ASC Cup

The ASC Cup, officialy known as the Australian States Challenge Cup is an annual Football tournament held in Australia and contested by the states and some terriotires of the country. The 8 state teams play through 3 knockout rounds each summer with the Final being held in the state which won the previous years tournament. The ASC Cup was started in 1989 with the first final being won by Queensland.

Foundation
The ASC Cup began in 1989 after representatives from different states of Australia decided to start an annual tournament contested between the states. Queensland, Western Australia and Northern Territory originally designed the tournament in early 1989 and by summer of the same year they had persuaded the other states of Australia to participate in the tounrament, and it was agreed the first ASC Cup would take place in August 1989, with the final being held at Lang Park Stadium in Brisbane, Queensland. That first final ended up being won by Queensland, who beat Western Australia by 3 goals to 1, making them the first ASC Cup Champions.

1989-92: Early Queensland Dominance
After winning the 1989 tournament, Queensland went on to win the next three ASC Cups, in 1990, 1991 and 1992. Other states began to wonder if they would have any chance, especially after Queensland won the 1991 final against New South Wales by 6 goals to nil. Queensland again made it to the final in 1993, but were beaten 2 goals to 1 by Western Australia, who had been persuaded to continue participating the the cup. This results meant Queensland failed in their bid to win a fifth succesive ASC Cup, after winning the first four, and ended up going the rest of the millenium without winning the cup again.

1996: No Tournament Held
In 1996 no ASC Cup was hedl due to a number of large reasons. One of those reasons being the fact that both Victoria and Tasmania did not submit teams for the tournament and eventually both withdrew within days of eachother, just weeks before the tournament was scheduled to begin. Another reason is that Victoria were due to host the 1996 final after winning the 1995 cup. After the team withdrew they announced they could not host the final either, and no other state would take on the responsibilty at such a short notice. With only 6 teams and no ground to host the final, as well asmajor ingury problems across most of the squads left to compete, the 1996 ASC Cup was cancelled by the organisers, despite them still wanting to continue the cup. Because of the organisers enthusiasm, they organised a 1997 tournament, and drummed up a lot of support, to make it a success.

2002: Tasmania Withdrawal
After an awful 2001 ASC Cup campaign, Tasmanias first team coach was sacked in September of that year. In December 2001 a new manager was finally found and chose his squad for the 2002 ASC Cup. The players did not like how the previous manager was treated and how the new, current one communicated with the team. Fans began to loose belief in the team after they lost four friendly matches in a row in early 2002. After these events the Tasmania players went on strike and refused to play in the 2002 tournament. Just hours before Tasmanias first round match against Queensland was due to kick off, the manager was forced to withdraw, handing Queensland the tie and sending them through to Round 2 without the game ever being played. The Tasmania manager was sacked immediatly and the team was fined AUD500,000 (about £310,000) by the ASC Cup organisers and the players were all decuted two weeks wages, all being the consuquences of the players refusal to play.

2007: ACT's cup run
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) had established a reputation throughtout the ASC Cups history as being the least able team out of the 8 in the tournament. The team had only managed to get past the First Round 3 times before 2007. In the 2007 ASC Cup, the ACT had to play Western Austrialia in the first round, after the match finished 0-0 it went to penalties. To everyones shock the ACT won the shootout 4-3 and progressed to the next round. In round 2 the ACT were drawn out against the '''defending champions, New South Wales. Once again ACT were the underdogs, but despite this, they managed to beat their oppenents 5-2, possibly the biggest shocj in ASC Cup history, and would progress to their first ever ASC Cup final against Southern Australia.''' ACTs luck unfortunatley ran out in the 2007 final, being beaten 4-2 by Southern Australia. Despite losing the Final, this was still ACTs best ever ASC Cup run, and one they hoped they could continue into the 2008 tournament, however they went out in the first round, losing 6-1 to New South Wales, getting 'the perfect revenge'.

Winners
Main Article: List of ASC Cup Winners