The FFA have confirmed how next season’s A-League competition will look with the introduction of expansion outfit Western United.
With the competition now comprising of 11 teams next season, it will mean there will be an uneven A-League schedule and as a result the season will run for 29 weeks, with each club playing a total of 13 home-and-away games and three byes intertwined throughout the season.
Due to this, every team will play each-other twice and the third-opponent matchup coming down to a certain criteria which the FFA will use to decide those contests.
The criteria include; maximising broadcast metrics, fairness and competition integrity for all clubs and maximising attendances and other commercial priorities.
The season will start on the weekend of 11-13 October with the Grand Final being played on the 16th of 17th of May.
However, there will be no international breaks for any of the sides this season along with no split rounds.
“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,” FFA Head of Leagues Greg O’Rourke said in a media release.
“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.”
The final A-League fixture for season 2019-20 will be released in July.
