2016 OFC Nations Cup

2016 OFC Nations Cup
Tournament details
Host country  Papua New Guinea
Dates 28 May – 11 June 2016
Teams 8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s) 2 (in 1 host city)

The 2016 OFC Nations Cup will be the 10th edition of the OFC Nations Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Oceania organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The tournament will be played between 28 May and 11 June 2016 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.[1] The winner will qualify for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.

Similar to the previous edition in 2012, the tournament will also double up as the second round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament for the Oceania region. The top six teams of this tournament (i.e. the top three teams of each group in the group stage) will advance to the third round of World Cup qualifying, to be played between March and October 2017, with the winners of the third round proceeding to the inter-confederation play-offs in November 2017.[2][3][4] This means that once again, the team that wins the qualifying competition and advances to the intercontinental play-off may be different from the team that wins the OFC Nations Cup and represents the OFC at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

The defending champions are Tahiti, who won their first title at the 2012 OFC Nations Cup.[5]

Host selection

Tahiti, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand were expected to bid to host the event.[6] On 16 October 2015, OFC President David Chung confirmed that Papua New Guinea was the only member association to present a bid to host the 2016 OFC Nations Cup.[7] The OFC confirmed Papua New Guinea as hosts on 30 October 2015.[1]

Qualification

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from OFC entered the OFC Nations Cup.[8][9] The seven highest ranked teams (based on FIFA World Ranking and sporting reasons) among the 11 OFC entrants automatically qualified.

The 4 teams which competed in the qualification round of the 2012 tournament - American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga - once again competed in a preliminary round. This was a round-robin tournament, held in one location (Tonga).[9] The winners of the tournament, Samoa, qualified to compete alongside the remaining 7 Oceania nations.

Qualified teams

Team Method of
qualification		 Date of
qualification		 Finals
appearance		 Last
appearance		 Previous best
performance		 FIFA ranking
at start of event
 Fiji Automatic 29 March 2014 8th 2012 3rd (1998, 2012)
 New Caledonia Automatic 29 March 2014 6th 2012 2nd (2008, 2012)
 New Zealand Automatic 29 March 2014 10th 2012 Winners (1973, 1998, 2002, 2008)
 Papua New Guinea Automatic 29 March 2014 4th 2012 R1 (1980, 2002, 2012)
 Solomon Islands Automatic 29 March 2014 7th 2012 2nd (2004)
 Tahiti Automatic 29 March 2014 9th 2012 Winners (2012)
 Vanuatu Automatic 29 March 2014 9th 2012 4th (1973, 2000, 2002, 2008)
 Samoa Qualifying winner 4 September 2015 2nd 2012 R1 (2012)

Format

The format of the OFC Nations Cup is as follows:

The OFC have considered different proposals of the 2016 OFC Nations Cup.[9] A previous proposal adopted by the OFC in October 2014 had the eight teams divided into two groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches in the second round, followed by the top two teams of each group advancing to the third round to play in a single group of home-and-away round-robin matches to decide the winner of the 2016 OFC Nations Cup which would both qualify to the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.[10] However, it was later reported in April 2015 that the OFC had reversed its decision, and the 2016 OFC Nations Cup will be played as a one-off tournament similar to the 2012 OFC Nations Cup.[6]

Venues

The tournament will be played in two venues in Port Moresby.[1]

Port Moresby
Sir John Guise Stadium Lloyd Robson Oval (National Football Stadium)
9°26′27″S 147°11′07″E / 9.440893°S 147.185355°E / -9.440893; 147.185355 (Sir John Guise Stadium) 9°28′09″S 147°11′54″E / 9.469158°S 147.19831°E / -9.469158; 147.19831 (National Football Stadium)

Draw

The draw for the 2016 OFC Nations Cup was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.[11]

The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of July 2015 (shown in parentheses).[11][12] The eight teams are seeded into two pots:

Each group contains two teams from Pot 1 and two teams from Pot 2.

