Wellington Phoenix want to enter a team in the local New Zealand Championship. At present they are the only A-League club who do not have a team in the newly-created Youth League and are desperate to have a reserve team to help build depth.

"We definitely need a second team and if we can't play in the [A-League] youth competition then the NZFC would be a good option," Wellington chief executive Tony Pignata told the NZ Herald.

"The FFA (Football Federation Australia) would be happy for us to play in a local competition and it would be a lot cheaper to play locally rather than fly to Australia every second week.

"If we were granted a place, we would be happy to waive any right to play in the O-League if we won the league. We have a squad of 23 so every week six or seven miss out - it would be a good chance to give them game time."