From late 2025, professional football in Australia will be different.
First, there will be a new men’s national second tier competition. It will be exciting to see many old NSL teams back on the national stage as part of the eight foundation clubs. However, without promotion and relegation, fans’ desired matches between NSL and A-League clubs seem as far away as ever.
Second, the A-League Men will ostensibly grow to 14 teams, enabling 2025-26 to be the first-ever season where each side can play each other twice only and that can be considered a long-enough season. Unfortunately, a 26- game season is still a lot shorter than the desired length for a professional league looking to be competitive in the world football landscape.
The downsides of these two developments can be addressed by boosting the Australia Cup, which is a competition with enormous potential but which has mostly languished without worthy fixturing and publicity since its inception.
1st tier vs 2nd tier in a group stage
The Australia Cup could bring together the first-tier A-League and second-tier foundation clubs through the introduction of a group stage exclusively for them, prior to the round of 32.
Following the design of UEFA’s club competitions, each team could play four games (two each at home and away), with a balance between playing teams in their own tier and those in the other. After the four rounds, the top 10 teams could progress to the round of 32 to compete against the lower tier state and territory-based qualifying teams in the existing knock-out format.
The cross-tier group stage would provide A-League teams with four additional competitive games, guaranteeing each club at least 30 competitive games for the season while ensuring the league is fairly home-and-away.
Cup games on weekends and earlier season start
A cross-tier group stage warrants weekend playing times, which would help to maximise attendances and broadcast audiences compared to the Cup’s current weeknight wilderness.
With the A-League season expected to again begin the weekend after the October international break and the NPL seasons ending in late August, there is room for a Cup group stage to take place in September. This means the A-League teams would start their seasons more in line with the rest of the world.
Heidelberg United players and staff celebrate their upset win over Central Coast. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
In publicity terms, it would pit a “nothing to lose” Cup against the AFL/NRL finals juggernauts and the launch of the A-League season would continue to be saved for the clearer air of October.
The Cup knockout rounds could be held in late September and early October before the international break, and then staggered throughout the first month or two of the A-League season.
Auction off the final venue
To capitalise on a strengthened Australia Cup, the venue for the final should be auctioned off to whichever state or territory government bids highest.
This would be like the APL’s deal with the NSW Government from a few years ago, but with the key differences of a transparent process involving multiple bidders and a competition final that doesn’t have a deserved host.
Introduce a women’s Cup
Finally, the addition of a women’s Australia Cup would be a significant development for the growing women’s game and would add to the overall exposure of the men’s competition.
Including the women’s final in the package alongside the men’s final would increase the value of the government bids, as it would enable a “festival”-style weekend in one city with each final taking place in prime time on the Friday and Saturday nights.
These changes to the Australia Cup would be an exciting and beneficial improvement to professional football in Australia.
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