2024 Mainland Football Leagues

The 2024 Mainland Football Leagues is the 3rd, 9th and 3rd seasons respectively of the Canterbury Premiership League, Canterbury Championship League and Nelson Bays Premiership League, football competitions in New Zealand. Established in 1998, currently ten teams compete in the premiership, championship, division 1, while eight team compete in division 2.

Both Canterbury Men's and Women's Premiership and Championship leagues are sponsored by New World, while both the Nelson Bays Men's and Women's Premiership leagues are sponsored by Nelson Pines.

Southern League
The Southern League sits above the Canterbury Premiership, Nelson Bays Premiership and Southern Premiership leagues and is also overseen by Mainland Football and Southern Football, despite being run by New Zealand Football as part of the New Zealand National League.

Ten teams will compete in the league – the nine teams from the previous season and the winner of the Southern League play-offs also being the 2023 Canterbury Premiership League champions. The promoted team is University of Canterbury. This is University of Canterbury's first season in the Southern League, they replaced Green Island after three seasons.

Hurley Shield
The Hurley Shield is a Challenge Shield, where only teams form Christchurch challenge for the shield. It is only up for challenge when the current holders plays a league home game, cups competitions aren't challenge games. The Hurley Shield current holders are Coastal Spirit, who defeated local rivals Cashmere Technical 2–3 last season to claim the shield. They have defended it six times, twice was against Selwyn United (once in 2023 and once in 2024), once against previous holders and local rivals Cashmere Technical, once against local estuary rivals Ferrymead Bays, once against University of Canterbury and once against Nomads United. Coastal's next defending match is against Christchurch United at Linfield Park on 21 July.

Hurley Shield Matches

 * Match 1


 * Match 2


 * Match 3


 * Match 4


 * Match 5


 * Match 6

Canterbury Men's Premiership League
The League starts on 6 April and finishes on 31 August, with the competition being a double round robin. Each team can field a maximum of five foreign players as well as one additional foreign player who has Oceania Football Confederation nationality. Temporary Dismissals will be in use for when a player commits a cautionable offence that is relevant to dissent and the length of the dismissal is 10 minutes starting from when play restarts.

At the end of season, the highest ranked team will be nominated to play in a Mainland Football Federation Playoff, two-leg home and away series, against the highest ranked nominated team from Nelson Bays Men's Premiership. This is to get the team that will compete against the highest ranked nominated team from Southern Premiership League in the Southern League Playoff, two-leg home and away series. The winner of Southern League Playoff will be promoted to Southern League, assuming they will have the correct club licensing before the season starts.

Men's Premiership teams and personnel
Ten teams are competing in the league – seven teams from the previous season, three teams promoted from the Canterbury Men's Championship League. The promoted teams are in order from 1st to 3rd: Christchurch United U20 Academy, Selwyn United Reserves, Ferrymead Bays Reserves. University of Canterbury were promoted to Southern League, while Cashmere Technical U20 Reserves and Nomads United U20 Reserves are now in Canterbury Men's Championship League being replaced by Cashmere Technical Reserves and Nomads United Reserves.

Canterbury Men's Championship League
The League starts on 6 April and finishes on 17 August, with league format being a double round robin. Each team has two byes, one in each round.

Temporary Dismissals will be in use, when an official referee has been appointed, for when a player commits a cautionable offence that is relevant to dissent and the length of the dismissal is 10 minutes starting from when play restarts. For when an official referee hasn't been appointed, they will be known as Sin Bins. A sin bin is the same as a temporary dismissals, but another player is allowed to be subbed on to bring the team back to 11 players. After 10 minutes, the player is allowed to be used again.

The competition allows for each team to have a match day squad of 18 players, 11 starting and 7 substitutes. It also allows for each team to make unlimited substitutions from the 7 substitutes.

On 2 May, Nomads United U20 Reserves were withdrawn from the competition after failing to field a team three times in a row, one being a game postponement against University of Canterbury 3rd and the other two being defaults against Selwyn United Turkeys and Coastal Spirit U20 Reserves. All wins and game results against Nomads United U20 Reserves have been voided, even Nomads only game against Cashmere Technical U20 Reserves, 0–8 win for Cashmere Technical.

Men's Championship teams and personnel
Ten teams are competing in the league – seven teams from the previous season, one team promoted from the Canterbury Men's Division 1 and two teams added/relegated from Canterbury Men's Premiership League. The promoted team is Selwyn United Turkeys, last season known as Selwyn United Roosters. The two teams added/relegated are Cashmere Technical U20 Reserves and Nomads United U20 Reserves. Christchurch United U20 Academy, Selwyn United Reserves, Ferrymead Bays Reserves were all promoted to Canterbury Men's Premiership League, while there were no teams relegated.

Nelson Bays Men's Premiership League
The Leagues starts on 13 April and finishes on 20 July, with the competition being a double round robin.

