New Zealand Football has confirmed it is moving its 2021 Awards to early 2022 due to the ongoing lockdown in Auckland as well as a desire to better align with the season. 

The awards, which recognise the previous calendar year, have formerly been held in the winter, a few months after the end of the old national football competition season. With the season now set up to allow all domestic national competitions (National League, Chatham Cup, Kate Sheppard Cup and the Futsal SuperLeague) to happen within a calendar year, moving the awards allows for better alignment with the schedule, as well as recognising the previous 12 months of international football and futsal from January to December. 

The rescheduled awards will now take place in early 2022. To allow for the change in the period the awards cover, the next edition will award achievements across 2021 and 2020, which obviously had heavily reduced activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Article added: Friday 01 October 2021