| Competition: | New Zealand National Soccer League |
| Season: | 2001 |
| Winners: | Central United |
| Prevseason: | 2000 |
| Nextseason: | 2002 |
The 2001 New Zealand National Club Championship, also known, due to naming-rights sponsorship, as the Qantas National Club Championship was the second season of a nationwide club competition in New Zealand football. The competition was won by Central United.
The league was played during winter, with matches played from April to September, and was run in two stages. In the first stage, each team in the ten-team league played every other team home and away. In the second stage, the top four teams entered a knockout competition, with third place playing fourth place in one match and first playing second in the other, with home advantage being decided by final league position. The winners of the first against second match progressed straight through to the final; the losers of that match met the winners of the other match to decide the other finalist.[1]
The bonus point system used during the 2000 season was not used for the 2001 and subsequent seasons.
Ten teams took part in the 2001 league. Eight of these remained from the previous season. Nelson Suburbs withdrew from the competition, and Metro were relegated and had to play in a play-off series with the winners of a competition between the northern, central, and southern regional competition winners for a place in the 2001 league. The play-off games between the three regional champions were played at Palmerston North during September 2000; the match between Metro and the winner of this series was played the following month at North Shore as the curtain-raiser to the 2000 league final.[2]
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caversham | 3 – 3 | Havelock North Wanderers | |
| Tauranga City | 1 – 3 | Caversham | |
| Havelock North Wanderers | 1 – 4 | Tauranga City | |
| Metro | 3– 2 | Caversham |
Metro thus retained their league place. Controversially, when Nelson Suburbs withdrew from the league, their place was offered not to Caversham, but to Tauranga City United, a new team formed by the merger of Tauranga City and Mount Maunganui.
Metro again finished last in 2001, but withdrew from the play-off series with the winners of the northern, central, and southern regional leagues.