The A-League Men and A-League Women are set to dump the prioritising a club's number of wins as its preferred league tiebreaker for the 2024-25 season and instead revert to the goal difference.
The league's 20th season begins this Friday when the Central Coast Mariners host Melbourne Victory in a re-match of the 2023-24 A-League Men decider, league administrators The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) have adjusted the 11 criteria that will govern ladder sorting this season to first emphasise goal difference and then goals scored before then shifting to wins.
A change to preference wins in the events of teams being level on points was introduced for in the competition's history last season when it was quietly inserted into the league's regulations on the eve of the campaign.
This introduction was so quiet, however, that it took an eagle-eyed Wellington Phoenix supporter going over the rulebook to bring widespread attention to the change, catching out fans, clubs, media, administrators and even those at the league itself, with the table on the A-Leagues website even showing the wrong table order.
The decision to return to the previous status quo was reached after an APL post-season review which featured consultation with stakeholders such as Football Australia, the PFA, and delegates from a Fan Representative Group featuring representatives from all A-League clubs.
In other changes, the league will formally adopt new concussion principles from IFAB for 2024-25 that will allow teams one dedicated concussion substitution regardless of the number of changes they have already made, with their opponents able to make one additional substitute for any reason in such circumstances. In the A-League Women, a concussion substitute can be a player who has previously exited the game if their side has exhausted their available players on the bench.
Cooling breaks -- the new terminology for drinks breaks -- may now be extended from 90 to 180 seconds at the discretion of match commissioners, who will also collaborate with relevant officials on the number of breaks per half. For the first time, players may leave the pitch during these stoppages to cool off and the summer period wherein most games will kick-off before 5 p.m.
VAR will continue to be utilised throughout the A-League Men but will remain absent from the A-League Women, with the league saying the technology's continued implementation "will continue to be a topic under discussion in seasons to come."