Capital Football have gone and done what many have perceived as the unthinkable, and confirmed a 10 team NPL for the 2026 season.
This includes the removal from Capital Football for the club that finished 7th in an eight team competition in 2025 (Yoogali SC) - which would normally save them from relegation, and promoting the Premiers (Belconnen United), and Champions (Canberra Olympic) of the now abolished Capital Premier League, and the club that finished 5th (Brindabella Blues) in the eight team second division in 2025.
The remaining five clubs from the CPL were either demoted to what will now become the second tier in Capital Football, Capital League Open Division 1, or had their senior pathway removed from Capital Football completely.
This move has drawn the ire of many, including Sydney Morning Herald's Vince Rugari, and other outlets reporting on NPL football around the country.
Much of the concerns from this website relate to the removal of Riverina clubs from the senior pathway in Canberra - however these changes also affect the youth programs, with the Capital Football NPL Boys clubs being cut from 14 (after combining both the first and second division into one following the drop-off of some clubs across 2023 and 2024), to 10.
Monaro Panthers are one of the clubs affected, being one of the four clubs demoted to the Capital Football Junior League program.
However criteria itself seems not to be the issue with the criticisms leveled at Capital Football - it's the timing, transparency and perception of how these decisions have been made and implemented.
Monaro Panthers Vice President Aaron Hazelton spoke on the Green and Gold FC Podcast about how the changes would affect the club. Multiple clubs were invited with many showing interest, though wanted to wait until more information was available. Capital Football declined invitations to participate.'
"I'm all for setting the bar high, let's set the standards high," Aaron Hazelton said.
"But I think that the disconnect here is the time between the review and the time between implementation is just not enough time to actually implement the bits that seem more important."
Several clubs were invited to join the podcast, with many showing interest but choosing to wait until more information was available. Capital Football, however, declined the invitation.
The NPL Review was released by Capital Football just days after Round 5 was completed on 11 May - with exemption applications required within one month by 15 June.
Some clubs ultimately had their exemptions and applications denied due to concerns 'over the feasibility of establishing a full junior pathway within a 12-month timeframe' and failure to include 'elements such as formalised agreements, a defined governance structure, and a detailed operational plan' on applications that were expected to be completed just within one month.
The many things hypocritical about this review - and that's just in the document itself (Alongside some notes from yours truly):
Capital Football's letter to Yoogali SC - Source: Sydney Morning Herald
An email from Capital Football's CEO Samantha Farrow acknowledging receipt of an email sent in mid-June by 12 Capital Football clubs, the evening after exemptions were announced
And, a new one that also seems to be an issue (since wording is always key and important), is that as per the recent declaration of leagues announcement, ANU FC - who finished 3rd on the CPL table in 2025, were noted by Capital Football as "Decided not to participate in NPL Men in 2026" rather than "Relegated from CPL Men to Capital League Opens Division 1" alongside the other rejected CPL clubs, despite not having any youth program at all - seemingly the major requirement to be included in the NPL from 2026. This now makes Brindabella's inclusion in the top-flight, and the review as a whole even more baffling if ANU was seemingly in the mix to be promoted.
Gungahlin United, believed to be one of the four clubs that did not sign off on the letter of recommendation to Capital Football - are also in hot water, with Capital Football announcing that they 'are required to respond to existing issues already raised by CF separately as part of an ongoing compliance requirement.'
An excerpt of the letter of recommendation sent to Capital Football by a coalition of 12 clubs
There is quite a deep perception out in the Riverina region that a lot of these changes have been made purely to remove Riverina clubs from the senior pyramid. This is now the 3rd time that this has happened to the region in the past 55 years (and of those, at least 2 were against the will of the Riverina region). We've had some clubs mention that they were made aware and had communication, but it appears as if Yoogali and Wagga did not until the last minute.
Of the 9 seasons that Yoogali, Riverina Rhinos and Wagga City have competed in the men's senior pyramid, only once have any of them finished last (Rhinos in 2019, which led to Yoogali being introduced in the second tier for 2020).
And another thing to note is just how forgotten Riverina and Southern NSW is when it comes to football. Like I said earlier, it's the third time this has happened in relation to Canberra. But across 2017 and 2018's NPL (and connected leagues) seasons, 3 of the 4 Riverina associations (Griffith, Wagga and Albury) all had an 'association club' (a team run by the association - essentially a representative team) playing in 3 different NPL (or lower connected leagues) structures - Wagga in NSW, Griffith in ACT, and Albury in Victoria. Until we know just where Murray United's application to join the Victorian State League structure sits, for 2026 that's a big fat zero.
For the Riverina region - there is just nowhere else for clubs to aspire to with the NSW NPL solely based in Metropolitan NSW (5 - 6.5hrs travel). Is it time for Football NSW to finally re-create the NSW Southern League from the 1980s?
