Capital Football are preparing to host the best 630 young players from all seven Football Federations for the annual National Age-Group tournament which kicks off tomorrow.

The five-day tournament brings together three Federation age-groups, U-14, U-15 and U-16 boys and U-14 and U-16 girls to test themselves against their counterparts from other parts of New Zealand in front of New Zealand Football’s National Team and technical staff.

Andy Boyens, the Football Development Manager for Youth at New Zealand Football, said the National Age-Group Championship is an important week on the football calendar.

“This is the marquee age-group tournament in the country and vital for the identification of players for future involvement with New Zealand Football national teams as well as being the pinnacle event on the calendar for the Federation Talent Centre programme,” said Boyens, who represented New Zealand from 2006 – 2011.

“For many this will be their first experience of competing at a national tournament and it proves an important stepping stone for players to earn further opportunities with their Federations and in time even to play for their country at age group level. The level of ability has improved every year at this tournament and we look forward to finishing the year on a high note with another successful tournament.”

The National Age Group Tournament will be staged at Memorial Park in Petone and Maidstone Park in Upper Hutt from Wednesday 13 December to Sunday 17 December and will be livestreamed at the below links. (Please see attached for the schedule and individual game links).

After five days of tough competition, the age-groups winner will take home winners medals for each age-group and the overall prize, the Federation Cup, will be awarded to the Federation who has the most cumulative points across all age-groups.

For Capital Football it is a special honour to be the host the National Age Group Tournament which is a great way to finish the season.  

“It is the fifth time in a row that we have run the tournament here in Capital and I know the players all look forward to this tournament every year,” said Lisa Jones, the Operations Manager at Capital Football who is the Tournament Director of the event.

“The players are starting to get to know the other players from the other Federations from things like futsal and the NTCs [National Training Centres] so they look forward to playing each other.”

Jones said the number of players the tournament is attracting is hugely encouraging. There are 630 players and 70 coaches and managers coming to Wellington which is a significant increase from 2015.  

“The future is certainly bright for the tournament. We love hosting this event, all of our staff get right behind it. We have spent the day putting nets up and getting corner flags in, and getting the fields right. Everyone – all of our staff including our CEO [Richard Reid] - takes huge pride in the fact all of the Federations are coming to Wellington and we get to watch these kids playing the game that we love.”

Northern Football are the defending champions after being the most successful team across all of the age groups in 2016 and are looking forward to defending their title.

Northern Football’s Player Development Officer Martin Bullock has been working on the selection process since April with the primary focus on developing players.

“Our staff have been out every weekend watching as many games as possible to identify players,” said Bullock. “In addition, we’ve also held Talent Centre camps during each of the School Holidays which gives us the opportunity to view the identified players training and playing with each other in our environment.

“We were fortunate enough to win the Federation Trophy last year, but retaining the trophy isn’t our primary focus. As always our aim is to develop players to go onto NZ Football age group teams in the future.”

NZ Football’s Fit4Football Team will be on hand in Wellington to deliver the Fit4Football programme to the players.  This is the overall enhancing performance and injury prevention programme of which the 11+ warm ups are one component of this programme.

“Our philosophy is all about enhancing performance through injury prevention,” said NZ Football National Injury Prevention Manager Megan Crockett. “This all starts with the right warm-up before you play and we are hoping to instil some good habits into these young footballers which will benefit them for years to come.”

National Age Group Tournament Fact Box
When:  13 - 17 December
Where: Memorial Park in Petone and Maidstone Park in Upper Hutt, Wellington
What:  630 players from the seven Federations around New Zealand

For the full live stream schedule see attached

For more information contact
Peter Thornton
NZ Football Media and Communications Manager
+64 27 403 8905