Virtus Entella

It was founded in 1891, as the New Zealand Football Association and became officially affiliated with FIFA in 1948. For a period the organisation was known as New Zealand Soccer. In May 2007, it was renamed New Zealand Football (NZF), replacing the word "soccer" with "football" in line with the common usage as for sometime football had been referred to as soccer in New Zealand.

New Zealand was admitted as a member of the Asian Football Confederation in 1964, but it lost membership later. New Zealand with Australia eventually formed the Oceania Football Federation (now Oceania Football Confederation) in 1966.

In September 2007, the New Zealand female football teams were re-branded. The women's national team changed its name from "SWANZ" to "Football Ferns", the female under-20 team to the "Junior Football Ferns" and the under-17 team became the "Young Football Ferns"

In the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, New Zealand achieved their best result in their team's history when they had a 1–1 draw with reigning World champions Italy. Shane Smeltz scored in the 7th minute marking the first time New Zealand had ever led a match at the World Cup. They went on to become the only unbeaten team in the tournament.

Moving to South American confederation

In January 2013, members of the FIFA Executive Committee met in a private meeting convened by Joseph Blatter to discuss the possibilities of moving the New Zealand Football Federation to the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) in order to enhance the sport in the country. After the meeting, Blatter said the idea was "ratified" but needed some adjustments. This fact provided the New Zealand success in the idea of movement, requiring only a formal request by the association.

But in June, the chief executive of the New Zealand Federation, Andy Martin, said his administration has no plans to promote the New Zealand Football to high-level competitions for now, meaning that New Zealand should remain in the weak Oceania Football Confederation.

International stage

In recent time, New Zealand Football has enjoyed good success on the international stage. The All Whites overcame Papua New Guinea in the OFC Nations Cup Final by winning 4–2 on penalties in the final. It was their fifth title in the OFC Nations Cup and it secured their place in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.

In 2015, the Football Ferns reached their highest ever ranking (16), beating Brazil for the second time and qualifying for the Rio Olympics. The Men's U-20 and U-17 sides qualified out of their groups at their respective FIFA World Cup tournaments in 2015. New Zealand were one of only five countries in the same cycle to achieve this. The remaining four were Germany, Brazil, Mali and Nigeria

New Zealand co-hosted the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup alongside Australia, becoming the first ever senior FIFA event in New Zealand, the first Women's World Cup to be hosted in multiple countries, and only the second World Cup tournament to do so, following the 2002 Men's FIFA World Cup. It was also the first FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first senior FIFA tournament to be held in the Oceania Confederation, and the first FIFA tournament to be hosted across multiple confederations (with Australia in the AFC and New Zealand in the OFC).