The New Zealand Men's National League is a men's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league at the top of the

New Zealand football league system The New Zealand league system is the structure of leagues nationally and regionally, newly updated for the 2021 season. The system previously had a path from grassroots to the top flight but that stopped in 2004 with the New Zealand Football Champio ...

. Founded in 2021, the New Zealand National League is the successor to 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 ...

. The league will be contested by ten teams, with teams qualifying from their regional leagues. Four teams qualify from the Northern League, three qualify from the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

, two qualify from the newly formed Southern League and the Wellington Phoenix Reserves are automatically given a spot each year. The regional leagues runs from March through to September, with each league having a varying number of games. The Championship phase runs after the completion of the regional phase with each team playing each other once, followed by a grand final. Each season, two clubs gain qualification to the

OFC Champions League 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 ...

, the continental competition for the

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region.

Competition format

There are two stages to the competition: the regional phase, in which each team plays each other twice in their respective regions; and the championship phase, in which the top teams in each region play a single round-robin competition, followed by a grand final in order to determine the champion. Each team can field a maximum of four foreign players as well as one additional foreign player who has

Oceania Football Confederation The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football. The OFC has 13 members, 11 of which are full members and two which are associate members not affiliated with FIFA. It ...

nationality. Each team must also have at least two players aged 20 or under.

Qualification to OFC Champions League

Two teams from the National League qualify for the

each season: those two teams being the two finalists of the championship phase.

History

In March 2021,

New Zealand Football New Zealand Football is the governing body for the sport of association football in New Zealand. It oversees the seven New Zealand Football federations, as well as the New Zealand national football team (nicknamed the "All Whites"), the nationa ...

announced a change to the structure of both the premiership and the top regional leagues around the country. The four top regional leagues (

NRFL Premier The Northern League is a semi-professional New Zealand association football competition. It is a top-tier competition during the winter season, and sits at step two overall. The Northern League includes football clubs located in the northern pa ...

Central Premier League The Central League is an amateur status league competition run by Capital Football for Association football clubs located in the southern and central parts of the North Island, New Zealand. From 2021 it is at the second level of New Zealand Footb ...

Mainland Premier League The Mainland Premier League is a league competition run by Mainland Football for association football clubs located in the northern half of the South Island, New Zealand. It is currently regarded by the New Zealand footballing community as the s ...

and the

FootballSouth Premier League The Southern Football Premier League (known as the ODT Southern Men's Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is a New Zealand association football league competition administered bSouthern Footballinvolving clubs from the lower half of the Sout ...

) would be formed into the Northern League,

, and the Southern League. These leagues would allow local clubs to qualify for the premiership season (now known as the National League Championship), with the top 4 teams from the Northern League, the top 3 teams from the Central League, and the top 2 teams from the Southern League making up the competition, alongside the Wellington Phoenix Reserve side. All teams that qualify plus the Phoenix Reserves, would then play a single round-robin competition between October and December. The top two placed teams will then progress to the Grand Final. In November 2021, during the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

of the National League,

announced the National League had been cancelled for that season due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Qualified teams from

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and

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

were unable to participate due theier alert levels. New Zealand Football replaced this with a one-off competition, the South Central Series, for teams qualifying from the Central League and Southern League.

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 ...

were both the premiers and champions for this stand alone competition. The

2022 New Zealand National League The 2022 New Zealand Men's National League is the second scheduled season of the National League since its restructuring in 2021; the 2021 National League was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in northern regions. 32 clubs compete in the ...

Championship phase will kick off on 1 October 2022.

Current clubs

These are the current clubs for the 2022 season:

Past winners

Qualifying leagues

Championship

Top scorers

Records

''These records will begin from the

. As the 2021 season was cancelled, the 2021 South Central Series was not officially part of the National League.'' * Biggest home win: – * Biggest away win: – * Highest scoring match: – * Most goals scored in a season: * Most goals scored in a season (including final): – * Fewest goals conceded in a season: – * Highest points in a season: –

Related competitions

OFC Champions League

The OFC Champions League, also known as the O-League, is the premier football competition in Oceania. It is organised by the OFC, Oceania's football governing body. It has been organised since 2007 under the current format, following its successor, the Oceania Club Championship. Two teams from the New Zealand National League participate annually. Four O-League titles have been won by teams from New Zealand.

Charity Cup

The Charity Cup was introduced in 2011 and is contested between the winner of the National League Grand Final and the winner of the

Chatham Cup The Chatham Cup is New Zealand's premier knockout tournament in men's association football. It is held annually, with the final contested in September. The current champions of the Chatham Cup are 2022 winners Auckland City, who defeated Eastern ...

References

External links

National League official website

Northern Region official website

Capital/Central Region official website

{{NZ fb general New Zealand National League

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 ...

1 Summer association football leagues National championships in New Zealand Sports leagues established in 2021 2021 establishments in New Zealand Professional sports leagues in New Zealand