Incorporated Societies Act 2022 and Regulations


The recent introduction of the new Incorporated Societies Act will have an impact on football clubs. This page provides a background of the changes and key links to further information.

Background

The new Incorporated Societies Act was passed into law on 6 April 2022. The new Act intends to make incorporated societies’ governance functions more robust by aligning director duties more closely with those in the Companies Act. Examples of this include introducing officers’ duties and requirements for dispute resolution processes.   

There is a transition period during which incorporated societies will continue to be subject to the 1908 Act until they decide whether they wish to re-register under the 2022 Act or consider alternative options. 

Societies that fail to re-register between October 2023 and April 2026 will cease to be incorporated and will be removed from the Register. 

Re-registration will involve filing a constitution that is compliant with the new Act. 

Please see links below for further information on the changes and how they could impact football clubs:

  • HERE to be directed to the Sport New Zealand information.
  • HERE to be directed to the New Zealand Companies Office information.


Regulations to support the new Act will determine some of the details of the new regime, such as how your society will apply for reregistration and what penalties your society would face if it breached its obligations. Information on the timeframes for when these regulations will be released can be found HERE on the New Zealand Companies Office website


What New Zealand Football will be doing?

We are expecting the regulations to be published in September 2023. Once the Regulations are released and reviewed, New Zealand Football will provide support for federations and football clubs to work through the changes to the Incorporated Societies Act, including:

  • Develop and provide a series of educational webinars to onboard the football system to the changes.
  • Develop a constitution and other relevant templates to support federations and clubs through the reregistration process during the transition period (October 2023 to April 2026).