The Junior Premier League is an elite youth football league built on player development, innovation, and opportunity. Since our foundation, our mission has been to provide every young footballer with a truly premier football experience, whether they are starting out in grassroots football or progressing towards the elite football pathway.
Now more than 11 years strong, the JPL has grown from small beginnings into England’s largest national junior football league, with over 33,000 players competing every season from Under-7 to Under-18. We are proud to stand apart as a league designed to bridge the gap between grassroots football and the professional academy system, helping 1 in 11 players progress into an English professional academy.
As the largest junior football league in the country, we continue to set the standard for elite football development and remain committed to shaping the future of grassroots football.
At the Junior Premier League, development always comes first. While competition is exciting and every young player enjoys the thrill of winning, our ethos is built on creating an environment where footballers can express themselves with confidence without fear of mistakes and without pressure from results.
To achieve this, we place a strong emphasis on educating coaches and parents, both before the season begins and throughout the journey, so that everyone involved understands and supports our player-first philosophy. By aligning the whole football community around this ethos, we ensure that every child, whether in grassroots football or aiming for an elite youth league pathway, has the freedom to grow, learn, and enjoy the game.
In the Junior Premier League, every player selected for a matchday squad is guaranteed to play at least 50% of the game. This commitment ensures equal opportunity, giving every young footballer valuable time on the pitch to learn, develop, and enjoy the game.
Our unique use of playing periods creates natural breaks, allowing coaches to provide constructive feedback and focus on individual player development—without the need for constant shouting from the sidelines. For Under-10s and below, matches are played across three periods, while for older age groups, games are split into four.
This structure reflects our ethos of development before results, helping players to build confidence, express themselves, and progress within both grassroots football and the elite youth league pathway.
All Junior Premier League coaches are required to hold a minimum of a Level 2 qualification, ensuring that every player benefits from high-quality coaching and the best possible chance to reach their potential.
The JPL pathway has a proven record of success: 1 in 11 players progress into an English professional academy, with many more advancing into high-level non-professional football, elite youth leagues, and college football opportunities.
This commitment to excellence ensures that whether a player’s journey leads to a professional football academy or success within the wider game, the JPL provides the strongest possible foundation for their development.
By putting players at the heart of everything we do, the Junior Premier League achieves a 97% retention rate, meaning almost all of our players stay in the game. This far exceeds the national average of below 60%, showing the powerful difference our approach makes.
Because JPL players are coached to a higher standard, they continue to develop, progress, and remain in football at the highest level possible.
Our focus on long-term development, not just short-term results, ensures that young footballers have both the skills and the passion to enjoy the game for life.
The Junior Premier League runs All-Star teams, giving our top players the chance to showcase their talent in front of professional clubs on a regular basis. In fact, 1 in 7 JPL All-Stars is scouted every year during our showcase fixtures against professional academies.
These players also benefit from high-level coaching camps led by some of the country’s best coaches and gain the experience of playing internationally in prestigious tournaments.
Through these opportunities, the JPL not only supports players’ development on the pitch but also provides exposure to pathways in elite football, professional academies, and high-level youth competitions, preparing them for the next stage of their football journey.
Players have the opportunity to attend tours to fantastic tournaments in Europe as well as a prestigious tour to Real Madrid. This trip offers the players and coaches the chance to live like a pro staying at the Spanish FA HQ hotel, training at Real Madrid’s first team and academy training facility as well as playing Spanish opposition.
JPL carefully selects all clubs to ensure they are offering a great environment for players. This isn’t only in terms of coaching resource but it’s also important for players to have an environment where they feel safe to train and play and that the club has the appropriate infrastructure in place to allow them to be the best athlete they can be.
We work with clubs to help them grow, this can be as simple as advertising trials across social media but can be as advanced as working with clubs on plans of how to improve what they do and how this will attract and develop more players. Marketing support, social media development, club growth, technical plans, training plans are all part of what we offer to our member clubs.
We employ people that have the ability to help and educate parents and coaches on touchline behaviour to ensure the environment is right for players to express themselves in and develop a love of the game. These assessors attend matches across the country to monitor behaviour and report back to the league management committee so we can then work with clubs to ensure a great environment is created for everyone.
