The Football South Australia Federation Cup, more commonly known as the Federation Cup and referred to as the Australia Cup South Australian preliminary rounds until the semi-finals, is an annual knockout cup competition in South Australia by Football South Australia. The competition is the second longest-running cup competition in Australia, only behind the Football West State Cup, founded 8 years earlier.
The competition includes all clubs from the top three tiers of South Australian soccer, as well as numerous clubs from level four and outside the pyramid.
Since 2014 the Federation Cup has been incorporated as one of the qualification tournaments to determine participants in the national Australia Cup. Adelaide City are the most successful club in the competitions history, winning the competition a total of 18 times, including a run of five in a row from 1969 until 1973.
In July 1907, the Webb-Harris Cup was presented by Messrs. Charles Webb and J Harris as an annual competition with the stipulation that the first team to win the tournament three times would become the outright winners.[1] The first edition consisted of six teams: Cambridge, North Adelaide, Norwood, Port Adelaide, South Adelaide and West Adelaide, and was won by Cambridge, who defeated Hindmarsh 2–0 in the inaugural final.[2] Hindmarsh won the 1908 and 1909 finals, defeating Port Adelaide and Sturt, and Cambridge won the 1910 and 1911 finals, becoming outright winners in the competition's fifth year. After becoming the permanent owners of the trophy, the Cambridge club presented it to the South Australian British Football Association for it to be contested perpetually and to be known as the Cambridge Cup.[3]
From 1926, the cup was presented by Victorian clothing brand Pelaco until 1954, when South Australian tabloid newspaper The Advertiser took over. In 1961, eight clubs broke away from the federation and contested their own version of the cup, known as the Jaxen Cup. Following the reamalgamation of the South Australian Soccer Federation, the cup was renamed as the Federation Cup, and has since has had different sponsors since, including Willis, P.G.H., Dairy Vale, Mutual Community, West End, Best Pavers, Top Corner and Coca-Cola.
Since 2014, the competition has also decided the South Australian representatives in the Australia Cup. Adelaide City qualified for the inaugural season of the competition after defeating rivals West Adelaide 4–1 in the final.[4] Since 2021, the two finalists have qualified for the Australia Cup after South Australia earned a second slot due to an increase in preliminary round participants.[5][6]
The competition is a single-elimination tournament. Depending on the number of teams that enter the competition, it may begin from various stages. The first round of the competition includes all teams excluding the 11 eligible National Premier Leagues South Australia teams. The teams who are drawn last receive byes to the second round. All teams play from the second round onwards. The semi-final and final are played at a neutral venue, as decided by Football South Australia.
The 2024 competition began from the 2023 Australia Cup third preliminary round, with 52 teams participating, and the 11 eligible National Premier Leagues South Australia teams entering in the following round.[7]
All teams that play in Football South Australia sanctioned competition are required to participate. Teams outside of FSA competitions may apply to enter. Adelaide United Youth are ineligible to participate, as youth teams cannot play in the Australia Cup preliminary rounds.
All matches are played at the venue of the home team, who is always the team that is drawn first. The semi-finals and final are played on a neutral ground, which since 2022, has been the State Centre for Football. Excluding 2015 and 2021, which used The Parks Football Centre as the neutral venue, the cup final was historically played at Hindmarsh Stadium.