National Premier Leagues Victoria 3

The National Premier Leagues Victoria 3, commonly referred to as NPL Victoria 3, is a semi-professional semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is the third-highest in the Victorian league system, behind NPL Victoria and NPL Victoria 2, and forms part of the fourth tier of the overall Australian pyramid.

National Premier Leagues Victoria 3
Founded2020
CountryAustralia
State Victoria
Number of teams12
Level on pyramid4
Promotion toNPL Victoria 2
Relegation toState League 1
Domestic cup(s)FFA Cup
Dockerty Cup
Current: 2020 Season

The league was created from the bottom halves of NPL Victoria 2 East and West, when the league was reorganised from two geographic conferences to two separate vertical NPL divisions.[1]

The competition is administered by Football Victoria, the governing body of the sport in the state. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no NPL 3 season has yet taken place.

Format

The NPL Victoria 3 is contested by 12 teams. Each team plays home and away against teams against all other teams in the league for a total of 22 fixtures per team each season. The winner of each conference gains automatic promotion to the NPL Victoria 2 while 2nd in both conferences will play off in a final; the winner to play the third last team in the NPL Victoria for entry into the top flight.

Due to the entry of Western United into the A-League, NPL Victoria competition rules contain a provision allowing the new professional side to place a development team directly into NPL Victoria 3. This will occur in 2021, so the league would compete for that season with 13 teams, with promotion/relegation rules for State League 1 temporarily modified to revert the structure back to twelve clubs per league.[2]

Current clubs (2021)

After the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[3] it was decided that no promotion/relegation would apply. Western United FC Youth joined the league as a new team in the 2021 season.[4]

The following clubs will take part in the 2021 NPL Victoria 3 season:

Locations of 2021 NPL 3 Victoria clubs within metropolitan Melbourne.
Club Location Grounds Capacity
Ballarat City Redan Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility 6,000
Box Hill United Box Hill South Wembley Park 1,000
Doveton Eumemmerring Waratah Reserve
Geelong Corio Stead Park 500
Melbourne City Youth Cranbourne East Casey Fields
Melbourne Victory Youth Epping Epping Stadium 10,000
North Sunshine Eagles St Albans Larissa Reserve
Nunawading City Forest Hill Mahoney's Reserve 500
Preston Lions Reservoir B.T. Connor Reserve 8,000
Springvale White Eagles Keysborough Serbian Sports Centre 5,000
Whittlesea Ranges Epping Harvest Home Recreation Reserve
Western United FC Youth N/A[lower-alpha 1]

History

In 2018, pressures from member clubs and a desire to re-evaluate league structure and organisation lead Football Victoria to commission a report into how the NPL Victoria leagues could be re-worked. Among a series of recommendations on improvements to the youth structure, the report recommended that NPL Victoria 2 - then a two-conference division with ten teams each in an east-west split, contesting 28 fixtures each per season - should be reformed with NPL Victoria 2 turned into a single division of 12 teams and a new 12-team division - NPL Victoria 3 - created.[1]

The proposed changes were agreed, and to enact the split the top six teams of each NPL Victoria 2 conference in the 2019 season were be given places in the 2020 Victoria 2 competition, with the bottom four of the two conferences all relegated to Victoria 3. Four additional teams were promoted from Victorian State League 1 to make up the numbers. Among the sides moved to NPL Victoria 3 were the NPL development sides of A-League duo Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory.[5]

Notes
  1. Due to difficulties in obtaining a stadium, Western United Youth will play all of their nominated home matches away.

References
  1. "Victoria restructures its NPL competition". footballtoday.news. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  2. "FFV Men's and Boy's Football Competition Review" (PDF). Football Victoria. 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  3. "2021 Start Up". Football Victoria. 16 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  4. Matthew Comino (9 December 2020). "Around the grounds: Stefan Nigro joins Mariners, Western United announce NPL venture". Football Federation Australia. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  5. "Football Victoria Announces New 2020 NPL Structures". Football Victoria. 11 October 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
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