A-League

This article covers the top Australian professional football league. For the North American professional football league, which was held under the same name until 2004, see USL First Division .

A-League
Full name	Hyundai A-League
Association	Football Federation Australia
First edition	August 26, 2005
Teams	11
master	Sydney FC (4th title)
Record champions	Melbourne Victory Sydney FC (4 wins each)
Record player	Danny Vukovic (278)
Record scorer	Besart Berisha (102)
Current season	2019/20
Website	www.a-league.com.au
Qualification for	AFC Champions League
↓ National Premier Leagues (no relegation)

The A-League is the top division in Australian football , which was founded in 2004 and has been taking place since the 2005/06 season . Clubs from ten Australian cities and one New Zealand city are represented in the league. It is also known as the Hyundai A-League after the current sponsor .

history

Replacement of the NSL and establishment of the A-League

Even before the A-League was founded, there was a professional league; the National Soccer League was founded in 1977 as the first Australian professional league, before that only regional amateur leagues existed. There, however, some clubs got into financial difficulties at the beginning of the 21st century, which they tried to solve by selling profitable players to Europe. The bad organization of the league turned out to be the death criterion of the NSL, so a TV contract was signed, through which it almost completely disappeared from Australian screens. In October 2003, planning began for a successor format, ironically headed by Frank Lowy, who was also an NSL pioneer. Compared to the NSL, the number of first division clubs was reduced from 13 to 8 teams, the start of the league was set for August 2005. By July 2004, 12 specific applications for these places had been received, including three from Melbourne, although only one league place was awarded per city. In November of the same year, the eight successful applicants were announced, including five clubs from the NSL. The clubs came from the following cities: Sydney , Perth , Brisbane , Melbourne , Adelaide , Newcastle , Gosford and Auckland (New Zealand). The eight founding clubs received 5-year exclusive contracts for their cities, but the New Zealand team was replaced in 2007. At the same time as the license was awarded to the participants, the sponsorship contract with Hyundai and TV contracts with Foxsports were also concluded.

Development of the league

In order to make the league known, an AU $ 3,000,000 marketing package was passed after it was founded . The slogan was "Football, but not as you know it" Football mainly refers to Australian football , the common name for soccer is soccer). The campaign mainly focused on relevant sports channels.

Above all, however, attractive players quickly established the new format. Some legionnaires like Archie Thompson or Steve Corica returned and some internationally renowned players were signed, especially Dwight Yorke . The audience numbers of over 1 million in the premiere season even exceeded expectations. The good performance of the national team at the 2006 World Cup started a boom in Australia, where football was previously a marginal sport and remained in comparison with Australian football and rugby. The league's successful start and the desire to consolidate it gave those in favor of expansion a tailwind.

However, a planned increase to ten teams proved difficult and was only completed in the 2009/10 season with the North Queensland Fury (Townsville) and Gold Coast United (Gold Coast) teams , who new to the declining audience numbers with stars like Jason Culina and Robbie Fowler To give momentum. The season was extended from 21 to 27 game days with the addition of the two clubs. For the 2010/11 season, another team was added with Melbourne Heart .

After North Queensland had stopped playing after only two seasons before the 2011/12 season, a dispute, mainly on a personal level, between the association president and shopping center billionaire Frank Lowy and the club owner and mining billionaire Clive Palmer led to the withdrawal of the license shortly before the end of the season the Gold Coast team. After completing the league phase of the championship, the Newcastle Jets, owned by the half-billionaire Nathan Tinkler and still champions in 2008, announced that they would no longer participate in the championship next season.

All of this clouded the joy that after three years of decline the average attendance rose slightly again, although it was still almost 30% below the 2008 record. Another negative effect is the disappearance of the "golden generation" of Australian footballers, who took part in the football world championships in Germany in 2006 and South Africa in 2010, for the most part without replacement . Players like Harry Kewell , Mark Viduka and also goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer created a broader interest in national football thanks to their international prestige. The failure to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games - after a loss to the low-rated United Arab Emirates - was of little help.

