Founded 2014 Number of teams 704 (2016) | Region Australia Television broadcasters Fox Sports | |
Current champions Melbourne City
(1st title) Most successful club(s) Adelaide United
Melbourne City
Melbourne Victory
(1 title) | ||
The Football Federation Australia Cup, commonly known as the FFA Cup, is the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. The annual competition is organised by and named after Football Federation Australia. It features all the teams from the top division, the A-League, as well as from lower tiers in the Australian leagues, including the National Premier Leagues. Teams enter the competition in progressional stages, with qualifying rounds used to determine which lower division teams eventually join those from the A-League in later stages of the cup. It is currently sponsored by the Westfield Group and thus officially known as the Westfield FFA Cup.
Contents
- History
- Eligibility
- Format
- Continental qualification
- Trophy
- Sponsorship
- Media coverage
- Final
- All matches
- Individual records
- References
Adelaide United, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City have won one title each. The current champions are Melbourne City after defeating Sydney FC in 2016.
History
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.
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. 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. On 14 October 2013, FFA announced that it had appointed Sam Chadwick as General Manager of the FFA Cup. On 24 February 2014, the FFA Cup was formally launched by David Gallop.
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. 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.
Eligibility
The 32 teams that make up the FFA Cup competition proper are 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. The A-League clubs enter the competition at the Round of 32.
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.
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 is represented from 2015 onwards.
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.
Format
The competition proper is a 32-team knockout tournament with pairings for each round drawn based on a seeding system to ensure the progression of teams from Member Federations.
Replays are not used in the FFA Cup. In the event of a match being drawn after the completion of 90 minutes, extra time is played, then a penalty shoot-out if required.
A draw for each round is made from the Round of 32 to the Semi-Finals. Clubs are allocated into various pots depending on the clubs method of qualification and the specific round of competition. The draw also determines which teams will play at home. If a Member Federation Club draws an A-League team, the Member Federation Club will host the fixture. However, if two clubs at the same level are drawn together, the first teams drawn will host.
Unlike "normal" application of seeds where a draw is made to ensure that the top seeds don't meet until the latter stages of the competition, the draw for the FFA Cup is seeded in such a way that it ensures the progression of lesser seeds to generate exposure and revenue for grassroots football clubs. The seeded FFA Cup draw ensures at least three Member Federation Clubs will qualify for the Quarter Finals with one club guaranteed to make the Semi Final.
Continental qualification
There are plans for the FFA Cup winners to qualify for the AFC Champions League competition, although this is yet to occur.
Trophy
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 cup style trophy with an intentional resemblance to the historical Australia Cup trophy which ran from 1962 to 1968. The cup itself is made from silver-solded brass, which is plated with 24 carat-gold and sterling silver. 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.
Sponsorship
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".
Between 2014-2016 Umbro supplied match balls for all FFA Cup matches. The FFA Cup Match Ball, the Umbro Neo 150 Elite, was specially designed for the competition. Between 2017-2019 Mitre will supply the official FFA Cup match ball and allowed a public vote to select between three alternate ball designs.
Media coverage
In the tournament's first season, 10 matches were broadcast live on Fox Sports. One of which a Round of 32 match, two Round of 16 matches, and all matches from the quarter-finals onwards. In addition, FFA Cup draws from the Round of 32 onwards were also televised live on Fox Sports. In 2015 and 2016 Fox Sports streamed live all non-broadcast games via their online services.
Internationally, at least 10 FFA Cup matches will be broadcast live in Asian nations including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, after a three season deal with TEN Sports in 2014.