The Football Federation Australia Cup, commonly known as the FFA Cup, is the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. The annual competition is organised by and named after Football Federation Australia. It features all the teams from the top division, the A-League, as well as from lower tiers in the Australian leagues, including the National Premier Leagues. Teams enter the competition in progressional stages, with qualifying rounds used to determine which lower division teams eventually join those from the A-League in later stages of the cup. It is currently sponsored by the Westfield Group and thus officially known as the Westfield FFA Cup.
The cup's inaugural season took place in 2014, with Adelaide United as the first FFA Cup Champion.
The competition proper is a 32-team knockout tournament with pairings for each round drawn based on a seeding system to ensure the progression of teams from Member Federations.
Replays are not used in the FFA Cup. In the event of a match being drawn after the completion of 90 minutes, extra time is played, then a penalty shoot-out if required.
A draw for each round is made from the Round of 32 to the Semi-Finals. Clubs are allocated into various pots depending on the clubs method of qualification and the specific round of competition. The draw also determines which teams will play at home. If a Member Federation Club draws an A-League team, the Member Federation Club will host the fixture. However, if two clubs at the same level are drawn together, the first teams drawn will host.
Unlike "normal" application of seeds where a draw is made to ensure that the top seeds don't meet until the latter stages of the competition, the draw for the FFA Cup is seeded in such a way that it ensures the progression of lesser seeds to generate exposure and revenue for grassroots football clubs. The seeded FFA Cup draw ensures at least three Member Federation Clubs will qualify for the Quarter Finals with one club guaranteed to make the Semi Final.
The inaugural 2014 FFA Cup Final was held as a mid-week fixture on Tuesday 16 December 2014, in order to minimise the impact on the scheduling of the 2014–15 A-League season, already disrupted by Australia hosting the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
For the following year, the 2015 FFA Cup Final was played on a weekend date free of other 2015–16 A-League games, to "emphasise the importance of the Final".
The 32 teams that make up the FFA Cup competition proper are the 10 A-League teams with the remaining 22 teams composed of various semi-professional and amateur qualifiers, referred to as "Member Federation Clubs", from each of the state federations. The A-League clubs enter the competition at the Round of 32.
Wellington Phoenix have additional restrictions imposed as they are a New Zealand-based team, and must play all of their matches in Australia, away from home.
The number of clubs representing each federation is determined by player registration numbers in each jurisdiction, and reviewed annually. The Northern Territory did not participate in the inaugural competition, however is represented from 2015 onwards.
From the 2015 edition of the competition onwards the National Premier Leagues Champion of the previous year, also qualifies for the FFA Cup Round of 32. The first club to qualify via this method was North Eastern MetroStars from South Australia who won the 2014 National Premier Leagues Finals Series.
The 2016 FFA Cup Final was scheduled to return to being a mid-week fixture.[13]