2006–07 A-League

A-League
Season 2006–07
Champions Melbourne Victory
AFC Champions League Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United
Top goalscorer Daniel Allsopp
(11 goals)
Biggest away win New Zealand Knights 0–4 Melbourne Victory
(27 October 2006)
Highest attendance 50,333
Lowest attendance 1,632
Average attendance 12,927

The 2006–07 A-League season was the second season of the Australian football (soccer) competition, the A-League. Football Federation Australia hoped to build on the success of the first season and on the interest generated by the Socceroos competing in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Fox Sports had signed a A$120 million deal over 7 years for the exclusive broadcast rights of the A-League, AFC Champions League, and national team matches (excluding matches played in the World Cup finals).[1]

The television advertisement campaign used for the 2006–07 season was the same as the previous season, with different music. Scribe's song "Not Many" was replaced with Manuel Neztic's "Kickin Down".[2] The second season was marketed as "A-League: Version 2".[3]

Clubs

Football Federation Australia have stated that the current franchises have a 5 year exclusivity clause in their licenses that prevents any new franchise from being established in the same city or town.

This does not preclude teams from other regions from joining, however no new teams were added to the competition for the 2006–07 season.

Club Location Stadium
Adelaide United Adelaide Hindmarsh Stadium (17,000)
Central Coast Mariners Gosford Bluetongue Stadium (20,119)
Melbourne Victory Melbourne Olympic Park Stadium (18,500)
Telstra Dome (56,347)
Newcastle Jets Newcastle Energy Australia Stadium (26,164)
New Zealand Knights Auckland North Harbour Stadium (25,000)
Perth Glory Perth Members Equity Stadium (18,156)
Queensland Roar Brisbane Suncorp Stadium (52,500)
Sydney FC Sydney Aussie Stadium (42,500)

Pre-Season Challenge Cup

This competition was held in July and August in the lead up to the start of the A-League season. The opening round was 15 July 2006. The competition featured a group stage, with three regular rounds and a bonus round, followed by a two week finals playoff. The bonus group round matched up teams against opponents from the other group, and also offered the incentive of "bonus points" based on goals scored (1 point for 2 goals, 2 points for 3 goals, 3 points for 4 or more goals).

The Pre-Season Cup was used to enhance the A-League's profiles by playing pre-season games in regional centres including the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Launceston, Canberra, Wollongong, Port Macquarie, Orange and Tamworth.[4]

The pre-season cup was won by Adelaide United at the final on 19 August 2006.

Regular season

Home and away season

The league season took a triple round-robin format, and took place over 21 rounds between 25 August 2006 and 21 January 2007.

League table

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Melbourne Victory 21 14 3 4 41 20 +21 45
Adelaide United 21 10 3 8 32 27 +5 33
Newcastle Jets 21 8 6 7 32 30 +2 30
Sydney FC 21 8 8 5 29 19 +10 29
Queensland Roar 21 8 5 8 25 27 -2 29
Central Coast Mariners 21 6 6 9 22 26 -4 24
Perth Glory 21 5 5 11 24 30 -6 20
New Zealand Knights 21 5 4 12 13 39 -26 19

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Finals series

  Semifinals Preliminary final Grand final
    L1 L2    
    28 January & 4 February                        
1  Melbourne Victory 0 2     18 February
2  Adelaide United 0 1     11 February          Melbourne Victory 6
       Adelaide United (pso) 1 (4)      Adelaide United 0
  26 January & 2 February      Newcastle Jets 1 (3)  
3  Newcastle Jets 1 2
4  Sydney FC 2 0  

The Asian Football Confederation announced on 21 November 2006 that Adelaide United and Sydney FC would represent Australia in the 2007 AFC Champions League. Despite an appeal by the Football Federation Australia, it was determined that the A-League 2005-06 premiers and champions would qualify and not those from the current season.[5]

The AFC also indicated that the qualification arrangements would not be reviewed prior to 2009. The FFA have indicated that the premiers and champions of A-League 2006–07 will qualify for the 2008 AFC Champions League – establishing a precedent of maintaining a one year lag between qualification and participation.

2006–07 league records (regular season)

Leading goalscorers

Player Team Goals
Daniel Allsopp Melbourne Victory 11
Archie Thompson Melbourne Victory 10
Damian Mori Central Coast Mariners (6), Queensland Roar (2) 8
Mark Bridge Newcastle Jets 8
Adam Kwasnik Central Coast Mariners 7
Jamie Harnwell Perth Glory 7

Most Goal Assists

Player Team Goal Assists
Fred Melbourne Victory 9
Leo Bertos Perth Glory 9
Jason Spagnuolo Adelaide United 7
Matt Thompson Newcastle Jets 6
Nick Carle Newcastle Jets 6
Archie Thompson Melbourne Victory 5

Most Yellow Cards

Player Team Yellow Cards
Adrian Leijer Melbourne Victory 7
Nick Carle Newcastle Jets 6
Andrew Durante Newcastle Jets 6
Kevin Muscat Melbourne Victory 5
Terry McFlynn Sydney FC 5
Simon Colosimo Perth Glory 5

Attendances

These are the attendance records of each of the teams at the end of the home and away season. The table does not include finals series attendances.

Team Hosted Average Highest Lowest Total
Melbourne Victory 11 27,728 50,333 15,563 305,011
Queensland Roar 10 16,465 32,371 10,040 164,653
Sydney FC 10 14,999 20,881 9,871 149,986
Adelaide United 11 12,162 16,378 8,785 133,782
Newcastle Jets 10 11,442 20,980 4,635 114,420
Central Coast Mariners 11 9,828 15,404 4,644 108,112
Perth Glory 10 7,671 9,978 6,251 76,709
New Zealand Knights 11 3,014 7,304 1,632 33,156
{{ALeague {{{T9}}}}} 0 0 0 0 0
{{ALeague {{{T10}}}}} 0 0 0 0 0
{{ALeague {{{T11}}}}} 0 0 0 0 0
{{ALeague {{{T12}}}}} 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 84 12,927 50,333 1,632 1,085,829

Highest attendances

Awards

The 2007 A-League Awards ceremony was held on 27 February 2007 at the Sydney Opera House.[6]

See also

References

External links