Australia Cup confirmed as national knockout competition

Liam Watson

Football Australia has confirmed tonight that from the 2022 edition onwards, Australia’s largest national knockout football competition will be known as the ‘Australia Cup’.The transition from the FFA Cup, which was established in 2014, to the Australia Cup will take place over the coming weeks as the Preliminary Rounds of the 2022 competition get underway in States and Territories across the nation.The switch to the Australia Cup name heralds a new era for a competition that routinely attracts over 700 clubs from all divisions of football across Australia, uniting the grassroots, amateur, and professional levels of the sport.However, the change in name also integrates and acknowledges Australian football’s storied past. Between 1962 and 1968, the original Australia Cup was contested between leading state league teams of the time.Football Australia Chief Executive Officer James Johnson saw the Australia Cup name as a popular option amongst the game’s stakeholders when research and consultation was conducted regarding changing the name of the competition, following Football Australia’s own name change from Football Federation Australia (FFA) in December 2020.“Through discussion with Australian football historians, and dialogue with fans and stakeholders of the competition, the consensus was that the name Australia Cup truly speaks to what this competition is and represents. We are pleased that through this process pioneering players, clubs, and officials can feel recognised and connected to the competition,” Johnson said.“The research and consultation we have conducted regarding this name change indicates that people will be overwhelmingly happy with the shift to Australia Cup from 2022 onwards.“We have really evolved the FFA Cup competition this year and changing the name of the competition to the Australia Cup is an exciting next step in this evolution. It was a year of many firsts – the first time the competition was played live and free-to-air via Network 10, giving it unprecedent exposure. We also scheduled matches in the final stages of the competition so that some were played on weekends, making it more friendly for the thousands of supporters across the country. The granting of one of Australia’s ‘half-spots’ in the AFC Champions League also meant that this year community clubs right up to Isuzu UTE A-League clubs could dream of representing their supporters, communities, and Australia on the international stage.“Our Cup competition has always been one which has connected and united Australia’s football community, and we believe the name change will ultimately serve to elevate the competition in the national and international consciousness, as clubs aspire to win a competition that represents our entire football ecosystem.“As the Australia Cup in 2022, we want to see more clubs from right across the country join the competition. We will see a competition where every game matters. Being played in the winter months, we also anticipate that football will be fast-paced and exciting. We are very excited about the start of a new chapter for the Australia Cup in 2022.”The Australia Cup name was made official on Network 10’s live and free coverage of the last ever FFA Cup match, held this evening in the FFA Cup Final 2021 between Melbourne Victory FC and Central Coast Mariners FC, at Melbourne’s iconic AAMI Park (kick-off 8pm AEDT).The broadcast included the airing of a video showcasing some of the origins of the Australia Cup and reflecting on its history, with comments from winners Joe Alagich, John McDaid, John Brown, Alistair Scott, Stan Ackerley, and Ray Baartz, as well as football historian George Cotsanis.

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Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

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Image credit: Melbourne Victory

The Melbourne-based anf family-owned business will join the Victory family, uniting two institutions which represent the city’s culture and identity.

A partnership with local roots

As the newest partner of Melbourne Victory, Roasting Warehouse joins forces with a vital part of the city’s sporting landscape.

The club’s Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie, outlined why the partnership bears so much value to both parties.

“We are excited to collaborate with Roasting Warehouse, a community-oriented destination for high-quality coffee, proud of its foundations in Melbourne,” said Carnegie via official media release.

“Football and coffee sit at the epicentre of Melbourne’s culture. The two go hand-in-hand, consistently at the centre of the conversation that stirs Melburnians, which is no different to the conversation sport and Melbourne Victory stir in the State.”

Indeed, this is a partnership which combines the identity, passions and culture of an entire city, therefore giving it the foundations required for long-term, mutual success.

Representing the best of Melbourne

Both Victory and Roasting Warehouse are hugely successful in their respective industries. They are institutions with community-oriented philosphies, who pride themselves on craft and quality.

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with Melbourne Victory, a club that represents the heart, passion, and ambition of Melbourne,” revealed Roasting Warehouse Head of Brand, Alexander Paraskevopoulos.

“As a Melbourne-founded, family-run business, supporting a team that means so much to the local community feels very natural for us.”

Furthermore, through their high-quality blends, Roasting Warehouse will look to prepare Victory’s players and staff for high performances on the pitch as the seasons nears completion.

But this is about far more than just fueling athletes.

This is a partnership which embodies and unites two of Melbourne’s greatest strengths and cultural markers – a connection forged from the city’s very own DNA.

 

For more information about Roasting Warehouse, click here.

Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

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Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

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