Pot 1 Pot 2
  1.  New Zealand (136)
  2.  New Caledonia (167)
  3.  Tahiti (188)
  4.  Solomon Islands (191)
  1.  Vanuatu (197)
  2.  Fiji (199)
  3.  Papua New Guinea (202)
  4.  Samoa (first round winner)

Note: The identity of the first round winner was not known at the time of the draw.

Group stage

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Tahiti 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Qualification to Nations Cup knockout stage
and World Cup qualifying third round		 — 4 Jun 28 May —
1  New Caledonia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — — 31 May —
1  Samoa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Qualification to World Cup qualifying third round — — — 4 Jun
1  Papua New Guinea (H) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 31 May 28 May — —
First match(es) will be played on 28 May 2016. Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Host.

28 May 2016 (2016-05-28)
TBD UTC+10
Papua New Guinea  v  New Caledonia

28 May 2016 (2016-05-28)
TBD UTC+10
Tahiti  v  Samoa

31 May 2016 (2016-05-31)
TBD UTC+10
Papua New Guinea  v  Tahiti

31 May 2016 (2016-05-31)
TBD UTC+10
New Caledonia  v  Samoa

4 June 2016 (2016-06-04)
TBD UTC+10
Samoa  v  Papua New Guinea

4 June 2016 (2016-06-04)
TBD UTC+10
Tahiti  v  New Caledonia

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  New Zealand 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Qualification to Nations Cup knockout stage
and World Cup qualifying third round		 — 5 Jun 29 May —
1  Solomon Islands 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — — 1 Jun —
1  Fiji 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Qualification to World Cup qualifying third round — — — 5 Jun
1  Vanuatu 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Jun 29 May — —
First match(es) will be played on 29 May 2016. Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

29 May 2016 (2016-05-29)
TBD UTC+10
New Zealand  v  Fiji

29 May 2016 (2016-05-29)
TBD UTC+10
Vanuatu  v  Solomon Islands

1 June 2016 (2016-06-01)
TBD UTC+10
Vanuatu  v  New Zealand

1 June 2016 (2016-06-01)
TBD UTC+10
Solomon Islands  v  Fiji

5 June 2016 (2016-06-05)
TBD UTC+10
New Zealand  v  Solomon Islands

5 June 2016 (2016-06-05)
TBD UTC+10
Fiji  v  Vanuatu

Knockout stage

If tied after regulation, extra time and, if necessary, penalty shoot-out would be used to decide the winner.

Bracket

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
8 June – Port Moresby
 
 
Winner Group A
 
11 June – Port Moresby
 
Runner-up Group B
 
Winner Semi-final 1
 
8 June – Port Moresby
 
Winner Semi-final 2
 
Winner Group B
 
 
Runner-up Group A
 

Semi-finals

8 June 2016 (2016-06-08)
TBD UTC+10
Winner Group A v Runner-up Group B

8 June 2016 (2016-06-08)
TBD UTC+10
Winner Group B v Runner-up Group A

Final

11 June 2016 (2016-06-11)
TBD UTC+10
Winner Semi-final 1 v Winner Semi-final 2

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Prestigious honour for Papua New Guinea". Oceania Football Confederation. 29 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Current allocation of FIFA World Cup™ confederation slots maintained". FIFA.com. 30 May 2015.
  3. ↑ "Preliminary competition format outlined". Oceania Football Confederation. July 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Preliminary Draw procedures outlined". fifa.com. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "Tahiti wins 2012 Oceania Nations Cup". Goal.com. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Football: Heat goes on NZ after switch". New Zealand Herald. 12 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "Stakeholders confident moving forward". Oceania Football Confederation. October 16, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Road to Russia with new milestone". FIFA.com. 15 January 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 "OFC Executive Committee decisions". OFC. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "OFC Executive Committee outcomes". Oceania Football Confederation. October 20, 2014.
  11. 1 2 "Draw Procedures – Oceanian Zone" (PDF). FIFA.com.
  12. ↑ "FIFA Men's Ranking – July 2015 (OFC)". FIFA.com. 9 July 2015.
  13. ↑ "Regulations – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia" (PDF). FIFA.com.
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