Football Australia have released their 2021 Australian Football Domestic Match Calendar (DMC).
The key features of the 2021 Australian Football DMC include registration periods for Australia’s professional competitions, national team activity windows, A-League and W-League competition windows, final round match dates for the FFA Cup, as well as a standalone spot for the Festival of Football Week, which is set to be introduced in connection with the 2021 FFA Cup Final.
FA CEO James Johnson believes 2021 will be a year of transition towards a completely unified approach for Australian football.
“Flowing on from the unbundling of the Professional Leagues from Football Australia, an important regulatory function for Football Australia as the game’s Governing Body is to set the Domestic Match Calendar in order to lead the realignment of Australia’s football competitions and connect the football pyramid both domestically and globally,” Johnson said.
“The release of the 2021 DMC to football stakeholders, and to the public, is an important step in that process, and we expect to achieve even greater alignment in 2022 as COVID-19 eases and we apply key learnings and insights from 2021.
“Australia’s Domestic Match Calendar will play a vital role in Football Australia’s proposed new and modern transfer system by articulating domestic Transfer Windows which will provide opportunities to progressive clubs at all levels of the sport to conduct player transfer business and generate new revenue streams which can be deployed into the ongoing training and development of players, and the clubs themselves.
“The Domestic Match Calendar will also be fundamental to bringing to life numerous measures proposed in the XI Principles, which in turn supports our bold and exciting new strategic direction for Australian football. The DMC will aid the optimisation of competitions across all levels of the game, help us to reimagine the player pathway, help to increase match minutes for players both in club football and with our national teams, and support football as a sport which is played all year round,” he said.
The 2021 Australian Football Domestic Match Calendar can be viewed here.