Canberra, just like it tends to politically, seems stuck in one big, giant bubble - happy to say they're regional and inclusive when it gets them brownie points, but flinging out the regional clubs when it suits them to.
It's a shame that such storied clubs like Hanwood FC and Yoogali SC, and everyone in between across Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Leeton and the Riverina are shut out because they have ambition.
This includes the removal from Capital Football for the club that finished 7th in an eight team competition in 2025 (Yoogali SC) - which would normally save them from relegation, and promoting the Premiers (Belconnen United), and Champions (Canberra Olympic) of the now abolished Capital Premier League, and the club that finished 5th (Brindabella Blues) in the eight team second division in 2025.
The remaining five clubs from the CPL were either demoted to what will now become the second tier in Capital Football, Capital League Open Division 1, or had their senior pathway removed from Capital Football completely.
This move has drawn the ire of many, including Sydney Morning Herald's Vince Rugari, and other outlets reporting on NPL football around the country.
Much of the concerns from this website relate to the removal of Riverina clubs from the senior pathway in Canberra - however these changes also affect the youth programs, with the Capital Football NPL Boys clubs being cut from 14 (after combining both the first and second division into one following the drop-off of some clubs across 2023 and 2024), to 10.
Monaro Panthers are one of the clubs affected, being one of the four clubs demoted to the Capital Football Junior League program.
However criteria itself seems not to be the issue with the criticisms leveled at Capital Football - it's the timing, transparency and perception of how these decisions have been made and implemented.
Monaro Panthers Vice President Aaron Hazelton spoke on the Green and Gold FC Podcast about how the changes would affect the club. Multiple clubs were invited with many showing interest, though wanted to wait until more information was available. Capital Football declined invitations to participate.'
"I'm all for setting the bar high, let's set the standards high," Aaron Hazelton said.
"But I think that the disconnect here is the time between the review and the time between implementation is just not enough time to actually implement the bits that seem more important."
Several clubs were invited to join the podcast, with many showing interest but choosing to wait until more information was available. Capital Football, however, declined the invitation.
The NPL Review was released by Capital Football just days after Round 5 was completed on 11 May - with exemption applications required within one month by 15 June.
Some clubs ultimately had their exemptions and applications denied due to concerns 'over the feasibility of establishing a full junior pathway within a 12-month timeframe' and failure to include 'elements such as formalised agreements, a defined governance structure, and a detailed operational plan' on applications that were expected to be completed just within one month.
The many things hypocritical about this review - and that's just in the document itself (Alongside some notes from yours truly):
- Riverina excluded mostly on the basis that 'community and junior players are not willing to travel beyond the previous Capital Football region limits of Cooma, Yass and Goulburn and will subsequently forfeit matches, which significantly impacts on the integrity of the competition and the experience had by all participants' - including a rejection to join the league by Hanwood FC (who arguably has a stronger youth set up than Yoogali SC).
- Nontheless, Wagga City Wanderers wer given an exemption for only the youth team, despite the review stating that it's youth teams that have/will struggle to travel.
- In addition to travel, it was cited that "there is an ongoing challenge for all clubs with the distance, cost, player availability and availability of referees to travel to the Riverina."
- I know for a fact that referees in the Riverina are crying out for courses/training to be qualified at that level - and it's not like Capital Football has turned a blind eye in allocating 'unqualified' referees at this level - I was at the lowest end of the Capital Football totem pole while refereeing (Level 4), and had been assigned Assistant Referee duties for 3 NPL/CPL games in a season, which would generally require Level 3 qualifications. Was this a one-off because I had been involved in NPL/CPL on the dugout for the previous 3-4 seasons? Perhaps. But nonetheless, the resources are there if eyes are opened. If clubs are so worried about travel, why are they entering in competitions such as the Hahn Australia Cup and Australian Championship which will require cross-country travel and larger expenses?
- Introduction of a preseason competition involving the Illawarra Premier League - stated as having NPL teams playing 4 matches against IPL clubs (2x home and 2x away).
- This goes against the reasoning for excluding Riverina clubs due to travel time - as a 10 club NPLM competition including Yoogali would have been less travel for clubs than this slated preseason competition
Capital Football's letter to Yoogali SC - Source: Sydney Morning Herald
- Reduction of NPLB to 10 teams (overall a reduction due to this year's combined competition), with clubs now being cut from the competition. However, the review states that a longer 27-28 round season for NPL Boys and Girls will take place, citing that "The longer season was allocated to the Boys and Girls competition as it will have the greater impact on the player development pathway and it is also where ground allocations are more flexible."
- Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the current larger competition, where a home and away season would still provide that longer season, and allow more clubs and more players to have that development pathway?
