Football leagues around the world: A-League

Football is a truly global sport, played and followed passionately in every corner of the world. While elite competitions like the Premier League, LaLiga, 1. Bundesliga, and Serie A often dominate the headlines, football thrives in countless other countries — many of which are rapidly gaining prominence.

This year’s FIFA Club World Cup offered a glimpse into the growing strength of the lesser-known leagues. And so, we’ve decided to launch a special series in which we put the spotlight on leagues from around the globe.

In this article, we go Down Under to take a look at one of the lesser-known leagues — A-League Men, the top flight of men’s professional club football in Australia, officially known as the Isuzu UTE A-League due to its title sponsorship agreement with Isuzu UTE, a subsidiary of Japanese automaker Isuzu Motors.

History

Prior to the A-League, a national round-robin tournament used to be organised in Australia, called the National Soccer League. The NSL was created after the Australian national team qualified for the 1974 FIFA World Cup.

The NSL began with 14 teams participating in the inaugural 1977 season in collaboration with the Australian Soccer Federation. The 14 teams were: Eastern Suburbs-Hakoah, St George, Marconi, Sydney Olympic (changed from Pan Hellenic), Western Suburbs, Canberra City, Brisbane City, Brisbane Lions, Adelaide City, West Adelaide, Fitzroy United, Footscray JUST, Mooroolbark, and South Melbourne.

The NSL flourished throughout the 1980s and 1990s. However, it started to decline due to several issues, such as a mass exodus of Australian players abroad, sponsorship and financial problems, and low viewership. Ultimately, the NSL was dissolved in 2003.

In 2004, a new football governing body — the Australian Soccer Association — announced the formation of the A-League as the successor to the NSL, with eight teams set to participate.

The founding teams for the men’s A-League were: Adelaide United, Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne Victory, Newcastle Jets, New Zealand Knights, Queensland Roar (now Brisbane Roar), Perth Glory, and Sydney FC.

The league began in August 2005 and expanded to ten teams in 2009, with Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury being the new entrants. However, these two teams didn’t last long; Gold Coast United competed for just three seasons, while North Queensland Fury played for two seasons.

In 2010, Melbourne Heart (now Melbourne City) joined the fray. In 2012, another team from Sydney joined the league — Western Sydney Wanderers, who would go on to win the league in their first season, and the AFC Champions League in 2014.

In 2018, the A-League, comprising ten teams at the time, announced that two new clubs would be added over the next two seasons, with Western United and Macarthur FC joining in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons, respectively.

In December 2020, the ownership of A-League Men became independent of Football Australia and came under a new entity — the Australian Professional Leagues.

Currently, the Isuzu UTE A-League comprises 13 clubs — 11 from Australia and two from New Zealand. These are: Adelaide United FC, Auckland FC, Brisbane Roar FC, Central Coast Mariners FC, Macarthur FC, Melbourne City FC, Melbourne Victory FC, Newcastle Jets FC, Perth Glory FC, Sydney FC, Wellington Phoenix FC, and Western United FC.

Format

The league is divided into two phases: a Regular Season and a Finals Series. 

The Regular Season runs from October to April. With an odd number of teams participating, each side plays every at least two times and certain sides three times, including three byes per team — playing 26 games in total. At the end of the regular season, the team with the most points is awarded the A-League Premier’s Plate. 

After the Regular Season is over, the top six-placed teams in the league table progress to the Finals. The position of each team depends on the maximum points accumulated during the Regular Season. If two or more sides are tied on points, their league position is determined by criteria like goal difference, goals scored, results against each other, and so on, until all teams are ranked appropriately. 

The Finals Series is played over a four-week period and consists of seven matches. Teams ranked third and sixth (Match A) and fourth and fifth (Match B) play-off ties, with the winners of these matches progressing to the semi-finals. 

The semi-finals are then played over two legs: 

• The team ranked first plays the lowest-ranked winner of Matches A and B.
• The team ranked second plays the highest-ranked winner of Matches A and B.
• Scores across the two legs are aggregated to determine the winner. The away goals rule does not apply. If the result is a tie after full-time of the second leg, extra time and penalty shootouts follow to get a result.
• The highest ranked side to advance to the final has the home advantage.

The current winners of the Isuzu UTE A-League Men Premiers are Auckland City FC, with Melbourne City FC being the reigning champions. 

Promotion and Relegation

Currently, there’s no concept of promotion and relegation in the A-League, making it a closed division. However, in February 2025 the Australian FA announced the creation of a second division — the Australian Championship. With 16 teams, the league is set to kick off in October 2025.  

However, there is no discussion of promotion and relegation with the top tier, with the primary focus being the optimal operation of the second division first. Once the second division gets underway and stabilises, promotion and relegation may be enforced, though there is no definitive timeline for the same at the time of writing.

Important Stats

• Sydney FC have the most Premiership titles (4) as well as the most Championship titles (5) since the start of the league in 2005.

• Jamie Maclaren is the all-time top goalscorer in A-League Men with 154 goals in 233 games, having represented Perth Glory, Brisbane Roar, and Melbourne City. Most of his goals came for Melbourne City — 102 goals in 132 matches.

• Kosta Barbarouses has the most assists in the league, with 41 in 327 games. The Kiwi forward has played for Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory, Brisbane Roar, and Wellington Phoenix.

• Midfielder Leigh Broxham of Melbourne Victory has made the most appearances in the league since its inception. All of his 386 A-League appearances have come for Melbourne Victory.

• Danny Vukovic of Central Coast Mariners currently holds the record for the most clean sheets in the league, with 103 in 337 matches. Vukovic retired after the 2024/25 season, and the second in line is Liam Reddy with 90 clean sheets in 350 appearances.

• Teeboy Kamara is the youngest player to make an appearance in the league, having debuted for Adelaide United in December 2011 at the age of 15 years, six months, and 28 days. Liam Reddy, meanwhile, became the oldest player to compete in the league in January 2023, aged 41 years, four months, and 25 days.