For the Oceania Football Confederation

Building football
in the South.

Christchurch United Football Club · South Island United

Ōtautahi Christchurch · Aotearoa New ZealandNovember 2026

Who we are

One club. Every way into football.

Christchurch United runs the whole journey under one roof, from a four-year-old's first touch to a professional contract in the OFC Pro League.

South Island United

OFC Pro League. The South Island's first professional club.

Christchurch United

New Zealand National League, and the club behind it all.

Academy U4–U20

FUNiño, Pre-Academy and Academy. One pathway.

Community

Mini Football Leagues, the Christchurch International Cup, holiday camps, schools.

Plus United Sports Centre · United Gymnastics · United Prints

Our own facility

United Sports Centre.

Twenty hectares the club owns in Christchurch, being built into a multi-sport precinct.

20 haof club-owned land

2full-size artificial pitches, plus cages and grass

1new gymnastics building, plus player residences

Where it starts · U4–U8

The first touch matters most.

FUNiño is our programme for four to eight year olds: small games, lots of touches, every child playing.

300children in Terms 1–3 2026, up 29% on 2025

7 in 10of this year's U9 academy players came through it

With Tom Byer

Football Starts at Home.

A three-year partnership with Tom Byer, whose early-years method has reached half a million children across Asia: one child, one ball, and parents as the first coaches.

We take it into homes, early learning centres and schools across the South Island through Football in Schools.

Partnership started June 2026 · Tom Byer's first South Island visit this year

The pathway

From first touch to professional.

01

Home & school

Football Starts at Home, Football in Schools.

02

FUNiño U4–U8

300 children a year and growing.

03

Pre-Academy U9–U12

Training groups by age, individual plans for every player.

04

Academy U13–U20

Five competitive teams, U13 to U20.

05

CUFC → SIU

National League, then the OFC Pro League.

335 young players in our academy programmes in 2026, each with their own development plan.

Football for everyone

Mini Football Leagues.

Social 5-a-side and 7-a-side leagues every school term, for adults who never stopped loving the game. A youth league for kids who just want to play.

60teams in Term 4 2026

100+teams: where we are taking it

Every July since 2016

The Christchurch International Cup.

One of New Zealand's largest youth tournaments, eleven years running, with around sixteen teams in every age group. Plus the CIC Summer 7s in January and the Christchurch Ethnic Cup.

OFC Pro League · Season One

Played everywhere but home.

South Island United is the South Island's first professional club. In Season One we played in Auckland, Papua New Guinea, Melbourne, Honiara and Fiji.

Next, we want to bring the league to Christchurch.

Uniting the South

A club for the whole island.

South Island United belongs to every town, not just Christchurch. We want to work with the island's clubs, not compete with them.

Regional camps

Queenstown first: 21–23 December in Arrowtown, with SIU players coaching.

Coaches and schools

Sharing our coaching method and Football in Schools with clubs in other regions.

What we could do together

Ideas for Oceania.

Starting points for a conversation, not finished plans.

Idea 01

Bring the islands to the Cup.

Youth teams from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, PNG and beyond playing at the Christchurch International Cup every July.

Real match minutes against New Zealand clubs for young island players, and a yearly Oceania youth gathering in Christchurch.

Idea 02

An Oceania road to the Messi Cup.

The Messi Cup brings 16 of the world's best U16 academies to Miami each year. This year's field came from nine countries on three continents. Oceania wasn't one of them.

01

An Oceania U16 event

Hosted in Christchurch, open to the region's best club academies.

02

The winner goes

The champion represents Oceania at the Messi Cup, subject to the organisers.

03

OFC's name on it

Run with the Confederation, so it is Oceania's pathway, not one club's.

Messi Cup 2026 · Miami · 25 Oct – 1 Nov · Palmeiras beat River Plate 1–0 in the final

Ideas 03 & 04

The Pro League in the South.

A final in Christchurch

Te Kaha opened in 2026: 30,000 seats under a fixed roof, so the weather can't wash out a final. A Christchurch round or the Pro League final would bring the league to the South Island for the first time.

Queenstown × OFC

One of the world's best-known destinations as a pre-season base, a camp venue and a showcase for Oceania football, alongside our regional camps there.

Idea 05 · The bigger picture

A mini stadium at our own ground.

A compact, affordable stadium on land we already own: a home for South Island United, the Cup and the community, used every day of the week.

A model other Oceania clubs could copy, and part of a multi-sport precinct with gymnastics and more.

Thank you

Let's grow Oceania football together.