- Then you also have one section of the review's Final Report that completely contradicts itself within two sentences: 'The Review Committee don’t believe it is required to link competitions. However, it is recommended that it is a requirement for all NPL Men’s and Women’s clubs to have a junior pathway and teams entered in either the NPL or in each Junior League Div 1 competitions that are aligned to their first grade program.'
- It appears as if Capital Football has attempted make a 'catch-all' for requirements, but allowed certain clubs to be exempt and/or rise through the cracks. For example, Canberra Juventus haven't been granted an exemption, despite beginning to implement an full youth program from next season (with the criteria pointing towards having these programs completed and running for the 2027 season).
- Even though the Exemption Guidelines place this as a requirement to build towards meeting criteria for the 2027 season. If they're able to establish their pathway by the end of next season (and they've already put in place steps to do) - the fact that they won't be promoted to NPLM next season ahead of Brindabella Blues (3rd in CPL Club Championship v 5th, and also 4th on the CPL first grade table v 5th) will be a joke, considering exemptions were granted to other clubs in the division in seemingly similar situations.
- A current club committee member being 25% of the review panel (and seemingly the largest beneficiary of this review, now having confirmed promotion to the NPLM) with no conflict of interest being tabled or mentioned in the review.
- The Capital Football President seemingly ignoring (or not checking his email) to pass on a letter recommending the implementation of this review be paused for 12 months - signed off on by 75% of the NPLM + CPLM clubs - with the CEO of Capital Football only acknowledging receipt of this letter the day after exemptions were announced - 4 weeks after it was sent (with this acknowledgment of receipt also confirming that this letter was not looked at until this point).
- Capital Football censoring/blocking select users on social media from commenting on items relating to this without following their social media policy, then trying to apply sanctions based on this social media policy to clubs (probably rightly to be honest, but is very hypocritical when they won't stick to their own policy), and only overturning this as a "gesture of goodwill" when mentions of Football Australia's Integrity Unit were raised.
- I'm still blocked by NPL Capital Football on Facebook by the way, whilst awaiting the Integrity Unit's final response.
An email from Capital Football's CEO Samantha Farrow acknowledging receipt of an email sent in mid-June by 12 Capital Football clubs, the evening after exemptions were announced
And, a new one that also seems to be an issue (since wording is always key and important), is that as per the recent declaration of leagues announcement, ANU FC - who finished 3rd on the CPL table in 2025, were noted by Capital Football as "Decided not to participate in NPL Men in 2026" rather than "Relegated from CPL Men to Capital League Opens Division 1" alongside the other rejected CPL clubs, despite not having any youth program at all - seemingly the major requirement to be included in the NPL from 2026. This now makes Brindabella's inclusion in the top-flight, and the review as a whole even more baffling if ANU was seemingly in the mix to be promoted.
Gungahlin United, believed to be one of the four clubs that did not sign off on the letter of recommendation to Capital Football - are also in hot water, with Capital Football announcing that they 'are required to respond to existing issues already raised by CF separately as part of an ongoing compliance requirement.'
An excerpt of the letter of recommendation sent to Capital Football by a coalition of 12 clubs
There is quite a deep perception out in the Riverina region that a lot of these changes have been made purely to remove Riverina clubs from the senior pyramid. This is now the 3rd time that this has happened to the region in the past 55 years (and of those, at least 2 were against the will of the Riverina region). We've had some clubs mention that they were made aware and had communication, but it appears as if Yoogali and Wagga did not until the last minute.
Of the 9 seasons that Yoogali, Riverina Rhinos and Wagga City have competed in the men's senior pyramid, only once have any of them finished last (Rhinos in 2019, which led to Yoogali being introduced in the second tier for 2020).
And another thing to note is just how forgotten Riverina and Southern NSW is when it comes to football. Like I said earlier, it's the third time this has happened in relation to Canberra. But across 2017 and 2018's NPL (and connected leagues) seasons, 3 of the 4 Riverina associations (Griffith, Wagga and Albury) all had an 'association club' (a team run by the association - essentially a representative team) playing in 3 different NPL (or lower connected leagues) structures - Wagga in NSW, Griffith in ACT, and Albury in Victoria. Until we know just where Murray United's application to join the Victorian State League structure sits, for 2026 that's a big fat zero.
For the Riverina region - there is just nowhere else for clubs to aspire to with the NSW NPL solely based in Metropolitan NSW (5 - 6.5hrs travel). Is it time for Football NSW to finally re-create the NSW Southern League from the 1980s?
Canberra, just like it tends to politically, seems stuck in one big, giant bubble - happy to say they're regional and inclusive when it gets them brownie points, but flinging out the regional clubs when it suits them to.
It's a shame that such storied clubs like Hanwood FC and Yoogali SC, and everyone in between across Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Leeton and the Riverina are shut out because they have ambition.
