Football Federation Australia (FFA), in collaboration with the Hyundai A-League clubs, the PFA and major broadcaster FOX SPORTS, has finalised the competition window for the Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season.

The Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season will start on Friday 11 October 2019 with the Hyundai A-League 2020 Grand Final to be held on the weekend 16/17 May.

FFA Head of Leagues, Greg O’Rourke, said the entry of Western United FC into the Hyundai A-League for the first time, combined with the scheduling of the AFC U-23 Championship 2020 in January, which also serves as the qualifying tournament for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, meant that a unique mix of challenges needed to be accommodated for the upcoming season.

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“For the past eight seasons we have had 10 clubs who have played each other three times over 27 Rounds,” said O’Rourke.

“With the introduction of Western United FC into the Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season we needed to facilitate a bye each round. As we look to maintain a season window which amplifies the potential of football in Australia, the presence of a bye necessitates that we apply a new format to the competition.

“This season, clubs will play each other twice with and additional six matches per club that will see some clubs play each other three times over 29 rounds. A methodology has also been agreed as to determine the additional six matches.

“The Hyundai A-League 2020 Finals Series will remain the same as the previous edition with Elimination Finals (3v6 & 4v5), Semi Finals (1 v lowest ranked winner from Elimination Finals, 2 v highest ranked winner from Elimination Finals,) and a Grand Final.

“Similar to last season we activated a joint FFA/Clubs Competitions Calendar Working Group, tasked with considering and assessing the unique scheduling challenges for the Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season.

"Following extensive discussions over recent months and assessment of the Hyundai A-League 2018/19 Season data, we collectively decided it is in the best interests of the Hyundai A-League to play through the international breaks this season, with the possibility of rescheduling matches should a certain number of players from a team be unavailable for selection due to certain international duties.

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“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the clubs, the PFA and FOX SPORTS for their genuine input and support for collaboration with FFA on determining the optimal competition format for the Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season.

“With this decision made, detailed work commences on the draw process and we are looking to release the final version of the Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season draw in July.

“In collaboration with our stakeholders, we will be focussed on developing a schedule which will amplify broadcast and attendance metrics, support club growth initiatives whilst providing a fair and equitable fixture schedule for all clubs that also meets key player welfare principles,” said O’Rourke.

Key Points for the Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season

• 11 Clubs
• 29 Rounds (13 Home/Away matches per club - 3 Byes per club)
• Round One 11-13 October 2019
• Round 29: 24-26 April 2020
• No break for FIFA International dates
• No Split Rounds (Bye preference for 3 clubs participating in the AFC Champions League 2020)
• Hyundai A-League 2020 Finals Series structure remains the same (Elimination Finals (3v6 & 4v5), Semi Finals (1 v lowest ranked winner from Elimination Finals, 2 v highest ranked winner from Elimination Finals,) and the Grand Final)
• Hyundai A-League 2020 Grand Final – weekend of 16/17 May 2020

Opponent Match-up Weightings – Methodology

• Due to the uneven number of Rounds for Season 2019/20 (e.g. 29 Rounds / 26 matches per Club), each Club will play a minimum of two matches against each other Club.
• Select “third” opponent match-ups will be determined according to agreed methodology.

Key Principles

• Priority 1: Maximise Hyundai A League broadcast metrics
• Priority 2: Fairness and competition integrity for all clubs
• Priority 3: Maximise Hyundai A-League attendance metrics and other commercial priorities

I bet we'll never see the 'agreed' methodology behind the allocation of the third match :)

Watch Western United draw CCM, WSW and Brisbane as their third matches - you know, just to help them into the finals ;)

How the fuck can you even list priority #2 after what is #1.

Big market teams will get shafted for the #metrics.

Guess there’ll be no complaints from Adelaide or Roar fans though about the fixtures.

3 byes per club....  that sucks.

So we will be having Saturday night fixtures featuring CCM v Roar? How fked is that?.

Soooo, the league expands and each team plays less????
FMD, only in Australia.

No doubt WU will definitely be playing Victory twice at Kardinia Park - gotta pad them metrics somehow!

Lol Metrics 1 and 3...

Quoting the OP article in your post should be a bannable offence

Certainly feeling that slap to the face right now

Because the biggest issue facing our game right now is that people forget the A-League is on after an international break! Genius! How did they become so smart?

We now live in a world where the AFL (Who would relocate a club to Syria for extra $) now have competition with fairer fixtures than we do.

lmao

I can't help but smile :)

Me too. But "anything is better than Lowy...", eh nuvo new dawners ?

LOL

this is bad 

Another mid-October start - what a cracker that is! :)

Throw fox into the bin. This is pathetic.

This is surely a joke, right?  No legitimate sporting competition would deliberately fudge a draw in a way that puts the integrity of the competition a distant second to filling the coffers.
They might as well go just a little further and modify the draw so that the Sydney and Melbourne clubs only play interstate clubs once and the remainder of their matches are derbies?
Or better still, just decree that all Melbourne and Sydney clubs automatically qualify for the finals, and remainder battle it our for the remaining place(s).  That will maximise revenue in keeping with 'The (un)Principles'.

Fold the league. 

Honestly.  It is 100% fucked now.

I absolutely hate the uneven amount of games - this means that the competitions integrity has been thrown out the window (if it even existed in the first place).

The draw for these games absolutely has to be completely random - but it won't be. There'll be extra derbies and Western United will get a few easy home games. Guarantee Nix, Newcastle, CCM will all get screwed.

Would have happened like this with or without Lowy.  FFS.

No it wouldn't. There was always going to be 12 teams, until the new vested interests had their say.

How do the little teams get screwed? If anything, clubs like Sydney, Victory, City, Wanderers and Western are fucked because I guarantee they’ll all be playing eachother the third time

League was never going to expand under Lowy lol.

Had already shot it down previously. 

-PB

I mean id rather 2 new teams entering and a 33 game season but it is what it is and Im fine with this for a season. 

You could argue the season is already lopsided as some teams play 14 home games, other 13, some played Perth at home twice and others played Mariners at home twice etc

AFL and NRL also function perfectly respectfully in the Australian sporting landscape with weird draws

there is so much wrong with this we can't even talk about little things that are wrong like the start time in october and having the ffa cup a few weeks later because there is so much wrong with all this 

Actual I think its good, the weaker clubs like Roar and CCM get to play Jets and WSW more making it balanced at the bottom. Where are the clubs like Nix will have to play Perth 3 times.

It'll probably be 24 games, not 33.