Australia Cup
| Founded | 1962 |
|---|---|
| Abolished | 1968 |
| Region | Australia |
| Most successful club(s) |
Sydney Hakoah (2 titles) |
The Australia Cup was a football (soccer) knockout cup competition in Australia. It was the first national club tournament in the country, initiated in 1962 by the newly formed governing body of the sport, Australian Soccer Federation. The inaugural season of the tournament was contested by biggest teams from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Newcastle. In 1963 the Australia Cup grew to take in teams from throughout Tasmania, and from 1964 Perth and Canberra clubs were represented, giving the competition a truly national feel.
Played throughout football's first real boom period in the 1960s, the Australia Cup was a refreshing competition for the sport. Though as the tournament grew, interstate travel provided difficulties and the decision was taken to abolish the Australia Cup after the 1968 season. However, the new national stage in which the tournament provided fuelled an expansionist desire across the big state league clubs ultimately leading to the creation of Australia's first national league in the 1970s, the National Soccer League.
In its seven-season run, six clubs from around Australia won the tournament, with Sydney Hakoah the only team to win it on two occasions.
The origins of the Australia Cup are stemmed from September 1961, when Henry Seamonds, Chairman and Treasurer of the NSW Federation of Soccer Clubs, met with Victorian counterparts at a time when the Australian Soccer Football Association was suspended by FIFA. Seamonds put forward plans to not only form a new national governing body for the sport, but to also create a national knockout cup. The competition was ambitious, with clubs to be flown to Sydney for matches that were to be played over a five-week period starting later that year. Although the tournament did not go ahead, in November of that year Seamonds summoned a meeting of all state representatives to Sydney. There the Australian Soccer Federation was formed with Seamonds made Chairman, and in 1962 the Australia Cup was founded.
Initially the competition was confined to clubs from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australian, with the draw including 16 teams - four each from Victoria and the Sydney competition in New South Wales, three from South Australia and Queensland, and two from Northern New South Wales. The inaugural season of the Cup was won by Yugal who defeated St George Budapest 8–1 at Wentworth Park in the final. The third place playoff, between Juventus and Juventus (from Melbourne and Adelaide respectively), was won by the South Australian team on penalty kicks.
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