New Zealand Football Championship

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New Zealand Football Championship
Current season or competition: New Zealand Football Championship 2007-08

Sport	Association football
Founded	2004
Motto	The Local Name of the Global Game
No. of teams	8
Country(ies)	New Zealand
Most recent champion(s)	Champion: Waitakere United (2007-08, 1st)) Premier: Waitakere United (1st)
Most championship(s)	Champions: Auckland City FC (3) Premiers: Auckland City FC, Waitakere United (2)
TV partner(s)	SKY (Playoffs only)
Official website	www.nzfc.co.nz
Related competitions	OFC Champions League

The New Zealand Football Championship (NZFC) is the national football league in New Zealand. It is a semi-professional franchise league, run by New Zealand Football. The league is run separately from the winter regional club competitions, and many of the teams competing in the NZFC are franchises jointly run winter clubs. The NZFC does not include the Wellington Phoenix who play in the Australian A-League.

1 Format
2 History
3 Current clubs
4 NZFC Champions to date
5 National Youth League
6 See also
7 Notes
8 External links

[edit] Format

The league is an eight-team system, with each club playing everyone else three times. After the end of the regular season, the top three teams progress to the playoffs. The team that finishes the regular season in first place (the "premier") receives a bye to the final, while the second and third placed teams play-off for the right to play against the premier for the title of NZFC Champion of that season (the "elimination final"). The second placed team earns home ground advantage for the elimination final.

For the 2005-06 season, the NZFC experimented with a five team playoff (see NZFC 2005-06), however this was discontinued and the league reverted to the present three-team playoff.

The team that wins the NZFC Grand Final qualifies for the OFC Champions League. Another O-League spot is given to the highest ranked team other than the champion.

As there are no lower divisions in the NZFC, no promotion and relegation exists, similar to leagues in Australia and North America rather than those traditionally found in Europe

[edit] History

The NZFC was created as a replacement to the former New Zealand National Soccer League, a tournament involving clubs from the regional governing bodies of New Zealand Football. The NZFC would be run as a summer league involving new clubs created solely for the new competition, with these new clubs being run jointly by existing winter clubs. The only exception to this was Napier City Rovers, whose summer club would be rebranded Hawke's Bay United during the second season, to be operated jointly by other clubs in the Hawke's Bay region.

Eleven groups bidded for franchises, with the successful bids being announced on April 7, 2004 as Auckland City FC, Canterbury United, Napier City Rovers, Otago United, Team Wellington, Waikato FC, Waitakere United and YoungHeart Manawatu, with Olé Madrids, East Auckland and Team Bay of Plenty being excluded. Unhappy at their exclusion, the Olé Madrids bid team took New Zealand Soccer to court, suing for damages and demanding inclusion in the competition, claiming that while they met NZ Soccer's criteria for inclusion, other bids who succeeded did not. The case was dropped by the Madrids team eight days before the commencement of the first NZFC season. ^[1]. Western Suburbs, the club associated with the Olé Academy, is now a principal member of the Team Wellington franchise.^[2] East Auckland also considered legal action, however this did not occur. ^[3]

The first match of the competition was on October 15, 2004, with Auckland City defeating Napier City Rovers 3-1 at Park Island, Napier. Auckland also won the final match of the inaugural season, defeating Waitekere United to become the first NZFC Champion. Auckland would go on to win the grand final again in the next two seasons, creating the competitions first dynasty.

The second season saw Napier City Rovers rebrand and re-organize their NZFC team as Hawke's Bay United, forming an amalgamated franchise with other local clubs. It also saw the first instance of a NZFC team winning the O-League, with Auckland City FC defeating French Polynesian team AS Pirae 3-1.

The third season saw two NZFC teams qualify for the O-League, with Grand Final runner-up Waitakere United qualifying in place of Vanuatu's Port Vila Sharks withdrawing. Waitakere capitalized on this opportunity by winning that year's O-League competition.

