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 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 ...

being created as a replacement to the former

New Zealand National Soccer League The New Zealand National League is the name given to the current New Zealand top football competition. Originally set up as the New Zealand National Soccer League there has been many versions of the competition as well as many different names. Th ...

. The current top flight of

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 ...

is the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

, entering its inaugural season in 2021. The top 4 Divisions of the Northern Region Football leagues for both men and women (Tiers 2–5) will be restructured for the 2023 season.

Cups

The premier cup competition in New Zealand is 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 ...

which dates back to 1923. Regional cup competitions are also run within federations, allowing multiple teams from the same club to enter.

Men's structure

Clubs at the top of the pyramid are only permitted to enter a single team in their confederation's higher levels. Other teams from the same club are permitted to enter teams below this threshold, but have restrictions on promotion. Clevedon FC are currently the lowest ranked 1st team in the country, playing in NRF South Division 10 (Tier 15).

Notes

Women's structure

Sources

References

{{League systems New Zealand Football Championship

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 ...

Association football in New Zealand Summer association football leagues National championships in New Zealand