When the Australian Championship kicks off in October 2025, the Australian football ‘pyramid’ will feature a curious second tier for the first time in modern history.
Branded by Football Australia as an “dynamic and sustainable format”, the competition structure leaves yet more open questions for an often fractured Australian football community.
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The eight ‘foundation clubs’ of the competition include 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) and Wollongong Wolves FC (NSW).
These Victorian and New South Wales clubs will be joined by a further eight “Member Federation NPL clubs” selected on an invitational basis from across the country. Alongside the elite A-League, New South Wales and Victoria will now feature 66 per cent (19/29) of all clubs in the top tiers of Australian football – two tiers of east coast extravagance.
“Sustainability” seems to be the factor limiting a more national approach, and leaves the majority of interested clubs and franchises from Australia’s smaller states and territories destined for an existence propping up the pyramid outside of Australian Eastern Standard Time.
Promotion and relegation is a critical feature of global football competitions, yet the press release and flashy launch videos are completely silent on any prospective movement within Australian football’s pointy end. There’s more insight into the competition’s “brand identity” with more buzz words than a government strategic plan than a future of connection with the elite A-League competition.
Football Australia stated in the early stages of second tier competition development that “once the second division has ‘matured’, promotion and relegation between the second-tier competition and the A-League will be considered” by the peak body.
A second tier not linked with any tiers above or below it seems strange, with the supposed annual rotation of “invitational” member federation clubs creating a ‘mirage’ of a functional football system that exists in most other countries.
Football Australia is also curiously silent on the role women play in the second tier, or if this competition is one purely catering for men. The Australian women’s football pyramid project seems to be a task set aside for a rainy day at the peak body’s Sydney headquarters.
While the recent introduction of the Australia Cup energised the breadth and depth of the Australian football pyramid with an authentic and connected national competition, the Australian Championship seems nothing but a second-rate second tier.