Nelson United was a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club, based in the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

city of

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

. Their home ground was

Guppy Park The Wood is a suburb of Nelson, New Zealand. It lies just to the north-east of the city centre and adjoins it. The suburb incorporates Botanical Reserve, a section of Nelson's town belt that includes the trigonometrical geographic centre of Ne ...

History

The team was founded in 1968 through the amalgamation of Nelson Thistle (founded 1924) and Nelson Rangers (founded 1950 as Settlers, name changed in 1959). Nelson United merged with Nelson Metro, Nelson City, and Tahunanui in 2011 to form

FC Nelson FC Nelson is an amateur association football, football club, based in Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson, New Zealand. The club's home ground is Guppy Park History The team was founded in 2011 through the amalgamation of Nelson United AFC, Nelson Uni ...

. United played in the old

New Zealand National Soccer League The New Zealand National League is the name given to the current New Zealand top association football, football competition. Originally set up as the New Zealand National Soccer League there has been many versions of the competition as well as ma ...

's top flight 1976–80, 1983–88, and 1991–92. They were winners of the

1977 Chatham Cup The 1977 Chatham Cup was the 50th annual nationwide knockout football competition in New Zealand. Early stages of the competition were run in three regions (northern, central, and southern), with the National League teams receiving a bye until t ...

, and were finalists in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

. Nelson Rangers had previously reached the semi-finals in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

and

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

References

Association football clubs in Nelson, New Zealand 1968 establishments in New Zealand Association football clubs established in 1968 Association football clubs disestablished in 2011 2011 disestablishments in New Zealand {{NewZealand-footyclub-stub