The New Zealand Football Championship (known as the ASB Premiership from 2011 for sponsorship reasons) is the national association football league in New Zealand. It is a professional/semi-professional status Association football (soccer) sports Franchise league that is operated by New Zealand Football. The league is run separately from the New Zealand Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Premier and the other Winter Regional club competitions, and many of the teams competing are Franchises jointly run by Winter clubs. The Premiership does not include the Wellington Phoenix who play in the Australasian A-League. It is currently sponsored by ASB Bank.