2004–05 was the first season of 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 ...

Team locations

Season summary

The league kicked off on 15 October 2004, with a 3–1 victory for

Auckland City Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland R ...

Napier City Rovers Napier City Rovers is a football team based in Napier, New Zealand, competing in the Central Premier League. Club history The team was founded in 1973 via a merger of Napier Rovers and Napier City. Napier City Rovers have won New Zealand's p ...

and it soon became clear that Auckland City, along with

Waitakere United Waitakere United was a football club based in Waitakere City, New Zealand. They were one of the franchises in the ISPS Handa Premiership. They played their home games at Fred Taylor Park in Kumeu and The Trusts Arena. History Waitakere United ...

, were the class teams in the championship. Auckland lost only three games all year en route to be the first winners of the

. Even though they were runners-up in both the regular season and Grand Final, Waitakere lost four times to Auckland City, including the thrilling 3–2 final in front of 3,800 spectators at Auckland City's home field,

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 ...

, where Auckland came back from 2-1 down to win in the last minutes of the game. Waikato FC came out best of the rest to take the final playoff position in third, despite making a slow start to the season. Notables among the other teams were Napier City Rovers, who also came back from a slow start to have a chance of making the playoffs in the final week of the season. Otago United won five games all year, but did not win any of their last twelve games.

League table

https://www.rsssf.org/tablesn/nz05.html

Finals

Waitakere and Waikato play in the ''Elimination Final'', the winner of which plays Auckland in Grand Final.

Bracket

Elimination Final

6 March: Waitakere United 4 - 1 Waikato FC

Grand Final

12 March: Auckland City 3 - 2 Waitakere United

Oceania Club Championship

By winning the NZFC, Auckland City went on to represent New Zealand in the

Oceania Club Championship The OFC Champions League, also known as the O-League, is the premier men's club soccer competition in Oceania. It is organised by the OFC, Oceania's football governing body. Beginning as the Oceania Club Championship (1987–2006), it has been ...

in Tahiti. Auckland lost their first game to

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

representatives

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

, 3–2 in the dying minutes. Their next game, against tournament hosts

AS Pirae Association Sportive Pirae is a football club from Pirae in Tahiti. They are one of the most successful teams in Tahiti having won the Tahiti Division Fédérale nine times. They are also the first French Polynesian team to have reached the fi ...

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

, was also a loss, this time by 1–0. Auckland City would take some consolation from finishing third in their group after defeating the champions of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Sobou FC Sobou FC, previously known for sponsorship reasons as Cellnet Sobou and Telikom Sobou, is an amateur association football team based in Lae, Papua New Guinea. The club appears to have been in existence since the 1980s. The club is domestically o ...

, by 6–1.