National Women's League (New Zealand)

The National Women's League (previously known as the ASB National Women's League) is the top level women's football league in New Zealand. Unlike its male counterpart, the ISPS Handa Premiership, the teams are run by the regional federations rather than as collaborative entities between local clubs.[1][2]

National Women's League
Founded2002
Country New Zealand
Number of teams7
Current championsCanterbury United Pride
Most championshipsAuckland Football Federation (6)
WebsiteOfficial website
2019 season

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 under-19 team 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 is looking to move the National Women's League to club-based competition like the Men's competition by 2020. It also hopes 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.[3]

Participants

Current

Former
  • Auckland Under-20 Development (2010–2011)
  • New Zealand Football Development (2005–2006, 2009, 2014–2016)
This comprised the national under-19 team (2005), national under-18 team (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 Region Development (2011–2013)
  • Young Ferns (2013–2014)

List of champions

The list of champions:[4]

*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. "National Competitions Review" (PDF). NZ Football. 9 April 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  4. "Honours Board". ultimatenzsoccer.
  5. https://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/footballdevelopment/women/news/newsid=2489665/
  6. https://www.fifa.com/womens-football/news/y=2016/m=12/news=silverware-and-surprise-defeats-2859605.html
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