With the first three seasons completed, the NZFC granted three-season license extensions to seven of the eight franchises - all but YoungHeart Manawatu, who had to re-apply on account of the NZFC's concerns towards the clubs financial and organizational situation. However YoungHeart managed successfully earn reinstatement after beating out four rival bids - one based in Gisborne, one from North Shore City, and two from Manukau. Olé Madrids also applied for the license, however they withdrew early. ^[4]

In 2007, the NZFC was represented at the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup, with Waitakere United qualifying as the Oceania Football Confederation champion. Waitakere's only match was a 1-3 loss to Iranian club Sepahan. After this match, FIFA chairman Sepp Blatter hinted that the OFC may lose qualification rights for the Club World Cup due to the gap in competition quality, stating that "professional teams" and giving the OFC a deadline of two years to raise their standards. A possible solution has been suggested in allowing the Wellington Phoenix, a New Zealand-based team playing in the Australian A-League (an Asian competition) to qualify for the O-League, which may cause the NZFC to lose one of its two qualifying spots. ^[5]

2008 saw the end of the Auckland City FC dynasty, with Team Wellington eliminating them in the preliminary final. Waitakere United went on to win the Grand Final - in doing so, completing "the treble" - winning the Youth League, the Premiership and the Championship all in one season.

[edit] Current clubs

Club Name	Home City	Stadium	Highest Placing	Championships	2007-08 Placing	2007-08 Notes
Auckland City FC	Auckland	Kiwitea Street	1st (2004-05, 2005-06)	2	2nd	Premiership Runner-Up Qualified for O-League 2008-09
Canterbury United	Christchurch	English Park	3rd (2005-06)	0	8th
Hawke's Bay United^[6]	Napier	Bluewater Stadium	4th (2007-08)	0	4th
Otago United	Dunedin	Carisbrook	5th (2005-06)	0	7th
Team Wellington	Wellington	Newtown Park	3rd (2007-08)	0	3rd	Championship Runner-Up
Waikato FC	Hamilton	Waikato Stadium	3rd (2004-05)	0	5th
Waitakere United	Waitakere City	Douglas Field	1st (2006-07, 2007-08)	1	1st	2007-08 Premier 2007-08 Champion Qualified for O-League 2008-09
YoungHeart Manawatu	Palmerston North	FMG Stadium	2nd (2005-06, 2006-07)	0	6th

[edit] NZFC Champions to date

Regular season winner in bold.

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Grand Final Venue	Playoff Runner-up
2004/05	Auckland City FC	3 - 2	Waitakere United	Kiwitea Street, Auckland	Waikato FC (Lost 1-4)
2005/06	Auckland City FC	3 - 3	Canterbury United	Kiwitea Street, Auckland	Team Wellington (Lost 1-2)
2005/06	Auckland City FC won 4-3 on penalties.
2006/07	Auckland City FC	3 - 2	Waitakere United	Trusts Stadium, Henderson	YoungHeart Manawatu (Lost 1-3)
2007/08	Waitakere United	2 - 0	Team Wellington	Douglas Field, Henderson	Auckland City FC (Lost 3-4)

[edit] National Youth League

The NZFC also runs the Under-20's National Youth League. The league is contested by eight academy teams affiliated with the NZFC franchises, a Papakura-based franchise Auckland-Manukau FC, and a "New Zealand Development Squad" consisting of 12 New Zealander Under-16 players, and additional players from the Auckland City FC and Waitakere United franchises. The ten teams are split into two regions, with each team playing its regional opponent twice. At the conclusion of the youth league regular season, the top ranked Northern team will host the second ranked Southern team, and the top ranked Southern team will host the second ranked Northern team for the semi finals. The winners of these matches will face each other in the grand final. The New Zealand Development team will not be eligible for the playoffs.

On March 22, Waitakere United's academy team won the youth league grand final at English Park, Christchurch, defeating Canterbury United's academy team 6-3.

Northern Conference	Southern Conference
Auckland City FC	Canterbury United
Auckland-Manukau FC	Hawke's Bay United
NZ Development Squad	Otago United
Waikato FC	Team Wellington
Waitakere United	YoungHeart Manawatu