A-League Women
Founded25 October 2008 (25 October 2008)
First season2008–09
CountryAustralia (11 teams)
Other club(s) fromNew Zealand (1 team)
ConfederationAsian Football Confederation
Number of teams12
Level on pyramid1
International cup(s)AFC Women's Club Championship
Current championsSydney FC (4th title)
(2022–23)
Current premiersSydney FC (5th title)
(2022–23)
Most championshipsMelbourne City
Sydney FC
(4 titles)
Most premiershipsSydney FC (5 titles)
TV partners
Websitealeagues.com.au
Current: 2023–24 A-League Women

A-League Women (known as the Liberty A-League for sponsorship reasons), formerly the W-League, is the top-division women's soccer league in Australia. The W-League was established in 2008 by Football Australia (then known as Football Federation Australia) and was originally composed of eight teams of which seven had an affiliation with an existing A-League Men's club. As of the 2022–23 season, the league is contested by eleven teams.[2] The league, as well as the A-League Men and A-League Youth are administered by the Australian Professional Leagues.[3]

Seasons now run from November to April and include a 22-round regular season and an end-of-season finals series playoff tournament involving the highest-placed teams, culminating in a Grand Final match. The winner of the regular season tournament is dubbed 'premiers' and the winner of the grand final is dubbed 'champions'. Since the league's inaugural season, a total of five clubs have been crowned premiers and five clubs have been crowned champions. It has been currently running in a semi-professional basis, but talks about professionalisation has been emerging, beginning with the name change and placing of all women's clubs into one single Australian Professional Leagues operation and management in 2021, which served as the precursors for complete transition to professionalism of the A-League Women.[4][5]

Sydney FC are the current premiers, having won their fourth title; Melbourne Victory are the current champions, having won their third title.

History

Club locations map

Between 1996 and 2004 the Women's National Soccer League (WNSL) was Australia's top women's soccer league. In 2004 it was discontinued alongside the men's National Soccer League.

After Australia qualified for the quarter-finals of the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, head coach Tom Sermanni felt the establishment of a professional league was vital for continuing the development of players.[6] Football Federation Australia established the league the following year.[7] The W-League was initially composed of eight teams: Adelaide United, Brisbane Roar, Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne Victory, Newcastle Jets, Perth Glory, and Sydney FC. Seven of the eight teams were affiliated with A-League clubs, and shared their names and colours to promote their brands. The eighth club was Canberra United.[8]

The W-League's inaugural season commenced on 25 October 2008, with Perth hosting Sydney at Members Equity Stadium.[9] After ten rounds, the regular season finished with Queensland Roar as the top-placed team, becoming the first W-League premiers, and advancing to the semi-finals along with the second-, third- and fourth-placed teams. Queensland faced Canberra in the 2009 W-League grand final, defeating them 2–0 to take the champions trophy.

Central Coast Mariners were forced to withdraw from the 2010–11 season due to a lack of funding,[10] but are scheduled to return in 2023–24.[11]

When Western Sydney Wanderers joined the A-League for the 2012–13 season, they also entered a team into the W-League, returning the competition to eight teams. From 2012 to 2014, the W-League champion team qualified into an international competition, the International Women's Club Championship.

On 13 May 2015, Melbourne City were confirmed to compete in the W-League from the 2015–16 season.[12] The club had a remarkable inaugural season, winning all 12 of its regular season games and winning the Grand Final.[13]

From the inception of the competition the league was run by Football Federation Australia, the governing body for the sport in Australia. In July 2019, the FFA relinquished operational control of the league to each of the clubs, now represented by the Australian Professional Leagues.[14]

The league commenced a further expansion program starting in 2021, with Wellington Phoenix commencing in the 2021–22 season,[15] Western United for the 2022–23 season,[16] and Central Coast Mariners for the 2023–24 season.[11] Future expansion is planned for the 2025–26 season, after the award of a licence for an Auckland-based team for both A-League Men and Women.[17]

