F-League

Not to be confused with F. League.
F-League
Country  Australia
Confederation AFC (Asia)
Founded 2011
Number of teams 9
Level on pyramid 1
International cup(s) AFC Futsal Club Championship
AFF Futsal Club Championship
Current champions East Coast Heat
(2015)
Most championships Dural Warriors (2 titles)
Website Official website

The F-League is the highest national tier for futsal in Australia. It is sanctioned by Football NSW and Football Federation Australia. The inaugural season was held in 2011.[1]

History

The F-League began in 2011 as a six team competition with teams from New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria participating across three weekends in Sydney. This competition was extremely successful with positive feedback from teams from each state that participated.

In 2012 the renamed hummel F-League expanded to an eight team competition with teams again from New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. The competition was played across five weekends (three in New South Wales, two in Victoria and one in the Australian Capital Territory). 13 of the 16 members of the Futsalroos team that competed in the 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup played in the 2012 hummel F-League.

The 2013 season saw five Series played in New South Wales (Sydney), Victoria (Melbourne) and the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) and the addition of a top four finals series, with two semi finals and a grand final played at the end of the fifth weekend of competition. For the first time Friday night fixtures were introduced over a number of the rounds to give the competition additional exposure and provide clubs with more beneficial playing times.

2014 saw eight teams compete in the league with three teams from NSW, two from the ACT, two from Victoria and for the first time, one from Queensland.

Competition format

Matches were initially played over a weekend in a 'Series' format all clubs playing multiple times over two days. However, since 2014, a hybrid home and away system was used resulting in the competition continuing for some 13 weeks from May to August. Since 2012 matches have been played under full FIFA International Laws of the Game, which includes the use of stop clock.

The F-League is the competition that determines the Australian representative team to compete in the AFC Futsal Club Championship. As of the 2012 the club finishing in first position after the regular season competition rounds earns the right to qualify for the AFC competition.

Clubs

Six teams took part in the inaugural season Boomerangs F.S., Dural Warriors, Inner City FC, Maccabi Hakoah, Parramatta Blues and the St. Albans Strikers. Inner City FC and Maccabi Hakoah left the competition after one year of participation.

In 2012 four new teams entered the competition Melbourne Heart (which was disbanded in 2014), East Coast Heat, Jaguars Futbol Sala Club and Vic Vipers.

In 2013 Parramatta Blues were replaced in the competition by the newly formed Sydney Scorpions.

2014 saw eight teams in the competition including; Dural Warriors, East Coast Heat, Sydney Scorpions, Vic Vipers, Boomerangs FS, St Albans Strikers and new clubs Capital FC and South Brisbane.

The 2015 competition saw the withdrawal of formation club St Albans, and the inclusion of Bayside Pirates (VIC) and the newly formed Galaxy FC (QLD), making it a nine team competition.

Champions

Year Champion Runner Up Finals Winner Finals Runner Up
2011 Maccabi Hakoah Inner City FC Maccabi Hakoah St Albans Strikers
2012 Dural Warriors East Coast Heat n/a* n/a*
2013 Vic Vipers Dural Warriors Vic Vipers Dural Warriors
2014 Dural Warriors East Coast Heat Dural Warriors East Coast Heat
2015 East Coast Heat Dural Warriors East Coast Heat Dural Warriors

See also

References

  1. ↑ "New F-League A Hit". Four Four Two. Retrieved 2012-07-14.

External links

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