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National League
The growth of the game in this country was such in the years following the Second World War that the formation of a National League was imperative for growth to continue.

The new concept to New Zealand soccer - its twin objectives being to provide top competitive soccer in as many geographical centres as possible and to maintain the best playing standards - was finally unveiled in 1970, with the nation's eight leading clubs playing each other on a home-and-away basis. The success enjoyed in that first season saw two more teams added to the competition for the 1971 campaign, and a further two sides were introduced six years later.

Throughout the 1970s, it was not uncommon for 10,000-strong crowds to be in attendance at National League matches, such was its pulling power. Mt. Wellington and Christchurch United were the gun teams, in what were memorable days for New Zealand club soccer, leading up, of course, to the All Whites' 1982 successes.

In the years following, however, the National League began to lose its novelty value, other sports, most notably rugby, having studied what soccer had done and set up their own national championships in direct opposition to the innovators of the concept in this country.

This hurt clubs by way of reduced gates, while travel costs between the various venues around the country, which, in the 1980s, were as far-flung as Napier, Nelson, Dunedin, Gisborne and Auckland, meant that clubs really started to feel the pinch financially.

Extending the league to fourteen clubs in 1987 stretched resources even more, and not just financial constraints. Quality playing resources were also at a premium, despite plenty of players willing to play at the highest level in New Zealand soccer.

Few players who were involved in the last ten years of the competition were worthy of mention in the same breath as any number of their predecessors, whose skills and personalities had done so much to put bums on seats during the National League's hey-day of the 1970s and early 1980s.

Those that warranted mention tended to play alongside each other, making their clubs - the likes of Gisborne City, Napier City Rovers and, in most recent years, Waitakere City and Central United, not forgetting those hardy perennials from The Mount and Christchurch - the dominant forces in the game from about 1983 onwards.

Eventually, in 1992, the curtain came down on the National Soccer League in New Zealand, the replacement being a competition called the Superclub Championship, which lasted just three years. It was largely a regionally-based competition, with the top three teams in each region coming together after the round-robin phase to contest a Top Eight play-off competition, with the top four then going on to contest another series of play-offs to determine New Zealand soccer's Superclub.

In some ways, this was worse than the National League, for while it saved the majority of clubs from having to travel the length and breadth of the country, it resulted in an even greater dilution of playing resources, and regular instances of lop-sided scorelines - wonderful stuff for the statistically-minded, not so for the game's greater good.

A further change in format was made in 1996, and, with it, a change in playing season. Ten teams took part in the inaugural National Summer Soccer League, and the crowds came back, although not on the same scale as had been seen in the 1970s at venues such as Auckland's Newmarket Park, the spiritual home of New Zealand soccer, at least until Mother Nature played her hand, by way of a land subsidence, on a rainswept night in July 1979.

The new league marked a return to the ideals of the original National Soccer League, with the number of teams involved being just right, given the quantity of quality players now playing the game in this country. As well, the crowd-pulling play-off concept was used to determine the competition's overall winner, despite the concerns of traditionalists, who considered the real league winners to be the team which won the round-robin phase.

Once again, however, the issue of finance was to play a key role, and the demise of two of the inaugural contenders within a couple of years of the competition's commencement brought a premature end to what was, in principle, the ideal league competition as far as New Zealand soccer was concerned.

The 1999 winter campaign has seen a return to regionally based football, with a twelve-team North Island League and an eight-team South Island League. Central United emerged as national club champions after the September final, downing Dunedin Technical 3-1 after extra-time.

This concept lasted a year, before a return to a National League format came to pass, in the form of the National Club Championship. After dominating the competition in its round-robin phase, University-Mt. Wellington - in their first year of operation since amalgamation - were beaten 4-2 on penalties by Napier City Rovers in the Grand Final, after the combatants had served up two distinctly forgettable hours’ action on a North Harbour Stadium pitch which was, quite frankly, a disgrace to football.

The 2001 campaign saw Miramar Rangers emerge triumphant over the premiership phase of the competition, but they stumbled at the final hurdle at
the hands of Central United, who came from behind to win a gripping Grand Final 3-2, the only time they had defeated Miramar in four meetings throughout the season.

A year on, and it was Miramar's turn to celebrate, as they downed the premiership phase champions, Napier City Rovers, 3-1 in the Grand Final, concluding a campaign which saw three of the four Auckland entries finishing in the bottom four, including the defending champions.

The defending champions retained their crown the following season, a last-gasp winner from hat-trick hero Rupert Ryan seeing off East Auckland - a composite of the Eastern Suburbs, Ellerslie, Fencibles United and University-Mt. Wellington clubs - 3-2 in the Grand Final, a fitting finale to possibly the most closely contested National League for some years.

