Christchurch United has signalled its intention to enter next year’s OFC Professional League, the first of its kind for Oceania.
The league will be made up of eight teams from across the confederation, as well as Australia and potentially Hawaii.
United general manager and first team head coach Ryan Edwards last week flew to Auckland to attend a presentation on the league by the Oceania Football Confederation.
He was one of a number of representatives from across the country attending in-person or virtually.
The only South Island clubs at the meeting were United, Cashmere Technical and Nelson Suburbs, while the presentation has been forwarded to other clubs.
Edwards said Christchurch United would be entering a bid for the league, which is slated to start in January 2026 and will be partially funded by FIFA – the governing body for the sport.
“It’s a really good opportunity for New Zealand football,” he said.
“And wouldn’t it be great to have professional football in the south?”
Currently the only professional sides in New Zealand are Wellington Phoenix and Auckland FC, who play in Australia’s men’s and women’s A-Leagues.
Two weeks ago the Phoenix played in Christchurch for the first time in nine years, drawing 0-0 with Central Coast Mariners in front of 14,064 fans – their second-highest home crowd for the season.
“We saw from that game, 14,000 turned up to watch a Wellington team, so imagine what would happen with a Christchurch team,” Edwards said.
He was confident United would be able to hit the targets, which include having a full-time general manager, a strong technical plan, and being able to contract at least 20 players full-time.
“We have 10 or 11 full-time staff, which is quite sizable compared to most clubs in this country, and we’ve got the facilities and infrastructure with more being built,” he said.
“There’s a few little bits and pieces that we’ll need to iron out to meet what they’re asking for, but we’re in a pretty good place.”
Ferrymead Bays director of football Alan Walker said participation in the league would be unattainable for most clubs.
“If you’re going to be in a position where you pay a minimum wage for players that are going to be contracted, what you’re looking at is a cost model that would stretch 99% of the clubs in the country,” he said.
“As much as I’d love to think that Ferrymead Bays would be interested in (the competition), the cost of it would need to be worked through first.”
Cashmere Technical president Bill Cowen agreed, and said the time-frames were extremely tight.
Teams need to express interest by the end of this month and submit foundational documents by the end of March, while the deadline for all submissions is the end of June.
“ It’s an incredibly short timeframe to navigate something as big as this,” Cowen said.
“ I can’t possibly see how any New Zealand amateur clubs could do it.
“If there was a fair chunk of notice and you had the opportunity to advise within the community that this is what’s happening, it might be different, but there isn’t time.”
