The 2003 New Zealand National Club Championship, also known, due to naming-rights sponsorship, as the Southern Trust National League was the fourth and final season of a nationwide club competition in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

football. The competition was won by

Miramar Rangers Miramar Rangers AFC is an amateur New Zealand association football club in the Wellington suburb of Miramar. The club is one of the most successful in New Zealand having won the Chatham Cup four times and the National League title twice. Over t ...

. The league was played mainly during autumn, with matches played from February to June, and was run in two stages. In the first stage, each team in the ten-team league played every other team home and away. In the second stage, the top four teams entered a knockout competition, with third place playing fourth place in one match and first playing second in the other, with home advantage being decided by final league position. The winners of the first against second match progressed straight through to the final; the losers of that match met the winners of the other match to decide the other finalist. This was the last season of the league, which was replaced by the

New Zealand Football Championship The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a m ...

. It had become clear that teams were having to amalgamate to create financially viable strong teams to take part in the league, most notably the Canterbury and Auckland-area conglomerate teams

Canterbury United Canterbury United Dragons are a semi-professional football club from Christchurch, New Zealand. The team plays most of its matches at English Park in Christchurch, though they occasionally play in Nelson. The club last played in the ISPS Handa P ...

and

East Auckland East Auckland is an area of Auckland, New Zealand, characterised in the popular mind as a socio-economically mixed urban area with a relatively large multi-cultural population. The name "East Auckland" is not an official placename, but is in popul ...

. It was decided by the NZFA that an eight-team franchise-based national competition would be more viable and successful than a club based competition. Club-based teams returned to regional leagues, and became

feeder club In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

s for the regional franchises. The new competition debuted in October 2004.

Promotion and relegation

Ten teams took part in the 2002 league. Eight of these remained from the previous season.

University-Mount Wellington University-Mount Wellington is an association football club in Auckland, New Zealand. It was formed from the amalgamation of University AFC and Mount Wellington AFC. The team play at Bill McKinlay Park, Panmure, Auckland. Club history During ...

withdrew from the competition, replaced by a composite team,

, drawing players from several Auckland clubs.

Waitakere City Waitākere City was a territorial authority in West Auckland, New Zealand; it was governed by the Waitākere City Council from 1989 to 2010. It was New Zealand's fifth-largest city, with an annual growth of about 2%. In 2010 the council was a ...

were relegated, and took part in a promotion play-offs against the winners of the northern, central, and southern regional competitions (

Glenfield Rovers Glenfield Rovers was a semi-professional football club based in Glenfield, New Zealand. The men's team competed in the NRFL Division 1 in 2020, having suffered relegation from the NRFL Premier in 2019. The women's team competed in the NRFL Wome ...

Western Suburbs FC Western Suburbs Football Club is an association football club in Porirua, New Zealand. They play their home matches at Endeavour Park in the Porirua suburb of Whitby and compete in the Central Premier League. Western Suburbs is in partnership ...

, and Caversham respectively). The play-off games between Waitakere City the three regional champions were played at

Bill McKinlay Park Bill McKinlay Park, (formerly Ireland Road Domain) is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Mount Wellington in Auckland, New Zealand. It is used for football matches and is the home stadium of NRF League One side Uni-Mount Bohemian. Ea ...

and

Kiwitea Street Kiwitea Street, also known as Freyberg Field, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Sandringham in Auckland, New Zealand. It is used for football (soccer) matches and is the home stadium of both Auckland City FC and Central United. Terrace ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

during September 2002. The tenth place in the 2002 league was thus gained by Caversham. As this was the last season of the National Soccer League, there was no relegation, but all teams returned to the regional competitions at the end of the season.

League table

Finals

Bracket

Play-offs

Final

Records and statistics

;Biggest winning margin: *Central United 7, Tauranga City United 0 ;Highest aggregate score: *Canterbury United 5, Miramar Rangers 3

References

{{NZNSL New Zealand National Soccer League seasons 1

New New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...