Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Oceania Football Confederation

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Abbreviation
  
OFC

President
  
David Chung

Official language
  
English language

Founded
  
15 November 1966

Headquarters
  
Auckland, New Zealand

Type of business
  
Sports organisation

Oceania Football Confederation httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Formation
  
1966; 51 years ago (1966)

Membership
  
14 member associations (11 full)

Website
  
www.oceaniafootball.com

Teams
  
New Zealand national f, New Caledonia national f, Solomon Islands national f, Tahiti national football te, Papua New Guinea n

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

Contents

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. Rajesh Patel is the Senior Vice President, Lee Harmon is the Vice-President while Tai Nicholas is the General Secretary.

Current members

OFC is made up of 11 full member associations and 3 associate members.

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 (1966–1972, 1978–2006)
  • Chinese Taipei (1967–1989)
  • Though Israel played in some OFC competitions in the 1970s to 1980s they were not a member of the OFC.

    Non-members

    Other sovereign states and dependencies 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 (no football team)
  •  Palau
  •  Tokelau
  •  Wallis and Futuna
  •  Norfolk Island
  •  Pitcairn Islands (no football team)
  •  Easter Island (formally part of Chile)
  • The Pacific Island U.S. territories of  Guam and the  Northern Mariana Islands compete as members of 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. Chinese Taipei were an 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. 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 the OFC and in 2009 joined the AFC as a quasi-member. In late 2009 the Palau Soccer Association also applied for the same status with the AFC.

    Competitions

    The winner of the OFC Football World Cup Qualifiers will 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 2018 World Cup. Since 1996, OFC members also play for the OFC Nations Cup, which was held every second year, but now every fourth 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's 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 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 in 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 the OFC Nation Cup final by beating the Solomons 5–1 in Honiara and 6–0 in Sydney to represent the 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.

    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 the 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.

    The 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.

    OFC play-off record

    1970 AFC–OFC Final Round

    1974 AFC–OFC Final Round

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

    1986 UEFA–OFC play-off

    1990 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off

    Israel played in the OFC zone for political reasons.

    1994 CONCACAF–OFC play-off

    1994 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off

    1998 AFC–OFC play-off

    2002 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off

    2006 CONMEBOL – OFC play-off

    2010 AFC–OFC play-off

    2014 CONCACAF–OFC play-off

    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 the AFC.

  • 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
  • FIFA Futsal World Cup

    Legend
  • 1st — Champions
  • 2nd — Runners-up
  • 3rd — Third place
  • 4th — Fourth place
  • QF — Quarterfinals
  • R2 — Round 2 (1989–2008, second group stage, top 8; 2012–present: knockout round of 16)
  • R1 — Round 1
  • Q — Qualified for upcoming tournament
  •    — Hosts
  • FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

    Legend
  • 1st — Champions
  • 2nd — Runners-up
  • 3rd — Third place
  • 4th — Fourth place
  • QF — Quarterfinals (1999–2001, 2004–present)
  • R1 — Round 1
  • q — Qualified for upcoming tournament
  •  ••  — Qualified but withdrew
  •  •  — Did not qualify
  •     — Hosts
  • National Team rankings

  • Last updates:
  • Men's national teams – 14 July 2016 –
  • Women's national teams – 24 June 2016 –
  • * – 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

    Oceania Football Confederation Wikipedia