Crowds have improved remarkably in 2023, on the back of the Matildas performance in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. The record A-League Women's crowd (including finals) was set on 14 October 2023, with the match between Sydney FC and the Western Sydney Wanderers drawing a crowd of 11,471.[18]

Competition format

The A-League Women regular season typically runs from November to April and consists of 20 games per team, with the highest ranked team winning the title of "Premier".[19] The top four teams in the regular season then advance to the single-game knockout semi-finals, with the Champion determined by the victor of the Grand Final.[20]

On 12 December 2022, the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) announced that the grand finals for the 2022–23 and two subsequent seasons would be hosted in Sydney,[21] a move which received considerable backlash.[22][23] On 18 October 2023, the APL announced that the Grand Final hosting rights would revert back to the original format, and instead a new "Unite Round" was introduced, with a regular season round having all its games played in Sydney.[24]

Clubs

Current clubs
Team Location Stadium Capacity Founded Joined Head coach Captain Highest
finish		 Most recent
finish
Adelaide United Adelaide,
South Australia		 ServiceFM Stadium
Coopers Stadium		 7,000
17,000		 2008 2008 Australia Adrian Stenta Australia Isabel Hodgson 3rd 8th
Brisbane Roar Brisbane,
Queensland		 Ballymore Stadium 8,000 2008 2008 United States Alex Smith Australia Ayesha Norrie 1st 9th
Canberra United Canberra, ACT McKellar Park 3,500 2008 2008 Australia Njegosh Popovich Australia Michelle Heyman 1st 5th
Central Coast Mariners Gosford, New South Wales Central Coast Stadium 20,059 2008 2008
2023 (re-entry)		 England Emily Husband Australia Taren King 2nd 2nd
Melbourne City Melbourne, Victoria Kingston Heath Soccer Complex
AAMI Park		 3,300
30,050		 2015 2015 Australia Dario Vidošić (caretaker) New Zealand Rebekah Stott 1st 3rd
Melbourne Victory Melbourne, Victoria The Home of the Matildas
AAMI Park		 3,000
30,050		 2008 2008 Wales Jeff Hopkins United States Kayla Morrison 1st 4th
Newcastle Jets Newcastle,
New South Wales		 Wanderers Oval
Adamstown Oval
McDonald Jones Stadium		 2,000
2,000
33,000		 2008 2008 Australia Ryan Campbell (caretaker) Australia Cassidy Davis 2nd 10th
Perth Glory Perth,
Western Australia		 Macedonia Park
HBF Park		 7,000
20,500		 2008 2008 Australia Alexander Epakis Australia Natasha Rigby 1st 6th
Sydney FC Sydney,
New South Wales		 Netstrata Jubilee Stadium
Leichhardt Oval
Seymour Shaw Park
Cromer Park		 20,500
20,000
5,000
5,000		 2008 2008 Australia Ante Juric Australia Natalie Tobin 1st 1st
Wellington Phoenix Wellington,
New Zealand		 Sky Stadium
Jerry Collins Stadium		 34,500
1,900		 2021 2021 New Zealand Paul Temple New Zealand Annalie Longo 10th 11th
Western Sydney Wanderers Sydney,
New South Wales		 CommBank Stadium
Blacktown Football Park
Marconi Stadium		 30,000
500
9,000		 2012 2012 Australia Robbie Hooker Australia Amy Harrison 3rd 7th
Western United Wyndham, Victoria GMHBA Stadium 36,000 2021 2022 Australia Kat Smith Philippines Jaclyn Sawicki
Australia Chloe Logarzo		 2nd 2nd
Future clubs
Team Location Stadium Capacity Founded Joining
Auckland (name TBD) Auckland, New Zealand TBD TBD TBD 2025–26[25]

Performance record

Performance and ranking of clubs based on their best regular season result in the W-League and A-League Women. The 2022–23 season is Western United's first season.

