Oceania Football Confederation

Oceania Football Confederation

Abbreviation	OFC
Formation	15 November 1966
Type	Sports organisation
Headquarters	Auckland, New Zealand
Membership	14 member associations (11 full)
Official language	English
President	David Chung
Website	www.oceaniafootball.com

The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football, consisting of New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, and other Pacific Island countries. It promotes the game in Oceania and allows the member nations to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

OFC is predominantly made up of island nations where association football is not the most popular sport. Consequently, the OFC has little influence in the wider football world, either in terms of international competition or as a source of players for high-profile club competitions. In 2006, the OFC's largest and most successful nation, Australia, left to join the Asian Football Confederation, leaving New Zealand as the largest federation within the OFC.

David Chung is the current President of OFC. Martin Alufurai is the Senior Vice President, Lee Harmon is the Vice-President while Tai Nicholas is the General Secretary.^[1]

Member nations

Current members

OFC is made up of 11 full member associations and 3 associate members.^[2]

Code	Association	National teams	Founded	FIFA affiliation	OFC affiliation	IOC member
ASA	American Samoa^2	(M, W)	1984	1998	1998	Yes
COK	Cook Islands^3	(M, W)	1971	1994	1994	No
FIJ	Fiji	(M, W)	1938	1964	1966	Yes
KIR	Kiribati^1	(M, W)	1980	N/A	2007	No
NCL	New Caledonia^4	(M, W)	1928	2004	2004	No
NZL	New Zealand	(M, W)	1891	1948	1966	Yes
NIU	Niue^1,^3	(M, W)	1960	N/A	2006	No
PNG	Papua New Guinea	(M, W)	1962	1966	1966	Yes
SAM	Samoa	(M, W)	1968	1986	1986	Yes
SOL	Solomon Islands	(M, W)	1979	1988	1988	Yes
TAH	Tahiti (French Polynesia)^4	(M, W)	1989	1990	1990	No
TGA	Tonga	(M, W)	1965	1994	1994	Yes
TUV	Tuvalu^1	(M, W)	1979	N/A	2006	No
VAN	Vanuatu	(M, W)	1934	1988	1988	Yes

1. Associate member of the OFC, but non-FIFA member.
2. Unincorporated territories of the United States.
3. Free Associated state with New Zealand.
4. Collectivity of France.

Former members

• Australia
• Chinese Taipei

Non-members

Other sovereign states in the Pacific Ocean that are not members of the OFC are:

• Marshall Islands (Marshall Islands is the only sovereign nation state which has no recorded national association football team.)
•  F.S. Micronesia
•  Nauru
•  Palau

The Pacific island states of  Guam and the  Northern Mariana Islands compete in the Asian Football Confederation.

History

The confederation formed in 1966 with the following as founding members:

• the Australian Soccer Federation (from 2005: Football Federation Australia)
• New Zealand Soccer (subsequently New Zealand Football)
• the Fiji Football Association
• the Papua New Guinea Football Association

Australia resigned as an OFC member in 1972 to pursue membership with the AFC, but they rejoined in 1978.^[3][4] Chinese Taipei were OFC member from 1975 to 1989. In 1996 FIFA confirmed the OFC as a full confederation and granted it a seat on the FIFA executive.^[5] In 1998 the OFC unveiled a new logo and an official magazine, entitled The Wave. On 24 May 2004, New Caledonia became the 11th member of the OFC. On 1 January 2006, Australia left the OFC again and joined the Asian Football Confederation. In 2008 an associate member, the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, also left OFC and in 2009 joined AFC as a quasi-member. In late 2009 Palau Soccer Association also applied for the same status with AFC.^[6]

Competitions

The winner of the OFC Football World Cup Qualifiers was allowed to compete in a two-legged home-and-away playoff with the team ranked fifth in the South American qualifying competition for a place in the 2006 World Cup. Since 1996, OFC members also play for the OFC Nations Cup, which is held every second year.

The OFC also organises the Oceania Club Championship, a competition that has received surprisingly high levels of media support within New Zealand in its debut season. It serves primarily to determine the Oceania representative at the FIFA Club World Cup. In 2007, the OFC replaced the current club competition with the OFC Champions League which began in 2007. From 2007, the winner has no longer gained direct entry to the FIFA Club World Cup – but instead plays off against the host nation (currently Morocco) champion for the final spot in the tournament. It is not clear whether this is permanent, or even if it could change if the Oceania entrant were to outperform entrants from other Confederations.

