National Premier Leagues South Australia

In 2012 it was announced that the FFSA Premier League was to become the top tier of South Australian football (below the national A-League) after the disbandment of the now defunct FFSA Super League. It was announced that the competition would consist of 14 teams. These teams would be made up of the 10 teams from the defunct Super League with the remaining 4 spots being filled by the top 4 teams from the 2012 Premier League season.

In 2013 the league joined the National Premier Leagues and was named correspondingly to NPL SA. The top placed team after the completion of the season will enterer into the National Premier Leagues finals and will play-off against other top placed teams from interstate conferences to determine a nationwide champion.

National Premier Leagues South Australia (abbreviated as NPL SA), a subdivision of National Premier Leagues (NPL), is a semi-professional football competition in the state of South Australia. National Premier Leagues is the second-tier football competition in Australia, which sits below the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League on the country’s football national pyramid. Football Federation Australia (FFA) embarked on a National Competition Review in October 2010, which aimed to review the football competition structure in Australia.[1] The process of conducting the National Competition Review lasted for 20 months, and the review results were released in May 2012, in which FFA proposed to revitalise the country’s state-based competitions to promote the development of elite players.[1] As a result of this review, National Premier Leagues was established in February 2013. At the time of establishment, NPL has five subdivisions, including football teams from five corresponding state-based federations, which are Football Federation South Australia, Football Federation Tasmania, Football Queensland, Football NSW, and Capital Football.[1] The inaugural season of NPL SA began in March 2013. Currently, this competition is run and managed by Football South Australia (formerly known as Football Federation South Australia), which is a governing body of football issues in South Australia and a competition administrator for different levels of football games in the state.

Since 2012 two teams have been relegated from the Premier League to the FFSA State League, replaced by the top two teams from the FFSA State League in the year prior.

Football South Australia has outlined a set of eligibility criteria which clubs need to meet in order to be eligible to participate in NPL competitions.[2] The seven eligibility criteria include:

1) Total number of teams and age groups;

2) Coach accreditation criteria;

3) Facilities standards;

4) Establishment of a player points system;

5) Charging of player registration fees;

6) Organisational planning (e.g. business planning, organisational structure);

7) Youth development practices (e.g. the implementation of the National Curriculum).

Player Points System, abbreviated as PPS, refers to a system that calculates and records the points of players in NPL clubs. It was after the issue of the National Competitions Review (NCR) in 2012 that the Player Points System (PPS) was introduced for the National Premier Leagues, as a complement to the Club Licensing framework.[3] The introduction of PPS aimed to:

1) Provide Australia football players with more opportunities;

Promoting players’ development through the youth development structures whilst delivering the NCR objectives and outcomes;

2) Promote the long-term sustainability of NPL clubs by adjusting Players’ salaries;

3) Ensure the parity and competitive balance amongst NPL clubs;

4) Improve the stability of NPL Club Player Rosters;

5) Encourage players to progress through to a National Elite Pathway Team.[3]

• Note: A National Elite Pathway Team refers to a team, determined by the FFA Technical Department and the Member Federations, to take part in the National Elite Pathway. If a player moves through the National Elite Pathway, certain points are credited for that.

There are two different types of NPL Club teams: NPL Club Age-Eligible Team and the First Team. NPL Club Age Eligible Team refers to those facing an age restriction, such as U16s, U18s, and U20s, whilst the First Team means the senior team of NPL Club. Only in limited circumstances can players from the NPL Club’s Age-Eligible Teams be promoted to the First Team Player Roster, As outlined under First Team Player Roster Requirements, if a NPL club does not promote a player from its NPL Age-Eligible Teams onto the First Team Player Roster, the club is only allowed to promote the player to the First Team up to a maximum of 40% of matches throughout a NPL season. If the percentage exceeds 40%, the club must include the player on the NPL Club’s First Team Player Roster.[3]

The First Team should remain within the PPS Points Cap, which applies to NPL Club’s First Team Player Roster. In NPL 2019 season, the Member Federation, in consultation with FFA, set the PPS Points Cap, which was up to a maximum of 200 points. According to this, each NPL player is attributed of 10 points as the beginning. During the season, a player’s value of points is added or deducted depending on certain characteristics (see table below). It is further required that a player’s points value should not be less than 0 points.[3]

Increasing the digital presence of NPL SA has been a strategic focus of Football South Australia in recent years. Since the 2019 season, all NPL SA fixtures have been digitally recorded. Media releases of home and away games are delivered on the official website of Football South Australia.[4] As Football South Australia continued to expand their digital offerings, they also celebrated the history of NPL SA clubs by creating a history makers series, showing the clubs’ development stories and their cultural heritage to the football family. This series has attracted more than 250,000 individual viewers.[5] In the 2020 season, the audience could watch all NPL game broadcasts.[6]

The Celebration of Football is an annually held event that allows all members of the South Australian football family to join together and celebrate the achievements that have been achieved during the past season. In 2019, the Celebration of Football was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre, attracting more than 900 members to attend. Under the category of National Premier League Team of the Year, the following members won National Premier League Awards:[5]

Regional Football Programme

NPL SA, under the management of Football South Australia, has established development pathways to allow talented young footballers to enter NPL competitions and used motion analysis to monitor the progress of elite soccer (Christopher et al., 2008). In 2013, the Regional Football Programme was introduced by FSA to provide services and support to regional players.[5] In 2019, more than 160 regional players from all over the state joined the programme held in Adelaide, receiving education and coaching from a selected group of experienced football coaches.[5] The number of regional squads has also increased, for:

• Under 16 Girls
• Under 14 Girls
• Under 16 Boys
• Under 14 Boys
• Under 12 Boys
• SINGA CUP

In the Regional Football Programme, there is a selection process for teams that would visit Singapore to compete for the SINGA CUP. A total of 80 players traveled to Singapore and were tested in humid and tough conditions.[5] This was a development opportunity for regional players to compete with opponents from the member countries and regions of the Asian Football Confederation, such as Japan, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. This is a 20-team competition, and Under 16 Boys from South Australia finished the competition in the 3^rd place.[5]

Notes:

¹ NPL finals series cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.[7]

For details of winners pre-NPL (2006–2012):

• Football in South Australia

• Christopher, C., Jonathan, B., Lee, N., & Thomas, R. (2008). The role of motion analysis in elite soccer: Contemporary performance measurement techniques and work rate data. Sports Medicine, 38(10), 839–862.[8]

• Evens,T., Iosifidis, P., & Smith, P. (2013). The Political Economy of Television Sports Rights. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.[9]

• Football South Australia website