The Australian soccer league system is the

league structure League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

for

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 ...

clubs in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. The league system in Australia since 1977 has involved one top divisional league controlled by Football Australia and many leagues run within each

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

below. The

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 ...

stood from 1977 to 2004 as the top nationwide tier above the current state-based league systems, in 2005, 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 ...

was established as its successor. The introduction of the National Premier Leagues in 2013 introduced a direct second tier of soccer in Australia, underpinning the A-League. The National Premier Leagues incorporated the existing state leagues as divisions with a nationwide end of season finals series. In 2013, the National Premier Leagues rebranded 5 of the 9 top state leagues, and the remainder – with the exception of the Northern Territory – joined in 2014. There is no

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues ...

to and from the top-tier

, and promotion and relegation at other levels varies between different state systems. A nationwide second-tier league competition with the working title

Australian Championship The National Second Division (NSD) – also referred to under the working title The Championship – is a proposed Australian national second-tier men's, soccer league, to be run by Football Australia and the Association of Australian Footbal ...

has been proposed, with a start date of the 2022/23 season. and a revised new start date from late 2022 season. In addition, it is hinted that the establishment of promotion-relegation system could be used to avoid the American franchise-based model and to put in line with European leagues. The table excludes parallel leagues such as the

A-League Youth A-League Youth, formerly known as the National Youth League and Y-League, is an Australian national soccer youth developmental and under-21s league, founded by Football Federation Australia and now run by the Australian Professional Leagues. ...

, which runs in conjunction with the A-League as a national youth developmental and reserve league, or 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 Federati ...

. The women's soccer league system in Australia is similar to that of the men's.

References

External links

Australian Capital Territory competitions

New South Wales competitions

Northern New South Wales competitions

Queensland competitions

South Australia competitions

Tasmania competitions

Victoria competitions

Western Australia competitions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian football league system

See also

References

External links