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Football Federation Australia (FFA) today announced that the FFA Cup will return to the national football calendar in 2021 with some key adjustments intended to improve and enhance the excitement associated with Australia’s largest annual club-based sporting competition.
FFA CUP 2021 – KEY FEATURES:
FFA Cup Semi-Finals & Final earmarked to be on stand-alone weekends for the first time. Final to be played at neutral venue.
FFA Cup Final Rounds will feature an open draw for the first time – generating more competitive tension and uncertainty.
FFA Cup 2021 winners to be awarded a preliminary round slot representing Australia in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League*.
FFA Cup Final Rounds Slot Allocation for A-League clubs and Member Federations to remain unchanged.
FFA Cup Final Rounds Play-Off matches between the bottom four (4) placed A-League clubs from the A-League 2020/21 season will be played to determine the final two (2) A-League teams to enter the Round of 32.
Wollongong Wolves (NPL 2019 Champions) will be granted entry into the FFA Cup 2021 Final Rounds. Wollongong missed out in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United I-League clubs insist that the AFC Champions league spot must remain with the I-League, as it is the I-League clubs that have (over the years) earned the AFC spots for India to enjoy today. Champions League and AFC Cup. This Entry Manual sets out the mechanism for allocating slots to Member Associations and their eligible clubs to participate in the AFC Club Competitions.
From the 2021 iteration of the FFA Cup onwards, the FFA Cup Final will be played at a neutral venue and the FFA Cup Semi-Finals and Final will be contested on stand-alone weekends to ensure that the competition’s showpiece fixtures have the opportunity to establish a significant place on the national sporting calendar.
Additionally, for the first-time next year’s FFA Cup winners will be granted one of Australia’s preliminary round slots in the AFC Champions League*, meaning clubs from all levels of the Australian football ecosystem can aspire to compete against Asia’s best.
FFA Chief Executive Officer, James Johnson, said adjustments to the FFA Cup from 2021 onwards are aligned to Principle IV of the XI Principles for the future of Australian football and will bring a new edge to the competition.
“Principle IV of our XI Principles speaks to the ongoing optimisation of Australia’s competition structures and ensuring that Australia’s football pyramid is aligned and connected. The FFA Cup is unique amongst all other sporting competitions in Australia in that a team of builders, electricians and office-workers might get the chance to compete against five-time A-League Champions Sydney FC,” Johnson said.
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“These changes to the FFA Cup from 2021 onwards demonstrate FFA’s commitment to not only enhancing the FFA Cup for the enjoyment of our football community, but to provide players and clubs at all levels of the game with the opportunity to aspire to represent Australia on the global stage.
“Playing the FFA Cup Final on a stand-alone weekend will enable the FFA Cup Final to develop its own identity within the national football calendar, and we envisage that an array of events – such as a national football conference or a national football weekend festival – can in the future be held in parallel with the FFA Cup Final. Furthermore, we believe that by connecting the FFA Cup Final with a variety of supporting football-focused events, we can engage a wide cross-section of the football community and make the event an increasingly attractive proposition to host cities and Governments.”
The 2020 version of the FFA Cup was cancelled earlier this year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of cancellation, 765 clubs had registered to participate in the competition – the second most since the competition commenced in 2014.
Johnson is confident that a significant number of the clubs registered to compete in 2020 will return in 2021, as the FFA Cup Round of 32 draw and format is also revised.
“Next year’s FFA Cup Preliminary Rounds will be held much like in years gone by, however we are moving to adjust the structure of the Round of 32 – where professional A-League clubs enter the competition – into four geographic Zones. These Zones will promote local rivalries and competitive tension, and for the first time will feature an open draw to determine matches. The open draw will continue to feature right through to the semi-final stage, ensuring that there’s absolute uncertainty when the draw for each round of the competition is staged,” he said.
The FFA Cup 2021 Preliminary Rounds will be held between February and July next year, with the Final Rounds planned to be played between July and November. Precise match dates and details will be confirmed in due course.
The FFA Cup has received widespread acceptance by the Australian football community since its inception in 2014 because of its ability to connect all levels of the game across Australia. The knockout format has generated competitive tension and uncertainty over the years and these new enhancements further solidify that this competition rewards sporting merit.
The introduction of an FFA Cup for women and youth are part of FFA’s bold and innovative 15-year vision for the game. FFA will also continue to assess the introduction of a group stage throughout the competition, as ways to enhance and increase the number of competitive match minutes available to Australian players are considered.
Throughout 2021, FFA will conduct consultation with Australia’s football community regarding the potential renaming of the FFA Cup. The potential renaming of the competition is due to the current transition from Football Federation Australia to the new company name of ‘Football Australia’. The transition from Football Federation Australia to ‘Football Australia’ received unanimous Congress support at FFA’s seventeenth Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday, 25 November 2020.
In addition, FFA today launched a short survey to capture data and feedback related to the FFA Cup and its development. The survey, available here, provides Australia’s football family with the opportunity to submit ideas as to what the FFA Cup could be named in the future.
*Admission to AFC Champions League Preliminary Rounds subject to winning club meeting AFC Club Licensing Regulations.
The All India Football Federation on Thursday did a U-turn, quite remarkable even by its own poor standards, when it allocated the third AFC Cup slot to Bengaluru FC.
The AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das had originally said that the slot would go to Chennaiyin FC, even before the Indian Super League final was played. Chennaiyin lost to ATK in the ISL final in March, but since ATK were merging with I-League champions Mohun Bagan who already had secured the AFC Cup group stage slot on virtue of being I-League champions, it was decided that ATK would vacate the AFC Cup playoff slot that they would win if they won the ISL final.
