The National Premier Leagues Western Australia is a regional Australian semi-professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

league comprising teams from

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The league name is often abbreviated to NPL Western Australia or NPL WA. As a subdivision of the

National Premier Leagues The National Premier Leagues (NPL) is a national association football competition in Australia which acts as the second tier of the sport in the country below the A-League. The NPL consists of the highest level state league in each state-based ...

, 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 Football West is the state governing and censoring body for soccer in Western Australia (WA). It is affiliated with Football Australia (FA), the sport's national governing body, and through FA's affiliation to FIFA. Football West's premier comp ...

, 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.

History

NPL WA traces its origin to the formation of a league by the Perth British Football Association in 1896. 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. 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). 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 Australian Italian Australians ( it, Italiani Australiani) are Australians with Italian ancestry. Italian Australians constitute the sixth largest ancestry group in Australia, and one of the largest groups in the global Italian diaspora. At the 2021 c ...

s, Morley Windmills with

Dutch Australian Dutch Australians refers to Australians of Dutch ancestry. They form one of the largest groups of the Dutch diaspora outside Europe. At the 2021 census, 381,946 people nominated Dutch ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ance ...

Floreat Athena Floreat Athena Football Club is an association football (soccer) club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club competes in the National Premier Leagues Western Australia. The club's founders were of Greek heritage. Floreat Athena has been c ...

with

Greek Australian Greek Australians ( el, Ελληνοαυστραλοί, ) are Australians of Greek ancestry. Greek Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Greek diaspora. As per the 2021 census, 424,750 people stated that they had Greek an ...

s, Benfica United (now Fremantle Spirit) with Portuguese Australians, Inglewood Kiev (now Inglewood United) with

Ukrainian Australian Ukrainian Australians refers to Australian citizens of Ukrainian descent, or Ukraine-born people who emigrated to Australia. They are an ethnic minority in Australia, numbering about 38,000 people according to the 2011 Census. Currently, the mai ...

s, North Perth Croatia (now Western Knights) and Spearwood Dalmatinac (now part of Cockburn City) with

Croatian Australian Croatian Australians are Australian citizens of Croatian ancestry. Croatia has been a source of migrants to Australia, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2021, 200,000 persons resident in Australia (0.6%) identified themselves as having ...

s, Shamrock Rovers with

Irish Australian Irish Australians ( ga, Gael-Astrálaigh) are an ethnic group of Australians, Australian citizens of Irish descent, which include immigrants from and descendants whose ancestry originates from the Ireland, island of Ireland. Irish Australians ...

s, Dianella White Eagles with

Serbian Australian Serbian Australians ( sr, / ), are citizens of Australia who fully, or partially identify as Serbian by birth or descent. In the 2021 census there were 94,997 people in Australia of Serbian ancestry, making it a significant group with the gl ...

s and Stirling Macedonia with

Macedonian Australian Macedonian Australians (Macedonian language, Macedonian: Македонски Австралијанци) are Australians, Australian citizens of Macedonians (ethnic group), Macedonian descent. Many arrived in the 1920s and 1930s, although larg ...

s. In 1994 clubs were forced by the sport's governing body to remove all references to ethnicities from their names, which resulted in several forced name changes. Some clubs reverted back to their former names after 2019, when the National Club Identity Policy was revoked. More recently, new clubs have begun to be based geographically, such as with

Armadale SC Armadale Soccer Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Forrestdale, Western Australia. Armadale currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Western Australia, with matches played at Alfred Skeet Oval. The club provid ...

and Cockburn City. 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

. In 2014 Football West then reorganised the former State Premier League into the

Western Australia conference and the State League (

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

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 Perth Glory Under-23s is the youth system of Perth Glory Football Club based in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. The academy teams play in the Y-League and National Premier Leagues (U20, U18, U15). Perth Glory Youth is the highest level ...

team competes in the Senior category and has additional age restrictions. 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, provided the winner of the State Division 1 met Football West's promotion requirements. Two teams were promoted after the 2016 season to expand the league into a 14 team competition. After a further competition review the 2019 NPLWA season returned to a twelve-team competition. In 2020, promotion and relegation was suspended for the season, due to the impacts on the competition from the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...

Clubs

The following 12 clubs are competing in the 2022 NPL WA season.

Honours

;Notes : ^U undefeated league season.

Honours pre-NPL (1896–2013)

;Notes : ^U undefeated league season References :Kreider, R.N. (2012) Paddocks to Pitches. The Definitive History of Western Australian Football. Published by SportsWest Media

Notes

References

External links

Football West website
{{Association football in Western Australia National Premier Leagues 1 Recurring sporting events established in 1896 1896 establishments in Australia Sports leagues established in 1896