FFA Cup


The Football Federation Australia Cup, commonly known as the FFA Cup, is the national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by the Football Federation Australia.
The FFA Cup comprises teams from the top division, the A-League, as well as those from lower tiers in the Australian soccer league system. Teams enter in progressive stages, with qualifying rounds culminating with the competition proper, starting with the Round of 32. Each state and territory-based member federation is granted a team allocation for entry into the main competition, joining clubs from the A-League. Every Australian-based A-League club was initially guaranteed entry into the Round of 32; following the latest expansion of the league, a play-off will be conducted between the lowest-ranked teams to ensure that only 10 A-League teams achieve qualification.
Since the Australian soccer league system currently provides no promotion and relegation mechanism between the first and lower divisions, the competition's appeal partially stems from the fact that it is the only way that A-League and lower-tier clubs can play competitive matches.
Adelaide United has three titles while Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Sydney FC have won one title each. The current champions are Adelaide United after defeating Melbourne City in the 2019 Final.

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 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.
There have previously been plans for the FFA Cup winners to qualify for the AFC Champions League competition, although this is yet to occur.
The 2020 competition was cancelled on 3 July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

Eligibility

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.
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.
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.
For the 2021 edition, the two new expansion A-League clubs will appear in the tournament for the first time.

Format

The competition proper is a 32-team knockout tournament with pairings for each round drawn based on a seeding system to ensure 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. In some early rounds, games can go straight to penalties if tied at 90 minutes.
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.
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.
Unlike the usual 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 Member Federation Clubs to later rounds. This ensures at least three Member Federation Clubs will qualify for the Quarter Finals with one club guaranteed to make the Semi Final.
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 Mitre Delta Hyperseam as the official FFA Cup match ball after 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 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.
From 2017, 5 FFA Cup matches broadcast live by beIN Sports in Asia-Pacific nations, such as: Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. 7 FFA Cup matches broadcast live by BT Sport in UK and Republic of Ireland.
From 2018, at least 1 FFA Cup match per round will be broadcast live by ESPN+ in the United States and in other countries where the rights are not sold, most of the matches are streamed live by YouTube via My Football channel.
Currently the ABC holds the Radio broadcast right for FFA Cup matches, including the Final, live via ABC Radio Grandstand.

Finals

Individual Honours

Mark Viduka Medal

The award given to the player of the match in each year's FFA Cup Final.

Michael Cockerill Medal

Named after the late former journalist and broadcaster, the Michael Cockerill Medal recognizes the tournament's standout performer from a National Premier Leagues team.

Records and statistics

Final

Team

Round of 32 onwards

Round of 32 onwards

Results by team

Since its establishment, the FFA Cup has been won by 4 different teams.
ClubWinsFirst final wonLast final wonRunners-upLast final lostTotal final
appearances
Adelaide United320142019120174
Sydney FC120172017220183
Melbourne City120162016120192
Melbourne Victory1201520150—1
Perth Glory0——220152