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 ...

in the Australian state of Victoria is organised by Football Victoria (FV). FV is a member of the national Football Australia.

National representation

Many clubs represented Victoria in the now defunct

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

(NSL), three of which, South Melbourne FC, Melbourne Knights and Brunswick Juventus became champions. Along with South Melbourne, Heidelberg United, Footscray JUST and

Mooroolbark United Mooroolbark Soccer Club is an Australian soccer club based in Mooroolbark, an outer eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The club currently plays in Victorian State League Division 2. History Founded by two Dutch men, they formed a Dutch te ...

were NSL foundation clubs. At various times the following Victorian sides also competed in the NSL:

Preston Lions FC Preston Lions Football Club (formerly Preston Makedonia Soccer Club) is a association football, soccer club from Preston, Victoria, Preston, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The club was established in ...

; Carlton SC;

Gippsland Falcons Falcons 2000 Soccer Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in the regional Victorian city of Morwell. Founded in 1961 by the local Italian community, the club has participated in the Victorian state league system at multiple ...

(also known as Eastern Pride);

Collingwood Warriors Collingwood Warriors Soccer Club was an Australian semi-professional association football (soccer) club based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford. It participated in the National Soccer League in 1996–97, lasting only a solitary sea ...

;

Sunshine George Cross Caroline Springs George Cross Football Club is an Australian soccer club based in Fraser Rise, a north-western suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and plays in State League Division 1, the fourth tier of football in Victoria. George Cr ...

; and

Green Gully Green Gully Soccer Club is an Australian association football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Green Gully is one of the largest clubs in Melbourne, having participated in the now defunct National Soccer League between 1984–1986. The club ...

. Victoria is currently represented in the top-flight A-League Men by Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Western United. Victory and City also have associated teams in the

A-League Women A-League Women (known as the Liberty A-League for sponsorship reasons), formerly the W-League, is the top-division women's soccer league in Australia. The W-League was established in 2008 by Football Australia (then known as Football Federatio ...

and A-League Youth.

League and Cup systems

Leagues

The highest state based league is the National Premier Leagues Victoria, which forms a division of the National Premier Leagues. The winner of which enters a national play-off series against the winners of other NPL divisions. The league below that is the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 and National Premier Leagues Victoria 3. Below that, State Leagues 1 and 2 are split into North/West and South/East divisions. Below that, three divisions of the Provisional Leagues follow, also split into North/West and South/East divisions. The participating clubs are almost entirely located within metropolitan Melbourne, however there are separate regional leagues organised by associations subsidiary to the FFV, such as the Geelong Regional Football Association, Ballarat & District Soccer Association and the Gippsland Soccer League.

Cup

The Dockerty Cup, a knockout cup competition for Victorian clubs, ran every year from 1909 until 1996, with the exception of the years 1916–18 owing to World War I. Since then it has been in recess, except for season 2004. The idea of a Victorian Cup competition was revived in 2011 with the Mirabella Cup, which was to feature all Victorian clubs, from the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

through to the regional leagues, however the

FFA FFA may refer to: Aviation and military * First Flight Airport, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, United States * Free-fire area in U.S. military parlance * Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein, a Swiss aircraft and railway vehicle manufacturer * ...

later pulled Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart from the competition. In 2012 and 2013 the competition was known as the FFV State Knockout Cup. In 2014 the competition returned to the traditional Dockerty Cup title. Since 2014 the Dockerty Cup has been used to qualify Victorian clubs, with the exception of A-League clubs which already automatically qualify, for the national FFA Cup.

Honours

Honours since reorganization with NPL in 2014.

Most successful clubs overall

References

External links

Football Victoria Official WebsiteImages of VPL fansOfficial Melbourne Heart WebsiteOfficial Melbourne Victory Website

Vic Vic (; es, Vic or Pancracio Celdrán (2004). Diccionario de topónimos españoles y sus gentilicios (5ª edición). Madrid: Espasa Calpe. p. 843. ISBN 978-84-670-3054-9. «Vic o Vich (viquense, vigitano, vigatán, ausense, ausetano, ausonense): ...

Football in Victoria (Australia) {{footy-stub