National Premier Leagues South Australia

National Premier Leagues South Australia
Organising body	Football South Australia
First season	2013; 12 years ago
Country	Australia
State	South Australia
Confederation	AFC
Number of clubs	12 (since 2016)
Level on pyramid	2
Relegation to	SA State League 1
Domestic cup(s)	Australia Cup ; Federation Cup
Current champions	Campbelltown City (2024)
Current premiers	North Eastern MetroStars (2024)
TV partners	Channel 44 (1 game per week); YouTube
Website	footballsa.com.au
	Current: 2024 National Premier Leagues SA

The National Premier Leagues South Australia,^[a] officially abbreviated to NPL SA and known for sponsorship reasons as the RAA National Premier League,^[1] is a semi-professional men's soccer league in the Australian state of South Australia. The league is one of eight that comprises the National Premier League, the second tier of Australian soccer. The league was founded in 2012 as a successor to the Super League, and is managed by Football South Australia.

Seasons start in late February, and conclude in early September with a Grand Final, which since 2022, has been held at ServiceFM Stadium. The team was initially contested by 14 teams, and was reduced to 12 teams ahead of the 2016 season.

History

In 2012 it was announced that the FFSA Premier League was to become the top tier of South Australian football (below the national A-League) after the disbandment of the now defunct FFSA Super League. It was announced that the competition would consist of 14 teams. These teams would be made up of the 10 teams from the defunct Super League with the remaining 4 spots being filled by the top 4 teams from the 2012 Premier League season.

In 2013 the league joined the National Premier Leagues and was named correspondingly to NPL SA. The top placed team after the completion of the season will enter into the National Premier Leagues finals and will play-off against other top placed teams from interstate conferences to determine a nationwide champion.

National Premier Leagues South Australia (abbreviated as NPL SA), a subdivision of National Premier Leagues (NPL), is a semi-professional football competition in the state of South Australia. National Premier Leagues is the second-tier football competition in Australia, which sits below the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League on the country's football national pyramid. Football Federation Australia (FFA) embarked on a National Competition Review in October 2010, which aimed to review the football competition structure in Australia.^[2] The process of conducting the National Competition Review lasted for 20 months, and the review results were released in May 2012, in which FFA proposed to revitalise the country's state-based competitions to promote the development of elite players.^[2] As a result of this review, National Premier Leagues was established in February 2013. At the time of establishment, NPL has five subdivisions, including football teams from five corresponding state-based federations, which are Football Federation South Australia, Football Federation Tasmania, Football Queensland, Football NSW, and Capital Football.^[2] The inaugural season of NPL SA began in March 2013. Currently, this competition is run and managed by Football South Australia (formerly known as Football Federation South Australia), which is a governing body of football issues in South Australia and a competition administrator for different levels of football games in the state.

Competition format

The regular season consists of a double round robin of 22 rounds, followed by a finals series for the top 6 teams. The team who finishes first is crowned Premier and qualifies for the National Premier Leagues finals series. The teams placed 11th and 12th are relegated to the State League 1 in the following season.

In the finals, the 1st and 2nd placed teams playoff in a two-legged game to qualify for the grand final, with the loser moving to a preliminary final against the winner of playoffs by the 3rd to 6th placed teams. A grand finl is held at ServiceFM Stadium, where the winner is crowned Champion.

NPL SA Player Point System (PPS)

Player Points System, abbreviated as PPS, refers to a system that calculates and records the points of players in NPL clubs. It was after the issue of the National Competitions Review (NCR) in 2012 that the Player Points System (PPS) was introduced for the National Premier Leagues, as a complement to the Club Licensing framework.^[3] The introduction of PPS aimed to:

1) Provide Australia football players with more opportunities;

Promoting players’ development through the youth development structures whilst delivering the NCR objectives and outcomes;

2) Promote the long-term sustainability of NPL clubs by adjusting Players’ salaries;

3) Ensure the parity and competitive balance amongst NPL clubs;

4) Improve the stability of NPL Club Player Rosters;

5) Encourage players to progress through to a National Elite Pathway Team.^[3]

Note: A National Elite Pathway Team refers to a team, determined by the FFA Technical Department and the Member Federations, to take part in the National Elite Pathway. If a player moves through the National Elite Pathway, certain points are credited for that.

There are two different types of NPL Club teams: NPL Club Age-Eligible Team and the First Team. NPL Club Age Eligible Team refers to those facing an age restriction, such as U16s, U18s, and U20s, whilst the First Team means the senior team of NPL Club. Only in limited circumstances can players from the NPL Club's Age-Eligible Teams be promoted to the First Team Player Roster, As outlined under First Team Player Roster Requirements, if a NPL club does not promote a player from its NPL Age-Eligible Teams onto the First Team Player Roster, the club is only allowed to promote the player to the First Team up to a maximum of 40% of matches throughout a NPL season. If the percentage exceeds 40%, the club must include the player on the NPL Club's First Team Player Roster.^[3]

The First Team should remain within the PPS Points Cap, which applies to NPL Club's First Team Player Roster. In NPL 2019 season, the Member Federation, in consultation with FFA, set the PPS Points Cap, which was up to a maximum of 200 points. According to this, each NPL player is attributed of 10 points as the beginning. During the season, a player's value of points is added or deducted depending on certain characteristics (see table below). It is further required that a player's points value should not be less than 0 points.^[3]

