The National Premier Leagues Western Australia (NPL WA) 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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

league comprising teams from

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. As a subdivision of the

National Premier Leagues The National Premier Leagues (NPL) is a men's 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- ...

, 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 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 competition is the ...

, 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 () are Australian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Australia during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Australia. Italian Australia ...

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 ...

Floreat Athena Floreat Athena Football Club is a 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 crowned the Western Austr ...

with

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

s, Benfica United with

Portuguese Australian Portuguese Australians refers to Australians of Portuguese descent or Portuguese-born people living in Australia. Despite their rather modest number compared to the Greek and Italian communities, Portuguese Australians form a very organised, sel ...

s, Inglewood Kiev (now Inglewood United) with

Ukrainian Australian Ukrainian Australians refers to Australians, Australian citizens of Ukrainians, Ukrainian descent, or Ukraine-born people who immigrated to Australia. They are an ethnic minority in Australia, numbering about 38,000 people according to the Cen ...

s, North Perth Croatia (now Western Knights) with

Croatian Australian Croatian Australians (), Australian Croats (''Australski Hrvati'') or Croats in Australia (''Hrvati u Australiji'') are Australian citizens of Croats, Croatian ancestry. Croatia has been a source of Human migration, migrants to Australia, parti ...

s, Spearwood Dalmatinac (now part of Cockburn City) with

Yugoslavian Australian Yugoslav or Yugoslavian may refer to: * Yugoslavia, or any of the three historic states carrying that name: ** Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a European monarchy which existed 1918–1945 (officially called "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" 1918–1 ...

s, Carramar Shamrock Rovers and East Perth FC with

Irish Australian Irish Australians () are ‌‍‍‍‍residents of Australia who are either fully or partially of Irish people, Irish descent. Irish immigrants and their descendants have had a prominent presence in Australian society since the First Fle ...

s, Dianella White Eagles with

Serbian Australian Serbian Australians (), are Australians of ethnic Serb ancestry. In the 2021 census there were 94,997 people in Australia who identified as having Serb ancestry, making it a significant group with the global Serb diaspora. History During t ...

s and Stirling Macedonia with

Macedonian Australian Macedonian Australians ( Macedonian: Македонски Австралијанци) are Australian citizens of Macedonian descent. Many arrived in the 1920s and 1930s, although larger numbers came to Australia after World War II and the Gre ...

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 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 Division 1 or Division One may refer to: Association football * Azadegan League, the second-tier professional football league in Iran * Brisbane Premier League Division 1, the second-tier professional football league in Brisbane, Queensland, Austr ...

and

Division Two Division II or Division 2 may refer to: Sports * NCAA Division II, an intermediate-level division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association * Division 2 (Swedish football) * Division 2 (Swedish ice hockey), the fourth tier of ice hockey in S ...

). 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 Youth is the highest level squad within the youth system setup of Perth Glory Football Club based in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. They play in the National Premier Leagues and play the majority of their home games at Sam ...

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 was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in Aust ...

Clubs

The following 13 clubs will compete in the 2025 NPL WA season.

Honours

Honours pre-NPL (1896–2013)

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 -Western Australia 1 Recurring sporting events established in 1896 1896 establishments in Australia Sports leagues established in 1896 Second level football leagues in Asia