Central United Football Club

Central Soccer Club came about in 1962, following the efforts of a group of young Dalmatian immigrants.
They gathered together each weekend, seeking support from each other's company, having been subjected to the twin torments of language difficulties and cultural differences at the respective places of employment during the week.
Their passion for football, which remained with them despite having left their homeland, was the key to the club being formed.
Because the club had no junior teams, central played in the lowest senior grade for the first four years of the club's existence, and consequently remained at that level, despite winning the championship on each occasion.

Throughout the 1970s, Central picked up four championships and six second placings, but the continued lack of junior teams within the club meant their efforts weren't recognised by way of promotion to higher grades.
However this situation was to change in the following decade, as Central, now with a junior section to their name, began their meteoric rise to the upper echelons of New Zealand soccer.
They surged up through the Northern League grades rising from Division Four to the Premier League in a five year period from 1984. A hiccup was recorded in 1990, when Central were relegated back to Division One.
One season later, Central proudly displayed the First Division championship in their trophy cabinet. This was followed up with third place in the 1992 Bluebird Northern Premier League, and promotion to the newly-created Winfield Superclub competition for 1993.
In this, they finished fifth a more than satisfactory return from their first campaign amongst the "big boys", and an obvious springboard from which to launch the clubs recent success.