RankClubBest result08–090910–1111–1212–1313–141415–1616–1717–1818–1919–2020–2121–2222–23
1 Sydney FC 1st (5 times) 4 1 1 3 4 2 4 3 3 2 3 3 1 1 1
2 Brisbane Roar 1st (3 times) 1 3 2 2 1 4 6 4 7 1 2 5 2 6 9
3 Canberra United 1st (3 times) 3 4 3 1 5 1 3 2 1 5 8 6 4 7 5
4 Melbourne City 1st (2 times) — — — — — — — 1 4 4 5 1 7 2 3
5 Melbourne Victory 1st 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 9 9 7 1 2 3 4 4
6 Perth Glory 1st 7 6 5 6 2 5 1 8 2 6 4 7 9 5 6
7 Newcastle Jets 2nd 2 8 6 5 7 8 5 6 5 3 7 9 8 8 10
8 Central Coast Mariners 2nd 6 2 — — — — — — — — — — — — —
9 Western United 2nd — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 2
10 Adelaide United 3rd 8 7 7 7 8 6 7 5 6 9 6 8 5 3 8
11 Western Sydney Wanderers 3rd — — — — 6 7 8 7 8 8 9 3 6 9 7
12 Wellington Phoenix 10th — — — — — — — — — — — — — 10 11

Organisation

Squad formation and salaries

An A-League Women squad is required to have a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 26 players. Players typically receive a one-season contract, with many playing in leagues in other countries during the A-League Women off-season. Due to the A-League Women season running during the off-season of several leagues around the world, many foreign players have played for teams in A-League Women and vice versa.

In 2015, teams in what was then the W-League had a salary cap of A$150,000.[26] Individual player salaries varied, with one player reporting to The Sydney Morning Herald in 2012 that whilst some players earn $10,000, others earn nothing.[27] In 2014, it was reported that Sydney FC players were paid salaries ranging from $1,000 to $6,000.[28] Players could also earn money playing overseas and may therefore be considered by Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) as professional.[29]

Some clubs are owned by their state soccer associations including Adelaide United and Newcastle Jets.

For the 2017–18 season a minimum salary was introduced at A$10,000. The average salary therefore rose from A$15,500 to A$17,400. A salary cap was set at A$300,000.[30]

The total salary floor, or minimum salary spend, for the 2020-21 season rose to A$294,000, growing to A$315,000 in the 2021-22 season, with a salary cap of A$450,000, as part of a five year deal that will see the salary floor rise to A$390,000 by 2025-26.[31] The deal also included improved standards in training venues, travel and accommodation, high performance staffing, and player workloads.[31] The A-League Women minimum annual wage in 2021 is A$17,055.[32]

Stadiums

A-League Women games have been played in 33 stadiums since the inaugural season of the A-League.

Broadcasting

The 2018–19 season marked the first time that fans were able to watch every W-League game. All matches were broadcast or streamed on Fox Sports, SBS Viceland and the My Football Live app. Thursday Night Football was also introduced, meaning 13 stand-alone regular season matches will be played in prime-time and broadcast live on Fox Sports.[33] The Football Federation Australia (FFA) reached a deal with ESPN+ for broadcast rights to W-League games in the United States. ESPN+ will carry at least 17 W-League matches in the 2018–19 season.[34] For the first time ever W-League games would be broadcast on YouTube and Twitter in territories without a traditional broadcast partner.[35]

In the 2019–20 season, ABC TV broadcast one game per weekend. Fourteen rounds of that season were broadcast at 4pm on Sundays, as well as the whole W-League 2020 Finals Series.[36] Fox Sport's contract with the A-League, which was renegotiated in June 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, concluded in July 2021.[37]

From July 2019 to the end of the 2020–21 season, Foxtel broadcast all matches with ABC broadcasting one match per round live on its primary channel.[38]

Since August 2021, as part of a five-year deal with ViacomCBS, the A-Leagues have been broadcast by Network 10 and Paramount+ (Australia) streaming service.[39][40] As of the 2022–23 season, Paramount and Network 10's free-to-access streaming service 10 Play stream all matches.[41]

In New Zealand, A-League Men and A-League Women matches are broadcast on Sky Sport / beIN Sports.

