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 ...

in the Australian state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

is organised by

Football Victoria Football Victoria is the state governing body for soccer in Victoria, Australia. It is affiliated with Football Australia, the sport's national governing body. History Football Victoria began operation in 1884 under the name Anglo Australian F ...

(FV). FV is a member of the national

Football Australia Football Australia is the sports governing body, governing body of Soccer in Australia, soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Au ...

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 ...

(NSL), three of which,

South Melbourne FC South Melbourne Football Club is an Australian semi-professional Association football, soccer club based in suburb of Albert Park, Victoria, Albert Park, in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The club currently competes in the National P ...

Melbourne Knights Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, the second-tier of the Australian soccer league ...

and

Brunswick Juventus Brunswick Zebras Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club that based in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick East. The club fields both senior and reserves teams for men & women, and operates a junior academy under license fro ...

became champions. Along with South Melbourne,

Heidelberg United Heidelberg United Alexander Football Club (founded as Alexander the Great-Melbourne Soccer Club) established in 1958 is a football (soccer) club based in the northern Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg West, Victoria, Australia. The team currently ...

Footscray JUST Footscray Jugoslav United Soccer Team, commonly referred to as J.U.S.T, Footscray or simply JUST, was an association football club from Melbourne, Australia, Melbourne, Australia. The club was established by Yugoslavs, Yugoslav migrants in 1950, ...

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 t ...

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 semi-professional association football, soccer club from Preston, Victoria, Preston, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The club ...

;

Carlton SC Carlton Soccer Club is a defunct Australian association football (soccer) club. It participated in the National Soccer League from the 1997–98 season until round eight of the 2000–01 season, after which it folded. The club was strongly linke ...

;

Gippsland Falcons Falcons 2000 Soccer Club (formerly Morwell Falcons, Gippsland Falcons and Eastern Pride) is an Australian semi-professional association football, soccer club based in the regional Victoria, Australia, Victorian city of Morwell in Latrobe Valley, G ...

(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; 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 and 1986. The club ...

. Victoria is currently represented in the top-flight

A-League Men A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football, soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as ...

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

, Melbourne City and

Western United Western United Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club. The club is based in the western Melbourne suburb of Tarneit, the club aims to represent western Victoria, incorporating the western suburbs of Melbourne; the regional ci ...

. Victory and City also have associated teams in the

A-League Women A-League Women (currently known as the Ninja 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 Fe ...

and

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

Soccer League Structure

Men's pyramid under FFV

Association Football in Victoria has seen a great rise post-COVID, with South Melbourne becoming the first NPLs side to reach the Australia Cup Semi-Finals, 3 of the final 4 members of the 2025 a-league finals being the 3 Victorian clubs, and AAMI Park hosting a Melbourne derby grand final.

League and Cup systems

Leagues

The highest state based league is the

National Premier Leagues Victoria The National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL Victoria or NPL VIC) is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer league syst ...

, 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 The National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL Victoria or NPL VIC) is a semi-professional association football, soccer league in Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level w ...

and

National Premier Leagues Victoria 3 The National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL Victoria or NPL VIC) is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer league syste ...

. 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 The Geelong Regional Football Committee (GRFC) is the governing body of soccer in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is a sub-committee of governing body Football Victoria. It was previously known as the Western Victoria Soccer Association, later be ...

, Ballarat & District Soccer Association and the

Gippsland Soccer League Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of the ...

Cup

The

Dockerty Cup The Dockerty Cup is an annual association football single-elimination tournament, knock-out competition open to all Victorian clubs across the Australian soccer league system, Victorian football league system. The tournament is named after the fo ...

, 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, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

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 * Fe ...

later pulled

and

Melbourne Heart Melbourne City Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region, South-Eastern region of Melbourne, Victoria. They compete in the A-League Men, the Australian soccer ...

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 The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia (known as Football Federation Austra ...

Honours

Honours since reorganization with NPL in 2014.

Community Soccer Leagues and Cups

* The Geelong Community Cup is an annual pre-season soccer tournament held in the city of Geelong since 1981.

Most successful clubs overall

References

External links

Football Victoria Official Website

Vic Vic, vic or VIC may refer to: People and fictional characters * Vic (name), a list of people, fictional characters and mascots with the given name * V.I.C. (rapper) (born 1987), stage name of an American rapper Places * Vic, Spain, a town and ...

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