Football Australia officially launched the Australian Championship on Tuesday, confirming the name and brand of its much-anticipated national second-tier competition. Don't fret, ESPN has put everything you need to know into one convenient place to ensure you're all up to speed by the time the it begins on Oct. 10, 2025.
What is the Australian Championship?
The Australian Championship is a new national second tier of Australian men's football -- slotting between the A-League Men and state-based National Premier League (NPL) competitions -- that will begin in 2025. Its inaugural season will see 16 teams from around Australia competing in group-stage fixtures before moving into an elimination final series, mirroring the old UEFA Champions League model.
Initially, Football Australia had announced plans to stage a standalone, home-and-away competition, which was the preferred option of the participating clubs. However, after being unable to find sufficient clubs that met its sporting and financial criteria for this format, it has been pared back to the current setup.
Which clubs will play in the Australian Championship?
Football Australia unveiled eight "foundation" clubs for the Australian Championship in November of 2023:
- APIA Leichhardt FC (NSW)
- Avondale FC (VIC)
- Marconi Stallions FC (NSW)
- Preston Lions FC (VIC)
- South Melbourne FC (VIC)
- Sydney Olympic FC (NSW)
- Sydney United 58 FC (NSW)
- Wollongong Wolves FC (NSW)
All these clubs bar Avondale previously competed in the National Soccer League (NSL), which folded in 2004 and was replaced by the A-League. Sine then, they have spent the past two decades in their state-based competitions.
These eight foundation clubs will be joined by eight sides that qualify for the 2025 iteration as premiers -- the side that finishes atop the ladder at the end of the regular season, not the side that wins the playoffs -- of the various NPL competitions around Australia: New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia, Queensland, Northern New South Wales, and Tasmania.
Why is Football Australia introducing a new competition?
"We did it because we want to ensure we continue to evolve the game in Australian football," Football Australia chief executive James Johnson said on Tuesday.
"We wanted to fill the gap between the NPL and the A-League. We wanted to stretch clubs that are currently playing in the NPL that we think can take the next step so that they grow. We wanted to provide a platform for young Australian players to play more minutes, coaches to get more experience at a higher level, and referees and administrators to also [work at] a higher level as well.
"We talk about Japan being the benchmark in the region. And if you look at the process that Japan has gone through in terms of its evolution; in the 90s they were a one-tier football system with approximately 16 clubs. Today, they have three tiers, and they have about 56 professional clubs. So they have continued to evolve. And that's exactly what we are trying to do, and that's the purpose of why we've set up the second tier."
When will the Australian Championship be played?
The Australian Championship will take place following the conclusion of just-commenced NPL seasons, kicking off on Oct. 10 and running through to a final staged on Dec. 6 or 7.
What's the Australian Championship format?
The 16 teams will be divided into four groups of four that will play six home-and-away fixtures, with two foundation sides joined by two NPL qualifiers in each group. Top-seeded foundation clubs South Melbourne, APIA, Marconi, and Avondale will be in separate groups and there will also be a rough geographic split -- the South Australian and West Australian premiers will be in the same group, for example.
The top two sides in each group will then advance to the quarterfinals, which will be hosted by the four group winners. Football Australia said on Tuesday that they "retain the commercial rights to the semifinal and the final," which hints that those games may be played at neutral venues.
Will there be promotion and relegation between the Australian Championship and A-League?
The Australian Championship and the A-League will be separate competitions, with no promotion and relegation between the two. The Australian top-flight hasn't utilised relegation since the 1992-93 NSL season, while the A-League has never sought to re-introduce the concept. The eight foundation clubs that will help make up the Australian Championship, meanwhile, cannot be relegated based on their performance in 2025.
Additionally, the two competitions will be administered by two separate organisations. The Championship will be organised and run by Football Australia, who also oversee national teams, the Australia Cup, NPL and state-league competitions around the country, and Australian clubs' participation in Asian competitions.
Since an "unbundling" process was completed in 2021, the A-League has been administered by a collective of its participatory clubs and investors known as the Australian Professional Leagues (APL), which oversee operational, commercial, and marketing operations of its men's and women's competitions.
