The 2018 OFC U-19 Championship was the 22nd edition of the OFC U-19/U-20 Championship, the biennial international youth

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

championship organised by the

Oceania Football Confederation The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football. The OFC has 13 members, 11 of which are full members and two which are associate members not affiliated with FIFA. It ...

(OFC) for the men's under-19/under-20 national teams of Oceania. The qualifying stage was held in the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

between 26 May – 1 June 2018, and the final tournament was held in

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

between 5–18 August 2018. Before the tournament in 2016, the age limit was reduced by a year to 19 years of age. However, the last tournament remained the name U-20 Championship. For this tournament, the name has changed to U-19 Championship. So, players who wanted to participate in the tournament needed to be born on or after 1 January 1999. At an OFC Executive Committee meeting held at its

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

headquarters in November 2013 the competition format was modified. The competition was brought forward a year and the age limit was lowered to 19 years of age. The changes were made in order to allow the winner of the competition plenty of time for preparation and player development for upcoming World Cups at Under 20 level. In March 2015, FIFA decided that the OFC gets two slots at every FIFA U-20 and U-17 World Cup. So, the top two teams of the tournament qualified for the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

as the OFC representatives.

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, the defending champions, won the title for the seventh time, and qualified together with runners-up

Format

The tournament structure was as follows: *Qualifying stage: The four teams from the "developing associations" (

American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

and

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

) played in the qualifying stage. The winner of the

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...

qualify for the final tournament. *Final tournament: A total of eight teams (

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

, and the qualifying stage winner) played in the final tournament. For the group stage, they were divided into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group advance to the knockout stage (semi-finals and final) to decide the winner of the OFC U-19 Championship and the two teams that qualify for the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

. The draw for the tournament was held on 2 February 2018 at the OFC Headquarters in

. In both the qualifying stage and the final tournament, the hosts (Cook Islands and Tahiti) were assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the remaining teams were drawn into the other positions without any seeding.

Teams

All 11

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

-affiliated national teams from the OFC entered the tournament. ''Note: All appearance statistics include those in the qualifying stage (since 2016).''

Venues

The hosts of the qualifying stage and final tournament were announced by OFC on 31 October 2017. *The qualifying stage was played at the CIFA Academy Field in

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings a ...

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

. *The final tournament was played at the

Stade Pater Stade Pater is a multi-use stadium in Pirae, Tahiti, in French Polynesia, France. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 11,700. References Football venues in French Polynesia Athletics (track and field) venues ...

and Stade Fautaua in

Pirae Pīra'e is a commune in the suburbs of Pape'ete in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. Pīra'e is located on the island of Tahiti, in the administrative subdivision of the Windward Islands, themselves part ...

. After two Group B matches were played at Stade Fautaua on 6 August, it was announced on 8 August that the remaining Group B matches would be moved to Stade Pater due to the floodlights being deemed less than optimal. However, it was announced on 10 August 2018 that after heavy rain caused the pitch of Stade Pater to deteriorate, the last two Group A and Group B matches on 11 and 12 August would be moved to Stade Fautaua with earlier kick-off times (12:00 and 15:00 instead of 15:00 and 18:00).

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1999 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team can name a maximum of 20 players.

Qualifying stage

The winner advance to the final tournament (group stage). All times are local, CKT ( UTC−10). ---- ----

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals. All times are local, TAHT ( UTC−10).

Group A

---- ----

Group B

---- ----

Knockout stage

Bracket

Semi-finals

Winners qualify for

. ----

Third place match

Final

Winners

Goalscorers

In the qualifying stage In the final tournament In total,

Awards

The ''Golden Ball Award'' was awarded to the most outstanding player of the tournament. The ''Golden Glove Award'' was awarded to the best goalkeeper of the tournament. The ''Golden Boot Award'' was awarded to the top scorer of the tournament. The ''Fair Play Award'' was awarded to the team with the best disciplinary record at the tournament.

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following two teams from OFC qualified for the

. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

Notes

References

External links

2018 OFC U-19 Championship
oceaniafootball.com
News > 2018 OFC U-19 Championship
, oceaniafootball.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Ofc U-19 Championship 2018

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2017–18 in OFC football 2018–19 in OFC football 2018 in Cook Islands sport 2018 in French Polynesian sport 2018 Ofc U-19 Championship 2018 Ofc U-19 Championship May 2018 sports events in Oceania June 2018 sports events in Oceania August 2018 sports events in Oceania 2018 in youth association football 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup qualification