2017 OFC Champions League

2017 OFC Champions League

Tournament details
Host countries	Qualifying stage:  Tonga Group stage:  New Caledonia  New Zealand  Tahiti
Dates	Qualifying stage: 28 January – 3 February 2017 Competition proper: 25 February – 7 May 2017
Teams	Competition proper: 16 Total: 18 (from 11 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Auckland City (9th title)
Runners-up	Team Wellington
Tournament statistics
Matches played	36
Goals scored	161 (4.47 per match)
Attendance	26,100 (725 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ryan De Vries Tom Jackson João Moreira (6 goals each)
Best player	Ángel Berlanga
Best goalkeeper	Eñaut Zubikarai
Fair play award	Auckland City

The 2017 OFC Champions League was the 16th edition of the Oceanian Club Championship, Oceania's premier club football tournament organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and the 11th season under the current OFC Champions League name.

In the final, Auckland City defeated Team Wellington 5–0 on aggregate and won the OFC Champions League seven years in a row and nine times in total, and qualified as the OFC representative at the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.^[1]

Format change

The OFC decided to expand the tournament and change the format for the 2017 edition:^[2]

• The competition consisted of four stages: qualifying stage, group stage, semi-finals, and final.
• For the qualifying stage, like in the previous season, four teams took part in this stage, which included one team each from the four developing associations. The stage was played in round-robin format at a single venue, with the winners and runners-up advancing to the group stage (instead of only the group winners).
• For the group stage, 16 teams took part in this stage (increased from 12 teams), which included two teams each from the seven developed associations, plus the qualifying stage winners and runners-up. They were drawn into four groups of four teams (increased from three groups), where each group was played in round-robin format at a different venue (instead of all groups played at a single venue), with the group winners advancing to the semi-finals.
• For the semi-finals, the four teams were drawn into two ties, which were played in home-and-away format over two legs (instead of a single match).
• For the final, the tie was played in home-and-away format over two legs (instead of a single match).

Teams

A total of 18 teams from all 11 OFC member associations entered the competition.

• The seven developed associations (Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu) were awarded two berths each in the group stage.
• The four developing associations (American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga) were awarded one berth each in the qualifying stage, with the winners and runners-up advancing to the group stage.

Association	Team	Qualifying method
Teams entering the group stage
Fiji	Ba	2016 Fiji National Football League champions
	Rewa	2016 Fiji National Football League runners-up
New Caledonia	Magenta	2015 New Caledonia Super Ligue champions
	Hienghène Sport	2015 New Caledonia Super Ligue runners-up
New Zealand	Team Wellington	2015–16 New Zealand Football Championship grand final champions
	Auckland City	2015–16 New Zealand Football Championship regular season premiers
Papua New Guinea	Lae City Dwellers	2015–16 Papua New Guinea National Champions League runners-up
	Madang	2015–16 Papua New Guinea National Soccer League Northern Zone third place[Note PNG]
Solomon Islands	Marist	2016 Solomon Islands S-League champions
	Western United	2016 Solomon Islands S-League runners-up
Tahiti	Tefana	2015–16 Tahiti Ligue 1 champions
	Central Sport	2015–16 Tahiti Ligue 1 runners-up
Vanuatu	Malampa Revivors	2015 VFF National Super League runners-up
	Erakor Golden Star	2016 Port Vila Top Four Super League winners
Teams entering the qualifying stage
American Samoa	Utulei Youth	2015 FFAS Senior League champions
Cook Islands	Puaikura	2016 Cook Islands Round Cup champions
Samoa	Lupe o le Soaga	2014–15 Samoa National League champions
Tonga	Veitongo	2015 Tonga Major League champions

Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Stage	Host cities	Dates	Matchday	Matches
Qualifying stage	Nukuʻalofa, Tonga	28 January – 3 February 2017	Matchday 1	Team 4 vs. Team 1 Team 2 vs. Team 3
			Matchday 2	Team 1 vs. Team 3 Team 4 vs. Team 2
			Matchday 3	Team 1 vs. Team 2 Team 3 vs. Team 4
Group stage	Group A: Nouméa, New Caledonia Group B: Koné, New Caledonia Group C: Auckland, New Zealand Group D: Pirae, Tahiti	Group A: 25 February – 3 March 2017 Group B: 26 February – 4 March 2017 Group C: 11–18 March 2017 Group D: 11–17 March 2017	Matchday 1	Team 4 vs. Team 1 Team 2 vs. Team 3
			Matchday 2	Team 1 vs. Team 3 Team 4 vs. Team 2
			Matchday 3	Team 1 vs. Team 2 Team 3 vs. Team 4
Semi-finals	No fixed venue (home-and-away)	8–16 April 2017	First leg	Semi-finalist 1 vs. Semi-finalist 2 Semi-finalist 3 vs. Semi-finalist 4
			Second leg	Semi-finalist 2 vs. Semi-finalist 1 Semi-finalist 4 vs. Semi-finalist 3
Final	No fixed venue (home-and-away)	30 April – 7 May 2017	First leg	Finalist 1 vs. Finalist 2
			Second leg	Finalist 2 vs. Finalist 1

Draw

The draw of the qualifying stage and group stage was held on 24 August 2016, 12:30 NZST (UTC+12), at the OFC Headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand.^[5][6][7]

For the qualifying stage, the four teams were drawn into each of the four positions 1–4 to determine the fixtures.

Qualifying stage draw

Pot 1
Lupe o le Soaga Puaikura[note 1] Utulei Youth Veitongo

For the group stage, the 16 teams (14 teams which entered the group stage and two qualifiers from the qualifying stage) were drawn into four groups of four, with each group containing one team from each of the four pots 1–4, which also represented the positions in each group to determine the fixtures. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. The teams were seeded based on the following:

• The teams seeded 1–11 were based on the team results of the 2016 OFC Champions League.
• The teams seeded 12–14 were based on the association results of the 2016 OFC Champions League.
• The teams seeded 15–16 were the qualifying stage winners and runners-up respectively, whose identity were not known at the time of the draw.

Group stage draw

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Auckland City Team Wellington Magenta Tefana	Malampa Revivors[note 1] Madang[note 2] Ba[note 1] Marist[note 1]	Rewa[note 1] Lae City Dwellers Hienghène Sport Central Sport	Erakor Golden Star[note 1] Western United[note 1] Qualifying stage winners Qualifying stage runners-up

Notes

Qualifying stage

In the qualifying stage, the four teams played each other on a round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up advanced to the group stage to join the 14 direct entrants.

Matches were played between 28 January – 3 February 2017 in Tonga. All times were local, TOT (UTC+13).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PUA	LUP	VEI	UTU
1	Puaikura	3	3	0	0	9	2	+7	9	Group stage		—	2–1	—	3–1
2	Lupe o le Soaga	3	1	1	1	6	6	0	4			—	—	1–1	—
3	Veitongo (H)	3	1	1	1	4	6	−2	4			0–4	—	—	3–1
4	Utulei Youth	3	0	0	3	5	10	−5	0			—	3–4	—	—

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Group stage

In the group stage, the four teams in each group played each other on a round-robin basis. The four group winners advanced to the semi-finals.

The hosts of each group were announced on 10 October 2016.^[8] The schedule was confirmed on 17 January 2017.^[9]

Group A

Matches were played between 25 February – 3 March 2017 in New Caledonia. All times were local, NCT (UTC+11).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MAG	CEN	MAD	LUP
1	Magenta (H)	3	3	0	0	11	3	+8	9	Semi-finals		—	4–2	5–0	—
2	Central Sport	3	2	0	1	12	7	+5	6			—	—	—	3–0
3	Madang	3	1	0	2	7	15	−8	3			—	3–7	—	—
4	Lupe o le Soaga	3	0	0	3	4	9	−5	0			1–2	—	3–4	—

