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 strongest football league in the South Island of New Zealand and features current and former New Zealand Football Championship players.
The competition currently runs between March and August each year, and consists of seven teams based in Christchurch, and one team in Nelson. There are 21 rounds where teams play each other three times. The winner of the league qualifies for the South Island Championship, a one-off game against the winner of the FootballSouth Premier League, which is hosted by the two federations in alternate years.
By statute, the winners of the Canterbury Championship League, and Nelson Bays region's Division One League play in a home and away play-off, with the winner of the tie receiving promotion to the Premier League. However, due to potential extra costs including travel, the winner of the Nelson Bay's Division One title forgoes the right to a play-off. This effectively means that the winner of the Canterbury Championship League title is promoted to the Premier League.
In 2012, Woolston Technical and Cashmere Wanderers were merged into Cashmere Technical, they replaced the Woolston side that had finished 6th in the 2011 competition. Recently merged teams Coastal Spirit (Established between New Brighton AFC and Rangers AFC in 2008), and FC Twenty 11 (Established between Avon United and Burnside AFC in 2011) entered the Premier League through promotion from the Division One competition.