Category	Definition	Points Adjustment	Explanation
Youth Player	A Youth Player is 22-year-old or below at the current NPL season.	1 point is deducted for each year the player is below 23-year-old	Under this category, the maximum value of adjustment is 5 points.
Visa Player	A Visa Player is a non-Australian player.	10 points are added to a player's points value for each Visa Player.	A NPL club can simultaneously have up to 2 Visa Players on their First Team Player Roster.
Homegrown Player	A Homegrown Player is a player who has been registered with a NPL Club's Age-Eligible Teams.	1 point is deducted for each season	Under this category, the maximum value of adjustment is 5 points.
Loyalty Player	A Loyalty Player is a player who has registered for at least 5 continuous seasons with the NPL Club's First Team	1 point is deducted for each season starting from the fifth continuous season	None
Pathway Player	A Pathway Player is a player who joins a National Elite Pathway Team.	0	No points are added to or deducted from the points value of a Pathway Player.
Australian Marquee Player	An Australian Marquee Player is a player that used to be registered as a professional Player for a Hyundai A-League Club or an overseas Club immediately before the player registers with the NPL Club.	0	A NPL club can have only one Australian Marquee Player on their First Team Player Roster.

NPL SA digital presence

Increasing the digital presence of NPL SA has been a strategic focus of Football South Australia in recent years. Since the 2019 season, all NPL SA fixtures have been digitally recorded. Media releases of home and away games are delivered on the official website of Football South Australia.^[4] As Football South Australia continued to expand their digital offerings, they also celebrated the history of NPL SA clubs by creating a history makers series, showing the clubs’ development stories and their cultural heritage to the football family. This series has attracted more than 250,000 individual viewers.^[5] In the 2020 season, the audience could watch all NPL game broadcasts.^[6]

The Celebration Of Football

The Celebration of Football is an annually held event that allows all members of the South Australian football family to join and celebrate the achievements that have been achieved during the past season. In 2022, the Celebration of Football was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre, attracting more than 950 members to attend. The following players were a part of the Team of the Year.

Team of the Year
Position	Name	Club
Goalkeeper	Dakota Ochsenham	Adelaide City
Defenders	Jake Halliday	Campbelltown City
	Matthew Halliday	Adelaide City
	Scott Nagel	Adelaide Comets
	Jackson Walls	North Eastern MetroStars
Midfielders	Alexander Mullen	Campbelltown City
	Allan Welsh	Adelaide Comets
	Charlie Devereux	Adelaide City
Forwards	Aladin Irabona	Adelaide City
	Kur Kur	Adelaide City
	Joshua Mori	FK Beograd

Players' Development Pathways

Regional Football Programme

NPL SA, under the management of Football South Australia, has established development pathways to allow talented young footballers to enter NPL competitions and used motion analysis to monitor the progress of elite soccer (Christopher et al., 2008). In 2013, the Regional Football Programme was introduced by FSA to provide services and support to regional players.^[5] In 2019, more than 160 regional players from all over the state joined the programme held in Adelaide, receiving education and coaching from a selected group of experienced football coaches.^[5] The number of regional squads has also increased, for:

Under 16 Girls
Under 14 Girls
Under 16 Boys
Under 14 Boys
Under 12 Boys
SINGA CUP

In the Regional Football Programme, there is a selection process for teams that would visit Singapore to compete for the SINGA CUP. A total of 80 players traveled to Singapore and were tested in humid and tough conditions.^[5] This was a development opportunity for regional players to compete with opponents from the member countries and regions of the Asian Football Confederation, such as Japan, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. This is a 20-team competition, and Under 16 Boys from South Australia finished the competition in the 3rd place.^[5]

Clubs for 2024 season

Club	Home Ground	Suburb
Adelaide City	Adelaide City Park	Oakden
Adelaide Comets	ServiceFM Stadium	Gepps Cross
Adelaide Croatia Raiders	Croatian Sports Centre	Gepps Cross
Adelaide Olympic	APEX Football Centre	Angle Park
Adelaide United Youth	ServiceFM Stadium	Gepps Cross
Campbelltown City	Steve Woodcock Sports Centre	Newton
Croydon FC	Regency Park	Regency Park
FK Beograd	Frank Mitchell Park	Woodville West
Modbury Jets	Smith Partners Stadium	Ridgehaven
North Eastern MetroStars	T.K. Shutter Reserve	Klemzig
Para Hills Knights	Feel Good Physio Co Stadium	Para Hills West
South Adelaide Panthers	O'Sullivan Beach Sports and Community Centre	O'Sullivan Beach

Honours

Year	Premiers	Champions	NPL Finals Representation
2013	North Eastern MetroStars	Campbelltown City	Campbelltown City – Semi-finals
2014	North Eastern MetroStars	Croydon Kings	North Eastern MetroStars – Champions
2015	West Adelaide	West Adelaide	West Adelaide – Quarter-finals
2016	Adelaide City	Campbelltown City	Adelaide City – Quarter-finals
2017	Adelaide City	Croydon Kings	Adelaide City – Quarter-finals
2018	Campbelltown City	Campbelltown City	Campbelltown City – Champions
2019	Campbelltown City	Campbelltown City	Campbelltown City – Quarter-finals
2020	Adelaide Comets	Campbelltown City	—^[b]
2021	Adelaide Comets	Adelaide City	—^[b]
2022	Adelaide City	Adelaide City	—^[c]
2023	North Eastern MetroStars	Adelaide United Youth
2024	North Eastern MetroStars	Campbelltown City

For details of winners pre-NPL (2006–2012):

Notes

^ Often shortened to NPL South Australia, National Premier Leagues SA, or just National Premier League.
^ NPL finals series cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.^[7]
^ Not Held