Whanganui Athletic FC are 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 ...

team based in the

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 ...

North Island city of

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...

. They are traditionally the strongest team from the city, and played in the top flight of New Zealand football in both league and cup competitions. The team was founded in 1929 as Wanganui East Athletic, but briefly changed their name to Wanganui FC between 1974 and 1976 before reverting to their original name before dropping the East to just become Wanganui Athletic, changing to Whanganui Athletic when their home city was officially re-named.

National competition

Athletic played in the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

regional superclub championships, reaching the national league stage in 1993, where they finished seventh. Athletic reached the last 16 stage of New Zealand's premier knockout cup competition, the

Chatham Cup The Chatham Cup is New Zealand's premier Single-elimination tournament, 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 Auck ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, and went one stage further to become quarter-finalists in 1996.

Wanganui United

In 2009 the team entered a partnership with local rivals Wanganui City to form a top-level team,

Wanganui United Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whanganu ...

, with both clubs feeding the squad. The idea behind this was to push the level of football in Wanganui. The idea was short-lived; after the 2010 season Wanganui United disbanded, with the players released back to their respective clubs.

Honours

*1981 Central League Division Two *1987 Central League Division Three North *1992 Central League Premier Division *1994 Central Superclub Plate *1996 Central Superclub Championship *2010 Western Premiership Championship *2014 Federation League Championship *2022 Central Federation League

New Zealand representation from Whanganui Athletic

Hayden Englefield Hayden may refer to: Places Inhabited places in the United States *Hayden, Alabama *Hayden, Arizona *Hayden's Ferry, former name of Tempe, Arizona *Hayden, California, former name of Hayden Hill, California *Hayden, Colorado * Hayden, Idaho *Hayden ...

( U-20, U-23) *

James Musa James Mzamo Musa (born 1 April 1992) is a New Zealand professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for USL Championship club Colorado Springs Switchbacks. Early life Born in Plymouth, England, of South African Xhosa, Zimbabwean shona and ...

( U-20,

National team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

) * Brad Scott (

)

External links

Ultimatenzsoccer website's Wanganui East Athletic page
Association football clubs in New Zealand Sport in Whanganui 1929 establishments in New Zealand {{NewZealand-footyclub-stub