New Zealand women's national football team

The **New Zealand women's national football team**, which FIFA calls Aotearoa New Zealand and is looked after by New Zealand Football (NZF). The New Zealand national team has played in the FIFA Women's World Cup six times. They first played in the world cup for the first time in 1991. In 2023, New Zealand and Australia together hosted the World Cup. However, they have never gone further than the group stage in any of the tournaments.

## History

In 1975, the New Zealand Women's Soccer Association was started. They were asked to join the Asian Women's Championship that year and they won. After that, they played in the Oceanic Championship.

When Australia left the OFC, New Zealand didn't have strong competitors in Oceania. This made it easier for New Zealand to qualify for the World Cup and Olympics. They've been in every edition of both tournaments since 2007.

### 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

In 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, New Zealand co-hosted the FIFA Women's World Cup with Australia. They were given the opportunity on 25 June 2020 because they were more likely to win than the other candidate, Colombia. The Football Ferns got to be in the tournament automatically as co-hosts. They won their first match against Norway, but surprisingly lost to newcomers Philippines. Later, they tied with Switzerland in their final match and were knocked out. This was the first time the hosts were knocked out in the group stage. They only managed to score one goal during the tournament.

## Infobox (national football team)

- **type**: women
- **name**: New Zealand
- **badge size**: 190px
- **nickname**: Football Ferns
- **association**: New Zealand Football
- **confederation**: Oceania Football Confederation, OFC (Oceania)
- **coach**: Jitka Klimková
- **captain**: Ali Riley
- **most caps**: Ria Percival (163)
- **top scorer**: Amber Hearn (List of international goals scored by Amber Hearn, 54)
- **fifa trigramme**: NZL
- **fifa max**: 16
- **fifa max date**: December 2013, July 2015 – March 2016
- **fifa min**: 26
- **fifa min date**: June – August 2023
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- **first game**: 2–0
(Hong Kong; 25 August 1975)
- **largest win**: 21–0
(Auckland, New Zealand; 9 October 1998)
- **largest loss**: 11–0
(Brisbane, Australia; 24 February 2004)
- **world cup apps**: 6
- **world cup first**: 1991
- **world cup best**: Group stage (1991 FIFA Women's World Cup, 1991, 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, 2007, 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, 2011, 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, 2015, 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, 2019, 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, 2023)
- **regional name**: OFC Women's Nations Cup
- **regional cup apps**: 11
- **regional cup first**: 1983 OFC Women's Championship, 1983
- **regional cup best**: Champions (1983 OFC Women's Championship, 1983, 1991 OFC Women's Championship, 1991, 2007 OFC Women's Championship, 2007, 2010 OFC Women's Championship, 2010, 2014 OFC Women's Nations Cup, 2014, 2018 OFC Women's Nations Cup, 2018)
- **2ndregional name**: Football at the Summer Olympics, Summer Olympics
- **2ndregional cup apps**: 4
- **2ndregional cup first**: Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008
- **2ndregional cup best**: 8th (Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012)