2016 OFC Nations Cup


2016 OFC Nations Cup


The 2016 OFC Nations Cup was the tenth 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. The winner (New Zealand) qualified for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.

Similar to the previous edition in 2012, the group stage of 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. This meant that once again, the team that won the qualifying competition and advanced to the intercontinental play-off could be different from the team that won the OFC Nations Cup and represented the OFC at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

The defending champions Tahiti, who had won their first title at the 2012 OFC Nations Cup, were eliminated in the group stage.

Host selection

Tahiti, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand were expected to bid to host the event. 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. The OFC confirmed Papua New Guinea as hosts on 30 October 2015.

Teams

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from OFC entered the OFC Nations Cup. 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). The winners of the tournament, Samoa, qualified to compete alongside the remaining 7 Oceania nations.

Qualified teams

Format

The format of the OFC Nations Cup was as follows:

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

The OFC had considered different proposals of the 2016 OFC Nations Cup. 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. 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.

Venues

The tournament was played at a single venue in Port Moresby.

Squads

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Officials

10 referees and 12 assistant referees were named for the tournament.

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.

The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of July 2015 (shown in parentheses). 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.

Group stage

All times are local, UTC+10.

Group A

Group B

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

Winners

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

Broadcasting rights

References

External links

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

Text submitted to CC-BY-SA license. Source: 2016 OFC Nations Cup by Wikipedia (Historical)



 




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