1970 New Zealand National Soccer League
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| Season | 1970 |
|---|---|
| Champions | Blockhouse Bay |
1971 → | |
The 1970 New Zealand National Soccer League was the inaugural season of a nationwide round-robin club competition in New Zealand football. The league's initial sponsors were Rothmans (NZ) Ltd, and the league was thus commonly known as the Rothmans National League. Rothmans retained naming sponsorship rights until 1987 when Air New Zealand took over as principal sponsor.[1]: 83
Plans for a national league had been drawn up in 1963 after increasing calls for such a competition from the late 1950s onwards. Plans were delayed by a full programme of overseas games for the NZFA during 1964, but moves towards a viable national league were put in place with the introduction of three regional leagues for the northern, central, and southern regions of the country in 1968. It was the final standing in these leagues in the 1969 season which were to provide the eight teams to compete in the 1970 national league, with four teams from the Central league, three from the Northern League, and one from the Southern League granted national league spots.[1]: 82–83 The qualifying sides were as follows:
- Northern League
- Mount Wellington (Auckland)
- Eastern Suburbs (Auckland)
- Blockhouse Bay (Auckland)
- Central League
- Western Suburbs FC (Porirua)
- Stop Out (Lower Hutt)
- Gisborne City (Gisborne)
- Hungaria (Wellington)
- Southern League
- Christchurch United (Christchurch)