Bosnich: The handicap that is damaging Australian football

Do Australian football clubs need to play more matches?

The A-League format currently hosts 26 home and away fixtures, with four finals contests for sides that reach the Grand Final.

A-League clubs enter the Australia Cup in the months between seasons, with the most recent competition starting in late July and wrapping up in early October – two weeks prior to the A-League’s opening fixtures.

At most, a side who competes in all available competitions including the AFC Champions League will play a maximum of 47 games – given they win the treble.

The most matches any A-League team has competed in within a single season is 44 – Western Sydney Wanderers completed this feat in their AFC Champions League winning 2013/14 campaign (27 A-League games, two finals games, 14 AFC Champions League games, one FFA Cup game), as did the Central Coast Mariners in 2023/24 (27 league, three finals, 13 ACL, one Australia Cup).

In total, an average A-League side competes in around 30 games within a season.

In comparison, top leagues in Europe compete in an average of 42, while Champions League sides tend to push 50 games across a season.

Given the unique salary cap that the A-League has implemented, it’s difficult for A-League sides to build out a roster deep enough to compete in a significant number of contests. Due to the limitations in place, A-League squads average approximately five to six fewer contracted players than sides across Europe.

And it may be holding our nation behind in our attempts to keep up on the international stage – particularly influencing Australian players who join European clubs.

As identified by former Socceroo and Premier League 'keeper Mark Bosnich, the A-League and Football Australia need to introduce a busier schedule to better match our international competitors.

“We’ve become so accustomed here - in all sports, not just football – to so little games,” Bosnich told Afternoons with Adam Peacock.

“You look at the AFL and the Rugby League; they only play each other one and a half times.

“In European football in general, you don’t have salary caps – every club has their budgets and there are Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), but that’s a different thing altogether.

“You can still spend up to two thirds of your income on players and transfers and so forth.

“The biggest handicap that we have is that the more successful you are, the more games you play… that’s how it should be!

“‘You’re that good, how are we going to handicap you’… (the handicap is) to have so many games, and that’s when you’ve got to get more and more of a squad.”

With that in mind, Bosnich has recommended that the FA shift the schedule to coincide the Australia Cup with the league.

“From a football perspective, when the Australian game does move back to the winter – which it has to – I wouldn’t start the Australian FA Cup in July,” he said.

“I’d have it continuously with the season. How would we go here playing three times a week?”