Current broadcasters

Territory Network
 Australia Network 10
Paramount+
 New Zealand Sky Open
Sky Sport
Pacific Islands Australia TV
Pasifika TV
International Sport24 (in-flight and ship only)
YouTube (unsold markets only)
Asia SPOTV
 Ireland TNT Sports
 United Kingdom

Referees

A-League Women features female referees and assistant referees from Australia. Notable referees include:

Honours

W-League and A-League Women winners
Season Premiers (regular season winners) Champions (Grand Final winners)
2008–09 Queensland Roar[lower-alpha 1] Queensland Roar
2009 Sydney FC Sydney FC
2010–11 Sydney FC Brisbane Roar
2011–12 Canberra United Canberra United
2012–13 Brisbane Roar Sydney FC
2013–14 Canberra United Melbourne Victory
2014 Perth Glory Canberra United
2015–16 Melbourne City Melbourne City
2016–17 Canberra United Melbourne City
2017–18 Brisbane Roar Melbourne City
2018–19 Melbourne Victory Sydney FC
2019–20 Melbourne City Melbourne City
2020–21 Sydney FC Melbourne Victory
2021–22 Sydney FC Melbourne Victory
2022–23 Sydney FC Sydney FC

Records

Most appearances

As of 26 March 2023[43] Players listed in bold are still actively playing in the A-League Women.

RankPlayerAppearances
1 Australia Michelle Heyman 158
2 Australia Teresa Polias 157
3 Australia Kim Carroll 156
4 Australia Clare Polkinghorne 152
5 Australia Caitlin Cooper 151
6 Australia Gema Simon 144
Australia Ellie Brush
8 Australia Katrina Gorry 142
9 Australia Teigen Allen 141
10 Australia Amy Jackson 140

Top scorers

As of 19 March 2023.[44] Players listed in bold are still actively playing in the A-League Women.

RankPlayerGoals
1 Australia Michelle Heyman 94
2 Australia Samantha Kerr 70
3 Australia Tameka Yallop 58
4 Australia Kyah Simon 50
5 Australia Emily Gielnik 46
6 Australia Leena Khamis 45
Australia Tara Andrews
8 Australia Ashleigh Sykes 44
9 Australia Kate Gill 42
Australia Lisa De Vanna

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Queensland Roar changed their name to Brisbane Roar for the 2009 season onwards.