Of the confederation's current teams, only New Zealand has ever competed in the FIFA World Cup, competing in the 1982 World Cup and 2010 World Cup. Founding member Australia also competed in the World Cup finals, in 1974 and 2006. At the conclusion of Germany 2006, Australia's exit from the OFC was finalised (exiting formally on the 1 January 2006), being the last commitment of the transition before completely joining the Asian Football Confederation. The other minor exception to this has been the participation of the Solomon Islands in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. The winner of the OFC Cup also receives a berth in the FIFA Confederations Cup. New Zealand and Tahiti are the only current members of the OFC to have participated in this event.

In the 2004 OFC Nations Cup, which doubled as the Oceania qualifying tournament for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the Solomon Islands unexpectedly made the finals after a 2–2 draw with Australia at the last round. This effectively denied New Zealand a place in the third group phase by one group point as Vanuatu had beaten New Zealand 4–2 in an early round upset of the second group phase. Australia won OFC Nation Cup final by beating the Solomons 5–1 in Honiara and 6–0 in Sydney to represent OFC in the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup in Germany. The two teams met again in a two-legged World Cup qualifying final in September 2005 for the right to play the OFC representative for a place in the World Cup finals; Australia won 9–1 on aggregate (7–0 at home and 2–1 away) and progressed to the CONMEBOL–OFC play-off. Australia won this playoff on penalties after a 1–1 aggregate score after both legs of the playoff and after extra time, and qualified for the World Cup.

List of competitions

• OFC Nations Cup
• OFC Champions League replaces the Oceania Club Championship in 2007, winner qualifies for play-off for FIFA Club World Cup
• OFC Champions League preliminary (Include club champions of developing countries – American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, with the winner qualifying to a playoff for a place in the OFC Champions League)^[7][8]
• OFC President's Cup – invitational competition for clubs or under age international sides.
• Melanesian Super Cup – A 3 team tournament established in 2014 between the Champion and the runner-up from Vanuatu and the Champion from the Solomon Islands.
• OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament
• OFC U-20 Championship
• OFC U-17 Championship
• Wantok Cup
• Pacific Games

Female

• OFC Women's Nations Cup
• OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
• OFC U-20 Women's Championship
• OFC U-17 Women's Championship

Futsal

• Oceanian Futsal Championship

Beach soccer

• OFC Beach Soccer Championship

FIFA World Cup qualifiers

Oceania has sent representatives to the FIFA World Cup five times: Australia in 1974, 2006, 2010, and 2014, and New Zealand in 1982 and 2010. However, Australia was not an OFC member in 2010 and 2014 as they moved to AFC after the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Neither Australia in 1974 nor New Zealand in 1982 progressed beyond the first round. In fact, of these six teams, only Australia in 2006 advanced to the second round.

OFC is the only FIFA confederation that does not have a guaranteed spot in the World Cup finals (a major reason for Australia's leaving the confederation in 2006 to join Asia). Between 1966 and 1982, OFC teams joined the Asian zone qualification tournament, while from 1986 onwards, the winners of the Oceanian zone qualification tournament have to enter the intercontinental play-offs against teams from other confederations in order to gain a spot in the FIFA World Cup finals.

Senior OFC teams record

OFC FIFA World Cup record
Year	Qualifier	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA	Format
1930	No teams from Oceania entered
1934
1938
1950
1954
1958
1962
1966	No OFC team qualified									Entered in Africa and Asia.
1970										Entered in Asia.
1974	Australia	Group stage	14th	3	0	1	2	0	5	Entered in Asia.
1978	No OFC team qualified									Entered in Asia.
1982	New Zealand	Group stage	23rd	3	0	0	3	2	12	Entered in Asia.
1986	No OFC team qualified									Round-robin Play-off.
1990										First round Second round Play-off.
1994										1st play-off and 2nd play-off.
1998										Play-off.
2002										Play-off.
2006	Australia[n 1]	Round of 16	16th	4	1	1	2	5	6	Play-off.
2010	New Zealand	Group stage	22nd	3	0	3	0	2	2	Play-off.
2014	No OFC team qualified									Play-off.
2018	To be determined
2022
Total	4/20	Best: Round of 16		13	1	5	7	9	25

1. Australia qualified through OFC qualifying competition however the Football Federation Australia officially left the OFC and joined the AFC on 1 January 2006.

