https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/new-a-league-season-set-to-begin-during-christmas-holidays-20201013-p564m2.html

New A-League season set to begin during Christmas holidays

The next A-League season is set to begin in the peak of the summer holiday season, with clubs working towards a proposed December 27 kick-off.

Football Federation Australia, A-League clubs and the players' union are making plans for a condensed 26-round regular season that will begin after Christmas and finish with a grand final played before June 30. While the draw is yet to be finalised, senior sources involved in discussions suggest the proposed format will likely include a number of midweek matches to fit 26 rounds plus finals into just six months.

Exciting!!

Yey! 

Ugh ! Some one at  FFA  was NOT THINKING !!  What  a awful AWFUL  time to to start the season :(

Will it really matter THIS year ?

Starting summer is rough but I'm glad it will finish in Winter so the quality will improve as the season goes on.
I'm excited to see how these depleted A-League teams will go against NSL teams in the FFA Cup which should have the final at the end of the season, but the FFA are too chicken shit to use the formula that works for every other footballing nation in the world. Can't wait for them to rush it out as fast as the can like it's some kind of practice comp again.

I don't know why they didn't simply just make it a home and away 22 round season since it's been such a fucked up year.

It would finish in time without the need of midweek games, and although a short season it'll atleast be a fair draw. 

Too short a season.

I don’t disagree, but I do think there are some AFC requirements that we must meet in terms of season length. 

AND with  12 teams why only just  26  rounds Can't  F.F.A count? ?!

I think moving to a winter season is pretty much a lock for 2022. FFA have been talking it up a lot and it makes sense for so many reasons (number 1: the quality of play is crap over the hot summer months). If nothing else it would give the competition the sense of a fresh start. Going back to a summer season would just feel like regression.

But if the current season finishes by the end of June, and 2022 starts in February/March, that means an off-season of 7-8 months. You could actually fit a mini-season in that period.

They'll barely experience winter, be done by end of June. Will get most of summer though. Remember sunscreen! 

FFA Cup tournament?

If I’m not correct but with the fox deal ending in July 31 they got to end the season before that.

Throw in the Olympic Games, a late June finish is understandable although they can end it in mid July depending when the Olympic Games begin next year.

It will just mean the next season will start at the start of 2022 as the FFA want the aleague aligned with the rest of the football leagues in achieving its execution of the XI Principles. 

Starting season at  christmas  AND  in middle of  Austraila summer is isjust  INSANE ! !  Who  is makes these  decisions  ??

12 teams home and away is 22 rounds isn't it? What are the other 4 matches? 
As for starting on Dec 27th, after the last 3-4 months that us Victorians have had in lockdown and Christmas being possibly the first time in what feels like generations that we may me able to take the fam away for a few days... brilliant.

Yeah, lots of questions. The AFC requires minimum season length of 27 games, and they can get away with 26 with the guaranteed FFA Cup fixture for all clubs, but it reeks of just doing the bare minimum. 27 rounds would at least let you do 2.5 round robins (with a geographical split to maximise the number of derbies). 26 rounds is a double round-robin plus a random 4 extra matches.

Ending early to avoid the Olympics also sounds like the old attitude of trying to evade clashes with other events rather than having enough confidence in your own product to worry about its quality first and foremost.

The smart thing would have been to do a January-September season, with 33 rounds + finals. That way you end up being aligned with the NPL, and you can have an FFA Cup tournament for the Round of 32 onwards in October. Then a break for a February/March start in 2022. But apparently the Foxtel contract requires them to finish by July 31.

Which begs the question: why sign such a restrictive contract, when we still had no idea what Covid would have in store? As it is there's no guarantee Victoria will have fans in stadiums by Christmas, or that NZ will allow quarantine-free movement for Wellington players.

Hmmmm  lot of  questions allright ,  like WHO signed this  such a contract with  fox tel ?!?

hopefully they aren't stupid enough to once again insist on "Starting the season with a bang" in the middle of summer. Round 1 derbies are already boring enough because players are unfit or unfamiliar with the tactics and no one wants to be making a mistake under such pressure, going through all that whilst it being 30+ degrees would be intolerable.

It’s so the a league olyroos can play in the Olympics 

And it’s almost like you don’t know COVID exists and is changing many things in our lives

It’s probably the tv contract

Survival? With nothing else on the table take a restrictive contract or risk $0

Would very much doubt there will be olympics next year , the rest off the world is getting hit far harder with second wave than the first.

They might do the Olympics with no foreign fans. Just Japanese supporters. And athletes quarantined at home and then again in Japan, with no mingling between nations until competition begins. Heavy restrictions in the athlete’s village on mixing. It could be done. The World needs to start living with this bastard virus and keeping sport going, albeit with heavy restrictions, is becomingly increasingly necessary for all the related businesses (the pie and beer sellers) and people’s mental health, needing something to be enthusiastic about, if only on the tv. 

The athletes can’t have sex with each other then which will be a challenge 

Tough times call for drastic measures.
Best to lower expectations for upcoming season, everyone's in survival mode.
It's going to be one of those seasons where we'll be happy just to make it through.
And to be honest, at that point, the real challenge begins.

True, at this point, I have trouble seeing the OLympics going ahead.
What kind of government would willingly allow thousands of people to flood in from the most infected parts of the world?
You'd have to be the dumbest leader on earth.

Im actually looking forward to it, its forced clubs look at what they have inside the club and I wonder if more youth will get a go.

Is that one of the proposed exhibition events for Tokyo 2021? Will be a shame for the Athletes that have been training up for it... hahahahahhahahah