| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Venue(s) | Basin Reserve, Wellington First replay: English Park, Christchurch Second replay: Newmarket Park, Auckland |
| Dates | 2 September 1972 (first replay 9 September, second replay 23 September) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Christchurch United (1st title) |
| Runner-up | Mount Wellington |
The 1972 Chatham Cup was the 45th annual nationwide knockout football competition in New Zealand.
Early stages of the competition were run on a regional basis, with the National League teams receiving a bye until the later stages of the competition. In all, 99 teams took part in the competition. Different sources give different numberings for the rounds of the competition: some start round one with the beginning of the regional qualifications; others start numbering from the first national knock-out stage. The former numbering scheme is used in this article.
The final saw the end of a Chatham Cup era, being the last final to be held at the Basin Reserve until 1980. The Basin Reserve had been the host of every final since 1928.