For the 2012/13 season Gold Coast United was replaced by the Western Sydney Wanderers . They ended their first season in first place and helped the A-League gain international renown when it won the Asian Champions League a year later . The final first leg took place in the Parramatta Stadium in Sydney , which can hold just 21,000 spectators . One of the many signs that the sport of soccer is establishing itself in Australia is that this stadium will be expanded to over 30,000 seats by 2019.

mode

Regular season

The "Regular Season" takes place in the Australian spring and summer, from August to February. 27 match days are played, each team meets each other three times, depending on the constellation, twice in the home stadium and once away, or vice versa, but this is offset by the fact that this relationship is reversed in the next season - so you have two seasons three home games and three away games against the respective opponent. As in Europe, the three-point rule applies . The top of the table at the end of the season is called "A-League Premiership" and the club in question is allowed to take part in the AFC Champions League next year .

Play-offs

The six best-placed teams reach the play-offs, known as the "Final Series". These are played in a system that is unusual for football and little known in Europe, the page playoff system . In the Elimination Finals, the third-placed player first plays against the sixth-placed player and the fourth-placed player against the fifth-placed player, with the third-placed and fourth-placed each having home rights. The winners of these games qualify for the semi-finals. In these, the master competes against the winner of the elimination finals who is worse placed in the final table of the regular season and the runner-up plays against the winner of the elimination finals who is better placed in the final table of the regular season. The champion and the runner-up have home rights in the semifinals. The winners of the semi-finals play in the Grand Final. Here again the better placed semi-finalist has the home right. The winner of the final is A-League champion and receives the second available Champions League place. In the event that the Premiership winner is in the final, the other club will automatically become the second Champions League participant in the final.

Participants in the A-League

Adelaide Brisbane C. Coast Melbourne C. / Melbourne V. Newcastle Perth Sydney W. Sydney Gold coast North Queensland Wellington NZ Knights

Current and former A-League venues

Ten teams have played in the A-League since the 2011/12 season, previously eleven (2010/11), ten (2009/10) and eight (2005/06–2008/09) teams were represented. For the 2019/20 season, the Hyundai A-League is to be expanded by 2 teams. In contrast to European professional leagues, there is neither a promotion-relegation system nor a national cup competition. There is also no second professional league, but the Australian Football Association has plans to do so, which will only be implemented in the next few years.

team	city	Years in the league	Home stadium
Adelaide United	Adelaide , SA	since 2005	Coopers Stadium (17,000)
Brisbane Roar (until 2009 Queensland Roar)	Brisbane , QLD	since 2005	Suncorp Stadium (52,500)
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford , NSW	since 2005	Central Coast Stadium (20,119)
Melbourne City FC (until 2014 Melbourne Heart)	Melbourne , VIC	since 2010	AAMI Park (31,500)
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne , VIC	since 2005	Marvel Stadium (56,347)
Newcastle United Jets	Newcastle , NSW	since 2005	McDonald Jones Stadium (33,000)
Perth Glory	Perth , WA	since 2005	HBF Park (17,288)
Sydney FC	Sydney , NSW	since 2005	Netstrata Jubilee Stadium (20,500)
Wellington Phoenix	Wellington , NZ	since 2007	Sky Stadium (34,500)
Western Sydney Wanderers	Sydney , NSW	since 2012	Bankwest Stadium (30,000)
Former clubs:
Gold Coast United	Gold Coast , QLD	2009–2012	Skilled Park (27,400)
New Zealand Knights	Auckland , NZ	2005-2007	North Harbor Stadium (25,000)
North Queensland Fury	Townsville , QLD	2009-2011	Dairy Farmers Stadium (27,000)

Audience numbers

The average number of spectators without matches in the finals or the Pre-Season Cup can be compared roughly with the number of visitors to the Scottish Premier League.

