Football fans in New Zealand will be able to watch the sport for the upcoming 2020/21 season as the football federation has confirmed that it will be getting back underway in the next couple of months.
New Zealand Football has confirmed that the men’s football league, the ISPS Handa Premiership, will get underway in November, whilst the National Women’s League will start from the end of October.
Unfortunately, there will be some changes to the leagues within both the men’s and the women’s competitions due to the pandemic that has hit the globe in a huge way. Nonetheless, some things have not changed as punters will be able to see new online casinos that are available in 2021 as the industry continues to boom as they provide bettors relief during the challenging times currently being felt.
For example, the ISPS Handa Premiership will see the competition feature eight teams instead of the usual 10 that normally compete. The way the division will manage to structure this format is by getting the South Island teams to merge together and play under one name. Therefore, Southern United, Tasman United and Canterbury United Dragons will all merge together to form under the latter’s name.
The division will keep its normal format, though, which will provide some normality to fans and players associated with the league. Thus, each team will play each other twice in the regular season before a finals series – which includes semi-finals and a grand final – with the campaign expected to conclude in March 2021.
Fans, though, will still be able to support their teams via social media platforms such as Facebook, with this handy guide providing fans with all you need to know about Facebook algorithm.
Promotion and relegation have been postponed for the upcoming 2020/21 campaign, though, and will be reviewed ahead of the 2021/22 season, therefore teams can feel as though they have “nothing to lose”. Some teams and managers would love to have a season where they do not have to have too many concerns, as men like Ronald Koeman will need to work out what new things Barcelona have to do to be successful in rather quick fashion.
Plans for a promotion and relegation framework have been postponed and will be reviewed before the 2021/22 season.
The National Women’s League is also facing a new look for 2021, as they will have their competition played as a single round-robin competition. A grand final will be held on the weekend of December 19, as all seven women’s teams will continue to compete.
Daniel Farrow, who is the General Manager of Football for New Zealand Football appeared excited in a statement released, suggesting that it was a priority to get the sport back up and running as soon as possible.
“It has taken a lot of work with our clubs and federations to get to this stage but we are excited to now be able to confirm initial details of our national competitions for the upcoming season,” he said.
“While Covid-19 and the knock-on effect of shifting community football dates has had an impact on the length of competitions and, in the case of the ISPS Handa Premiership, the number of teams able to take part, running men’s, women’s and futsal national league competitions this year was a key priority and we are very pleased to be able to make that happen.
“We also want to acknowledge the support of Sport NZ and our on-going partnership with Trillian Trust as key contributors to staging competitions this season.”
