National League Overview

The National Handball League is part of the NZHF high-performance system and is a key pathway for players who have aspirations of national squad selection, with the exception of players based overseas.. The league will be branded as Handball League Aotearoa (HLA).

The league will consist of two conferences. The North Island Conference and South Island Conference, with the first year’s teams being made up of Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago.

Subsequent years will be opened to more teams that meet the criteria.

The league shall focus on quality over quantity, ultimately with only one game being played by a team in a day. All games to be played on full 40 x 20m courts, with qualified referee pairs that are part of the NZHF refereeing programme.

League Format

HLA will require that each team in each conference plays the other team/s in the same conference 4 times in the regular season, with the intention being that the four games consist of two home and two away games for each team. Teams within each conference are to mutually agree on when and where their four games are to be played.

In addition, each team shall play each team from the other conference twice during the regular season. Resulting in an 8-game regular season.

The first round of the conference cross-over will be held in Christchurch on the weekend of May 4 & 5th and form part of a super camp for all high-performance handballers in NZ.
The second round of the conference cross-over games will be played at the regional finals super weekend.
The final will be played at the Regional Finals super weekend in Christchurch in October.

League Eligibility

The league is open to New Zealand Citizen and international players resident in New Zealand. The intention of the league is for only those with high-performance aspirations to participate, to create the highest quality possible. Therefore, a requirement for teams to have a proper coaching and management structure, along with regular dedicated team training sessions is recommended.
To be eligible to play finals, a player must have played 4 or more regular season games.
Teams within each conference are to mutually agree on when and where their four games are to be played. The intention is that these are played over two weekends, one at home and one away.
Team coaches and managers should select teams with high performance in mind. Players who wish to play socially shall be encouraged to train with a local club and take part in local leagues and the various other club based tournaments.