The announcement comes after months of speculation that any entry by AFC to the Women's A-League would be delayed. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Auckland FC believes now is not the right time to expand the A-League, with their plan to have a women's team delayed by two years.
The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) has announced the club will enter the women's competition in 2027/28, confirming what had been speculated about for months.
Auckland FC originally planned to join the competition in the 2025/26 season - one season after entering their men's debut.
Club chief executive Nick Becker said it knew for months about the delay, but he could not elaborate on why it had taken so long to make the decision known to fans.
"This has gone back and forth for quite a while," he said. "That's really a question the APL needs to answer, but they've clearly been very considered and thought this through.
"The decision they've made has been based on them wanting to have a strategic review of the league and when it's the right time, and they see it as two years away."
APL executive chairman Stephen Conroy said the review of the league would "enable focused investment and ensure sustainable growth".
"Expanding the competition will be a key part of this strategy, but it is important we take into consideration the challenges unique to our women's game, and we expand the league at the right pace and with the right investment to ensure long-term sustainable growth."
Becker said they could only "speculate" about what would change in two years to make the competition more sustainable, but he highlighted commercial partnerships and broadcast agreements as areas the APL could get more money.
"If you look at the macro conditions of both our Australia and New Zealand economies at the moment, now is probably not the greatest time to expand a league of any description," he said. "You look at how soft the broadcast rights market is, you look at the likes of other sports struggling with their broadcast agreements and, right now, the conditions are pretty tough, so in that sense, we can understand the decision."
The delay did not impact Auckland FC's commitment to working with the best young female footballers from across the region, Becker said.
"The biggest benefit [from the delay] for us is that we can start to grow a youth development programme and we can identify some of the best young talent in the girls space, and hopefully go into our first season with a real core of New Zealand players, most of them hopefully from Auckland. We'll have had two years train them and be competitive from the start, which is very much the plan."
The approach to establishing the women's team would be different to the men's team, which joined the competition and won the Premiers Plate in season one.
"It's more from a bottom-up approach versus the launch of the men's team, which was very much from a top-down approach. We see it as an opportunity to grow our young talented girls programmes and have a really strong team."
Auckland FC co-owner Anna Mowbray said: "A delay is unfortunate and goes against what we initially intended when we set up Auckland FC, but it doesn't mean we just sit on our hands and wait.
"We will roll out a series of women's football initiatives, including a new women's football festival, and an ambassador programme to celebrate and promote the women's game in the community.
"As a club, we remain committed to a women's team and determined to make it happen."
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