 1996–97 tournament. An A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup competition ran between 2005–2008 but involved only the teams from the A-League and was not a traditional knockout format.[3]

The FFA Cup was previously scheduled to commence in 2013, though after suffering numerous delays due to FFA's 2012 television coverage deal and rising cost concerns the competition was put on hold.[4][5] On 29 August 2013, it was announced that a national FFA Cup would commence in 2014, after what would be two years of organising the knock out competition.[6] On 14 October 2013, FFA announced that it had appointed Sam Chadwick as General Manager of the FFA Cup.[7] On 24 February 2014, the FFA Cup was formally launched by David Gallop.[8]

The first member federation club to qualify for the FFA Cup was Tuggeranong United from the Australian Capital Territory. Tuggeranong United qualified for the 2014 FFA Cup as the winners of the 2013 ACT Federation Cup.[9] The first games in the tournament proper occurred on 29 July 2014, with four games from the Round of 32 played concurrently. In 2014 former three time NSL Champions Adelaide City became the first semi-professional state-league club to defeat a professional A-League club, defeating Western Sydney Wanderers 1–0.

When the competition was launched, there had been consideration of the FFA Cup winners earning qualification for the AFC Champions League competition, although this did not immediately occur.[10][11] In late 2020 the FFA announced that future winners of the cup would earn Australia's Champions League preliminary round spot.[12]

The 2020 competition was cancelled on 3 July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.[13]

Up to and including the 2019 edition, the 32 teams that make up the FFA Cup competition proper have been the 10 A-League teams with the remaining 22 teams composed of various semi-professional and amateur qualifiers, referred to as "Member Federation Clubs", from each of the state federations, with the A-League clubs enter the competition at the Round of 32.[14]

The number of clubs representing each federation is determined by player registration numbers in each jurisdiction, and reviewed annually. The Northern Territory did not participate in the inaugural competition, however have been represented since 2015.[10]

From the 2015 edition of the competition onwards the National Premier Leagues Champion of the previous year, also qualifies for the FFA Cup Round of 32. The first club to qualify via this method was North Eastern MetroStars from South Australia who won the 2014 National Premier Leagues Finals Series.[15]

For the 2021 edition, the two new expansion A-League clubs (Macarthur FC and Western United) may appear in the tournament for the first time subject to qualification through the 2020–21 A-League season.

The competition proper is a 32-team knockout tournament. In the event of a match being drawn after the completion of 90 minutes, extra time is played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if required.[14] In some preliminary rounds, games can go straight to penalties if tied at 90 minutes.[16]

A draw for each round is made from the Round of 32 to the Semi-Finals. From 2021 there will be a new format of a restricted draw, with the Round of 32 split into four geographic zones. Subsequent rounds will be subject to an open draw.[12] In prior years, the draw was made to ensure that there would be some progression of Member Federation Clubs to later rounds, including one Member Federation club guaranteed to make the Semi Final.[14]

Wellington Phoenix have additional restrictions imposed as they are a New Zealand-based team, and must play all of their matches in Australia, away from home.[17]

The inaugural 2014 FFA Cup Final was held as a mid-week fixture on Tuesday 16 December 2014, in order to minimise the impact on the scheduling of the 2014–15 A-League season, already disrupted by Australia hosting the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.[10][17] For the following year, the 2015 FFA Cup Final was played on a weekend date free of other 2015–16 A-League games, to "emphasise the importance of the Final".[18] From 2016 to 2019, the Final was staged as a mid-week fixture.

At the end of the final, the winning team is presented with a trophy, known as the "FFA Cup Trophy", which they will hold until the following year's final.

The trophy is a large traditional style cup with an intentional resemblance to the historical Australia Cup trophy which ran from 1962 to 1968.[19] The cup itself is made from silver-soldered brass, which is plated with 24 carat gold and sterling silver.[20] It has two handles which each have the badge of Football Federation Australia inscribed on the inside corners. Also inscribed on the cup is the design of the cup and the words FFA Cup. The trophy features two footballs, one as the base of the cup and the other as a trim, on the very top of the cup lid.

The FFA Cup Trophy was created by D3 Design, who also designed the A-League, W-League and NPL Champions silverware.[20]

In its inaugural season the FFA Cup joined with an official naming rights partner. In 2014, Westfield Group was announced as the sponsor for the first three seasons of the cup tournament, known for commercial purposes as the "Westfield FFA Cup".[21]

Between 2014–2016 Umbro supplied match balls for all FFA Cup matches.[21] The FFA Cup Match Ball, the Umbro Neo 150 Elite, was specially designed for the competition.[22] Between 2017–2019 Mitre will supply the Mitre Delta Hyperseam as the official FFA Cup match ball after a public vote to select between three alternate ball designs.[23]

In the tournament's first season, 10 matches were broadcast live on Fox Sports.[17] In addition, FFA Cup draws from the Round of 32 onwards were also televised live on Fox Sports.[21] Internationally, several FFA Cup matches were broadcast live in South Asian nations, such as: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, after a three season deal with TEN Sports in 2014.[24]

In 2015 and 2016 Fox Sports streamed live all non-broadcast games via their online services.[25][26]

From 2017 onwards, 5 FFA Cup matches (from quarter finals) were broadcast live by beIN Sports in Asia-Pacific nations, such as: Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. 7 FFA Cup matches were broadcast live by BT Sport in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

From 2018, at least 1 FFA Cup match per round was scheduled to be broadcast live by ESPN+ in the United States[27] and in other countries where the rights were not sold, most of the matches were streamed live by YouTube via My Football channel.

In 2017 the ABC held the Radio broadcast right for FFA Cup matches, including the Final.[28]

• List of Australian soccer champions – National Cup winners

• Official website