1982 New Zealand National Soccer League

The 1982 New Zealand National Soccer League was the 13th season of a nationwide round-robin club competition in New Zealand football. Mount Wellington comfortably won the league for a fifth time, finishing seven points clear of second-placed Hanimex North Shore United. This was the last season in which a win scored two points; from 1983 wins were worth three points.

Promotion was automatic, with the three lowest placed sides in the 1981 league (Takapuna City, Woolston WMC, and Rangers) replaced by the winners of the northern, central, and southern leagues (East Coast Bays, Napier City Rovers, and Invercargill Thistle respectively).

The league's top five positions were filled by the same teams which had finished in the top five in the 1981 league, though those five teams finished in a different order. The league overall was marked by a high proportion of drawn games (39 out of 132 fixtures), and was severely disrupted by New Zealand's participation in the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain.

Mount Wellington comfortably finished top, remaining undefeated at home and only losing one away game. The Mount's Keith Nelson was the league's top scorer with 15 goals, the fourth time he had achieved that feat. Seven points back were Hanimex North Shore United, who had remarkably different home and away records. They won 10 of their 11 home games, but only won one on the road, drawing seven. Dunedin City held on to third place from Gisborne City. The Dunedinites' season was marked with a large number of low-scoring games, over half of their matches finishing either 1–0 or 1–1. As in the 1981 season, Gisborne were badly affected by the World Cup, which left it with a severe backlog of games. Despite this, they still managed to finish fourth.

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