University-Mount Wellington is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club in

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 ...

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 ...

. It was formed from the amalgamation of University AFC and Mount Wellington AFC. The team play at Bill McKinlay Park, Panmure,

Club history

During much of the 1970s and 1980s, Mt Wellington AFC was a strong club side, rivalled only by

Christchurch United Christchurch United is an amateur association football club in Christchurch, New Zealand. They compete in various Mainland Football competitions at Junior and Senior level. The club has won six National League titles and six Chatham Cup trophi ...

. The team won 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 ...

on five occasions, in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. Since amalgamation, the cup has been won a further two times, in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, making the club the only seven-time winner of the country's main knockout tournament. They also won the country's

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 ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

, and

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

Present day

In recent years, the club's senior contingent has been run primarily by Bohemian Celtic FC, formerly of the Auckland Sunday Football Association and 5-time-champions it the ASFA Premier League. Since Unimount & Bohemian Celtic FC aligned, the club has risen from AFF/NFF Conference football back into the NRFL 2nd Division. Bill McKinlay Park is the clubs home ground and the club has an artificial pitch which can schedule up to five matches in one day.

Players

Many of the country's top players have played for either University-Mount Wellington or its predecessor teams, including several members of New Zealand's first World Cup qualifiers, the 1982

All Whites The New Zealand men's national football team ( mi, Tīma hoka a-motu o Aotearoa) represents New Zealand in men's international football competitions. The team is governed by the governing body for football in New Zealand, New Zealand Footbal ...

. These players include

Ricki Herbert Ricki Lloyd Herbert (born 10 April 1961) is a New Zealand former footballer and manager. He is the current technical director at Cambridge FC. Herbert was formerly head coach of the New Zealand national team, stepping down after the side faile ...

, Brian Turner,

Tony Sibley Anthony (Tony) Sibley was a successful New Zealand soccer player who frequently represented his country in the 1970s and 1980s. He finished his playing career for the All Whites with 48 A-international caps to his credit. In 1978 Sibley was awa ...

, Dave Taylor,

Darren McClennan Darren McClennan (born 21 October 1965) is a successful former New Zealand soccer player who frequently represented his country in the 1980s and 1990s. He was not known for his delicate touch but his all-action style built on pace and aggressi ...

, Peter Henry, Jeff Campbell,

Rodger Gray Rodger G Gray (born 6 May 1966) is a former association football player who frequently represented New Zealand in the 1990s. Gray captained the All Whites and ended his international playing career with 39 A-international caps and 4 goals to his ...

, John Houghton, Leigh Kenyon, Michael Ridenton and

Fred de Jong Fred de Jong (born 5 April 1964) is a New Zealand former football striker who represented his country in the 1980s and early 1990s. Club career De Jong played senior football with Mt. Wellington before moving to Australia, helping Marconi S ...

Performance in OFC competitions

References

External links

Auckland Football Federation UMWAFC pageOfficial Website
Association football clubs in Auckland {{NewZealand-footyclub-stub