THE RISING SUNS

Matthew Galea

February 8 2014

Shepparton News

The dawn of the National Premier Leagues Victoria is here and Goulburn Valley Suns will take part in Victorian soccer’s new top flight.

Football Federation Victoria yesterday confirmed the Suns, the region’s newest soccer club, was awarded one of 30 licences to compete in this year’s NPLV.

The Suns are one of five regional teams to be granted a license, alongside Ballarat Red Devils, Bendigo Amateur Soccer League, North Geelong Warriors and Surf Coast FC.

Border FC, an Albury-Wodonga based club, will enter the competition next year.

The new competition is part of a Football Federation Australia-led national overhaul of state competitions, to form a second tier of soccer to underpin the code’s national league, the A-League.

The bid was put together by a working group involving Goulburn North East Football Association, Shepparton Junior Soccer Association, Cobram Junior Association and Greater Shepparton City Council and was submitted on the January 20 deadline.

GNEFA board member Michael Criscera said there was a lot of excitement following the announcement.

‘‘There’s always a bit of doubt until everything is announced,’’ Criscera said.

‘‘I think everyone’s excited about it, it’s also a bit of an unknown, but we’ve set a plan in place and we’ve got a lot of people that have expressed interest in getting involved.’’

The hard work for the Suns starts , with the new club required to field eight teams — under-12s, 13s, 14s, 15s, 16s, 18s, 20s and senior men — for this season.

No start dates have been confirmed for the NPLV, although FFV NPL state manager Tim Frampton told The News last month the senior competition was expected to start in either the last week of March or the first week of April, with junior competition to start a couple of weeks later.