It may well have marked the end of National League football as we've known it, however, as an eight-team franchise-based league kicked off in October 2004, replacing the club-based competition which had become uneconomical, with too many clubs falling on hard times as the pursuit of grandeur was all too often made at the expense of financial prudence.

The inaugural competition saw Auckland City prove themselves cream of the crop over the round-robin phase of the competition, and they went on to clinch the inaugural NZ Football Championship with a last-gasp 3-2 victory over cross-town rivals and season-long title challengers, Waitakere United.

They repeated the feat a year later, winning the Grand Final on penalties over Canterbury United after topping the table after twenty-one rounds.

Four in a row proved beyond Auckland in 2008. Instead, their cross-town rivals, Waitakere United, finally shed the bridesmaid tag with which they were becoming accustomed, and swept all before them - National Youth League, NZFC Premiership and Grand Final, and potential back-to-back OFC Champions League crowns.

The West Aucklanders were relieved of the crown a season later by their cross-town rivals, Auckland City sweeping all before them, including professional teams from the United Arab Emirates and Africa en route to finishing fifth at the FIFA Club World Cup Finals, an unprecedented feat for an amateur team.

But Waitakere were back in the winners' circle in 2010, Allan Pearce scoring in his third consecutive NZFC Grand Final as United came from behind to down ten-man Canterbury United 3-1, the beaten team having made the showpiece fixture after finishing bottom of the league in each of the last two seasons.

A year later, the West Aucklanders savoured success again, this time at the expense of their cross-town arch-rivals by the odd goal in five after a season in which the Queen City duo were head and shoulders above all-comers.

And in 2012, Waitakere followed Auckland in "three-peating" the NZFC, crushing Team Wellington 4-1 in the Grand Final - the biggest scoreline in the showpiece fixture - following a season in which history was made by Auckland, who went through the entire round-robin phase of the competition unbeaten, only to come unstuck in the semi-finals.

The "Old Firm" were at it again in the 2013 final, Waitakere prevailing over Auckland by the odd goal in seven in a barnstorming encounter to win the title for a fifth time.

City matched that achievement a year later via an odd-goal win over Team Wellington, before overcoming maiden finalists Hawkes Bay United 2-1 in the 2015 final to take the crown for a record-equalling sixth time.

But they weren't able to make it a second three-peat a year later, Team Wellington coming from behind to win their maiden crown, downing Auckland 4-2 after extra time in the final, after City had gone the entire season unbeaten.

A year later, the Wellingtonians repeated the dose, this time prevailing 2-1 to claim their second successive crown. But a third successive crown eluded them in 2018, as Auckland gained sweet revenge with a 1-0 win in a cagey final, in the process extending an amazing defensive record to 1188 minutes - they haven't conceded a goal in their last ten NZFC fixtures, as well as three OFC Champions League matches.

Eastern Suburbs clinched the title in 2019 with a comprehensive 3-0 rout of Team Wellington to claim the silverware for the first time in 48 years, and exactly 40 years after the club had been relegated from the National League.

The 2020 season was halted after sixteen games in the interests of safety, a result of the Coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the planet. The play-offs were canned, and Auckland City declared champions, the seventh successive season they've finished top of the pile, and the eleventh time in the sixteen seasons in which the NZFC has operated.

A year later, Auckland made it eight straight premiership phase titles, but it was Team Wellington who took out the very last ISPS Handa Premiership, downing City 4-2 in the Grand Final of a competition which is being replaced by a winter-based Superclub-style competition, the winner of which will be crowned each December.
National Soccer League Honours
Year
Winners
Province
Runners-Up
Province
1970
Blockhouse Bay
Auckland
Eastern Suburbs
Auckland
1971
Eastern Suburbs
Auckland
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
1972
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
Blockhouse Bay
Auckland
1973
Christchurch United
Canterbury
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
1974
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
Christchurch United
Canterbury
1975
Christchurch United
Canterbury
North Shore United
Auckland
1976
Wellington United
Wellington
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
1977
North Shore United
Auckland
Stop Out
Wellington
1978
Christchurch United
Canterbury
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
1979
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
Christchurch United
Canterbury
1980
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
Gisborne City
Poverty Bay
1981
Wellington United
Wellington
Dunedin City
Otago
1982
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
North Shore United
Auckland
1983
Manurewa
Franklin
North Shore United
Auckland
1984
Gisborne City
Poverty Bay
Papatoetoe
Franklin
1985
Wellington United
Wellington
Gisborne City
Poverty Bay
1986
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
Miramar Rangers
Wellington
1987
Christchurch United
Canterbury
Gisborne City
Poverty Bay
1988
Christchurch United
Canterbury
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
1989
Napier City Rovers
Hawke's Bay
Mt. Maunganui
Bay of Plenty
1990
Waitakere City
Auckland
Mt. Wellington     
Auckland
1991
Christchurch United
Canterbury
Miramar Rangers
Wellington
1992
Waitakere City
Auckland
Waikato United
Waikato
2020*
Auckland City
Auckland
Team Wellington
Wellington
* Season concluded after sixteen rounds due to Coronavirus pandemic. League standings used to declare champions.

