As part of its aim to unite the country behind the All Whites in their bid to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, New Zealand Football wishes to advise that amendments have been made to the schedules of its three national football competitions – the ISPS Handa Premiership, National Women’s League and National Youth League.

As well as considering the impact of the All Whites’ intercontinental playoff against Peru at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium on November 11, the New Zealand Football competitions department has also had to take into account recent changes made by Football Federation Australia (FFA) to the Hyundai A-League draw.

Following confirmation of the intercontinental playoff date and changes to the A-League draw, the competitions department has reviewed the impact on its national leagues and subsequently made three amendments to the ISPS Handa Premiership, two to the National Youth League and one to the National Women’s League.

“Our priority has been to find a way within the challenges of administering three national leagues for our football community to best support the All Whites in the intercontinental play-off,” New Zealand Football Competitions and Events Director Daniel Farrow says.

“The team has worked really hard to explore all options available and find a workable solution with the clubs and federations who had matches affected, both in and outside of Wellington. We looked very closely at a blanket reschedule of all our national league matches but this was logistically unachievable across all the competitions. We’ve therefore taken a practical approach to achieve a satisfactory outcome for our clubs and federations.”

New Zealand Football has worked in tandem with clubs and federations to agree changes to kick-off times within travel limitations or to reschedule matches and agreement has been reached with all parties. In regards to the intercontinental playoff, the aim of the amendments is to allow for Wellington-based teams’ staff, volunteers, players and supporters to attend the play-off while enabling all other teams to support the All Whites remotely.

Following the FFA’s announcement of changes to Wellington Phoenix home matches on November 12 and December 3, New Zealand Football has rescheduled its national league matches to avoid clashes and thus enable supporters to watch both matches live on SKY TV.

One match has been rescheduled completely to a later date – the round four ISPS Handa Premiership match between Wellington Phoenix and Canterbury United – while the kick-off times of the other five fixtures in question have all been amended.

For the revised ISPS Handa Premiership draw please click here

For the revised National Women’s League draw please click here

For the revised National Youth League draw please click here

See below for all the changes (in bold).

2017/18 ISPS Handa Premiership

Round 4, Wellington Phoenix vs. Canterbury UnitedGame postponed to weekend of February 10/11Venue and kick-off time TBC

Round 4, Waitakere United  vs. Southern United (Live on SKY Sport)Sunday 12 November, The Trusts Arena2pm

Round 7, Hamilton Wanderers vs Southern United (Live on SKY Sport)Sunday 3 December, Porritt Stadium2pm

National Women’s League

Round 5, Capital Football vs Canterbury United PrideSaturday 11 November, Memorial Park, Petone12pm

National Youth League

Round 4, Team Wellington vs Tasman UnitedSaturday 11 November, Ole Academy12.30pm

Round 4, Waitakere United  vs Southern UnitedSaturday 11 November, Fred Taylor Park2pm