"We have had a significant amount of engagement [with the APL] over the years," said Johnson. "They're supportive of this competition kicking off in October. That's a great thing about this competition, it's something that is uniting in connecting the whole game anyway, in terms of its support."
Who will broadcast the Australian Championship?
Football Australia announced the renewal of a broadcast deal with Paramount last year, but Johnson confirmed on Wednesday that this did not include the Australian Championship nor the Round of 32 and 16 of the Australia Cup.
"The Australia Cup final and semifinals will be on Channel 10 and the Round of 32 and 16 of the Australia Cup and the second tier will be in market to go to another broadcaster," said Johnson. "What we've done for all of those competitions, though, is we will be producing the matches, so we've taken on that responsibility."
How will clubs afford to play in the Australian Championship?
Clubs that qualify for the Australian Championship will need to extend the contracts of their squads by six to nine weeks, with foundation clubs last week beginning that process. If a qualifier is unable or unwilling to field a side in the competition, there will be an opt-out and replacement process. Mirroring the national stages of the Australia Cup, Football Australia will provide travel subsidies for the sides competing in 2025.
"Foundation clubs, as part of the RFP process, were required to submit financial projections," Nathan Godfrey, Football Australia's GM for the national second-tier, said. "So we're well aware of their financial viability. But in year one, we're focused on the success of this competition, hence the reason for the travel support."
Will it always be a Champions League model?
There's a path to transitioning to a standalone, home-and-away competition but there's no clear timeline. Both Johnson and Godfrey have said that Football Australia will continue to review the format of the competition on a yearly basis and have flagged a fresh "Request for Proposal" process in 2025, whereby clubs will be able to gain similar status as the eight foundation sides if they hit certain standards. Victorian side Melbourne Knights have already publicly signalled their intention to be part of this process.
"We've stated that the optimal model for launching a standalone league is 12 teams, ideally representing a minimum of four states," said Godfrey "The foundation clubs understand that, we've had that conversation with them, and until we undertake this process, we don't know what the future looks like."
Does the Australian Championship have a salary cap? What are the foreign player rules?
While there had been plans for a salary cap to be in place for a standalone home-and-away competition, that has been scrapped for the 2025 iteration after the Australian Championship's move to a Champions League format. Squad regulations, meanwhile, will mirror those already in place at NPL level.
Will we ever get promotion and relegation to the A-League?
You would be hard-pressed to find anyone in a decision-making role in Australian football who doesn't speak in favour of promotion and relegation as a concept but, for now, it remains a medium- to long-term goal. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in 2020 that the A-League, and MLS, were not obliged to introduce it. Nonetheless, the introduction of a second tier represents an important step towards a unified pyramid, putting in place the professionalism and standards below the A-League.
Before promotion and relegation can happen, however, the Australian Championship will need to demonstrate that it has staying power as a viable and sustainable competition and evolve beyond its current format to a true standalone league. And right now, Football Australia isn't putting a definitive timeline on that.
"How it evolves, will depend on the success of this season," said Johnson. "What we plan to do is to measure the success of the competition; things that are going well, we maintain and ramp up and things that we think we can improve on, we'll look to change. But we're not in a position right now to talk about what those changes are. We want to wait until we've got the evidence based on how measuring sticks to shape our thinking on that point.
"The focus has been on getting the second tier up and running and moving it from a conversation to something tangible. We have deliberately connected it to the NPL and that's the first step. In terms of how that connection works with the [A-League], that's something we don't want to be prescriptive about at the moment. Simply because we want the second tier to work. We don't want that complication -- because that's a complicated discussion. We want to get the second tier up and running. We want it to be successful. We want it to connect with the NPLs but also with the community. We want to focus on what is in our control now, what we can do, and what we can do to make this exciting competition that we all want."
And finally... is Roberto Carlos going to be managing South Melbourne?
Ahhh, as fun as that would be, no. Unveiled as their A-League coach-in-waiting during the league's expansion process of 2017, the Brazil legend's connection with South ended when the then-FFA tapped Western United and Macarthur FC to enter the competition instead.
Rather than Roberto Carlos, Esteban Quintas looks set to lead Hellas into the Australian Championship; the Argentine gaffer guided them to an NPL Victoria premiership and Dockerty Cup in 2024.