Football Victoria (FV) welcomes the launch this weekend of the revamped Junior Boys NPL (JBNPL) competition.
In season 2020, the JBNPL will comprise an extra 13 teams, refined technical standards and an 11-game qualification format as a pre competition phase to determine team rankings.
A further 22 home-and-away re-fixtured games after qualification will ensure our JBNPL programs compete against those of similar capability. A complete Q&A document to help answer frequently asked questions can be found here.
Along with the exciting start of the JBNPL season, FV also announced the launch of its Enjoying Our Game ‘Safe Game-Day Standards’.
The standards will provide more clarity for all Victorian football stakeholders on the best way to ensure all participants enjoy their game-day football experience in season 2020.
The policy covers areas including heat, inclement weather, air quality, game-day travel, player welfare, support for referees and clarity for all stakeholders on game-day decision-making responsibilities.
“We’ve seen recently with the unprecedented bushfire disaster in Victoria that it’s critically important for all football stakeholders to be as prepared as they can for the conditions that may present on game-day”, FV CEO Peter Filopoulos said.
“FV’s Enjoying Our Game initiative provides clear guidelines for all participants and will help ensure that club officials, parents/guardians, players, coaches, supporters and referees are able to make informed decisions in relation to their wellbeing throughout the upcoming 2020 football season,” he said.
The Enjoying Our Game initiative also ensures that all clubs have a designated contact to both send and receive important game-day information and will proactively seek to forecast game-day risk before weekend fixtures are due to kick off.
The FV Competitions and Referee Teams will always seek to either reschedule fixtures and/or change kick off times in order to provide participants with the best game-day conditions possible should the forecast indicate concerning conditions.
FV will seek to have these decisions complete by 5pm every Thursday leading into the weekend’s Junior and Senior football fixtures.
Club officials, coaches and parents/guardians should be aware that there may be some changes to scheduled fixtures (and therefore travel arrangements) as a result of the predicted game-day weather conditions each weekend throughout the season.
FV’s Enjoying Our Game initiative, including the supporting policies that make up this policy, has been sent to clubs.
The policies that are included in the Enjoying Our Game policy include;