1961 NSWSF season

The 1961 New South Wales Federation of Soccer Clubs season was the fifth season of football in New South Wales under the administration of the federation since its breakaway from the NSW Soccer Football Association in January of 1957. The home and away league season began on the 15th of April with twelve teams, reducing the number of teams by two compared to the previous season. Sydney Prague were Federation Premiers for a third consecutive season after finishing first on the ladder of the twenty-two round regular season.
After defeating Federation Premiers, Prague, in the preliminary final, Hakoah went on to defeat reigning champions Canterbury-Marrickville 4–1 in the grand final to be crowned Federation Champions for the first time.
Other tournaments held this season once again included the Ampol Cup and the Federation Cup. Prague were the Ampol Cup winners for the second time as were Hakoah in the Federation Cup.

Clubs

; Changes from last season

Number of teams reduced from 14 to 12.
Pan Hellenic were promoted into the competition from Second Division for the first time.
Granville AEK, Balgownie and Manly were relegated to Second Division.
Corrimal United merged with Illawarra District Soccer Association club, Woonona-Bulli to form South Coast United
North Side United–E.P.T. merged with Polonia to form Polonia North Side.

Club	Ground	Colours	Founded
A.P.I.A.-Leichhardt	Lambert Park, Leichhardt	Maroon and blue	1954	5th	1957	2nd
Auburn SFC	Mona Park, Auburn	Green and gold	1957	5th	1957	4th
Bankstown SFC	Wiley Park	Green and gold	1944	5th	1957	8th
Budapest–South Sydney	Sydney Athletics Field, Moore Park	Red, white and green	1957	3rd	1959	6th
Canterbury-Marrickville	Arlington Oval, Dulwich Hill	Blue and gold	1896	5th	1957	3rd
Gladesville-Ryde	Gladesville Sports Ground, Gladesville	Gold and black	1951	4th	1957	8th
Hakoah	Wentworth Park, Glebe	Blue and white	1953	4th	1957	4th
Pan Hellenic	Wentworth Park, Glebe	Light blue and white	1957	1st	1961	Div. II
Polonia–North Side	Drummoyne Oval and North Sydney Oval	Red, black and white	1961	1st	1961
South Coast United	Balls Paddock, Woonona	Dark blue, red and white	1958	4th	1958	11th
Prague	Sydney Athletics Field, Moore Park	Black with red, white and blue sash	1952	5th	1957	1st
Sydney Austral	Sydney Cricket Ground No. 2, Moore Park	Orange, white and blue	1952	5th	1957	10th

Regular season

Table and results

Finals series

Grand final

NSWSF First Division
1961 Premiers

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Awards and statistics

Attendance

Below is a list of total attendances per club in all matches, both home and away.

Club	Attendance
APIA Leichhardt FC	114,000
Pan Hellenic	97,000
Sydney Hakoah	96,500
Sydney FC Prague	95,000
Canterbury-Marrickville	69,000
Polonia–North Side	65,600
South Coast United	52,000
Budapest–South Sydney	50,800
Auburn SFC	49,000
Gladesville-Ryde DSFC	38,000
Bankstown SFC	36,000
Sydney Austral SFC	23,000

Other competitions

Ampol Cup

Originally formed in 1957 as the William Kennard Cup, this was the fourth year to be sponsored by Ampol.

Craven A Federation Cup

This was the fifth year contesting the Federation Cup, named the Craven A for sponsorship reasons.