New Zealand Women's National League

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New Zealand Women's National League
Image: 200 pixels
Founded2002
CountryNew Zealand New Zealand
Number of teams8
Current championsSouthern United (1st title)
Most championshipsAuckland Football (7 titles)
WebsiteOfficial website
Current: 2021 season

The National League (previously known as the National Women's League) is the top level women's football league in New Zealand. Unlike its male counterpart, the New Zealand National League, previously the teams were run by the regional federations rather than as collaborative entities between local clubs.[1][2] This has changed for the 2021 season as New Zealand Football look to move it to club based football. The current season will see four teams qualify from the Northern League to join federation teams from Central Football, Capital Football, Canterbury United Pride and Southern United.[3]

History[]

The league was founded in 2002 and ran until the end of the 2007, after which the league went on hiatus. The league was resumed in 2009 with five federations participating, as well as the national women's development squad. The league currently contains seven teams, one run by each federation.

The league was run as a pure round-robin league format in 2002 and 2003. From 2004 to 2007 there were play-offs, with the second- and third-placed teams after the round-robin competing in a one legged semi-final at the second-placed team's home ground. The winner of that and the first-place team then played the Grand Final to decide the champion.

From 2009 to 2012, the league was split into two divisions, a Northern and a Southern Conference, each of four teams that play each other twice. After the season there are semi-finals, with the winner of each conference playing the runners-up of the other. The winners of those play the Grand Final. In 2013 the league reverted to the system used from 2004 to 2008.

From 2010, the league has run in the summer (previous seasons were held over winter). From 2010 to 2014, the league became age-restricted as a national women's youth league, with players of under-20 age only participating. The restrictions were removed in 2015, and since then the league has run as an unrestricted full women's league.

NZ Football looked to move the National Women's League to club-based competition like the Men's competition by 2020. It also hoped to expand the number of games each federation plays in 2018 to a two-round system where each team plays home and away once against every other team in the competition.[4]

It was decided to do the move to a club based league slowly to bring the quality of women's football up first. So from 2021 season, four teams will qualify from the Northern League and will join federation teams from Central Football, Capital Football, Canterbury United Pride and Southern United.[3][5]

Participants[]

Current[]

  • 4 teams from the Northern Regional League
  • (as "Central Soccer" until 2007) (2002–2007, 2010–
  • Capital Football (as "Capital Soccer" until 2006) (2002–
  • Canterbury United Pride (as "Mainland Soccer" (2002–2005), "Mainland Pride" (2006–2007, 2010–), and "Mainland Football" (2009)) (2002–
  • Southern United (as "Soccersouth" until 2007) (2002–

Former[]

  • Auckland Under-20 Development (2010–2011)
  • Auckland Football (2002–2020)
  • New Zealand Football Development (2005–2006, 2009, 2014–2016)
This comprised the (2005), (2006, 2014–2016), and national under-17 team (2009). Although New Zealand Development competed from 2005, they were ineligible to take part in the semifinals and final until the 2009 season.
  • Northern Lights (as "North Harbour" until 2007 and then Northern Football until 2010) (2002–2007, 2010–2020)
  • Northern Region Development (2011–2013)
  • WaiBOP United (2002–2020)
  • Young Ferns (2013–2014)

List of champions[]

The list of champions:[6]

