Country Australia Current premiers Valentine FC Number of teams 11 Date founded 2014 | Current champions Wallsend FC Website [1] Current champion Wallsend FC Domestic cup FFA Cup | |
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Promotion to National Premier Leagues Northern NSW Level on pyramid Australian soccer league system | ||
The Northern NSW State League Division 1 (known as the NEWFM 1st Division for sponsorship reasons) is a regional Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 2 on the New South Wales league system (Level 3 of the overall Australian league system). The competition is administered by Northern NSW Football, the governing body of the sport in the northern region of the state (the southern region governed by Football NSW). Prior to 2014, the league was formally known as the Northern NSW Football League Division 2.
Contents
Format
The competition now consists of eleven teams, each of whom have a 1st-grade, under-23s, under-19s and new for 2015, an under-17s side. The regular season takes place over 20 rounds, with each team playing each other twice. The team that finishes first at the end of the 20 rounds is crowned Minor Premier.
The top four teams contest the Finals Series. This is a two-legged match where 1st plays 4th and 2nd plays 3rd. The teams that progress meet in the grand final and the winner of that game is crowned the major premier.
The Minor Premier of the League is promoted to the National Premier Leagues Northern NSW if the club meets the eligibility criteria. If so, the last placed team in the National Premier Leagues Northern NSW is relegated to the NEWFM Division. The exception being with the Newcastle Jets Youth team not being relegated to Northern NSW State League Division 1 as per an FFA directive. There is currently no relegation from Northern NSW State League Division 1 to the region's next lower league, Zone Premier League.
Teams
2015 will see the introduction of 3 more teams into Northern NSW State League Division 1. The new teams are Cooks Hill United FC, Kahibah FC and Wallsend FC. The applications from Morisset United FC and Swansea FC to compete in 2015 were unsuccessful.