The Football Federation Australia Cup, commonly known as the FFA Cup, is the
main national football 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 of the A-League as well as from
lower tiers in the Australian league system, including from the National
Premier Leagues and other state based 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. The cup's inaugural season, took place
in 2014 and determined the first FFA Cup Champion. Discussions are required to
ascertain whether champions from future editions of the competition will gain
qualification into the continental competition, the Asian Football
Confederation Champions League. 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. 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 ever 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.
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 lower down the Australian league
system. In the event of a match being drawn
after the completion of 90 minutes, extra time will be played. If scores are
still level following extra time, the tie will be decided by a penalty
shoot-out. A draw for each round will be made from
the Round of 32 to the Semi-Finals. Clubs will be 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. In order to minimise the impact that
hosting the 2015 AFC Asian Cup had on the 2014–15 A-League season, the
inaugural FFA Cup Final was held as a mid-week fixture on Tuesday 16 December
2014. From the 2015 edition of the competition, the FFA Cup Final will be
played on a weekend date free of other 2015–16 A-League games, to emphasise the
importance of the Final. = Eligible teams=
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 was 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 and therefore qualified for the 2015 FFA Cup Round of
32. = Continental qualification=
There are plans for the FFA Cup winners to qualify for the AFC Champions League
competition, possibly from the 2016 tournament.
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". From 2014, Umbro will supply match balls
for all FFA Cup matches, and will continue to do so for the first three
seasons of competition. The FFA Cup Match Ball, the Umbro Neo 150 Elite, was
specially designed for the competition. 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 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. Finals
Records = Final=
Most wins: 1, Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory
Most appearances: 2, Perth Glory Most goals in a final: 2, Melbourne
Victory 2–0 Perth Glory Most defeats: 2, Perth Glory
= All Matches= Biggest win: Melbourne Victory 6–0
Tuggeranong United and Melbourne Victory 6–0 Balmain Tigers
Highest attendance: 16,142 Most consecutive games without defeat:
7, Adelaide United Most clubs competing for trophy in a
season: 648 = Individual Records=
Most career goals: 8, Besart Berisha Most goals in a season: 6, Sergio Cirio
and Aaron Mooy Most goals in a game: 4, Matt Sim
Fastest goal: 26 seconds, Daniel Heffernan
Fastest hat-trick: 18 minutes, Matt Sim References
External links Official website