Country Australia Current premiers 2016 Perth Current champion Perth SC | Current champions 2016 Perth Number of teams 14 Date founded 1896 | |
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Most championships Perth SC (Azzurri, Italia) (22 titles) Level on pyramid Australian soccer league system Relegation to Football West State League Division 1 Domestic cups FFA Cup, Football West State Cup Teams Perth SC, Floreat Athena FC, Inglewood United FC, ECU Joondalup SC, Stirling Lions SC | ||
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 sits at 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.
Contents
History
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.
Current 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 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 in the U20, U18, U16, U15, U14, U13 and U12 age groups. The Perth Glory FC Youth team competes in the Senior category - effectively as Perth Glory's reserve side - and has additional age restrictions.
Provisional 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 the winner of the 2015 Division 1, Mandurah City FC, did not meet Football West's promotion requirements. Multiple decisions on promotion occurred after the 2016 season, with Football West stating the system would again be reviewed in the future.
Honours
1 after championship playoff. 2 after zone playoff. 3 round-robin format. U undefeated league seasonReferences :