season	Average number of viewers in the regular season (excluding finals)
	AU	BR	CC	GC	MC	MV	NU	NZ	NQ	PG	SF	WP	WS	total
2005/06	10,948	14,785	7,899	-	-	16,167	9,022	3,909	-	9,734	16,669	-	-	10,956
2006/07	12,165	16,465	9,828	-	-	27,728	12,573	3,011	-	7,589	15,555	-	-	12,911
2007/08	12,697	16,951	12,738	-	-	26,064	13.209	-	-	7,596	16,963	11,683	-	14,610
2008/09	11,713	12,995	10,465	-	-	24,516	9,729	-	-	7,942	12,375	7.193	-	12,180
2009/10	10,765	8,665	7,388	5,297	-	20,750	6,358	-	6,723	9.205	13,677	8,966	-	9,793
2010/11	11,552	9,291	8,168	3,419	8,312	18,458	8,429	-	4,245	8,488	8,014	7,829	-	8,429
2011/12	8,829	13,387	9,505	3,438	9,082	20,714	12,117	-	-	8,972	11,861	8,691	-	10,497
2012/13	9,793	13,857	9,994	-	8,860	21,885	13,389	-	-	8,876	18,737	6,877	12,466	12,347
2013/14	11,225	14,957	9,398	-	9,933	21,808	11,949	-	-	9,418	18,682	8,201	14,860	13,041
2014/15	12,637	11,660	7,585	-	10,374	25,388	8,968	-	-	9,542	17,378	8,583	12,520	12,511
2015/16	11,287	12,850	8,111	-	11,047	23,112	9,586	-	-	8,986	16,071	8,042	14,297	12,309
2016/17	9,565	14,152	7,412	-	10,528	21,888	8,645	-	-	10,533	18,099	6.224	17,746	12,650
2017/18	9,830	9.093	7,194	-	9,868	17,631	11,016	-	-	9,186	14,593	5,694	11,924	10,671
2018/19	9,013	9,632	5,562	-	8,135	20,604	9,079	-	-	10,360	13,566	8,533	9,191	10,411
Fat represented the highest A-League attendances of the association, in italics the lowest.

Eternal table

→ Main article : Eternal table of the A-League

Since the introduction of the A-League in 2005, 13 teams have competed in this division. The all-time table has been led by Brisbane Roar since the end of the 2013/14 season .

Title holder

season	Pre-season Cup	Regular season		Grand Final
		Premiers	2nd place	master	Runner-up
2005/06	Central Coast Mariners	Adelaide United	Sydney FC	Sydney FC	Central Coast Mariners
2006/07	Adelaide United	Melbourne Victory	Adelaide United	Melbourne Victory	Adelaide United
2007/08	Adelaide United	Central Coast Mariners	Newcastle United Jets	Newcastle United Jets	Central Coast Mariners
2008/09	Melbourne Victory	Melbourne Victory	Adelaide United	Melbourne Victory	Adelaide United
2009/10	not carried out	Sydney FC	Melbourne Victory	Sydney FC	Melbourne Victory
2010/11		Brisbane Roar	Central Coast Mariners	Brisbane Roar	Central Coast Mariners
2011/12		Central Coast Mariners	Brisbane Roar	Brisbane Roar	Perth Glory
2012/13		Western Sydney Wanderers	Central Coast Mariners	Central Coast Mariners	Western Sydney Wanderers
2013/14		Brisbane Roar	Western Sydney Wanderers	Brisbane Roar	Western Sydney Wanderers
2014/15		Melbourne Victory	Sydney FC	Melbourne Victory	Sydney FC
2015/16		Adelaide United	Western Sydney Wanderers	Adelaide United	Western Sydney Wanderers
2016/17		Sydney FC	Melbourne Victory	Sydney FC	Melbourne Victory
2017/18		Sydney FC	Newcastle Jets	Melbourne Victory	Newcastle Jets
2018/19		Perth Glory	Sydney FC	Sydney FC	Perth Glory

Squad

The squad of an A-League team must have at least 20 players. There must be at least three U23 players per team in the squad. The maximum number of foreigners (neither from Australia nor New Zealand) is five.

Salary cap

As in Australian football, there is an upper salary limit , 20 players may not earn more than AU $ 2.35 million (almost EUR 1.4 million). Since this is negligible compared to European football wages, the upper salary limit for another player was suspended in order to ensure the attractiveness of the league. This so-called marquee player is allowed to earn an unlimited amount of money. In addition, there has been a junior marquee player since the 2008/09 season . They must be under 23 years of age and earn AU $ 150,000 outside the salary cap. In order to be able to keep domestic star players in the league or to encourage them to return home, another squad place was created for the 2010/11 season with the Australian Marquee player , which is not taken into account in the upper salary limit.

