The club was formed in 1999 when it joined the National Soccer League (NSL) as Football Kingz and were based in Auckland. They went on to become founder members of the A-League before their licence was revoked and they were effectively kicked out of the competition at the end of Season 2 2006-07.

The Football Kingz F.C. joined the Australian National Soccer League in 1999 and proceeded to play in the last 5 seasons of the NSL. They were placed 8th of 16 in the 1999-2000 season, 8th of 14 in 2000-01, 13th of 13 in 2001-02, 11th of 13 in 2002-03 and 13th of 13 in 2003-04.

Football Kingz F.C. then had a name change into New Zealand Knights as a new restructured franchise for Australia's new national football competition called the Hyundai A-League, this was based on a Market Research study.

Despite having a squad boasting several players with extensive experience in English football, albeit lower leagues, many pundits did not rate the Knights as serious contenders for the A-League title, and they were considered favourites for the wooden spoon. These predictions turned out to be true, with the New Zealand Knights proving to be terribly out of their depth in their debut A-League season.

In late October 2006, as a result of low crowd attendance at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland and continual poor on-field performances, rumours began to circulate that the Football Federation Australia was considering the possibility of revoking the Knights' A-League licence and granting it to a new team that would be set to enter the competition in the 2007-08 season. Late on 14 December, the FFA announced that it had revoked the competition licence held by the Knights' owners. An arrangement with NZ Soccer would see the national body step in to manage the club for the remaining five weeks of the regular season.

Effectively, the Knights dissolved on 21 January, when the final match of the season was played against Perth Glory. On March 19, 2007 Wellington Phoenix was selected as the successor to the New Zealand Knights.