Superclub Championship Grand Finals
1993
Napier City Rovers
G. Whittington (2), P. Cotton,
D. Fletcher
Hawke's Bay
4-3
Waitakere City
R. Gray, C. Jorgenson, "oggie"
Auckland
1994
North Shore United
S. Nickson (2), M. Elrick
Auckland
3-1
Napier City Rovers
"oggie"
Hawke's Bay
1995
Waitakere City
T. Edge, C. Jorgenson, G. Gray, D. McClennan
Auckland
4-0
Waikato United
Waikato

National Summer Soccer League Grand Finals
1996
Waitakere City
D. McClennan (2), M. Elrick,
N. Harlock, C. Jorgenson
Auckland
5-2
Miramar Rangers
M. McGarry (2)
Wellington
1997
Waitakere City
G. Gray, D. McClennan, N. Viljoen
Auckland
3-1
Napier City Rovers
R. Goodacre
Hawke's Bay
1998
Napier City Rovers
P. Halford (2), M. Akers, D. Batty, W. Gilbertson
Hawke's Bay
5-2
Central United
F. de Jong, M. Elrick
Auckland

National Club Championship Grand Finals
1999
Central United
M. Elrick (3)
Auckland
3-1
Dunedin Technical
J. Seales
Otago
2000
Napier City Rovers
Hawke's Bay
0-0*
Univ.-Mt. Wellington
Auckland
2001
Central United
G. Eie (3)
Auckland
3-2
Miramar Rangers
G. Brown (2)
Wellington
2002
Miramar Rangers
S. George, G. Little, K. Thompson
Wellington
3-1
Napier City Rovers
D. Gearey
Hawke's Bay
2003
Miramar Rangers
R. Ryan (3)
Wellington
3-2
East Auckland
K. Waetford (pen), J. Waugh
Auckland
*  Napier, 4-2 on penalties

NZ Football Championship Grand Finals
2005
Auckland City
G. Young (2), L. Mulrooney
Auckland
3-2
Waitakere United
D. Ellensohn, K. Jordan
Auckland
2006
Auckland City
K. Jordan, G. Young, "oggie"
Auckland
3-3*
Canterbury United
S. Kelly (2), "oggie"
Canterbury
2007
Auckland City
L. Mulrooney, N. Sykes, P. Urlovic
Auckland
3-2
Waitakere United
J. Campbell, C. Menapi
Auckland
2008
Waitakere United
"oggie", A. Pearce
Auckland
2-0
Team Wellington
Wellington
2009
Auckland City
K. Jordan, P. Urlovic
Auckland
2-1
Waitakere United
A. Pearce
Auckland
2010
Waitakere United
B. Totori (2), A. Pearce
Auckland
3-1
Canterbury United
T. Lancaster
Canterbury
2011
Waitakere United
D. Lucas (2), "oggie"
Auckland
3-2
Auckland City
M. Exposito, "oggie"
Auckland
2012
Waitakere United
R Krishna (2), J. Butler, A. Pearce
Auckland
4-1
Team Wellington
H. Fa'arodo
Wellington
2013
Waitakere United
R. Krishna (2), A. Pearce (2)
Auckland
4-3
Auckland City
M. Exposito (2), C. Bale
Auckland
2014
Auckland City
E. Tade
Auckland
1-0
Team Wellington
Wellington
2015
Auckland City
R. de Vries, M. Dordevic
Auckland
2-1
Hawkes Bay United
R. Tinsley
Hawkes Bay
2016
Team Wellington
T. Jackson (2), B. Harris, C. Peverley
Wellington
4-2
Auckland City
D. Kim, J. Moreira
Auckland
2017
Team Wellington
B. Harris (2)
Wellington
2-1
Auckland City
E. Tade
Auckland
2018
Auckland City
C. McCowatt
Auckland
1-0
Team Wellington
Wellington
2019
Eastern Suburbs
C. McCowatt (2), "oggie"
Auckland
3-0
Team Wellington
Wellington
2020
Play-offs cancelled
2021
Team Wellington
A. Bevin, J. Sinclair, O. Whyte, "oggie"
Wellington
4-2
Auckland City
D. Manickum, E. Tade
Auckland
*  Auckland, 4-3 on penalties


For season-by-season results in the National League, go here


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