The Junior Premier League was started in England and is now the largest league that works with the biggest clubs across both boy’s and girl’s soccer in the world. In 2021 we started to look for an opportunity to expand into the USA and create a player development-focused league, driving innovation and ensuring every player has a premier experience.
We partnered with US Club Soccer to bring a National Premier League to the Mountain West Region encompassing Las Vegas, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana so allowing competitive clubs in the region to compete in a league that had a direct place for winners to compete in the NPL finals annually in July against winners of the other NPLs from across the USA.
Our NPL started this season with over 100 teams from across the region and we are so proud to be able to send teams, that have won their age bracket, from our league to the National Finals in Denver in July.
We endeavor to be the world’s best provider of competitive opportunities for development and advancement in youth football.
The Junior Premier League was affiliated and sanctioned to start by the Football Association in England in April 2011 after a meeting at Wembley Stadium between our founder Martin Brock, and Steve Rooke & Michael Game from the FA. The sanction was granted for us to be a nationally affiliated league even though we were very small – we are grateful that the FA saw the vision we had.
On the 10th of September 2011, the following clubs kicked off the first season of the Junior Premier League, Bath City Academy, JSSI, Yate Town, Oxford City, Gloucester City, Hereford United, Worcester City, WBA Colts, Kidderminster Harriers, Bristol Inner City, North Somerset, Newport County, Burton Albion, & Racing Club Warwick.
The end of our first season saw us crown champions in League and Cup Competitions at the Under 12s to Under 16s age groups. Since that time the JPL has grown from an initial 1 league per age group to what it is today which is an average of 12 leagues per group and from the initial 12s to 16s, we are now at Under 7s through to Under 18s.
In the first season we saw a success rate that, whilst we expected it to be high, literally surpassed our every expectation, as 1 in 12 players in the league were signed to a professional football club academy. This amazing statistic has increased over time and it now stands at 1 in 11 players from our league and 1 in 6 for players selected to the JPL representative teams.
In the second season, the JPL started getting inquiries from girls’ teams to join it and after discussions with the FA, we were told we would not be permitted to operate a girls league. It took us another 8 seasons before we were finally given the go-ahead to start a very small girls league with 7 Under 16s teams.
The following season we decided that rather than referring to it as JPL Girls we needed to give that section of the league a stronger identity and JPL Warriors was born. By the start of the 2022/23 season, the Warriors League now has from Under 12s to Under 18s and multiple leagues for most age groups.
The JPL has had many notable achievements on its journey so far:
The JPL has its England offices in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, and employs a full-time team of 11 staff that is dedicated to providing the best service for all of our clubs, coaches, parents, and players.
We now have offices in the USA, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and will shortly be opening offices in Australia, Mexico and Canada.
We have a full-time team of staff that is focused on growing the JPL brand in the Mountain West region, incorporating Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota.