2021 New Zealand National League

This article is about the men's season. For the women's season, see 2021 New Zealand Women's National League.

New Zealand National League
Season2021
Dates27 March 2021 - 12 December 2021
ChampionsCancelled[1][2][3]
2022 →

The 2021 New Zealand National League was the first scheduled season of the National League since its restructuring in 2021. 30 clubs competed in the competition, with four having been planned to qualify from the Northern League, three qualifying from the Central League and two qualifying from the Southern League for the National Championship phase along with the automatically qualified Wellington Phoenix Reserves.[4] Each team was allowed to field a maximum of four foreign players as well as one additional foreign player who has Oceania Football Confederation nationality.[5] Each team had to also have at least two players aged 20 or under in the starting eleven.[6]

Because the Wellington Phoenix Reserves need to hold a partnership with an affiliated club through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be in the league and have a place in the Championship phase,[4] their current MoU was with Lower Hutt City.[7] This meant Lower Hutt could not qualify for the Championship even if they finish in the top three of the Central League.[4][8]

New Zealand Football announced on the 14 September that they had decided to terminate the remainder of the Northern League season and cancel any yet to be played fixtures due to Covid-19 and Auckland being in Level 4.[9] The decision was made due to the fact that they couldn't complete all the games before the Championship phase was due to begin, so places in the next phase where awarded off the standing before Auckland went into lockdown.[9]

On the 8 October, New Zealand Football announced a change in plans to the Championship phase of the 2021 competition due to COVID-19 alert levels.[10] The Championship phase was to be split up into two 'Hubs', the Auckland Hub and the South Hub, where teams play every other team in their hub in a single round robin. The top two clubs from each hub would have then qualified for a finals phase consisting of semis and a Grand Final.[10]

On the 2 November, after confirmation that the alert levels would not change to allow the Auckland and Waikato teams to play any further part in the National Competition, New Zealand Football announced that they were cancelling the reminder of the National League. In its place, they instead decided on a one-off interregional competition, the National League: South Central Series.[1]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference SCS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "NZ Football cancels National League championship; one-off inter-regional competition planned". Otago Daily Times.
  3. ^ "National League Championships cancelled; one-off South Central Series scheduled". Stuff.
  4. ^ a b c "New National League system". New Zealand Football. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Two National League clubs found to have breached foreign player regulations". New Zealand Football. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  6. ^ "Youth leads the way in new National League". New Zealand Football. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  7. ^ "Wellington Phoenix Announce Strategic Partnership With Lower Hutt City AFC". Wellington Phoenix. 10 February 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Who'll join Rangers and Olympic in the National League?". New Zealand Football. 23 July 2021. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  9. ^ a b "Northern League season ended early and cup dates moved due to Alert Level 4 extension". New Zealand Football. 14 September 2021. Archived from the original on 14 September 2021.
  10. ^ a b "Format unveiled to play national competitions under COVID-19 limitations". New Zealand Football. 8 October 2021. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.