Year Champion [note 1] Runner up Score Venue
2002[7] Auckland (1) Mainland Soccer Season decided on league standings
2003[8] Auckland (2) Capital Soccer
2004[9] Capital Soccer (1) Auckland* 2–1 Unknown
2005[10] Auckland (3) Capital Soccer* 4–2 Newtown Park, Wellington
2006[11] Auckland* (4) Capital Soccer 3–1 Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
2007[12] Auckland* (5) Capital Football [note 2] 3–1 Newtown Park, Wellington
2008 No competition
2009[13][14] Auckland* (6) Capital Football 5–1 Bayer Growers Stadium, Pukekohe
2010–11[15][16] Capital Football* (2) Waikato-Bay of Plenty 2–1 Memorial Park, Lower Hutt
2011–12[17][18] Northern Football* (1) Waikato-Bay of Plenty 3–0 Parrs Park, Auckland
2012–13[19][20] Northern Football* (2) Auckland Football [note 3] 2–0 Fred Taylor Park, Auckland
2013[21][22] Mainland Pride (1) [note 4] Northern Football* 4–2 North Harbour Stadium, North Shore
2014[23][24] Mainland Pride* (2) New Zealand U-18 Development 3–1 ASB Football Park, Christchurch
2015[25][26] Northern Football Mainland Pride* 4–3 ASB Football Park, Christchurch
2016[27][28] Canterbury United Pride* (3) [note 5] Capital Football 2–0 English Park, Christchurch
2017[29][30] Auckland Football (7) Canterbury United Pride* 3–2 English Park, Christchurch
2018[31][32] Canterbury United Pride* (4) Northern Lights [note 6] 3–2 English Park, Christchurch
2019[33][34] Canterbury United Pride* (5) Northern Lights 1–1
(4–3 pen.) 		English Park, Christchurch
2020[35] Canterbury United Pride* (6) Capital Football 4–0 English Park, Christchurch
2021 Southern United Capital Football Season decided on league standings
  1. ^ Number of titles in brackets
  2. ^ Changed name from Capital Soccer to Capital Football
  3. ^ Had changed their name the season before with the introduction of Northern Football
  4. ^ Changed name from Mainland Soccer to Mainland Pride
  5. ^ Changed name from Mainland Pride to Canterbury United Pride
  6. ^ Changed name from Northern Football to Northern Lights

*Home team for final

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "National women's league retains youth focus". Stuff. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
  2. ^ Nothing Trivial (15 December 2008). "Sparc plays ball with women's football | Television New Zealand | News, Sport, Weather, TV ONE, TV2 | TVNZ | FOOTBALL News". TVNZ. Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 2 September 2012.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ a b "National League". New Zealand Football. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  4. ^ "National Competitions Review" (PDF). NZ Football. 9 April 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  5. ^ "New National League system". New Zealand Football. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  6. ^ "Honours Board". ultimatenzsoccer.
  7. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2002". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  8. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2003". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  9. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2004". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  10. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2005". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  11. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2006". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  12. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2007". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  13. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2009". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  14. ^ "Green hat-trick fires Auckland to sixth Women's League title". New Zealand Football. 20 December 2009. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  15. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2010/11". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  16. ^ "Capital clinch ASB Women's League title". New Zealand Football. 12 March 2011. Archived from the original on 12 February 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  17. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2011/12". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  18. ^ "Northern lift ASB Women's League trophy". New Zealand Football. 4 December 2011. Archived from the original on 12 February 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  19. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2012/13". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  20. ^ "Northern retain ASB Women's League title". New Zealand Football. 16 December 2012. Archived from the original on 12 February 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  21. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2013". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  22. ^ "Mainland secure maiden league title". New Zealand Football. Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  23. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2014". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  24. ^ "Mainland Pride retain ASB Women's League title". Stuff. 7 December 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  25. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2015". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  26. ^ Smith, Tony (6 December 2015). "Northern Football halt Mainland's dominance with national women's league final win". Stuff. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  27. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2016". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  28. ^ "Pride claim third title in four years". New Zealand Football. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  29. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2017". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  30. ^ Caldwell, Olivia (10 December 2017). "Two late goals help Auckland storm past Canterbury to claim national women's football title". Stuff. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  31. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2018". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  32. ^ Voerman, Andrew (16 December 2018). "Canterbury United Pride win fourth National Women's Football League title". Stuff. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  33. ^ "New Zealand (Women) 2019". RSSSF. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  34. ^ Voerman, Andrew (15 December 2019). "Canterbury United Pride win fifth national title in seven years after penalty shootout". Stuff. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  35. ^ Rollo, Phillip (20 December 2020). "Canterbury United Pride win third straight national women's league final". Stuff. Retrieved 13 August 2021.

External links[]

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