The 2024 Charity Cup was the 20th Charity Cup, an annual football match played between the winners of the previous season's New Zealand National League and Chatham Cup competitions. It took place at Martin Luckie Park on 3 March 2024. This was the first edition since the introduction of the National League in 2021. As the home side, Wellington Olympic selected Heart Kids New Zealand as their charity.
Wellington Olympic won the game 3–0 winning their first Charity Cup. Christchurch United lost for their second time since the inaugural NZFA Challenge Trophy in 1978.
The match was live streamed for free on FIFA+ and New Zealand Football's YouTube channel.
Auckland City were the defending champions, but they did not qualify for this edition, having failed to win either the National League or Chatham Cup.
Background
Wellington Olympic qualified for the 2024 Charity Cup as winners of the 2023 National League, beating Auckland City in the final. As winners of the National League, Wellington Olympic were assigned as the home team.
Christchurch United were the first side to qualify after winning the Chatham Cup on penalties against Melville United to claim their record-equaling seventh title.
Match Summary In the 33rd minute Gavin Hoy headed the ball back across the box for Ben Mata to head Wellington Olympic into the lead. Hamish Watson doubled Wellington's lead in the 50th minute heading the ball past Steven van Dijk. Joel Coustrain sealed the game in the 75th minute with his first touch of the game. Matt Brazier was sent off in the 86th minute for an off the ball incident.
Details
GK 1 Scott BasalajRB 20 Tamupiwa Dimairo CB 5 Justin GulleyCB 15 Ben Mata (c) LB 3 Adam SupykDM 6 Tor Davenport-PetersenLW 26 Kaelin NguyenCM 23 Gavin HoyCM 9 Hamish Watson RW 14 Jack-Henry Sinclair CF 10 Oliver Colloty Substitutes:DF 2 Gabriele Matanisiga DF 18 Luke Tongue MF 25 Joel Coustrain FW 11 Kailan GouldFW 17 Jonty Roubos Manager: Paul Ifill GK 1 Steven van DijkRB 17 Joel Peterson CB 6 Riley GroverCB 4 Kaleb De Groot-GreenLB 3 Michael HornsbyDM 7 Ta Eh DoeRW 11 David Yoo CM 10 Eric Imachi Sugahara CM 20 Daniel Meyn LW 15 Joel Stevens (c)CF 9 Matt BrazierSubstitutes:MF 5 Zachary Bennett MF 8 Waisea Henry MF 18 Thomas Chao MF 21 Rico Pradhan FW 23 Jackson Cole Manager: Ryan Edwards
Assistant referees: Ashton Davenport Cameron Gruschow Fourth official: Chris BennettMatch rules 90 minutes Penalty shoot-out if scores still level Five named substitutes, of which all five may be used in three windows
References
External links New Zealand Football