Football: Changes coming for football competition

Central Football

Now that the Federation Leagues, Central Leagues and playoff matches have come to an end, we want to take this opportunity to provide an update on the competition structures for 2025.

Men

Napier City Rovers will remain the sole Central representative in the 2025 Central League competition after Central Federation League winners Palmerston North United were unable to beat Capital Premiership club Upper Hutt City over two legs in the play-off.

As a result, Palmerston North United will join Central Federation League runner up and third placed club Palmerston North Marist and FC Western as automatic qualifiers for the inaugural 10 team Central League Division 2 in 2025.

Over the past weekend, clubs that placed 4th to 7th in the Central Federation League battled it out against Capital clubs in a one-off play-off with the winner of each of the four matches promoted to Central League 2 in 2025. Despite all games being extremely close, Taradale AFC was the only Central club to prevail on the day, earning themselves the final spots in Central League 2 along with the three victorious Capital clubs.

Central League 2025:

Napier City Rovers AFC
Wellington Olympic AFC
Western Suburbs
Miramar Rangers AFC
Wellington Phoenix Reserves
Waterside Karori
Petone Football Club
Island Bay United AFC
North Wellington FC
Upper Hutt City Football

Central League 2 2025:

Palmerston North United FC
Palmerston North Marist FC
FC Western
Taradale AFC
Douglas Villa AFC
Te Kotahitanga FC
Seatoun AFC
Lower Hutt City AFC
Tawa AFC
Stop Out Sports Club

What's next? – Men

Earlier in August we surveyed Central Clubs and asked for feedback on the structure that will sit below Central League 2 in 2025 and beyond. At the time, the favoured option was to move to an East and West Split competition.
With the Central League 2 participating clubs now confirmed, we intend to go back out to clubs this week to reconfirm the proposal, seek support, or otherwise for this proposal and test any alternative options.

Once we have considered all feedback, we are planning to confirm and communicate the 2025 structure as soon as possible with the view that this can be further discussed at the end of season club meetings.

We would like to emphasise that the decision on the format below Central League 2 for 2025 and beyond will be made considering club feedback and support, whilst also ensuring that we work toward an attainable pathway that offers development opportunities and is sustainable long term.

Women

Central League:

Taradale AFC
Moturoa AFC
Palmerston North Marist FC
Palmerston North United FC
Wellington United Diamonds
Waterside Karori
Petone FC
Victoria University
Miramar Rangers AFC
Wellington Phoenix

What's next? – Women

With Palmerston North United FC defeating Seatoun FC over the weekend and gaining promotion into the women’s Central League, it is unlikely we will have club support for a Women’s Federation League in 2025. We are delighted to now have four clubs from Central in the women’s Central League and are currently working through several scenarios for the next tier below this for 2025 and beyond and hope to also present these at the end of season club meetings.

Again, our intention is to seek feedback and thoughts from all clubs and so you can expect to hear from us shortly in this regard.

Central Football CEO Darren Mason, said, “There are obviously some changes for 2025 in our most aspirational leagues and we believe these are mostly positive. We are delighted to now have four clubs from our Federation in the women’s Central League for 2025 and this is a credit to all four of those clubs for the work they have done over a number of years to grow the women’s game and provide genuine pathways to this level. What this does now create is a bit of a challenge below that Central League level, but we are committed to working with clubs to come up with the best format to cater for this.

“On the men’s side, Palmerston North United were so close to getting that second side into the top Central League competition and it is encouraging that our clubs on-field performances are now a lot closer to our Capital counterparts than they have ever been. The introduction of the Central League 2 now adds additional opportunities for our more aspirational clubs to participate at a higher level and we are certain that it will close that gap even further with the Capital clubs and that this will result in Central clubs having a greater opportunity to gain promotion to the Central League.”