South Australia awarded additional FFA Cup berth after outperforming states with greater representation in the national knockout phase

Six years of outperforming states with greater FFA Cup representation has finally been rewarded, as South Australia has been allocated an additional berth in soccer’s national knockout competition.

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South Australia has been allocated an additional FFA Cup berth, after six years of consistently outperforming better represented states in the knockout competition.

Football SA exclusively revealed to The Advertiser that it has been awarded two places in the cup’s national round-of-32 next season, as a result of a tournament review.

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It comes after having a sole state league representative since the competition launched in 2014, despite its teams boasting the cup’s fourth-best success rate.

FSA chief executive Michael Carter said one of New South Wales’ five spots would be redistributed to SA under the revised format.

Ionannis Simosis and Fausto Erba celebrate a goal during Adelaide Olympic’s FFA Cup round-of-32 win over Perth’s Floreat Athena. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

It followed an increase from 28-54 Croweater clubs in the cup’s state-based rounds – one of the criteria used for allocating national knockout berths – in the past five campaigns.

Player registration numbers, up 12 per cent last year on the back of the SA Amateur Soccer League’s affiliation with FSA, were also factored in.

Carter said it was overdue recognition for SA teams, which had won 38 per cent of their FFA Cup matches from the round-of-32 onwards.

“This is a fantastic result for football in South Australia,” Carter said.

“We have been making representation to FFA for a number of years about the

need to increase our spot allocation to truly reflect our strong participation in the FFA Cup.

Campbelltown City’s Japanese winger Yoshei Matsumoto beats Melbourne City’s Harrison Delbridge during this year’s FFA Cup clash at Newton. Picture: Alex Aleshin

“Football in South Australia has a proud history and gaining an additional spot allocation is

great for the local game and will see another club represented on the national stage.”

Clubs had previously earnt the right to represent SA in the national knockout phase only by winning the state-based Federation Cup.

They had gone on to prevail in five of their 13 outings, including Adelaide Olympic’s dramatic 4-3 victory against Perth’s Floreat Athena earlier this year.

It continued the state’s superior strike rate over federations with more entrants to date, such as NSW (37 per cent), Northern NSW (20 per cent) and Western Australia (8 per cent).

NPL SA club Adelaide Olympic celebrates its passage to the last 16 of the FFA Cup. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

SA had previously been awarded the same number of cup spots as ACT, Tasmania and Northern Territory.

The state’s depth of talent was further demonstrated by MetroStars (2015) and Campbelltown City (last year) being crowned Australia’s best second-tier side in the national NPL finals.

This achievement secured SA a bonus cup place in each campaign.

A-League club Adelaide United also claimed an unprecedented third FFA Cup title when it downed Melbourne City in October’s decider.

An FFA spokesman confirmed SA’s extra cup berth for next season.