New Zealand Football is the governing body for the sport of association football in New Zealand. It was founded in 1891, and became officially affiliated with FIFA in 1948. New Zealand was a founding member of the Oceania Football Confederation.
NZF oversees the seven New Zealand Football federations, as well as the New Zealand national football team (nicknamed the "All Whites"), the national junior and women's teams (nicknamed the "Football Ferns"), the men's and women's National League (the men's league is known as the ASB Premiership, with a number of tournaments, including the Chatham Cup. The ASB Premiership is played in the New Zealand summer between eight teams. A New Zealand team, Wellington Phoenix FC, play in the Australian A-League.
In May 2007, the organisation was renamed New Zealand Football (NZF), replacing the word "soccer" with "football" in line with the common usage in the rest of the world.
In September 2007, the New Zealand female football teams were rebranded. The women's national team changed its name from "SWANZ" to "Football Ferns", the female under-20 team to the "Junior Football Ferns" and the under-17 team became the "Young Football Ferns"
In the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, New Zealand had played their best result in their teams' history when they had a 1-1 draw with Italy. Shane Smeltz scored in the 7th minute marking the first time New Zealand has ever led a match at the World Cup. They went on to become the only unbeaten team in the tournament.
Read more about New Zealand Football: Competitions, Football Federations
Famous quotes containing the words zealand and/or football:
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)