1988 in Australian soccer

Soccer in Australia
Season	1988
Men's soccer
NSL Premiership	Wollongong City
NSL Championship	Marconi Fairfield
NSL Cup	APIA Leichhardt

Last updated September 01, 2025

The 1988 season was the 19th season of national competitive soccer in Australia and 105th overall.

National teams

Australia men's national soccer team

Results and fixtures

1990 FIFA World Cup qualification

First round

26 November 1988	Fiji	1–0	Australia	Nadi, Fiji
	Madigi 66'	Report		Stadium: Prince Charles Park Attendance: 6,000 Referee: Gary Fleet (New Zealand

3 December 1988	Australia	5–1	Fiji	Newcastle, Australia
	Yankos 9', 69' (pen.) Spink 25' Arnold 84' Trimboli 87'	Report	Dalai 89'	Stadium: Macquarie Field Attendance: 6,000 Referee: Gary Fleet (New Zealand

1988 Summer Olympics

Group D

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Brazil	3	3	0	9	1	+8	6
2	Australia	3	2	1	2	3	−1	4
3	Yugoslavia	3	1	2	4	4	0	2
4	Nigeria	3	0	3	1	8	−7	0

Source: FIFA

18 September 1988	Australia	1–0	Yugoslavia	Gwangju, South Korea
	Farina 50'	Report		Stadium: Gwangju Mudeung Stadium Attendance: 12,000 Referee: Juan Carlos Loustau (Argentina)

20 September 1988	Brazil	3–0	Australia	Seoul, South Korea
	Romário 19', 56', 59'	Report		Stadium: Dongdaemun Stadium Attendance: 15,000 Referee: Karl-Heinz Tritschler (West Germany)

22 September 1988	Australia	1–0	Nigeria	Seoul, South Korea
	Kosmina 75'	Report		Stadium: Dongdaemun Stadium Attendance: 12,800 Referee: Michał Listkiewicz (Poland)

Knockout stage

25 September 1988 QF	Soviet Union	3–0	Australia	Pusan, South Korea
	Dobrovolski 50' (pen.), 54' (pen.) Mikhaylichenko 62'	Report		Stadium: Kooduk Stadium Attendance: 5,000 Referee: Juan Daniel Cardellino (Uruguay)

1988 OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament

First round

26 February 1988	Australia	3–0	Chinese Taipei	Canberra, Australia
	Arnold 36', 71' Davidson ?'	Report		Stadium: Bruce Stadium

Second round

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia (H)	6	4	2	0	12	4	+8	10	Qualification for 1988 Summer Olympics	—	2–0	3–1	3–2
2	Israel	6	4	1	1	17	3	+14	9		0–0	—	2–0	5–1
3	New Zealand (H)	6	2	1	3	5	7	−2	5		1–1	0–1	—	2–0
4	Chinese Taipei	6	0	0	6	3	23	−20	0		0–3	0–9	0–1	—

Source: RSSSF
(H) Hosts

6 March 1988	Australia	2–0	Israel	Melbourne, Australia
	Yankos 71' Farina 90+1'	Report		Stadium: Olympic Park Attendance: 9,518 Referee: Hernán Silva (Chile)

9 March 1988	Australia	3–2	Chinese Taipei	Adelaide, Australia
	Tobin 21' Crino 62' Patikas 87'	Report	Chau-In 18' I-Shiu 86'	Stadium: Hindmarsh Stadium Attendance: 9,518

13 March 1988	Australia	3–1	New Zealand	Sydney, Australia
	Patikas 39' Crino 60' Farina 64'	Report	McGarry 56'	Stadium: Sydney Football Stadium Referee: Hernán Silva (Chile)

20 March 1988	Israel	0–0	Australia	Christchurch, New Zealand
		Report		Stadium: Queen Elizabeth II Park Referee: Georges Sandoz (Switzerland)

23 March 1988	New Zealand	1–1	Australia	Wellington, New Zealand
	McGarry 11' (pen.)	Report	Farina 74'	Stadium: Athletic Park Referee: Georges Sandoz (Switzerland)

27 March 1988	Chinese Taipei	0–3	Australia	Auckland, New Zealand
		Report	Arnold 2' Farina 19' Wade 77'	Stadium: Eden Park

1988 Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup

Group stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4	5	Advance to Final
2	Australia (H)	3	2	0	1	7	2	+5	4	Advance to Final
3	Argentina	3	0	2	1	3	6	−3	2	Advance to Third place play-off
4	Saudi Arabia	3	0	1	2	3	9	−6	1	Advance to Third place play-off

Source: RSSSF
(H) Hosts

7 July 1988	Australia	0–1	Brazil	Melbourne, Australia
		Report	Romário 31'	Stadium: Olympic Park Attendance: 11,214 Referee: Richard Lorenc (Australia)

9 July 1988	Australia	3–0	Saudi Arabia	Sydney, Australia
	Ollerenshaw 6' Farina 42', 81'	Report		Stadium: Sydney Football Stadium Referee: Bill Monteverde (Australia)