At the end of season, the highest ranked team will be nominated to play in a Mainland Football Federation Playoff, two-leg home and away series, against the highest ranked nominated team from Canterbury Men's Premiership. This is to get the team that will compete against the highest ranked nominated team from Southern Premiership League in the Southern League Playoff, two-leg home and away series. The winner of Southern League Playoff will be promoted to Southern League, assuming they will have the correct club licensing before the season starts.

Nelson Men's Premiership teams and personnel
Eight teams are competing in the league.

South Island Qualifying League
The South Island Qualifying League is to determine the top three teams in Mainland's federation, with the fourth-placed team playing in a playoff against the third-placed team in Southern Qualifying, who go on to play the top two teams from Southern Football. The bottom teams will play in the Canterbury Women's Premiership, starting after this league finishes. They will be joined by the top teams from the Canterbury Women's Premiership Qualifying League.

Seven team are competing in the leagues - five teams from last year from last season, one new combined team and one reverted combined team. The new combined team is Nomads-Waimakariri United, NW United for short. They are competing in the league, replacing FC Nomads United. Nomads-Waimakariri United are a combined team of Nomads United and Waimakariri United replacing the combined Nomads United/FC Twenty 11 team from the previous season. Halswell United are competing as a single club, rather than as the previously combined team of Halswell United and Christchurch United.

Canterbury Women's Premiership Qualifying League
Each team plays each other once, then the league splits into two groups (top four and bottom four) with each team playing another 3 game, with each team playing 10 games. The top 2/3 teams qualifies for the Canterbury Women's Premiership, which played against the bottom 3/4 teams of the South Island Qualifying League.

Women's Premiership Qualifying teams
Eight teams are competing in the league.

Matches 1-7
Team play each other once, either home or away.

Matches 8-10
After seven matches, the league splits into two sections (the top four and the bottom four), with the teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home and once away). The exact matches are determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split.


 * Top Four


 * Bottom Four

Canterbury Women's Championship Qualifying League
Each team plays each other once, then the league splits into two groups (top four and bottom three) with each team playing another 2/3 game, with each team playing 8/9 games.

Women's Championship Qualifying teams
Seven teams are competing in the league.

Matches 8-10
After six matches, the league splits into two sections (the top four and the bottom three), with the teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home and once away). The exact matches are determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split.


 * Top Four


 * Bottom Four

South Island League
The South Island League sits above the Canterbury Women's Premiership League and Southern Women's Premier League and is also overseen by Mainland Football and Southern Football, despite being run by New Zealand Football as part of the New Zealand Women's National League. The league will start in late June.

Hawkey Shield
The Hawkey Shield is a Challenge Shield, where only teams for Christchurch challenge for the shield. It is only up for challenge when the current holders plays a league home game, cups competitions aren't challenge games. The Hawkey Shield current holders are Coastal Spirit, who have defended it for multiple years in a row. They have defended it against Selwyn United, Halswell United and local rivals Cashmere Technical. Coastal have locked the shield up for the rest of the season, as there are no more Christchurch teams left to play at home.

Hawkey Shield Matches

 * Match 1 (South Island Qualifying League)


 * Match 2 (South Island Qualifying League)


 * Match 3 (South Island League)

Canterbury Women's Premiership League
Each team plays each other once. The top 4 teams from the Canterbury Women's Premiership Qualifying and the bottom 4 teams from the South Island Qualifying League are the eight teams.

Canterbury Women's Premiership teams
Eight teams are competing in the league.

Women's Premiership results table
Team play each other once, either home or away.

Canterbury Women's Championship League
Each team plays each other twice, home and away. The top 3 teams from the Canterbury Women's Championship Qualifying and 3 teams from the Canterbury Women's Premiership Qualifying.

Canterbury Women's Championship teams
Six teams are competing in the league.

Nelson Women's Premiership teams and personnel
Eight teams are competing in the league.

English Cup
The 2024 English Cup is the 111th edition of the English Cup.

Reta Fitzpatrick Cup
The 2024 Reta Fitzpatrick Cup is the 50th edition of the Reta Fitzpatrick Cup.

Whero Cup
The 2024 Whero Cup is a Charity cup competition for all teams in Canterbury Men's Championship League, Senior Men's Division 1 & 2 and Reserve teams in Men's Premiership League. This is the 2nd edition of the Whero Cup.

In 2023, the Whero Cup helped raise awareness and support for Ronald McDonald House South Island. This season, the cup will again help raise awareness and support for Ronald McDonald House South Island.

On 1 May 2024, Mainland Football released the draw for Round 2. One notable difference was that Coastal Spirit U20 Reserves were drawn out from the cup, while the team that bet them, Nomads United U20 Reserves, were not drawn out. The day later, it was reveled that Nomads United U20 Reserves were withdrawn from all competitions, Whero Cup and Canterbury Championship.