Youth League

Parallel to the A-League, there is a youth game round with the National Youth League . Their aim is to offer young talents a springboard to a professional career, but also to give substitute players from the A-League match practice; four over-21 players are allowed to take part per game. The league was founded in March 2008 and started at the same time as the professional season in August of the same year. The league currently consists of eight teams from the A-League clubs - Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Heart do not provide a team - and a team from the Australian Institute of Sport , AIS for short.

player

Eternal goalscorer list (league and finals)

As of May 7, 2017

rank	player	Team (s)	Gates
1	Besart Berisha	Brisbane Roar (48), Melbourne Victory (54)	102
2	Shane Smeltz	Adelaide United (8), Gold Coast United (28), Wellington Phoenix (24), Perth Glory (38), Sydney FC (12)	92
3	Archie Thompson	Melbourne Victory	90
4th	Alex Brosque	Queensland Roar (8), Sydney FC (55)	63
5	Mark Bridge	Newcastle Jets (13), Sydney FC (17), Western Sydney Wanderers (28)	58
6th	Jamie Maclaren	Perth Glory (11), Brisbane Roar (40)	51
7th	Sergio van Dijk	Adelaide United (25), Brisbane Roar (25)	50
8th	Bruce Djite	Adelaide United (35), Gold Coast United (10)	45
9	Matt Simon	Central Coast Mariners (41), Sydney FC (3)	44
10	Carlos Hernández	Melbourne Victory (36), Wellington Phoenix (7)	43
10	Daniel Allsopp	Melbourne Victory (43)	43

Honors

Johnny Warren Medal

The Johnny Warren Medal is awarded to the best player of the season, chosen by the players of the A-League. It is named after the former Australian international Johnny Warren .

year	player	club
2006	Bobby Despotovski	Perth Glory
2007	Nick Carle	Newcastle United Jets
2008	Joel Griffiths	Newcastle United Jets
2009	Shane Smeltz	Wellington Phoenix
2010	Carlos Hernández	Melbourne Victory
2011	Marcos Flores	Adelaide United
2012	Thomas Broich	Brisbane Roar
2013	Marco Rojas	Melbourne Victory
2014	Thomas Broich	Brisbane Roar
2015	Nathan Burns	Wellington Phoenix
2016	Diego Castro	Perth Glory
2017	Miloš Ninković	Sydney FC

Joe Marston Medal

The Joe Marston Medal is awarded to the best player of the Grand Finals.

year	player	club
2006	Dwight Yorke	Sydney FC
2007	Archie Thompson	Melbourne Victory
2008	Andrew Durante	Newcastle United Jets
2009	Tom Pondeljak	Melbourne Victory
2010	Simon Colosimo	Sydney FC
2011	Mathew Ryan	Central Coast Mariners
2012	Jacob Burns	Perth Glory
2013	Daniel McBreen	Central Coast Mariners
2014	Thomas Broich Iacopo La Rocca	Brisbane Roar Western Sydney Wanderers
2015	Mark Milligan	Melbourne Victory
2016	Isaías	Adelaide United
2017	Daniel Georgievski	Melbourne Victory

Rising Star Award

The Rising Star Award is given to the best young player of the season (under 20). The winner will be determined by a jury of experts.

year	player	club
2006	Nick Ward	Perth Glory
2007	Adrian Leijer	Melbourne Victory
2008	Bruce Djite	Adelaide United
2009	Scott Jamieson	Adelaide United
2010	Tommy Oar	Brisbane Roar
2011	Mathew Ryan	Central Coast Mariners
2012	Mathew Ryan	Central Coast Mariners
2013	Marco Rojas	Melbourne Victory
2014	Adam Taggart	Newcastle United Jets
2015	James Jeggo	Adelaide United
2016	Jamie Maclaren	Brisbane Roar
2017	Jamie Maclaren	Brisbane Roar

