FCN have just signed a Partnership Agreement with Christchurch United.

This partnership agreement represents a shared commitment between FC Nelson and CUFC to develop football through mutual collaboration, goodwill, and respect. Both parties recognise the value of exchanging knowledge, creating player and coach development opportunities, and building long-term pathways that benefit both organisations. We have entered into this in good faith, with a spirit of partnership, and with the understanding that flexibility and learning will guide its execution. The idea is to start with achievable and realistic collaborations in the first year, with the relationship to build over time with increasing activations as we build our relationship on and off the field.

There are 3 main purposes of the partnership:

Coach Development: 

• Equip coaches from both clubs with shared knowledge, modern training methods, and practical tools to help develop players to their fullest potential.

Player Pathways: 

• Create clear opportunities for players in both clubs to experience different competition environments, gain exposure, and progress to higher levels of the game. 

Club Collaboration: 

• Foster a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship built on trust, open communication, and shared goals.

It will mean access to some valuable coaching development and mentoring type opportunities and sharing of ideas and tools between coaches.

Our Academy teams will benefit from game days with Christchurch United both at home and away, increasing their exposure to teams outside of the region and playing on some excellent turf facilities at CUFC.  

It will also open opportunities for our players who are maybe entering University study to have an opportunity to potentially play for Christchurch United, or for exceptional players wanting to take their footballing journey further and enter a residential footballing programme to potentially be able to do this.

Christchurch United are also awaiting a decision (to be announced next week) on whether they will be one of the 8 clubs chosen (after a very robust process) from around Oceania to be included in the new OFC Pro League that will begin in 2026.

This is fantastic for our club, our coaches and our players.  It will not affect our usual operations, but will provide us with more collaboration, development and pathway opportunities.

We look forward to working with Ryan, Slava and the team!!

Article added: Sunday 24 August 2025