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Group B

Matches were played between 26 February – 4 March 2017 in New Caledonia. All times were local, NCT (UTC+11).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		WEL	HIE	BAF	PUA
1	Team Wellington	3	3	0	0	15	2	+13	9	Semi-finals		—	3–1	8–0	—
2	Hienghène Sport (H)	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4			—	—	—	3–1
3	Ba	3	1	1	1	2	9	−7	4			—	1–1	—	—
4	Puaikura	3	0	0	3	2	8	−6	0			1–4	—	0–1	—

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Group C

Matches were played between 11–18 March 2017 in New Zealand. All times were local, NZDT (UTC+13).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AUC	WES	LAE	MAL
1	Auckland City (H)	3	3	0	0	15	1	+14	9	Semi-finals		—	—	2–0	11–0
2	Western United	3	2	0	1	8	6	+2	6			1–2	—	—	2–1
3	Lae City Dwellers	3	1	0	2	8	9	−1	3			—	3–5	—	—
4	Malampa Revivors	3	0	0	3	3	18	−15	0			—	—	2–5	—

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Group D

Matches were played between 11–17 March 2017 in Tahiti. All times were local, TAHT (UTC−10).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		TEF	MAR	ERA	REW
1	Tefana (H)	3	2	1	0	8	4	+4	7	Semi-finals		—	2–2	—	2–0
2	Marist	3	1	1	1	7	6	+1	4			—	—	—	4–2
3	Erakor Golden Star	3	1	0	2	5	7	−2	3			2–4	2–1	—	—
4	Rewa	3	1	0	2	4	7	−3	3			—	—	2–1	—

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, the four teams played on a single-elimination basis, with each tie played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If tied on aggregate, away goals were the first tie-breaker.

The draw for the knockout stage was held on 20 March 2017, 11:30 NZDT (UTC+13), at the OFC Headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand, to decide the matchups and the order of legs of the semi-finals, and the order of legs of the final.^[10][11]

Bracket

	Semi-finals							Final
	Tefana		0	0	0
	Auckland City		2	2	4
								Auckland City		3	2	5
								Team Wellington		0	0	0
	Magenta		2	1	3
	Team Wellington		2	7	9

Semi-finals

Matches were played on 8 and 16 April 2017.^[11]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Tefana	0–4	Auckland City	0–2	0–2
Magenta	3–9	Team Wellington	2–2	1–7

Auckland City won 4–0 on aggregate.

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Team Wellington won 9–3 on aggregate.

Final

Matches were played on the 30 April and 7 May 2017.^[12]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Auckland City	5–0	Team Wellington	3–0	2–0

Auckland City won 5–0 on aggregate.

Top goalscorers

— Team eliminated / inactive for this stage.

Rank	Player	Team	Q	GS	SF	F	Total
1	Ryan De Vries	Auckland City	—	4	0	2	6
	Tom Jackson	Team Wellington	—	4	2	0
	João Moreira	Auckland City	—	3	1	2
4	Guilherme Guedes	Marist	—	5	—	—	5
	Tony Kaltack	Erakor Golden Star	—	5	—	—
	Nicolas Marin	Magenta	—	4	1	—
7	César Castillo	Central Sport	—	4	—	—	4
	Bertrand Kaï	Hienghène Sport	—	4	—	—
9	Suivai Ataga	Lupe o le Soaga	3	0	—	—	3
	Andy Bevin	Team Wellington	—	1	2	0
	Maro Bonsu-Maro	Puaikura	3	0	—	—
	Cherbel Khouchaba	Lupe o le Soaga	0	3	—	—
	Clayton Lewis	Auckland City	—	2	1	0
	Emiliano Tade	Auckland City	—	1	1	1
	Lapalapa Toni	Lupe o le Soaga	2	1	—	—

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.^[13]

Award	Player	Team
Golden Ball	Ángel Berlanga	Auckland City
Golden Boot	João Moreira	Auckland City
Golden Glove	Eñaut Zubikarai	Auckland City
Fair Play Award	—	Auckland City

See also

• 2017 FIFA Club World Cup

References

External links

• 2017 OFC Champions League, oceaniafootball.com
  • Qualifying stage results
  • Competition proper results