“I can’t understand why there should be confusion over the continental spots. We have made everything very clear,” Das had told the Times of India before the ISL final.
“There are three spots for three different competitions. If a spot is vacated by any club for whatever reason, the next best will be accommodated,” he had added.
Next best would mean Chennaiyin as they finished runners-up according to AIFF’s allocation of the AFC slots.
An AIFF statement released on March 10 read:
The slots for AFC Club competitions from 2021 onwards from India will be decided on the following criteria:
The winner of the Hero Indian Super League’s league phase gets a direct slot into the Asian Champions League.
The Hero I-League champion gets a direct slot in the AFC Cup as a special dispensation for three years.
The winner of the Hero Indian Super League’s play-offs gets a slot into the AFC Cup play-offs.
The same allocation of slots will be followed going forward.
But there’s a catch. AIFF and Das seemed to be completely unaware of the sporting criteria listed in Article 12.1 of Asian Football Confederation’s official entry manual for club competitions that governs how clubs qualify for continental competitions. It reads:
“To meet the sporting criteria, a club must have earned one (1) of the following (which shall be utilised in descending order for seeding purposes for any draw):
12.1.1. winner of the national top division league;
12.1.2. winner of the national knock-out cup;
12.1.3. runner-up of the national top division league;
12.1.4. third-place of the national top division league.”
The problem here is that ISL is not a proper league. It follows a league and knockout stage format. But AIFF had decided to award the winners of the league phase of the ISL — FC Goa — the direct entry into the AFC Champions League group stage. So, the league phase of the ISL was identified as the national top division league by the AIFF and ISL. The knockout phase didn’t come under consideration.
The I-League got the spot for the national cup competition after the AFC allowed it to run parallelly thanks to a special compensation. So the third additional slot that was granted to India after it received a direct entry into the AFC Champions League group stages, should go to the top division league that is the ISL group stage, according to AFC’s sporting criteria.
And if you go by it, Bengaluru FC should rightly get the slot as the third-placed team as ATK who were runners-up already had a slot due to their merger with Mohun Bagan. Das clarified it after announcing the slot would go to Bengaluru FC.
“The AFC has said that the playoff stage of ISL is secondary. They are considering ISL league stage as the top league. So, FC Goa take the Champions League place. For AFC Cup, the confirmed group stage slot will go to Mohun Bagan. But since they have merged with ATK, ATK-Bagan will play there,” Das told The Times of India.
“That leaves us with the final spot. ATK were runners-up of the ISL league stage but their tie-up (with Bagan) leaves the third spot (AFC Cup playoff) for the third-placed team which is Bengaluru FC. AFC had provided us the third spot as a special consideration. They are mostly concerned with the league,” he added.
It’s baffling how AIFF were unaware of these simple criteria and announced that the ISL winners would get the additional AFC Cup slot when AFC rules never permitted it. The merger of ATK and Mohun Bagan made the matter a bit complex but there is no excuse for a national body for being so reckless.
There have been previous cases of the slot been having to be transferred between clubs in Indian football.
In 2011, Salgaocar won both the I-League and Federation Cup. That year, AFC Cup group stage spots were reserved for both the winners. So, one of the slots was handed over to East Bengal who were runners-up in the I-League that season. Coincidentally, they were also the runners-up in the Federation Cup and that may have led to AIFF not stumbling upon the actual criteria of qualification in case a slot has to be passed on.
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Despite the benefit of the doubt, it’s embarrassing for a federation (that aims to take the country to a World Cup in space of eight years) to have such poor organisation.
Why no slot for I-League runners-up?
The poor understanding of the criteria had also led to a belief amid the Indian football community that after the merger of ATK and Mohun Bagan, the Mariners would have to vacate their spot to the I-League runners-up.
However, since the runners-up of the “cup competition” are never passed on the winners’ slot if they already have a slot or are ineligible to take part in the AFC competition, there was never a question of the I-League runners-up getting the slot.
At the same time, it was also not a question of whether ATK and Mohun Bagan would get to choose between the two slots they had earned. Since Mohun Bagan were taken over by ATK, they don’t exist as a separate entity and hence their slot would have to be transferred to the ISL group stage runners-up. Since that team happened to be ATK, the ATK-Mohun Bagan combination would get the AFC Cup group stage slot that Bagan had to vacate. Thus, according to the criteria, the third and additional slot would go to the next placed team in the ISL group stage which is Bengaluru FC.
Chennaiyin would have felt hard done by AIFF’s decision to give Bengaluru FC the AFC Cup slot, but the truth was that they had no case. They were provided false hopes due to AIFF’s poor interpretation of the qualification criteria.
The more contentious matter in the AFC slot allocation was perhaps settled in 2019 when AIFF rushed to make ISL the top-tier league of Indian football. Legally, they were bound by Football Sports Development Limited’s contract that needed the Indian apex body to make the ISL the top tier of Indian football.
While the contract had been in place since 2010, the timing the AIFF used to obey it raises questions. A potential AFC Champions League group stage slot for the winners of its top-tier league was in the pipeline. According to the hierarchy then, it would have gone to the I-League.
Was it a mere coincidence that the AIFF faced pressure from FSDL to obey the contract and make ISL the top tier just months before the AFC Champions League group stage spot was going to be allocated to India?
However, that rests in the past and all stakeholders with or without the knowledge of a potential Champions League spot for India accepted it. Going ahead, the AIFF must be much more mindful of basic competition rules and criteria its clubs take part in and their own contractual obligations towards their partners. If not, despite a clear roadmap, Indian football’s future will be muddled with unnecessary controversies.
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