National Premier Leagues Capital Football

National Premier Leagues Capital Football
Country Australia
Confederation AFC
Number of teams 10
Level on pyramid 2
Relegation to ACT State League
Domestic cup(s) FFA Cup
Website Official ACT NPL Home
2015 Capital Football season

The National Premier Leagues Capital Football is a soccer competition contested by clubs affiliated to Capital Football. It is the highest level competition in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region. It is a subdivision of the National Premier Leagues.[1][2]

Format

The competition is contested by primarily amateur clubs in one league, each team playing each other twice throughout the regular season. The highest placed team is declared League Champions, and the four highest placed teams enter a finals series to determine the Premiers.[3]

Premier League clubs are also required to field teams in age-limited divisions of Premier League U20, Premier League U18 and Premier League U16. All NPL clubs also field junior NPL teams at U16, U14 and U13 age groups.

A cup competition is contested by Premier League teams and other teams from the region, known as the Westfield FFA Cup Qualifiers for which the winner is awarded the Federation Cup. The winners of the Federation Cup gain entry into the national Westfield FFA Cup competition.

History

The competition has been dominated in recent years by Canberra FC and Belconnen United, both regularly reaching the finals and finishing strongly in the cup and league competitions.

The competition was restructured after the 2006 season, based on criterion requiring a development pathway within clubs where each club must field a team in a reserves and Under-18 divisions. Nine teams contested in the Premier League in 2007, cutting Gungahlin Juventus, White Eagles and reigning premier Cooma Tigers from the top tier.[4]

The same nine teams remained in the Premier League for 2008 and 2009. The pathway system was expanded to include a Premier U16 competition, with all nine clubs required to field a team from their club or an affiliated club. Capital Football initially revoked the licence of Queanbeyan City for the 2009 season, citing a non-compliance with the developmental and administrative standards expected for the league.[5] However, Queanbeyan were reinstated on appeal and following the presentation of further evidence demonstrating these standards could be met.[6]

At the close of the 2009 season, the licences of all participating clubs were reviewed and expressions of interest sought for new additional entrants to the competition for 2010–2012.

In November 2014 Woden-Weston FC was incorporated with the intention to merge the elite levels of Woden Valley FC and Weston Molonglo FC into one club to compete in the 2015 National Premier Leagues Capital Football and beyond. 20 February 2015, the new merged club was officially launched. The new merged club has chosen to adopt colours from both clubs with the black from Weston Creek and Red from Woden Valley picked to form the new strip.[7]

In 2016 the league was expanded to 10 teams with the addition of the Canberra United Academy (CUA) team.[8] The decision by Capital Football to include the Canberra United Academy in the top division of ACT football was met with opposition by other clubs in the league, citing concern with the prospect of losing their best young players to the Academy.[9] It was also reported in Fairfax Media the existing eight clubs were contemplating establishing a break-away league if their concerns were not dealt with adequately. Along with the addition of the CUA clubs were concerned with lack of action taken on making the NPL presidents voting members of the Capital Football board. It was believed there had already been contact made with the referees' association and potential sponsorship lined up for the last resort option by the NPL clubs.[10]

2016 also saw the establishment of the Capital Football Charity Shield to be played out between the Federation Cup winners and NPL league champions before the start of the regular NPL season. The match is used to raise money for a prior agreed upon charity.[11] 18 March 2016, the inaugural Capital Football Charity Shield 2016 match was contested between Canberra FC (2015 League champions) and Gungahlin United (2015 Federation Cup winners) at Gungahlin Enclosed with all proceeds going towards the charity House with No Steps.[12]


Current Clubs (2016)

Club Location Home ground
Belconnen United McKellar McKellar Park
Canberra FC Deakin Deakin Stadium
Canberra Olympic O'Connor O'Connor Enclosed
Canberra United Academy McKellar McKellar Park
Tigers FC Cooma Nijong Oval
FFA Centre of Excellence Bruce Australian Institute of Sport
Gungahlin United Gungahlin Gungahlin Enclosed Oval
Monaro Panthers Queanbeyan Riverside Oval
Tuggeranong United Kambah Kambah 2
Woden Weston FC Phillip Woden Park

Former clubs

Club Location Home ground
Australian National University Acton ANU Willows Oval
Goulburn Strikers Goulburn Strikers Park
Queanbeyan City Queanbeyan Riverside Stadium
HNK O'Connor Knights O'Connor O'Connor Enclosed
Canberra City Hackett Hackett 2
Canberra White Eagles Phillip Woden Park
Weston Creek Waramanga Waramanga Playing Fields
Narrabundah Narrabundah Narrabundah 2
Burns Kambah Kambah 3-10

Honours

Year League Winner Champions
2000 Gungahlin JuventusBelconnen United
2001 Canberra DeakinGungahlin Juventus
2002 Canberra DeakinBelconnen United
2003 Canberra DeakinCanberra Deakin
2004 Canberra DeakinCanberra Deakin
2005 Canberra DeakinCanberra Deakin
2006 Canberra OlympicCooma
2007 CanberraCanberra
2008 CanberraBelconnen United
2009 CanberraCanberra
2010 CanberraCanberra
2011 CanberraCanberra
2012 Belconnen UnitedCooma
2013 Canberra OlympicCanberra Olympic
2014 Cooma TigersBelconnen United
2015 Canberra FCCanberra Olympic

See Also

References

  1. "NPL Home". National Premier Leagues. Football Federation Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  2. Gibbs, Russ. "PS4 NPL Capital Football 2015 Preview". PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues. Football Federation Australia. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  3. Men's League Rules and Regulations, 2008, Capital Football
  4. "Clubs on notice to lift game or be cut loose". Canberra Times. 9 December 2006. Retrieved 15 June 2007.
  5. "Queanbeyan City’s PL Licence Reviewed". Capital Football. October 2008. Retrieved 9 January 2009.
  6. "Queanbeyan City Reinstated in Premier League". Capital Football. December 2008. Retrieved 9 January 2009.
  7. Gaskin, Lee (08 March 2015) "Woden-Weston FC hoping to channel Western Sydney Wanderers in National Premier League debut". Sydney Morning herald. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
  8. "Academy". Capital Football. Retrieved 9 Feb 2016.
  9. Gaskin, Lee (2015-11-25). "Soccer: Canberra National Premier League clubs voice concerns at representative team". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
  10. Polkinghorne, David (2016-02-11). "Rebel league an option in Canberra NPL disagreement with Capital Football". Sydney Morning herald. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
  11. "Champions and Cup Winners to Meet in Inaugural Charity Shield". Capital Football. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
  12. Gaskin, Lee (2016-03-17). "ACT National Premier League: Charity Shield gives new-look Gungahlin United perfect test". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 2016-03-19.

External links

Current Clubs (2015)

Former Clubs


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