On this day in 1921, the first interprovincial women’s football match was played in Aotearoa New Zealand.

At 2.30 pm on September 24, 1921, in front of a crowd of around two thousand, a women’s club team from Wellington, Aotea, kicked off a game against a representative team from Canterbury at English Park.

The hosts, clad in the traditional Cantabrian colours of red and black, won 1-0 via a first half penalty.

While the first women’s football teams were formed in Auckland and Wellington earlier in the year, this was the first recorded inter-provincial women’s football match in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The significance of the day was not lost on local media: a match report from The Press observed that “Saturday, September 24^th, marked another step in women’s advance. At English Park teams of girls representing Wellington and Christchurch, proclaimed their right to football”.

The Press concluded that “It seems certain that girls’ football has come to stay.”

Canterbury 1

Wellington 0

English Park, Christchurch

Line ups:

Wellington: M. Clark; L. Campbell; Gawkins (captain); G. Landygrove; L. Landygrove; J. Sullivan; F. Flitcroft; Sutherland; L. Leatham; M. Rowell, L. Wilson

Canterbury: Manhire; Jackson (captain); Lochore; Hastings; Poynton (goalscorer, although she was also referred to as Poynter in the match report); Meade; Oakley; McKenzie; Greave; Wood; Crawford

In the months that followed, it became somewhat less certain.   

On 30 May 1922 Wellington’s Dominion Post reported that there had been a proposal “that women footballers should not be allowed the use of city reserves” put to the City Council’s Reserves Committee. This was echoed by similar bans throughout the rest of the country, and women’s football faded in Aotearoa New Zealand.

While there are reports of sporadic, casual games played in the intervening decades, it wasn’t until the 1970s that women’s football in New Zealand began a serious resurgence.

Local leagues sprang up in 1973 in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland, with the National Women’s Tournament beginning in 1976. In 1975 the New Zealand Women’s Football Association (NZFWFA) was formed in response to an invitation from the Asian Confederation to have a New Zealand representative team take part in the Asian Cup, which they went on to win, defeating Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand along the way.

Throughout the 1980s the team regularly attended the World Invitational Tournament in Taiwan (a precursor to the FIFA Women’s World Cup), finishing second several times. During the 1987 World Invitational Tournament (the tournament’s final edition), they recorded a famous victory over the USA. The New Zealand women’s national team qualified for the first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991.

In 1994 the Kate Sheppard Cup (then known simply as the Women’s Knockout Cup) was established, (Lynn Avon United the most successful club in the Cup’s history). In 2002 the National Women’s League was founded, in which the Canterbury region has remained synonymous with victory since that maiden win, with Canterbury United claiming their sixth national title in 2020 with (over Capital Football).

After the turn of the millennium, strides continued to be made on the world stage, as New Zealand hosted the inaugural U-17 FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2008.

At senior level the Football Ferns also pushed ahead on the world stage, appearing at every FIFA Women’s World Cups since 2007 and Olympic Games since 2008, with players forging professional careers in the world’s top leagues.

In 2018 the Young Football Ferns made history when they finished third at the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, becoming the first New Zealand team to medal at a FIFA tournament.

This year Wellington Phoenix confirmed that they would enter the upcoming A-League Women 2021/22 season, ensuring a pathway to professional women’s football for New Zealand.

And, of course, in 2023 Aotearoa New Zealand will co-host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup with Australia.

Women’s football in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2021 is a far cry from those first kicks at English Park, 100 years ago.

Historic images sourced here.

See here for further history on women’s football in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Article added: Friday 24 September 2021