14 July 1988	Australia	4–1	Argentina	Sydney, Australia
	Wade 4' Yankos 42', 67' (pen.) Bozinovski 80'	Report	Ruggeri 31'	Stadium: Sydney Football Stadium Referee: Gary Power (Australia)

Final

17 July 1988	Brazil	2–0	Australia	Sydney, Australia
	Romário 56', 67'	Report		Stadium: Sydney Football Stadium Attendance: 28,161 Referee: Don Campbell (Australia)

1988 Trans-Tasman Cup

12 October 1988	New Zealand	1–2	Australia	Dunedin, New Zealand
	Ironside 77'	Report	Crino 60' Ollerenshaw 74'	Stadium: Caledonian Ground Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Lennox Sharp (New Zealand)

16 October 1988	Australia	2–0	New Zealand	Bendigo, Australia
	Ironside 77'	Report		Stadium: Queen Elizabeth Oval Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Chris Bambridge (Australia)

Australia women's national soccer team

Results and fixtures

Friendlies

1 June 1988	Australia	1–0	Brazil	Jiangmen, China
	Riddington ?'	Report

3 June 1988	Australia	3–0	Thailand	Jiangmen, China
	Dolan ?' Murray ?' Vinson ?'	Report

5 June 1988	Australia	0–3	Norway	Jiangmen, China
		Report

8 June 1988	China	7–0	Australia	Jiangmen, China
		Report

Australia men's national under-20 soccer team

Results and fixtures

1988 OFC U-20 Championship

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	2	2	0	11	1	+10	4	Advance to knockout stage
2	Chinese Taipei	2	1	1	4	8	−4	2	Advance to knockout stage
3	Vanuatu	2	0	2	2	8	−6	0

Source: RSSSF

5 September 1989	Australia	5–0	Vanuatu	Suva, Fiji
		Report

6 September 1989	Australia	6–1	Chinese Taipei	Suva, Fiji
		Report

Knockout stage

8 September 1989 Semi-finals	Australia	4–2	Fiji	Suva, Fiji
		Report

10 September 1989 Final	Australia	1–0	New Zealand	Suva, Fiji
	Ilic 26'	Report

Domestic soccer

National Soccer League

^[1]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Wollongong City	26	13	8	5	44	32	+12	34	Qualification for the Finals series
2	Sydney Croatia	26	15	4	7	38	30	+8	34
3	South Melbourne	26	13	8	5	36	29	+7	34
4	Marconi Fairfield (C)	26	12	8	6	46	26	+20	32
5	Sydney Olympic	26	9	9	8	28	22	+6	27
6	Adelaide City	26	10	7	9	36	35	+1	27
7	Sunshine George Cross	26	11	5	10	38	39	−1	27
8	St George-Budapest	26	10	6	10	41	35	+6	26
9	Melbourne Croatia	26	9	6	11	28	33	−5	24
10	Footscray JUST	26	7	9	10	34	32	+2	23
11	APIA Leichhardt	26	8	7	11	28	35	−7	23
12	Preston Makedonia	26	5	12	9	29	35	−6	22
13	Brunswick Juventus (R)	26	7	5	14	31	43	−12	19	Relegation to the Victorian State League
14	Brisbane Lions (R)	26	4	4	18	28	59	−31	12	Relegation to the Brisbane Premier League

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

NSL Cup

^[2]

Final

^[3]

14 August 1988

14:30 AEST

APIA Leichhardt	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Brunswick Juventus
	Report
Penalties
Bertogna McKinna Yankos Watson de Marigny	5–3	Yzendoorn Egan Palatsides Marley

Marconi Stadium , Sydney

Attendance: 2,200

Referee: Alan Kibbler

References

↑ Stock, Greg. "1988 National Soccer League Final Table". OzFootball.
↑ Stock, Greg. "1988 National Soccer League Cup Results". OzFootball.
↑ Gauter, Lou (17 August 1988). "Apia wins Cup on a shootout". Australian Soccer Weekly. Vol. 9, no. 350. p. 4.

External links

Football Australia official website

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[1] Stock, Greg. "1988 National Soccer League Final Table". OzFootball.

[2] Stock, Greg. "1988 National Soccer League Cup Results". OzFootball.

[3] Gauter, Lou (17 August 1988). "Apia wins Cup on a shootout". Australian Soccer Weekly. Vol. 9, no. 350. p. 4.

[1]

[2]

[3]

1988 in Australian soccer

Contents

National teams

Australia men's national soccer team

Results and fixtures

1990 FIFA World Cup qualification

First round

1988 Summer Olympics

Group D

Knockout stage

1988 OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament

First round

Second round

1988 Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup

Group stage

Final

1988 Trans-Tasman Cup

Australia women's national soccer team

Results and fixtures

Friendlies

Australia men's national under-20 soccer team

Results and fixtures

1988 OFC U-20 Championship

Group 2

Knockout stage

Domestic soccer

National Soccer League

NSL Cup

Final

References

External links