2022 State Cup cancellation  

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The persistent inclement weather has had a major impact on community football, which has forced Football NSW and its Member Associations to review the viability of running the 2022 State Cup competition. 

In completing the review, Football NSW consulted closely with Member Associations around the current status of their local competitions, field availability to host Cup matches, and ongoing discussions with respective local Councils. 

The wet weather, which is forecasted to continue, has already placed an incredible burden on Member Associations’ and competition administrators’ capacity to deliver domestic competitions in their entirety. Considering this, Football NSW have reluctantly made the decision to cancel the State Cup for the 2022 season. 

Football NSW acknowledges and shares the disappointment this decision will bring to Clubs, Players, Coaches, and all involved participants. 

At this stage, the decision does not impact the 2022 Champion of Champions and Football NSW will continue to work towards ensuring that this continues as scheduled. 

To provide further context and transparency, the key factors in arriving at the decision have been outlined below. 

Field availability 

The ongoing inclement weather has left a large portion of grass pitches either in a state of disrepair or at risk of being closed with a minimal amount of precipitation, making it extremely difficult to secure enough fields to schedule State Cup matches. Whilst some regions have a number of all-weather surfaces, even in the best served areas these represent a small minority of the total fields available. 

From Round 1 alone, 54 Cup matches were washed out on two occasions. With 209 Round 2 matches already scheduled for Sunday, 29th May, a total of 263 matches needed to be scheduled for the day, requiring a total of 55 fields.  

With Associations already close to or at capacity with field usage in order to continue their domestic competitions, the number of remaining matches far exceeds the current field availability.  

Competition Period 

The State Cup has a fixed Final date of Sunday, 24th July, which cannot be delayed due to scheduling conflicts with Football NSW, and Association, competitions and final series. As the number of playing weeks available continues to reduce, and with the wet weather forecast to continue, it has become unviable to reschedule and complete the State Cup competition. 

Competition Administration Resource 

It is important to acknowledge the significant resource and workflow challenges that competition and referee administrators at Football NSW, and across all Associations, are facing with the constant scheduling, wash outs and rescheduling of fixtures on a weekly basis.  

As we progress into the month of June, the number of weeks available to play the significant number of washed-out fixtures are dwindling, meaning administrators’ capacity to service domestic leagues, clubs, as well as the State Cup, has critically diminished. 

Looking ahead 

The weather patterns and wash-outs in 2022 have brought many of the identified inadequacies outlined in the NSW Football Infrastructure Strategy to the foreground. This includes insufficient floodlighting, automated irrigation, and functional drainage at fields across the state.  

For natural grass surfaces, clear benefits around field availability have been seen where work has been completed to upgrade drainage and / or lighting. 

In order to better equip the community with purpose-built facilities that can more effectively endure such weather, Football NSW remains committed to working alongside Associations and clubs to lobby local Councils as well as state and federal Governments to increase their investment into community football.