The competition, to be named the A-League, replaces the National Soccer League that was scrapped last season as part of a major overhaul of the way the game is run in Australia.
Just eight clubs - one each from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle, Central Coast and Auckland in New Zealand - were included in the new league but there are plans for further expansion, possibly into Asia.
"Today is a red-letter day for Australian soccer...but ...it is only the start," Australian Soccer Association (ASA) chairman Frank Lowy said at Monday's launch in Sydney.
"We have greater ambitions for it, but we realise we need to take things one step at a time."
The competition will begin in August 2005. The teams will play each other three times over 21 rounds before the top four advance to the playoffs.
ASA has already secured a major sponsor for the first four years and is forecasting turnover of A$50million ($36million) in the first year.
"We are about to enter a new era for soccer in this part of the world," said ASA chief executive John O'Neill, the former boss of the Australian Rugby Union. "We are establishing a competition that is right for the new century."
Despite its universal appeal, soccer has struggled in Australia to compete with rival codes such as rugby and Australian Rules.
But O'Neill said the competition would give the game a higher profile by helping stem the flow of Australia's best players and coaches to overseas clubs.
Former England and Australia manager Terry Venables has already agreed to join Newcastle.
"As interest and revenues grow so too will the ability of clubs to keep top class players in Australia," O'Neill said.
"Some will still travel overseas but at least in the future they will have an option. Today they don't.
"We expect some players to return and we expect some players to stay longer in Australia than they would have otherwise."
The ASA took over the running of soccer in Australia last year after a government report called for the entire board of Soccer Australia to be sacked and replaced.
The board had long been criticised for the way it ran the sport but the push for change intensified after FIFA reversed its decision to award Oceania an automatic place in the 2006 World Cup.
Lowy, Australia's second-richest man, set up a company to oversee the development of the game and appointed high-profile executives with experience and contacts in Australian business.
The new board set about restructuring the sport and developing a constitution before deciding to scrap the existing competition and start afresh.
ASA said the eight clubs in the competition would be privately owned and operate within a salary cap but would be allowed one "marquee" player whose salary would not be part of the cap.
