Football Victoria (FV) can today announce the restoration of an iconic name in the State’s football structure amongst several other changes in the NPL Men’s and Women’s competitions in 2024.
2024 Naming Conventions
The NPL2 and NPL3 Men’s competitions will be reverting to the renowned Victoria Premier League (VPL) 1 Men’s and VPL 2 Men’s from the 2024 season onwards.
Emblematic of football in Victoria for over 30 years, the VPL was the precursor to the currently aligned National Premier League (NPL) competitions, introduced in 2013 across Australia and adopted by Victoria the following year as the tier below the A-League Men’s and Women’s. As the top tiers of Men’s football in the state continued to grow and evolve, the NPL2 East and West were introduced in 2015 before becoming geographically disconnected in 2020 and reverting to the NPL 2 and NPL 3 Men’s competitions.
FV’s Head of Competitions, Dan Birrell applauded the change and conveyed the reasoning behind the move, “We now have an opportunity to take these competitions forward in a meaningful and exclusive manner that exemplifies where Senior Football is moving in not only Victoria but Australia”.
"As we progress towards a licensing-based model within our top Men’s and Women’s tiers, reinstating the VPL name allows us to explore commercial value for the product as well as define what we want those competitions to look like outside of the rigours of the NPL licensing criteria," he continued.
The VPL competitions will remain as professionally registered competitions (i.e. comply with the Football Australia (FA)/FIFA mandated registration periods for player movement) and undertake a concentrated licensing format, which will ensure all clubs are eligible and able to accept promotion into the NPL competition in future years.
There is additional flexibility afforded to the clubs in these competitions in relation to Visa players, roster composition as well as infrastructure.
The change ensures Football Victoria continues to promote and reposition the Men’s and Women’s advanced competitions across the state with the VPL Women’s alongside the VPL Men’s 1 and 2.
NPL/VPL Men's U23s and NPL Women's U20s
As the culmination of months-long discussions and feedback with participating clubs, internal FV departments and stakeholders as well as input from FA, a further update also sees the underpinning and attached squad age group move from U21 to U23 in the NPL Men’s and VPL 1 and 2 Men’s competitions for 2024.
Acknowledging the significant research and work FA have done in recent seasons into match minutes for U20 and U23 players, this change permits clubs to support and develop players for a season or two longer in the NPL Senior program and intends to enhance club culture and player retention.
In the NPL Women’s competition the supplementary age group will shift from U19 to U20 and now aligns with the U20 Young Matildas program and further strengthens the depth and quality of the playing group this competition can draw from and retain, while supporting a cohort of U20 players remaining in the NPL environment for one further season.