Golden boot

→ Main article : List of A-League's top scorer

The Golden Boot , currently officially named Reebok Golden Boot after a sponsor , is the award for the regular season's top scorer.

year	player	club	Gates
2006	Alex Brosque , Bobby Despotovski Stewart Petrie Archie Thompson	Queensland Roar Perth Glory Central Coast Mariners Melbourne Victory	8th
2007	Danny Allsopp	Melbourne Victory	11
2008	Joel Griffiths	Newcastle Jets	12
2009	Shane Smeltz	Wellington Phoenix	12
2010	Shane Smeltz	Gold Coast United	19th
2011	Sergio van Dijk	Adelaide United	16
2012	Besart Berisha	Brisbane Roar	19th
2013	Daniel McBreen	Central Coast Mariners	17th
2014	Adam Taggart	Newcastle United Jets	16
2015	Marc Janko	Sydney FC	16
2016	Bruno Fornaroli	Melbourne City FC	23
2017	Besart Berisha , Jamie Maclaren	Melbourne Victory Brisbane Roar	19th
2018	Bobô	Sydney FC	27
2019	Roy Krishna	Wellington Phoenix	18th

Goalkeeper of the year

year	player	club
2006	Clint Bolton	Sydney FC
2007	Michael Theoklitos	Melbourne Victory
2008	Michael Theoklitos	Melbourne Victory
2009	Eugene Galekovic	Adelaide United
2010	Eugene Galekovic	Adelaide United
2011	Michael Theoklitos	Brisbane Roar
2012	Mathew Ryan	Central Coast Mariners
2013	Ante Covic	Western Sydney Wanderers
2014	Eugene Galekovic	Adelaide United
2015	Eugene Galekovic	Adelaide United
2016	Thomas Sørensen	Melbourne City FC
2017	Danny Vukovic	Sydney FC

Coach of the year

year	Surname	club
2006	Lawrie McKinna	Central Coast Mariners
2007	Ernie Merrick	Melbourne Victory
2008	Gary van Egmond	Newcastle Jets
2009	Aurelio Vidmar	Adelaide United
2010	Ernie Merrick	Melbourne Victory
2011	Ange Postecoglou	Brisbane Roar
2012	Graham Arnold	Central Coast Mariners
2013	Tony Popovic	Western Sydney Wanderers
2014	Mike Mulvey	Brisbane Roar
2015	Kevin Muscat	Melbourne Victory
2016	Guillermo Amor	Adelaide United
2017	Graham Arnold	Sydney FC

Foreign player of the year

year	Surname	club
2009	Charlie Miller	Queensland Roar

Fair Play Award

Award for the winner of the fair play rating.

year	club
2006	Perth Glory
2007	Perth Glory
2008	Newcastle Jets
2009	Queensland Roar
2010	Sydney FC
2011	Brisbane Roar
2012	Brisbane Roar
2013	Brisbane Roar
2014	Brisbane Roar
2015	Wellington Phoenix
2016	Brisbane Roar
2017	Central Coast Mariners

Referee of the Year

Award for the referee of the year, currently named after the sponsor Zurich . The wise man traditionally heads the Grand Final.

year	referee
2006	Mark Shield
2007	Mark Shield
2008	Mark Shield
2009	Matthew Breeze
2010	Strebre Delovski
2011	Matthew Breeze
2012	Jarred Gillett
2013	Peter Green
2014	Peter Green
2015	Jarred Gillett
2016	Jarred Gillett
2017	Jarred Gillett

See also

• Soccer in Australia
• List of the highest national soccer divisions

Web links

• Website of the A-League (English)
• All games and results (English)
• Website of the Australian Football Association (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the A-League . Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. 
2. ↑ spiegel.de: Fringe sport on the edge of the world. March 25, 2015.
3. ↑ Western Sydney Wanderers best moments at Pirtek Stadium. in The Daily Telegraph , March 31, 2016
4. ↑ New 30,000-seat Parramatta stadium among premier's $ 1.6b promises. in The Sydney Morning Herald , September 4, 2015.
5. ↑ A-League 2017/2018 - spectators. Retrieved January 26, 2019 .