National Premier Leagues Western Australia

The National Premier Leagues Western Australia is a regional Australian semi-professional soccer league comprising teams from Western Australia. The league name is often abbreviated to NPL Western Australia or NPL WA. As a subdivision of the National Premier Leagues, the league is the highest level of the Western Australian league system (Level 2 of the overall Australian league system). The competition is administered by Football West, the governing body of the sport in the state. In 2014, the league – formerly known as the Football West State League Premier Division – was rebranded into what exists today.

National Premier Leagues Western Australia
Founded1896
CountryAustralia
Number of teams12
Level on pyramid2
Relegation toState League 1
Domestic cup(s)FFA Cup
WA State Challenge Cup
Current championsECU Joondalup (2020)
Current premiersNot awarded (2020)
Most championshipsPerth SC (Azzurri, Italia) (24 titles)
WebsiteFootball West NPL
Current: 2020 NPL WA season

History

NPL WA traces its origin to the formation of a league by the Perth British Football Association in 1896.[1] By the 1950s, the association was known as the Western Australian Soccer Football Association (WASFA). In, 1960 eight teams formed their own association, the Soccer Federation of Western Australia (SFWA). The WASFA and SFWA ran rival leagues between 1960 and 1962 before the SFWA prevailed.[2] Ahead of the 1991 season, 11 SFWA clubs broke away, forming the Soccer Administration of Western Australia (SAWA). The SAWA ran the rebel Professional Soccer League (PSL) in parallel with the SFWA first division until merging before the 1993 season to form the Professional Soccer Federation of Western Australia (PSF).[3][4]

Several of the clubs currently playing in the league were formed as the soccer arm of cultural associations of recently migrated Australians, with certain teams having associations with particularly nationalities e.g. Swan Italian Club (now Swan United), Bayswater Inter (now Bayswater City) and Perth Italia (now Perth SC) with Italian Australians, Morley Windmills with Dutch Australians, Floreat Athena with Greek Australians, Benfica United (now Fremantle Spirit) with Portuguese Australians, Inglewood Kiev (now Inglewood United) with Ukrainian Australians, North Perth Croatia (now Western Knights) and Spearwood Dalmatinac (now part of Cockburn City) with Croatian Australians, Shamrock Rovers with Irish Australians, Dianella White Eagles with Serbian Australians and Stirling Macedonia (now Stirling Lions) with Macedonian Australians. In 1994 clubs were forced by the sport's governing body to remove all references to ethnicities from their names, which resulted in several name changes. It is only recently that clubs have begun to be based geographically, with Mandurah City and ECU Joondalup recently established clubs.

The West Australian National Training Centre included a team for the 2011–2013 seasons. They did not play for competition points, and were mostly used for development of the upcoming youth players.

Format

In 2013 Football Federation of Australia introduced the new second tier competition for football in Australia, the National Premier Leagues. In 2014 Football West then reorganised the former State Premier League into the National Premier Leagues Western Australia conference and the State League (Division One and Division Two). The NPL WA competition fields a Senior first team, as well as youth teams from U12 to U20 age groups. The Perth Glory FC Youth team competes in the Senior category and has additional age restrictions.[5]

Promotion and relegation between the NPL and the State League Division 1 became possible for the first time at the end of the 2015 season. However, Mandurah City (the winner of the 2015 Division 1) did not meet Football West's promotion requirements.[5]

Mandurah City and Joondalup United were both promoted after the 2016 season to make it a 14 team division.[6] After a competition review the 2019 NPLWA season returned to a twelve-team competition; as a result, Subiaco AFC, Forrestfield United and Joondalup United were relegated and Rockingham City were promoted.[7]

In 2020, promotion and relegation was suspended for the season, due to the impacts on the competition from the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.[8]

Clubs

The following 12 clubs are competing in the 2020 NPL WA season.

Club Location Ground Capacity
Armadale Armadale Alfred Skeet Oval 500
Balcatta Balcatta Grindleford Reserve 1,000
Bayswater City Bayswater Frank Drago Reserve 5,000
Cockburn City Cockburn Dalmatinac Park 2,000
ECU Joondalup Joondalup ECU Joondalup Football Stadium 2,500
Floreat Athena Leederville Litis Stadium 10,000
Gwelup Croatia Gwelup Croatian Sporting Complex
Inglewood United Inglewood Inglewood Stadium 7,000
Perth Glory Youth Perth Hartfield Park, Forrestfield 2,000
Perth SC West Perth Dorrien Gardens 2,000
Rockingham City Rockingham Lark Hill Sports Complex 3,000
Sorrento Sorrento Percy Doyle Reserve 5,000

Honours
YearPremiershipChampionsNPL Finals Representation
2014Bayswater CityBayswater CityBayswater City – Quarter Finalist
2015Bayswater City U–Bayswater City – Runners up
2016Perth SCPerth SCPerth SC – Semi Finalist
2017Bayswater CityBayswater CityBayswater City – Quarter Finalist
2018Perth SCPerth SCPerth SC – Quarter Finalist
2019Perth SCPerth SCPerth SC – Semi Finalist
2020–1ECU Joondalup–1

Notes:

U undefeated league season
1 Premiership not awarded, and NPL finals series cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.[9]

Honours pre-NPL (1896–2013)

Notes:

1 after championship playoff.
2 after zone playoff.
3 round-robin format.
U undefeated league season

References :[10][11]

References
  1. "British Association". Inquirer and Commercial News. Perth. 29 May 1896. p. 2. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  2. "WASFA Records". footballwa.net. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  3. "1991 Results". footballwa.net. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  4. "1992 Results". footballwa.net. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  5. http://www.footballwest.com.au/index.php?id=11&tx_ttnews%5Byear%5D=2013&tx_ttnews%5Bmonth%5D=08&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=756&cHash=4f4f7d9ec97a8f8a2afeff0d0fc0c2bf
  6. "NPLWA expansion for 2017". www.footballwest.com.au. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  7. "NPLWA Review Report to guide future". www.footballwest.com.au. 18 September 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  8. "Bayswater-Perth to kick off revamped season". Football West. 11 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  9. "Coronavirus forces FFA Cup to be cancelled". The World Game. SBS. 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  10. Kreider, R.N. (2012) Paddocks to Pitches. The Definitive History of Western Australian Football. Published by SportsWest Media
  11. http://www.foxsportspulse.com/comp_info.cgi?c=1-8273-0-240246-0&pool=1001&a=LADDER
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