Soccer in New Zealand

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soccer is a popular sport in New Zealand . 106,600 men (8 percent) and 36,100 women (3 percent) regularly play football; among five to 17-year-olds, it is the second most popular physical activity after rugby union (boys) and netball (girls). All football competitions in New Zealand are under the supervision of the national association, New Zealand Football , which was known as New Zealand Soccer until 1997 .

Association

New Zealand football logo

New Zealand Football (NZF) was founded in 1891 under the name New Zealand Soccer. In 1948 he joined the world football association FIFA , in 1966 he was a founding member of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The following seven regional associations exist under the NZF:

Club soccer

Professional football in New Zealand

Professional football began in New Zealand in 1999 with the establishment of the Football Kingz FC club in Auckland, which competed in the Australian National Soccer League (NSL), the only professional league in Oceania . In 2004 the club was renamed New Zealand Knights with the introduction of the Australian A-League . In 2007 the Australian association withdrew the club's license due to financial problems, but guaranteed the New Zealand association a place in the A-League. Wellington Phoenix was finally formed in 2007 to fill the space in the Australian league.

New Zealand Football Championship

The New Zealand Football Championship (NFZC) is the top division of the New Zealand Federation. It has the status of a semi-professional franchise league and consists of eight teams that each play against each other three times. At the end of the season, the three best teams play the playoffs, in which the third competes against the second. The winner of this game plays against the first of the regular season for the championship title. The competition has been held since 2004, replacing the National Soccer League , but is not seen by many New Zealanders as the legitimate successor to the National Soccer League, as it does not allow traditional teams to participate. Participating clubs have been Auckland City FC , Canterbury United ( Christchurch ), Hawke's Bay United ( Napier ), Otago United ( Dunedin ), Team Wellington , Waikato FC ( Hamilton ), Waitakere United and YoungHeart Manawatu ( Palmerston North ). Record title holder is Auckland City with four titles, the reigning champions Waitakere United have won two titles.

Cup competitions

The New Zealand cup competition is the Chatham Cup . It was founded in 1923 and has been held annually since then. The current title holder is Miramar Rangers from Wellington. The most successful teams in cup history are Mount Wellington with seven, North Shore United and Christchurch United with six each and Eastern Suburbs with five titles. As part of the cup final, the best player of the final will also be awarded the Jack Batty Memorial Cup . In 2010 this was Miramar Rangers goalkeeper Phil Imray .

Regional competitions

The regional competitions are summarized under the term Premier winter club competition . This consists of the following four leagues:

United Soccer 1 withdrew from the Northern League in 2008 with the aim of founding its own league.

Previous competitions

Until 2004, the National Soccer League was the highest league in New Zealand football. It was founded in 1970 and consisted of different teams from the regional associations. Eight teams took part in the 1970 premiere season, with Blockhouse Bay becoming the first champions . The league was then expanded to ten clubs, in 1977 it was expanded again to twelve teams, and from 1987 14 teams played against each other. In 1993 the league was dissolved due to financial problems. In the same year a new competition was launched, the so-called super club . 30 teams were divided into three regions and played out the champions. In 1996 this competition was replaced by the National Summer Soccer League , which was also dissolved again in 1998. In 1999 the clubs of New Zealand played in the North Island Soccer League (NISL) and in the South Island Soccer League (SISL) against each other, the winners of these two leagues finally played the New Zealand champions in a final. In this case, Central United defeated Dunedin Technical 3-1 after extra time. In 2000 the National Soccer League was brought back to life, consisting of seven teams from the NISL and three from the SISL. This league existed until 2003, 2004 was the transition year between the National Soccer League and the New Zealand Football Championship.

Women's soccer

The top division of New Zealand women's football is not under the supervision of New Zealand Football. It consists of seven representatives from the seven regional associations who each compete once against each other.

National teams

The New Zealand national football team, also known by their nickname All-Whites , is the strongest team of the OFC after Australia's exit from the Oceanic Continental Association, has already won the Oceania Championship five times and qualified for the World Cup in 1982 and 2010 . At the 1982 World Cup in Spain , the team retired after three defeats in the first final round as bottom of the group 6 behind Brazil , Russia and Scotland . At the 2010 World Cup, too, they had to go home after the preliminary round, but only narrowly missed the entry into the final round with three draws and were eliminated prematurely as the only undefeated team in the tournament. In the final table of group F they finished third behind Paraguay and Slovakia , but before the reigning world champion Italy .

The New Zealand U-23 national team qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing , but finished last in the table behind China, Brazil and Belgium. The team is nicknamed Oly-Whites

The New Zealand women's national team, which has already won the Oceania Championship five times , also took part in the 2008 Olympic Games and also in the World Championships in 1991 and 2007 , both of which were held in China . In 1991 and 2007 New Zealand was in last place in the table behind China , Norway and Denmark (1991) and behind Brazil , China and Denmark (2007), respectively, without winning points . They qualified again for the 2011 World Cup in Germany and played in Group B against England , Mexico and Japan . After two narrow defeats against Japan and England, they were able to win their first point at a World Cup in the last game with a draw against Mexico, but still had to return home after the group stage. Qualification for the 2015 World Cup was also successful, but after a 1-0 win against the Netherlands , a goalless draw against hosts Canada and a 2-2 draw against China, the final round could not be reached again.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Top sports and physical activities . SPARC - Sport & Recreation New Zealand , archived from the original on April 17, 2009 ; accessed on January 13, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).