References

  1. ↑ "Our International Broadcasters – KEEPUP". Archived from the original on 16 November 2021. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  2. ↑ "'A special day': Western United to join A-League Women next season". ABC News. 12 May 2022. Archived from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  3. ↑ Official site Archived 30 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  4. ↑ "W-League name scrapped as Australian soccer rebrands under A-Leagues banner". SportsPro. 29 September 2021. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  5. ↑ "History of Women's Football in Australia". Football Australia. 23 September 2021. Archived from the original on 7 August 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  6. ↑ Grainey, Tim (26 November 2013). "Grainey: A closer look at the Westfield W-League". Equalizer Soccer. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  7. ↑ "Women in a league of their own". Football Federation Australia. 28 July 2008. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  8. ↑ "W-League to debut in October". Fox Sports. 28 July 2008. Archived from the original on 6 August 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  9. ↑ "Girls shop to the top". FourFourTwo. 28 July 2008. Archived from the original on 3 September 2008. Retrieved 28 July 2008.
  10. ↑ "Statement regarding Westfield W-League". Central Coast Mariners. 29 July 2010. Archived from the original on 28 February 2011. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
  11. 1 2 "Central Coast Mariners confirm first signing after officially being accepted into Liberty A-League women's competition". Central Coast Mariners. 17 October 2022. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  12. ↑ Hytner, Mike (13 May 2015). "Melbourne City FC to field a W-League side next season". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  13. ↑ "Melbourne City crown perfect season with W-League grand final win over Sydney FC". The Age. 31 January 2016. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  14. ↑ "FFA reaches in principle agreement for independent A-League". The Roar. 2 July 2019. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  15. ↑ Andrew Voerman (10 September 2021). "Wellington Phoenix to field women's team in W-League with quota of Australian players". stuff.co.nz. Archived from the original on 12 September 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  16. ↑ "We're In! Western United to join W-League". Western United. 3 September 2021. Archived from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  17. ↑ "Auckland to enter A-Leagues from next season as US billionaire adds another sporting franchise". ABC News. 21 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  18. ↑ "Single-round Liberty A-League attendance record smashed in Round 1… after just two games!". A-Leagues. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  19. ↑ "W-LEAGUE". Soccer Way. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  20. ↑ "Westfield W-League fixtures and results". Football Federation Australia. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  21. ↑ "Why Sydney is the new home of the A-Leagues Grand Finals". 12 December 2022. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  22. ↑ "'Terrible decision': A-Leagues' move to sell off grand final rights to Sydney sparks fan anger". TheGuardian.com. 12 December 2022. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  23. ↑ Rugari, Vince (12 December 2022). "'Absolute disgrace': A-League grand final move slammed by fans, owners and a Socceroo". Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  24. ↑ "A-Leagues announce first ever Unite Round to take place this season". A-Leagues. 18 October 2023. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  25. ↑ "Auckland expansion team awarded full A-Leagues license". A-Leagues. 21 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  26. ↑ "Fairer wages for women to dominate CBA talks". theworldgame.sbs.com.au. Archived from the original on 14 July 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  27. ↑ "W-League 2013: Melissa Barbieri has to sell possessions to play". smh.com.au. 4 November 2013. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  28. ↑ "You can't accuse Sydney FC's W-League team of doing it for anything other than the glory". dailytelegraph.com.au. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  29. ↑ Scanlon, Jill (20 October 2015). "The W-League Will Be Looking To Follow The Matildas Pay Deal Path". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2015. While this is not a full-time professional workload wage, the women can also earn money playing overseas and are therefore considered by the PFA to be categorised as professional.
  30. ↑ "W-League players to get huge pay increase for new season". espnfc.com. 11 September 2017. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  31. 1 2 "Salary cap changes, pay boost for W-League, A-League players". thewomensgame.com. 9 September 2021. Archived from the original on 29 December 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  32. ↑ Monteverde, Marco (9 September 2021). "A-League: New agreement will allow clubs to spend extra money outside of salary cap". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 December 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  33. ↑ "Fans able to watch every match of the Westfield W-League 2018/19 Season". 5 September 2018. Archived from the original on 29 September 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  34. ↑ "ESPN+ Acquires Broadcast Rights to Westfield W-League in the United States". 10 August 2018. Archived from the original on 29 September 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  35. ↑ "Fans in more corners of the globe set to watch Australian football this season". 18 October 2018. Archived from the original on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  36. ↑ "ABC TV becomes Free-to-Air Broadcast Partner of the Hyundai A-League". A-League. 3 October 2019. Archived from the original on 3 October 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  37. ↑ "Foxtel and FFA come to an agreement over A-League and W-League". Mumbrella. 22 June 2020. Archived from the original on 6 July 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  38. ↑ "ABC strikes deal with FFA to become free-to-air home of football in Australia". ABC News. 3 October 2019. Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  39. ↑ "A-League announces Channel 10 as new broadcast partner in five-year deal". ABC News (Australia). 26 May 2021. Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  40. ↑ "Network 10 and Paramount+ to deliver double the football action on Saturday nights". A-League. 27 September 2021. Archived from the original on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  41. ↑ "10 Bold, Paramount+ home of 2022–23 A-League". TV Tonight. 7 October 2022. Archived from the original on 29 September 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  42. ↑ "Kate Jacewicz to referee the Westfield W-League 2019 Grand Final". Football Federation Australia. 13 February 2019. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  43. ↑ "Australia W-League Women All-time appearances 1–50". worldfootball.net. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  44. ↑ "Women A-League Women - All-time Topscorers". Archived from the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
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