2026 A-League Men Grand Final

2026 A-League Men Grand Final

The match was held at Go Media Stadium
Event	2025–26 A-League Men
Auckland Sydney 1 0
Date	23 May 2026 (2026-05-23)
Venue	Go Media Stadium, Auckland
Joe Marston Medal	Cameron Howieson (Auckland)
Referee	Alex King (Queensland)
Attendance	28,374

The 2026 A-League Men Grand Final, known officially as the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final, was a soccer match played between Auckland and Sydney on 23 May 2026 at Go Media Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand.

Background

The Game would be Auckland's first Grand Final since being established in 2024. Auckland would achieve this in its second season in the A-League season where they would be knocked out by Melbourne Victory 2-1 in the 2025 A-League Finals series. In the 2026 Finals series Auckland played Melbourne City after penalties in the elimination finals and Adelaide United 4-1 in the Semi Final. Previously Auckland also won the A-League Premiership in the 2024-25 season.

For Sydney FC it would be there first time in the grand final since 2021 where they lost 3-1 against Melbourne City. This will be Sydney's eighth Grand Final in the club's history, with their last championship coming in 2020 against the Melbourne City and last trophy being the 2023 Australia Cup. This would be coach Patrick Kisnorbo's 8th match after being appointed Sydney coach in March of 2026.

Previous finals

In the following table, finals until 2004 were in the National Soccer League era, since 2006 were in the A-League Men era.

Team	Previous grand final appearances (bold indicates winners)
Auckland	None
Sydney	7 (2006, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021)

Road to the final

See also: 2025–26 A-League Men and 2026 A-League Men finals series

Following the regular season, a four-week Finals Series was played to determine the winner of the A-League Championship. The top two highest-placed teams were given a bye into the semi-finals, while third to sixth were drawn into the elimination finals; both third and fourth hosted against the sixth and fifth-placed sides respectively. The winners progressed to a two-legged semi-final, first introduced in the 2021–22 season, with the first leg played at the home stadium of the lowest-ranked club. Both legs' results were put into an aggregate score to decide the winners, which would face each other in the Grand Final. Should the aggregate scores were level, the second match would go into extra time, and then to a penalty shoot-out should the score remained level. The away goals rule was not used in the semi-finals. The finalists who placed higher on the table would host the Grand Final.

Auckland FC				Round	Sydney FC
2025–26 A-League Men 2nd place Pos Team Pld Pts 1 Newcastle Jets 26 48 2 Adelaide United 26 43 3 Auckland FC (C) 26 42 4 Melbourne Victory 26 40 5 Sydney FC 26 39 Source: A-Leagues (C) Champions				Regular season	2025–26 A-League Men 5th place Pos Team Pld Pts 3 Auckland FC (C) 26 42 4 Melbourne Victory 26 40 5 Sydney FC 26 39 6 Melbourne City 26 38 7 Macarthur FC 26 34 Source: A-Leagues (C) Champions
Opponent	Score			Elimination-finals	Opponent	Score
Melbourne City	1–1 (a.e.t.) (7–6 p) (H)				Melbourne Victory	0–1 (A)
Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg	Semi-finals	Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg
Adelaide United	4–1	1–1 (H)	3–0 (A)		Newcastle Jets	2–2 (4–2 p)	1–1 (H)	1–1 (a.e.t.) (A)

Prematch

Venue

The Grand Final was held at Go Media Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand, the home ground of Auckland FC. It was the first Grand Final hosted at the venue. This was the first A-League Grand Final to be hosted in New Zealand.

Ticketing

Tickets went on sale for the match on 18 May, with member pre-sale tickets being sold at 7am and public sales beginning at 2pm. The match officially sold out three days later on 21 May.

Broadcasting

The match was broadcast on Network 10 and Paramount+ for Australian viewers, Sky Sport for New Zealand viewers, and YouTube for some international viewers. Although the regular season was broadcast on ESPN3 for viewers in the United States, neither the finals series nor the Grand Final were broadcast in the United States, with coverage unavailable on both ESPN and YouTube.

Officiating

After winning his third referee of the year award, Alex King would be announced to be the referee in this game. this would be Kings third time as referee in the A-League Grand Final.

Kearney Robinson and Daniel Ilievski were named as assistant referees. The fourth official duties were given to Daniel Elder, with Shaun Evans being named the video assistant referee, along with Kate Jacewicz as assistant VAR and Sam Kelly taking the role of Offside Support Official.

Team selection

Squads of both clubs for the match were named on 21 May. Coming into Auckland's squad was only Felipe Gallegos while they had Oli Sail, Guillermo May, and Marlee Francois were out due to injuries. Sydney FC saw no unavailability's in the squad while Al-Hassan Toure returned from injury and Corey Hollman would be promoted into the senior squad.

Match

23 May 2026

20:10 NZST

Auckland FC	1–0	Sydney FC
Howieson 60'	Report

Go Media Stadium, Auckland

Attendance: 28,374

Referee: Alex King

Auckland FC

Sydney FC

GK 1 Michael Woud RB 2 Hiroki Sakai (c) CB 3 Jake Girdwood-Reich CB 23 Dan Hall  56' CB 4 Nando Pijnaker  31' LB 17 Callan Elliot  58'  72' RM 7 Cameron Howieson CM 6 Louis Verstraete  53' LM 21 Jesse Randall  90' RF 77 Lachlan Brook  72' LF 9 Sam Cosgrove  56' Substitutes: GK 12 James Hilton DF 15 Francis de Vries  72' DF 52 Luka Vicelich MF 8 Felipe Gallegos MF 57 Van Fitzharris FW 14 Liam Gillion  90' FW 27 Logan Rogerson  72' Manager: Steve Corica

GK 12 Harrison Devenish-Meares RB 23 Rhyan Grant (c) CB 41 Alexandar Popovic CB 4 Jordan Courtney-Perkins LB 17 Ben Garuccio DM 8 Wataru Kamijo  84' DM 24 Paul Okon-Engstler RM 44 Akol Akon  64' CM 20 Tiago Quintal  72' LM 7 Piero Quispe  71' CF 80 Apostolos Stamatelopoulos  84' Substitutes: GK 1 Gus Hoefsloot DF 16 Joel King MF 36 Rhys Youlley  72' MF 70 Ahmet Arslan  84' FW 9 Víctor Campuzano  76'  71' FW 10 Joe Lolley  64' FW 13 Patrick Wood  84' Manager: Patrick Kisnorbo

Man of the Match (Joe Marston Medal): Cameron Howieson (Auckland FC) Assistant referees: Kearney Robinson (New South Wales) Daniel Ilievski (Victoria) Fourth official: Daniel Elder (South Australia) Reserve assistant referee: Bradley Wright (New South Wales) Video assistant referee: Shaun Evans (Victoria) Assistant video assistant referees: Kate Jacewicz (Victoria) Sam Kelly (New South Wales)

Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. Seven named substitutes. Maximum of five substitutions, with a sixth allowed in extra time.