OFC play-off record

1970 AFC–OFC Final Round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Israel	2–1	Australia	1–0	1–1

1974 AFC–OFC Final Round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Australia	2–2^1	South Korea	0–0	2–2

¹ Australia beat South Korea 1–0 in a play-off to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

1986 UEFA–OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Scotland	2–0	Australia	2–0	0–0

1990 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Colombia	1–0	Israel	1–0	0–0

Israel played in the OFC zone for political reasons

1994 CONCACAF–OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Canada	3–3 (P)	Australia	2–1	1–2

1994 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Australia	1–2	Argentina	1–1	0–1

1998 AFC–OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Iran	(A) 3–3	Australia	1–1	2–2

2002 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Australia	1–3	Uruguay	1–0	0–3

2006 CONMEBOL – OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Uruguay	1–1 (P)	Australia	1–0	0–1

2010 AFC–OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bahrain	0–1	New Zealand	0–0	0–1

2014 CONCACAF–OFC play-off

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Mexico	9–3	New Zealand	5–1	4–2

FIFA U-20 World Cup

• See also: Men's U-20 World Cup Qualifiers

FIFA U-17 World Cup

• See also: Men's U-17 World Cup Qualifiers

Women's World Cup Finals

Australia is no longer an OFC member since 2006, when they joined AFC

Team	1991	1995	1999	2003	2007	2011	2015	Total
Australia		GS	GS	GS				3
New Zealand	GS				GS	GS	GS	4

• See also Women's U-20 World Cup Qualifiers
• See also Women's U-17 World Cup Qualifiers

FIFA Confederations Cup

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• GS – Group stage
• Q — Qualified for upcoming tournament
• q — Qualified; tournament in progress
•  ••  — Qualified but withdrew
•  •  — Did not qualify
•  ×  — Did not enter / Withdrew from the OFC Nations Cup or withdrew from the Confederations Cup / Banned
•    — Hosts

Team	1992	1995	1997	1999	2001	2003	2005	2009	2013	2017	2021	Total
Australia	×	×	2nd	•	3rd	•	GS					3
New Zealand	•	•	•	GS	•	GS	•	GS	•			3
Tahiti	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	GS			1
Total	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

National Team rankings

• Last updates:
  • Men's national teams – 1 October 2015 –^[9]
  • Women's national teams – 25 September 2015 –^[10]

Top men's national teams Rankings are calculated by FIFA.				—	Top women's national teams Rankings are calculated by FIFA.
OFC	FIFA	Nation	Points		OFC	FIFA	Nation	Points
1	148	New Zealand	188		1	16	New Zealand	1839
2	162	Samoa	152		2	49	Papua New Guinea	1480
3	164	American Samoa	144		3	85	Fiji	1292
4	166	Cook Islands	132		4	93	Tonga	1258
5	169	New Caledonia	120		5	94	New Caledonia	1252
6	188	Tahiti	60		6	104	Cook Islands	1185
7	189	Fiji	60		7	113	Solomon Islands	1144
8	197	Solomon Islands	33		8	114	Samoa	1138
9	200	Tonga	17		9	148**	Tahiti	1238
10	201	Vanuatu	13				Vanuatu	1139
11	206	Papua New Guinea	4				American Samoa	1075

• * – Provisionally listed due to not having played more than five matches against officially ranked teams
• ** – Inactive for more than 18 months and therefore not ranked

References

1. OFC Executive committee
2. "Member Associations". Oceania Football. Oceania Football Confederation.
3. OFC History oceaniafootball.com
4. "Oceania admit Taiwan and Aussies quit". Reuters, UPI. The Straits Times. 1 March 1976.
5. http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/bodies/congress/history/congress-zurich-1996.html
6. http://www.eaff.com/eanews/release/2009/090905.html
7. "President Chung shares vision with new Executive".
8. "Outcomes of OFC Executive Committee meeting".
9. http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/ofc.html
10. http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/women/ofc.html

See also

• CONMEBOL
• UEFA
• CONCACAF
• Confederation of African Football (CAF)
• Asian Football Confederation (AFC)

External links

• Oceania Football Confederation Official Site
• Oceania Football Confederation, Soccerlens.com. Retrieved: 09/10/2010.