The National Premier Leagues NSW 4 is a regional Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 4 on the New South Wales league system. The competition is administered by Football NSW, the governing body of the sport in the southern region of the state. For the 2016 season it was announced that the State League 2 would become the NSW State League as State League 1 became NPL NSW 3. At the conclusion of the 2019 season it was announced that the NPL NSW 3 would become the NPL NSW 4.
History
The Men’s State League One competition sits 4th on the NSW football league structure and is the lowest connected division to the NPL NSW 1. The league consists of 11 teams competing in a round-robin structure where each side plays one another twice; upon completion a Premier is crowned. The top four sides by the end of the season compete in the Championship Series. The Championship Series consists of four games, whereby the four teams competing are whittled down to just two. The teams are seeded upon their entry into the Championship Series according to their final position on the ladder. The final two teams compete in the Grand Final, where a Men’s State League Champion is decided. In 2007 the competition was divided in two - New South Wales Conference League North and the New South Wales Conference League South - with this format only used for two years. In 2009 the competition was united again into one, called the New South Wales State League Division Two. In 2013 when the FFA launched the National Premier Leagues, State League 2 was not rebranded under this banner as to ensure that the teams competing at this level did not have to fulfil the strict financial and club based criteria, that may have resulted in smaller teams having to withdraw from the league. In 2016, with the 3rd division of NSW being incorporated into the National Premier Leagues as NPL NSW 3, State League 2 became known as the NSW State League. In 2019 a number of changes occurred including Wagga City Wanderers leaving the competition to join the newly formed Capital Football NPL 2 competition. This meant that the league would proceed with 11 teams, creating a bye each week. It has been announced that in 2020 the competition will be rebranded under the NPL banner to NPL 4 with 12 teams.
