A-League Women

A-League Women, known before the 2021–22 season as the W-League, is the main women's semi-professional soccer league in Australia. Started in 2008, it currently has 10 teams, nine in Australia and the other in New Zealand. Eight of the Australian teams and the New Zealand team are partners with clubs in A-League Men. The other team is based in Canberra.[1] Because it is sponsored by Liberty Lending Group, an Australian financial services company, the League is called Liberty A-League Women.

A-League Women started on 25 October 2008 as the W-League.[2]

One game per week is broadcast live nationwide on ABC1.[3]

As of the 2021–22 season, teams in A-League Women have a salary cap of A$450,000 for the entire squad. By comparison, the salary cap for clubs in the men's competition, A-League Men, is A$2.1 million, with each team in that league allowed to sign two "marquee players" whose salaries do not count against the cap.

The league began with eight teams.[4] The Central Coast Mariners had to withdraw from the 2010–11 season. This was because they did not have enough money. Western Sydney Wanderers FC joined the league for 2012–13, followed by Melbourne City FC in 2015–16 and the league's first New Zealand side, Wellington Phoenix FC, in 2021–22. Central Coast Mariners FC will return to A-League Women in 2022–23, and Western United FC will add an A-League Women side in 2022–23.

Clubs

Current clubs
Team Location Stadium Capacity Founded Joined Head coach Captain Highest
finish
Most recent
finish
Adelaide United Adelaide,
South Australia
ServiceFM Stadium
Coopers Stadium
7,000
17,000
2008 2008   Adrian Stenta   Isabel Hodgson 3rd 8th
Brisbane Roar Brisbane,
Queensland
Ballymore Stadium 8,000 2008 2008   Garrath McPherson   Ayesha Norrie 1st 9th
Canberra United Canberra, ACT McKellar Park 3,500 2008 2008   Njegosh Popovich   Michelle Heyman 1st 5th
Central Coast Mariners Gosford, New South Wales Central Coast Stadium 20,059 2008 2008
2023 (re-entry)
  Emily Husband   Taren King 2nd 2nd
Melbourne City Melbourne, Victoria Kingston Heath Soccer Complex
AAMI Park
3,300
30,050
2015 2015   Dario Vidošić (caretaker)   Rebekah Stott 1st 3rd
Melbourne Victory Melbourne, Victoria The Home of the Matildas
AAMI Park
3,000
30,050
2008 2008   Jeff Hopkins   Kayla Morrison 1st 4th
Newcastle Jets Newcastle,
New South Wales
Wanderers Oval
Adamstown Oval
McDonald Jones Stadium
2,000
2,000
33,000
2008 2008   Gary van Egmond   Cassidy Davis 2nd 10th
Perth Glory Perth,
Western Australia
Macedonia Park
HBF Park
7,000
20,500
2008 2008   Alexander Epakis   Natasha Rigby 1st 6th
Sydney FC Sydney,
New South Wales
Netstrata Jubilee Stadium
Leichhardt Oval
Seymour Shaw Park
Cromer Park
20,500
20,000
5,000
5,000
2008 2008   Ante Juric   Natalie Tobin 1st 1st
Wellington Phoenix Wellington,
New Zealand
Sky Stadium
Jerry Collins Stadium
34,500
1,900
2021 2021   Paul Temple   Annalie Longo 10th 11th
Western Sydney Wanderers Sydney,
New South Wales
CommBank Stadium
Blacktown Football Park
Marconi Stadium
30,000
500
9,000
2012 2012   Robbie Hooker   Amy Harrison 3rd 7th
Western United Wyndham, Victoria GMHBA Stadium 36,000 2021 2022   Mark Torcaso   Jaclyn Sawicki
  Chloe Logarzo
2nd 2nd
Future clubs
Team Location Stadium Capacity Founded Joining
Auckland (name TBD) Auckland, New Zealand TBD TBD TBD 2024–25[5]

Performance record

Performance and ranking of clubs based on their best regular season result in the W-League and A-League Women. The 2022–23 season is Western United's first season.

Rank Club Best result 08–09 09 10–11 11–12 12–13 13–14 14 15–16 16–17 17–18 18–19 19–20 20–21 21–22 22–23
1 Sydney FC 1st (5 times) 4 1 1 3 4 2 4 3 3 2 3 3 1 1 1
2 Brisbane Roar 1st (3 times) 1 3 2 2 1 4 6 4 7 1 2 5 2 6 9
3 Canberra United 1st (3 times) 3 4 3 1 5 1 3 2 1 5 8 6 4 7 5
4 Melbourne City 1st (2 times) 1 4 4 5 1 7 2 3
5 Melbourne Victory 1st 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 9 9 7 1 2 3 4 4
6 Perth Glory 1st 7 6 5 6 2 5 1 8 2 6 4 7 9 5 6
7 Newcastle Jets 2nd 2 8 6 5 7 8 5 6 5 3 7 9 8 8 10
8 Central Coast Mariners 2nd 6 2
9 Western United 2nd 2
10 Adelaide United 3rd 8 7 7 7 8 6 7 5 6 9 6 8 5 3 8
11 Western Sydney Wanderers 3rd 6 7 8 7 8 8 9 3 6 9 7
12 Wellington Phoenix 10th 10 11

Key
League premiers and qualifier for W-League/A-League Women finals
Qualifier for W-League/A-League Women finals
Not part of that season's competition

References

  1. "Women in a league of their own". Football Federation Australia. 28 July 2008. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  2. Girls shop to the top. FourFourTwo (Australia). 28 July 2008. http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/81307,girls-shop-to-the-top.aspx. Retrieved 2008-07-28. 
  3. "Brisbane Roar v Canberra United – Saturday, 3 October at 3pm on ABC1"
  4. "W-League to debut in October". Fox Sports. 28 July 2008. http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24089401-23215,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-28. 
  5. "Premier League owner confirmed as preferred bidder for A-Leagues expansion licence in Auckland". A-Leagues. 2023-10-10. Retrieved 2023-10-10.