Football Federation Victoria (FFV) is excited to release the new Junior Metropolitan League structure to be implemented in 2010.

Junior football participation in Victoria is growing at a rapid pace (up from 19,055 juniors in 2003, to 28,209 in 2009) and with the World Cup coming up next year, participation in the sport is set to surge.

FFV has always been concerned about the distance families have had to travel to play our sport. For that reason, the metropolitan area will be broken up into six zones, up from the previous four, and still consisting of 10 team leagues. With the format moving to Zones the need to travel large distances is greatly reduced. The flow on effect from the more localised competitions will hopefully see player numbers increase.

Football Federation Victoria CEO, Mark Rendell, said the restructure would benefit everyone.

“This new structure will mean less travel, finals for all leagues, and the focus more on player development across all grades with all teams required to have an identified coach in 2010,” Mr Rendell said.

“Since 2006 – the year of the last World Cup – there has been a 33% increase in participation, or 77 Junior Boys Leagues to 100 Junior Boys Leagues.

“We can therefore expect more growth and another surge in Junior team entries following the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa in May 2010.”

The four zone league structure originally created to accommodate 390 junior boys teams in 1999 has become outdated. A change is now necessary to better suit over 1000 Junior boys teams in 2010.

Mr Rendell said the restructure is necessary to accommodate the continual growth of the sport at junior level.

“By rezoning the leagues now, we will be prepared for the future growth and be able to accommodate the best possible league structure to suit the number of team entries.”

Instead of the traditional North, West, South and East Divisions Clubs have been placed into their Melbourne Metropolitan Zones which falls in line with Football Federation Victoria’s Strategic Plan and better fits the growth of Junior Football with Clubs increasing the size of their Junior teams and new Clubs arising in new and existing areas.

The Boys leagues have been broken down into the following Zones for 2010:

- South East

- Southern

- Eastern and North East

- Central and Northern

- North West

- Western

Significant changes have also occurred for the Junior Girls leagues. The Junior Girls Metropolitan leagues have been re-structured (formerly consisting of clubs from North, West, South and East all in the one division) into a more suitable format.

The Girls leagues have been broken down into the following Zones for 2010:

- Western, North West and Northern

- Central, North East and Eastern

- South East and Southern

The Under 13’s and 14’s have combined, as has the Under 15’s and Under 16’s. This has been done so Clubs can be rezoned to minimise travel and not have the requirement for junior girls to travel across the entire metropolitan area for their games.

The Junior Girls have also had a positive increase in player numbers throughout the last four years meaning it is now possible to create leagues that are zonal.

There will no longer be a boys Super League competition. However, there will still be a finals series so players can still test themselves against the best from across Melbourne. The winners of every single division from the Under 12 age group through to the Under 18’s, this is for both the Junior Boys and Junior Girls leagues will be placed into a final series.

Please note this is the ‘Proposed League Structure’ therefore some Clubs may not wish to compete next season in certain age groups or they may wish to enter new teams in other age groups. Once team entries have

The FFV's 2007 Annual Report indicated that they had to turn in excess of 7,000 players away from the game because they neither had the infrastructure or club set up to cater for the immense growth. Hopefully they will get similar growth in the next 2 years.