The Australian football community has been left baffled amid reports the A-League has changed the rules on how the league table is sorted, prioritising wins over goal difference.
Around the world teams who are level on points – even if they have come to that points total with different numbers of wins, draws and losses – are split by the tiebreaker of goal difference, ensuring dominance is rewarded.
As an example Liverpool (42 points, 12 wins, +23 goal difference) currently leads the Premier League from Aston Villa (42 points, 13 wins, +16 goal difference), from Manchester City (40 points, 12 wins, +24 goal difference) and Arsenal (40 points, 12 wins, +17 goal difference).
This is normal.
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The A-League Men’s ladder seems to follow that same rule with Melbourne Victory (20 points, 5 wins, +10 goal difference) listed ahead of Wellington Phoenix (20 points, 6 wins, +6 goal difference) on all available platforms.
But a tweet from a Phoenix parody account questioned why the club was second when, according to the official A Leagues rules on the competition website, it lists Total Number of Wins as a tiebreaker ahead of Highest Goal Difference.
Multiple accounts have since reported confirmation from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) that the rules are correct and the Phoenix should be ahead of the Victory, despite trailing them on goal difference.
“Interestingly, having a look via the Wayback Machine shows that “wins” wasn’t even a factor in ladder determination last season,” Justin Tickner tweeted.
“So the change to include it (assuming this isn’t just a publishing error) is new this season.”
Freelance reporter Joey Lynch also said the APL had confirmed to him wins are now a tiebreaker ahead of goal difference.
“So the league fundamentally altered the way that ladder positioning is determined — going against the global norm in doing so — and seemingly told absolutely nobody, let alone provided an explanation,” he tweeted.
Long-time commentator Simon Hill added: “We were unaware too. Unbelievable. Anyway, belated congrats to Wellington Phoenix – it appears you were top going into 2024!”
It is unclear why the change was made but it incentivises leading teams parking the bus rather than attempting to score more goals, which appears strange.
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The ruling also impacts the bottom of the table with Newcastle Jets (12 points, 3 wins, -2 goal difference) apparently supposed to be 10th instead of Sydney FC (12 points, 4 wins, -4 goal difference).
“Honestly reckon the APL ladder shenanigans is one of the funniest A-League tings in ages,” the SMH’s Vince Rugari tweeted.
“Oh yeah we changed a fundamental part of how the league table works and kept it a secret from literally everybody for literally no reason. Best league in the world by such a long way.”
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