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Soccer in Victoria

Field	Value
image	File:Melbourne_Victory_2007_A-League_Grand_Final.jpg
imagesize	250px
caption	Melbourne Victory celebrating 2007 A-League Grand Final win at Docklands Stadium
union	Football Victoria
teamlabel1	Representative team(s)
nationalteam	State team
country	Australia
sport	Soccer
first	1883 in Melbourne
registered	243,956 (2023)
club_list	{{Plainlist
match	99,382 (2015) International Champions Cup, Manchester City v Real Madrid, Melbourne Cricket Ground

League: Men's competition National Premier Leagues Victoria Victorian Premier League Victorian State League Women's competition National Premier Leagues Victoria Women Victorian Premier League Women's Victorian Women's State League
Cups: Men's competition Dockerty Cup Women's competition Women's State Knockout Cup

Soccer in the Australian state of Victoria is organised by Football Victoria (FV). FV is a member of the national Football Australia.

National representation

Many clubs represented Victoria in the now defunct National Soccer League (NSL), three of which, South Melbourne FC, Melbourne Knights and Brunswick Juventus became champions. Along with South Melbourne, Heidelberg United, Footscray JUST and Mooroolbark United were NSL foundation clubs. At various times the following Victorian sides also competed in the NSL: Preston Lions FC; Carlton SC; Gippsland Falcons (also known as Eastern Pride); Collingwood Warriors; Sunshine George Cross; and Green Gully.

Victoria is currently represented in the top-flight A-League Men by Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Western United. Victory and City also have associated teams in the A-League Women and A-League Youth.

Soccer League Structure

Men's pyramid under FFV

Level	Leagues
1	National Premier Leagues Victoria
14 clubs
↓ relegate 2
2	Victorian Premier League 1
14 clubs
↑ promote 2
↓ relegate 2
3	Victorian Premier League 2
12 clubs
↑ promote 2
↓ relegate 2
4	Victorian State League 1 North-West
12 clubs
↑ promote 1
↓ relegate 2
5	Victorian State League 2 North-West
12 clubs
↑ promote 2
↓ relegate 2
6	Victorian State League 3 North-West
12 clubs
↑ promote 2
↓ relegate 2
7	Victorian State League 4 North
12 clubs
↑ promote 1
↓ relegate 2
8	Victorian State League 5 North
12 clubs
↑ promote 2
No Relegation
9	Metropolitan Leagues
9 divisions
No promotion

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, 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 and National Premier Leagues Victoria 3. 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, Ballarat & District Soccer Association and the Gippsland Soccer League.

Cup

The Dockerty Cup, 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 through to the regional leagues, however the FFA later pulled Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart 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.

Honours

Honours since reorganization with NPL in 2014.

Year	Victoria League Champions	Victoria League Premiers	Dockerty Cup Winners	Community Shield Winners
2014	South Melbourne	South Melbourne	Melbourne Knights	N/A
2015	Bentleigh Greens	South Melbourne	South Melbourne	South Melbourne
2016	South Melbourne	Bentleigh Greens	Bentleigh Greens	Bentleigh Greens
2017	Bentleigh Greens	Heidelberg United	Heidelberg United	Bentleigh Greens
2018	Heidelberg United	Heidelberg United	Bentleigh Greens	Heidelberg United
2019	Bentleigh Greens	Heidelberg United	Hume City	Bentleigh Greens
2020	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia	Bentleigh Greens
2021	Not Held (COVID-19)	Oakleigh Cannons	Avondale FC	Not Held
2022	Oakleigh Cannons	South Melbourne	Bentleigh Greens	Not Held
2023	Avondale FC	Avondale FC	Oakleigh Cannons	Oakleigh Cannons
2024	Oakleigh Cannons	South Melbourne	South Melbourne	Avondale FC
2025	Heidelberg United	Avondale FC	South Melbourne	South Melbourne

Community Soccer Leagues and Cups

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

References

"Football/soccer Report".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

soccer-in-victoria-(state) soccer-in-australia-by-state-or-territory

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