Football Australia has made a significant announcement regarding the National Second Tier, naming the new competition the 'Australian Championship'.
Football Australia have revealed the name and branding for its new National Second Tier competition. (Image: Football Australia/Brett Costello)
Football Australia's new National Second Tier competition, which will commence in October this year, will be known as the 'Australian Championship'.
Addressing the media this morning, the organisation explained that it was imperative the name and subsequent branding - the logo's design is eerily similar to National Premier Leagues, state federation, and national team logos - connected the competition with other parts of the game.
"This brand obviously does mirror the NPLs, and if you go to the essence of what the competition is about, there's eight clubs that are going to come from the NPLs and play in the second tier every year, so we wanted to make sure that that connection was really strong in the brand because that's the message we want to send," Football Australia CEO James Johnson said.
Johnson was pressed further about the generic nature of the logo.
"The alternative is that we do something that is disconnected, but if we go back to the principles and the roots of what this competition is about, it's not disconnected, this competition; it can't be disconnected. It needs to be connected, that's the point."
Alongside the name and logo, another critical aspect behind the branding was its key theme, "breakthrough", which was decided upon to align with the ideas of young talent breaking through and foundation and invitational clubs being elevated onto a national stage.
Beyond the branding of the new Australian Championship, more insights were shared into the format of the competition. In October last year, the competition's structure was altered to be a post-season 'Champions League' model tournament from the initial desire for a traditional home-and-away league format.
Football Australia shared that the 16 teams entering the competition's inaugural edition - comprising eight foundation clubs and the eight premiers of each NPL competition across the country - would be split into four groups of four teams. Regarding its commencement, the Australian Championship will begin on the 10th of October and run until December.
Additionally, information was provided about how each of the four groups would be structured. Each will comprise one seeded and one unseeded foundation club and two invitational clubs. Football Australia has also opted for a geographically-based approach to structuring each group. The two invitational clubs in each group are as follows: Northern NSW NPL and NPL Queensland, NPL NSW and Capital Football NPL, NPL Victoria and NPL Tasmania, and the NPL SA and NPL WA invitational clubs will compete in the same group.
Of the eight foundation clubs, four have been seeded based on their 2024 NPL Premiership results, meaning South Melbourne, APIA Leichhardt, Avondale, and the Marconi Stallions will be the 'top four' clubs for the inaugural edition of the Australian Championship.
The Marconi Stallions lifting the 2024 NPL NSW Championship trophy. (Image: Harley Appezzato)
The altering of the competition's format from the expected home-and-away league set-up has been criticised due to the belief that Football Australia misled clubs into signing up for a glorified version of the NPL Finals Series, which staged its last edition in 2019. Johnson was quick to explain that the structure of the Australian Championship is very different.
"It's not an NPL Finals. Otherwise, we'd be calling it the NPL Finals. It's the Australian Championship. We have half of the teams that are guaranteed, irrespective of how they perform in the NPL, that will play in this competition, meaning that this group of clubs are our second-tier group of clubs," he explained.
"Then, like any other league in the world...whether it's the Premier League or the Champions League, there's always a balance between the number of clubs that get direct access - the Premier League, that's 17 teams, and there's three that come through sporting merit. The only difference in this competition model, when we talk about access, is that eight go in directly and eight go in through sporting performance."
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With long-standing questions about promotion and relegation in Australian football, particularly in the wake of the A-Leagues' well-documented financial struggles, having made significant cuts to clubs' central distribution funding ahead of this season, Johnson was asked about the Australian Professional Leagues' perspective on the new competition and what the roadmap is to move towards a fully connected pyramid.
"We have had a significant amount of engagement over the years (with the APL). They're supportive of this competition kicking off in October, and I think that's a great thing about this competition, it's something that is uniting and connecting the whole game in terms of its support," he said.
"In terms of the connectivity (of the pyramid), right now, the focus has been on getting the second tier up and running, moving it from a conversation to something that is tangible, which we're doing at the moment. We have deliberately connected it to the NPL, and that's a first step."
Broadcasting is another significant area to address in ensuring the inaugural season of the Australian Championship is set up for success. Johnson was asked whether Football Australia's four-year agreement with Network 10 and Paramount+ last August included plans to broadcast Australian Championship matches.
"The round of eight, 16, 32 of the Australia Cup and the second tier will be in market to go to another broadcaster," he revealed.
"What we've done for all of those competitions, though, is we will be producing the matches, so we've taken on that responsibility. We'll be able to announce soon who the producer will be, and then it's a matter of placing those matches, both the Australia Cup and the second tier, on a platform, but we haven't made that decision yet."
National Second Tier General Manager Nathan Godfrey also revealed that Football Australia will subsidise clubs' travel costs for away matches, which Front Page Football first reported in November. He also added that if an invitational club qualifies for the Australian Championship but does not have the financial viability to participate, they can opt out.
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