[Lesly]

Please please please please please please please please tell me there are soccerteams for children in New Zealand!!!!!! If not, I have a big, or should I say huge problem :wah :wah :wah
My son doesn't play soccer, he actually "IS" soccer. This is so very important for him.
Is there a NZ website about soccer? Then maybe I can put his mind at rest. Maybe a website of a team in Auckland? That would be even better.

Thanks and cheers, Lesly

[xanctus]

Lesly, I do not know much about the NZ soccer...but you might want to check this out
http://www.nzsoccer.com/

hope from there you can trace the NZ competition.

good luck

[veronica]

Thjere are masses of soccer clubs over here for the kids and for girls too which I was pleased by. loads of the junior school age kids play soccer but a lot switch to rugby when they get older. but have no worries about it Soccer is here. (being married to a soccer enthusiast ensures that I notice these things)

[Lesly]

Thank you both very much!!! This is very good news. :nice1
Would you happen to know how many times a week a teams trains, and if they do competitions every week? When is the offseason?
Lots of questions, but I would like to tell my son everything about it before we arrive in Auckland (November)

Thanks, Lesly

[Kim39]

Lesly,

This was a question i needed answering to, not so long ago. As a qualified Referee here in the UK i needed to know whether i could continue my hobby within NZ and i am pleased to say i could. :nice1 As for time of season i am unsure about, for training this would depend on team to team.

[veronica]

can't answer that in detail but I know they play throughout the winter . We do know a guy who is in charge of organising a soccer club here in christchurch will try and remember to ask him.

[ENZ]

The most popular winter sport for most boys here (especially boys of european ethnicity) is soccer and the most popular summer sport is cricket.

[Lesly]

Thanks to everyone on behalf of my son, he already feels much better now. :nice1 :nice1 :P

[Radders]

Can we please stop calling it soccer...Football thank you :nice1

[ENZ]

Afraid you'll have to get used to calling it soccer here Radders. "Football" here means rugby. ;)

[kiwidebs]

I can confirm that SOCCER is alive and well in New Zealand. I spent many Saturday mornings watching my brother playing soccer as we grew up!! Around high school age most seem to give up or switch to rugby however. We do actually have a national football team - if you're Scottish you may remember thrashing us the one and only time we made it to the World Cup!! The team are called the All Whites (Rugby team - All Blacks and basketball team - Tall Blacks!!! ). You may want to install Sky so you can monitor UK football however - hubby is already investigating this for us as he swears he cannot live without Premiership football!!

Debs