Football Queensland (FQ) has today confirmed that all 24 National Premier Leagues (NPL) Queensland and Football Queensland Premier League (FQPL) clubs currently competing across the Under 13, 14, 15 and 16 age groups will collectively form a new junior NPL competition from the commencement of the 2020 season.
The Technical Working Group, established to implement the recent decoupling of the junior age groups from senior NPL and FQPL teams, has developed a number of competition models and recommended the introduction of a tiered competition format across the 24 clubs.
Approved by the FQ Board, the competition tiers will be referred to as the NPL Academy for the top 12 rated clubs and NPL Development for the next 12 rated clubs.
The naming convention aligns the NPL competition with both the current SAP star ratings and proposed FFA Academy star ratings.
More information on the NPL reforms will be announced in the coming weeks alongside the progress of the Technical Working Group. Details of the group’s deliberations can be found in the minutes of the meetings, which have been released weekly and are available online at footballqueensland.com.au/technical-working-group/