A-League Youth

Foundation A previous league under the same name, the National Youth League was an Australian national soccer league run in parallel to the National Soccer League (NSL) between 1984 and 2004. The current league was announced by Football Federation Australia at the start of March 2008. It was set up in conjunction with the A-League in order to continue to develop young Australian talent into the league as well as into the Australian national team and its affiliates such as the under 17, under 20 and under 23 teams. The league's inaugural season was made up of seven teams, each linked to the corresponding Australian club in the A-League (excluding Wellington Phoenix) and had strong links to players training at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). The 2009–10 season saw the addition of Gold Coast United and a team from the Australian Institute of Sport Football Program. Expansion In the 2012–13 season, Gold Coast United were replaced by Western Sydney Wanderers. In April 2017, the closing of the FFA Centre of Excellence (previously the Australian Institute of Sport Football Program) was announced. Before the 2017–18 season, it was announced that Canberra United were granted a National Youth League licence. All players in the youth teams are between the ages of 16 and 21 as of the start of the calendar year for each new season, while four over-age players from each of the senior teams are also allowed to be selected. The competition was renamed "A-League Youth" to align with other Australian national competitions in September 2021. ==Competition format==

Each club contracts a squad of 16 Youth Development Players. Players must be between the ages of 16 and 23 as of 1 January in the year the season commences. Four over-age players (including goalkeeper) are also allowed to be selected (except when playing the AIS where it is restricted to two), usually these coming from the senior team. Each youth player must receive a minimum of 30 minutes game time. Players under 21 signed for the first team filling foreign player spots are classed as over-age players. As such the season was shortened from 18 games per team to 8 games plus a Grand Final. The existing ten A-League Youth teams were divided into two conferences of five teams: Conference A consisted of teams from WA, SA, Victoria and Queensland, while teams from ACT and NSW were in Conference B. All teams play all other teams in their conference on a home and away basis. After the home and away series a Grand Final is played between the top teams from each conference. ==Clubs==

12 clubs have played in the A-League Youth from its inception in 2008, up to and including the 2019–20 season. The following 10 clubs competed in the Y-League during the 2019–20 season. ==Honours==

Champions Wins by club ==Sponsorship==

From 2013 to 2020, the competition had Foxtel as its naming rights sponsor. ==See also==