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 most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

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 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 ...

on five occasions, in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

, 1980, 1982,

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 TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

, 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 humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

. Since amalgamation, the cup has been won a further two times, in 2001 and 2003, 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 ...

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 mean solar tim ...

, 1974, 1980, 1982, 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 enter ...

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, Brian Turner, Tony Sibley, 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, 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