New Zealand Football has today confirmed that from 2022 the National Age Group Tournament (NAGT) will evolve into the National Youth Development League (NYDL).

In place of a week-long tournament in December for age group teams, the NYDL will run for approximately two months at the end of the current winter premier youth competitions in order to extend and elevate the development environment for Aotearoa New Zealand’s top male and female youth players. The NYDL is separate from the winter leagues, and is designed to give the very top youth players the opportunity to continue their development in a more performance-oriented environment.

“This is an exciting development for our youth players,” says New Zealand Football Technical Director Andy Boyens.

“While the NAGT format had a lot of positive feedback from participants, who really enjoyed the tournament experience, we were also conscious of the format’s drawbacks from a development and player welfare point of view, with so many games crammed into a short space of time. We believe this new format allows for the best of both worlds for our up and coming players,” he says.

“The new National Youth Development League is about access for talent, and ensuring that we’re enabling our most talented young players the opportunity to continue their development in high quality environments, and that they have access to these high quality environments for a greater period of time,” says Boyens.

One of the primary objectives is to make the NYDL a financially sustainable competition for Aotearoa New Zealand’s best young male and female players, and minimise the costs to the participants. New Zealand Football and the federations are working with FIFA and other funders to continue support of the new format, with the former NAGT format having been supported by the New Zealand Community Trust since 2013.

The boys and girls competition structures will mirror those of the men’s and women’s national leagues. Depending on the specific circumstances of the federations, a mixture of club and federation teams will compete in the boys and girls NYDL.

The specifics of the girls and boys NYDL competitions are outlined below.

Girls NYDL

The girls competition will be an eight-team U-18 competition, with teams entered in line with those in the women’s National League, which begins after regular winter season concludes. The teams will play a single round robin mirroring the first round of the women’s National League season, and will be made up of a mixture of club and federation teams.

From the NRFL region the top four NRFL clubs that enter the women’s National League will also gain entry to the NYDL for their U-18 teams. Federation teams that are currently competing in the National League will establish an U-18 team to participate in the girls NYDL. This alignment provides continued exposure to senior football for young players and increases the opportunity for high performing young players to access and experience the women’s National League.

Players competing in the NYDL for a club must have been registered to play for that club by June 30 during the regular winter season, with the exception of guest players, who are also ineligible to compete in the women’s National League.

To enable talented players to participate in the NYDL even if their club team doesn’t qualify, club teams can also have a maximum of five guest players registered at other clubs from within their own federation.

All clubs in the girls NYDL must hold a current National League Club License. All federation team head coaches must hold a minimum of an active OFC/NZF C License or international equivalent.

Players in the girls NYDL will be eligible to play in the women’s National League (unless they are guest players).

Boys NYDL

The boys competition is for U-17s. Its structure will mirror the men’s National League and take place in two stages at the end of the regular winter premier youth competitions.

The first stage will consist of regional leagues (Northern Youth League made up of NRF and WaiBOP club teams; Central, Youth League made up of club teams from Capital and federation teams from Central; and Southern Youth League, made up of club teams from Mainland and federation teams from Football South). The second stage will be an eight-team national finals series, comprised of three teams qualifying from each of the Northern and Central Youth Leagues, and two teams from the Southern Youth League.

Teams in the Northern, Central and Southern Youth Leagues will play five or six games not including the finals series. The finals series will be played over three days at a central location as quarter finals, semi finals and finals, and all qualifying teams will play three games.

To ensure that any player choosing to play in the NZSS Football Tournament can prepare for and participate in it without overloading, the boys NYDL won’t run on the weekend before or after that competition.

Players competing in the NYDL for a club must have been registered to play for that club by June 30 during the regular winter season.

All clubs in the boys NYDL must hold a current Talent Development Programme (TDP) accreditation in order to compete. All federation team head coaches must hold a minimum of an active OFC/NZF C License or international equivalent.

Confirmation of competition dates for both the girls and boys NYDL will be released in early 2022.

Article added: Monday 20 December 2021