The Australian Professional Leagues, officially abbreviated to the APL, and sometimes referred to as the A-Leagues, are the governing body for the A-League Men, A-League Women, A-League Youth and E-League. Since their formation, they have been mostly independent of Football Australia, but remain under their umbrella.[1]
The APL has rebranded various aspects of the professional leagues, including renaming and redesigning the logos for the men's, women's, and youth leagues. However, the decision to host the 2023, 2024, and 2025 grand finals in Sydney was met with backlash from fans, former players, and active support groups, with some clubs stating their preference to host grand finals at their home grounds.[2]
History
Unbundling and rebranding
On 31 December 2020, Football Australia announced that the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) would be separated from the governing body. APL will assume responsibility for operational, commercial, and marketing activities, while Football Australia will continue to manage disciplinary and integrity matters, as well as the registration of clubs, players and officials, transfers, and match scheduling.[3] Ahead of the 2021–22 season, the APL rebranded various aspects of the competitions under its control:[4]
In addition to the name changes, the logos of the three leagues were also changed to reflect the new identity of the organisation. The change drew some criticism from social media, with fans saying that the new logo was "lazy",[5] whilst some pointed out the resemblance to the logo of South Australian company Adelaide Building Consultants.[6] Others praised the rebranding as it brought the men's and women's competitions under the same brand identity.
2021 Silver Lake investment
On 14 December 2021, it was announced that American private equity firm, Silver Lake had purchased a 33.33% minority stake in the Australian Professional Leagues, the sale worth $140 million, the largest injection of capital into Australian soccer in its history. The firm stated that they valued the APL at $425 million Australian dollars.[7][8][9]
2022 Grand Final decision
City Terrace and Original Style Melbourne, the active supporter groups of Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory respectively, protesting the decision by Australian Professional Leagues to give A-Leagues Grand Final hosting rights to Sydney for the next three seasons in the 20th minute of the Melbourne Derby on 17 December 2022.
On 12 December 2022, the APL announced that the 2023, 2024 and 2025 grand finals would be hosted in Sydney,[10] an announcement that was met with universal backlash from fans of all teams, former players and active support groups.[11][12]Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix both released a statement shortly after the announcement, saying that "they will always prefer to play any grand final that they earn the right to host, at their home ground".[13][14]Western United said that they "do not support the grand finals being held in Sydney".[15]Perth Glory chairman Tony Sage condemned the decision, also stating that "a majority of (club) owners supported the decision".[16]Adelaide United's chairman, Piet van der Pol commented that the club does not have a place on the APL's 7-person board, and thus was not a part of the decision making.[17]Melbourne City released a statement, sympathising with the frustrations of the fans, yet stating that the decision was necessary for the sustainability of the competition.[18]Central Coast Mariners Chairman Richard Peil sent an email to the club's members, saying that the club was not consulted in any way, stating that only five of the clubs had an opportunity to vote on the decision.[19]Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers both released statements acknowledging the disappointment of the decision, saying that the decision was necessary to grow the financial side of the game.[20][21] Adelaide United winger Craig Goodwin appeared in a video promoting the Grand Final, saying "they're (grand finals) everything you dream of as a kid", however he has stated that he does not support the decision to host the grand final in Sydney.[22]
The following week, fans from various clubs staged walkouts. The first match of the weekend, on 16 December, Newcastle Jets fans walked out at the 20th minute in the game against Brisbane Roar.[23] The most notable walkout of the round was during the Melbourne Derby. Throughout the match, supporters of both teams threw flares onto the pitch, which caused the game to be paused. Melbourne City goalkeeper Tom Glover threw a flare towards the crowd of Melbourne Victory supporters, sparking a pitch invasion, where between 100–200 people attacked Glover and referee Alex King, both sustaining minor injuries. The match was abandoned as a result.[24][25][26][27]
On 21 April 2023, fans from Sydney FC's supporter group, The Cove, stated that they will boycott the entire finals series over the Grand Final decision, as well as the APL backtracking on promises to work with supporter groups from various clubs to reach an agreement.[28] a month later on 10 May, The Cove called off the boycott ahead of their semi-final match against Melbourne City, following the APL's announcement that all 13 clubs had committed to establishing a fan representative group.[29][30]
On 18 October 2023, the Australian Professional Leagues officially walked-back the Grand Final decision, renegotiating the contract into Unite Round to be held in January for the remainder of the contract. The structure being similar to NRL's Magic Round and AFL's Gather Round.[31][32][33] Two days later, CEO, Danny Townsend, left his role to take up a new job in the Middle East after two years in charge. Stephen Conroy replaced him as chairman.[34]
2024 layoffs and financial problems
On 16 January 2024, it was announced that a large amount of the Australian Professional Leagues' workforce had been made redundant, and were laid-off. The exact number of employees laid off is unknown, with the figure ranging from 20–75%, of their 80–130 staff. The layoffs were made to stabilise the APL in the short term, allowing for a restructuring of the company.[35][36]
On 3 July 2024, the money distributed to clubs for the 2024–25 A-League Men season was reduced from over $2,000,000 to $530,000,[37] due to the administration's overambitious spending.[38] The cuts were said to be necessary for the APL to stay afloat, as it would allow them to break even over the next financial year.[39]
KeepUp
KeepUp
The KeepUp homepage on 26 February 2024, four days before the website was closed.
On 11 November 2021, the Australian Professional Leagues launched the KeepUp (stylised as KEEPUP.) app. The app contained news primarily from the A-League Men, A-League Women and Australia Cup competitions, Asian continental competitions, the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup, and popular European competitions.[40][41] It also featured an official A-Leagues fantasy and tipping competition, which was launched on 21 September 2022, ahead of the 2022–23 season.[42][43] The app was reported to cost 30 million dollars to launch, which drew criticism from some.[44]
As part of the APL's January 2024 layoffs, it was announced that KeepUp would be closed on 1 March 2024, under three years since its launch. One of the reasons for the closure was cited as high expenditure, with the cost of running the service being estimated of up to $50 million.[45][46]
