The next chapter of Australia’s football history has been unveiled with the new national second tier to kick-off in 2019.

Made up of a consortium of clubs (Association of Australian Football Clubs) that have been meeting regularly over the past six weeks to change the face of Australian football, a smaller, consolidated league will see Australia finally taste a second division.

Similar to the Hyundai A-League, the second tier will have eight clubs in its first season with plans to expand to full size by 2025 – with the exception of a club from Western Australia due to budget and distance.

The initial season will be made almost entirely of former NSL clubs with Sydney Olympic, Sydney United, Marconi Stallions, Wollongong Wolves, Blacktown City, APIA Leichhardt and Hakoah Sydney City East joined by Rockdale City Suns who will be the only club never to have played national league previously.

Finer details such as an official name for the league and the confirmation of promotion/relegation to the A-League is set to be finalised before Football Federation Australia’s next AGM later this year.

“We’re very excited to launch this new league and to pave the way for an eventual return to promotion and relegation”, said an Association of Australian Football Clubs spokesperson.

“Over the next five or six seasons we envisage that clubs such as South Melbourne, Brisbane Strikers, Adelaide City, Canberra FC and Hobart Olympic will be added to the league but for the moment we’re concentrating on the most important region for football in this country to make sure we get this right,”

“The PFA have been wonderful advocates for the second tier from the beginning of this process and we have to thank them. And FFA, while hesitant at the start, have been cooperative once they realised there was too much momentum to stop this from happening.”

The AAFC will be holding an official launch event later this afternoon.