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)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (5th title)
Runners-up	Papua New Guinea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	48 (3.2 per match)
Attendance	41,996 (2,800 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Raymond Gunemba (5 goals)
Best player	David Muta
Best goalkeeper	Stefan Marinovic
Fair play award	New Caledonia

The 2016 OFC Nations Cup was 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 was played between 28 May and 11 June 2016 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.^[1] The winner (New Zealand) qualified for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.

Similar to the previous edition in 2012, the tournament also doubled 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) advanced 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 Tahiti, who had won their first title at the 2012 OFC Nations Cup,^[5] were eliminated in the Group Stage.

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[10]
Fiji	Automatic	01 !29 March 2014	8 !8th	2012	3 !3rd (1998, 2008)	183
New Caledonia	Automatic	01 !29 March 2014	6 !6th	2012	2 !2nd (2008, 2012)	191
New Zealand	Automatic	01 !29 March 2014	10 !10th	2012	1 !Winners (1973, 1998, 2002, 2008)	161
Papua New Guinea	Automatic	01 !29 March 2014	4 !4th	2012	5 !R1 (1980, 2002, 2012)	198
Solomon Islands	Automatic	01 !29 March 2014	7 !7th	2012	2 !2nd (2004)	192
Tahiti	Automatic	01 !29 March 2014	9 !9th	2012	1 !Winners (2012)	196
Vanuatu	Automatic	01 !29 March 2014	9 !9th	2012	4 !4th (1973, 2000, 2002, 2008)	181
Samoa	Qualifying winner	02 !4 September 2015	2 !2nd	2012	5 !R1 (2012)	170

Format

The format of the OFC Nations Cup is as follows:

• Group stage: The eight teams are divided into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group will advance to the knockout stage. Moreover, the top three teams of each group advance to the third round of 2018 World Cup qualifying.
• Knockout stage: The four teams play a single-elimination tournament (semi-finals and final) to decide the champions of the OFC Nations Cup.

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.^[11] 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 was played at a single venue in Port Moresby.

Port Moresby
Sir John Guise Stadium
9°26′27″S 147°11′07″E / 9.440893°S 147.185355°E / -9.440893; 147.185355 (Sir John Guise Stadium)

Squads

Officials

10 referees and 12 assistant referees were named for the tournament.^[12]

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.^[13][14]

The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of July 2015 (shown in parentheses).^[13][15] The eight teams were seeded into two pots:

• Pot 1 contained the direct qualifiers ranked 1–4.
• Pot 2 contained the direct qualifiers ranked 5–7 and the first round winner.

Each group contained two teams from Pot 1 and two teams from Pot 2. As the draw was held before the first round was played, the identity of the first round winner was not known at the time of the draw. The fixtures of each group were decided based on the draw position of each team (teams in Pot 1 drawn to position 1 or 2, teams in Pot 2 drawn to position 3 or 4).

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the World Cup qualifying third round.

Pot 1	Pot 2
New Zealand (136)  New Caledonia (167)  Tahiti (188)  Solomon Islands (191)	Vanuatu (197)  Fiji (199)  Papua New Guinea (202)  Samoa (198) (first round winner)

Group stage

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tiebreakers

In league format, the ranking of teams in each group is based on the following criteria (regulations Articles 20.6 and 20.7):[16] Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss) Goal difference Goals scored Points in matches between tied teams Goal difference in matches between tied teams Goals scored in matches between tied teams Away goals scored in matches between tied teams (if the tie is only between two teams in home-and-away league format) Fair play points first yellow card: minus 1 point indirect red card (second yellow card): minus 3 points direct red card: minus 4 points yellow card and direct red card: minus 5 points Drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee

All times are local, UTC+10.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Papua New Guinea (H)	3	1	2	0	11	3	+8	5	Qualification to Nations Cup knockout stage and World Cup qualifying third round
2	New Caledonia	3	1	2	0	9	2	+7	5
3	Tahiti	3	1	2	0	7	3	+4	5	Qualification to World Cup qualifying third round
4	Samoa	3	0	0	3	0	19	−19	0

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	New Zealand	3	3	0	0	9	1	+8	9	Qualification to Nations Cup knockout stage and World Cup qualifying third round
2	Solomon Islands	3	1	0	2	1	2	−1	3
3	Fiji	3	1	0	2	4	6	−2	3	Qualification to World Cup qualifying third round
4	Vanuatu	3	1	0	2	3	8	−5	3

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Knockout stage

If tied after regulation, extra time and, if necessary, penalty shoot-out would be used to decide the winner. All times are local, UTC+10.

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	8 June — Port Moresby
	New Zealand	1
					11 June — Port Moresby
	New Caledonia	0
					New Zealand (pen.)	0 (4)
	8 June — Port Moresby
					Papua New Guinea	0 (2)
	Papua New Guinea	2
	Solomon Islands	1

Semi-finals

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Final

Goalscorers

There were 48 goals scored in 15 matches, for an average of 3.2 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Awards

Award[17]	Player	Team
Golden Ball	David Muta	Papua New Guinea
Golden Boot	Raymond Gunemba	Papua New Guinea
Golden Gloves	Stefan Marinovic	New Zealand
Fair Play Award	—	New Caledonia

Broadcasting rights

Country	Broadcaster	Ref.
OFC	OFC TV	[18]
Asia Pacific	Fox Sports
South Asia	Star Sports
European Union	Eurosport
Australia	SBS	[19]
Fiji	FBC TV	[20]
French Polynesia	Tahiti Nui TV	[19]
New Caledonia	Nouvelle-Calédonie 1re	[19]
New Zealand	Sky Sport	[19]
Papua New Guinea	EM TV	[19]
Samoa	TV1 Samoa	[19]
Solomon Islands	Telekom Television	[19]
Vanuatu	Television Blong Vanuatu	[19]

References

External links

• Official FIFA World Cup website
  • Qualifiers – Oceania: Round 2, FIFA.com
• OFC Nations Cup, oceaniafootball.com