The 2018 OFC U-16 Championship was the 18th edition of the OFC U-16/U-17 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-16/under-17 national teams of Oceania. The qualifying stage was held in

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 ...

between 14 and 20 July 2018, and the final tournament was held in the

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 ...

between 9–22 September 2018. Before the last tournament the age limit was reduced by a year to 16 years of age. However the last tournament remained the name U-17 Championship. For this tournament, the name has changed to U-16 Championship. So players who want to participate in the tournament needed to be born on or after 1 January 2002. 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 16 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 17 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-17 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 18th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

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 eighth time, and qualified together with runners-up

Format

The tournament structure is 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

) play 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 ...

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 ...

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) play in the final tournament. For the group stage, they are 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-16 Championship and the two teams that qualify for the

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fédération ...

. 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 (Tonga and Solomon Islands) 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 2017).''

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

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre The Loto-Tonga Soka Centre is a Association football, football facility in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga. It was funded by FIFA through the world football body's Goal Programme and was opened in 2001. It hosted matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification ...

Nukuʻalofa Nukualofa (; ) is the capital and largest city of Tonga. It is located on the north coast of the island of Tongatapu, in the country's southernmost island group. History First western records of Nukualofa On 10 June 1777, British captain James ...

. *The final tournament was played at the

Lawson Tama Stadium Lawson Tama Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Honiara, Solomon Islands. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium is unique as the stand is built into the hillside so there is no official capacity but no more than 20,000 ...

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and lie ...

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2002 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, TOT (

UTC+13 UTC+13:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +13:00. Because it does not contain any land in the Northern Hemisphere, this time zone is exclusive to the Southern Hemisphere. As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Apia, ...

). ---- ----

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals. All times are local, SBT (

UTC+11 UTC+11:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +11:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Nouméa, Magadan, Honiara, Port Vila, Palikir, Weno, Buka, Arawa '' North Asia *Russia – Magadan ...

Group A

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

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 World Cup

The following two teams from OFC qualify for the

. :

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

Age fraud controversy

The

, which originally finished second, were found by the OFC to have deliberately fielded overage player Chris Satu during the tournament and would forfeit all results and their place in the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup. The decision was reviewed under appeal from the

Solomon Islands Football Federation The Solomon Islands Football Federation is a member of the Oceania Football Confederation. The Solomon Islands national football team made history when they made it to the final Oceania stages of the 2006 World Cup Qualification against Australia ...

. The OFC Executive Committee announced on 3 May 2019 that Solomon Islands would keep their spot for the FIFA U-17 World Cup on the grounds that the federation had not knowingly broken the rules as Satu had a government issued passport showing his eligibility. On 11 December 2019, it was found that Solomon Islands' player Maxwell Keana played in five games with a "false birth certificate and passport to improperly seek eligibility" for the competition. As a result, the

was sanctioned and the Oceania Football Confederation banned the

from entering a team in the 2020 OFC U-16 Championship.

Notes

References

External links

2018 OFC U-16 Championship
oceaniafootball.com
News > 2018 OFC U-16 Championship
oceaniafootball.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Ofc U-16 Championship 2018

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2017–18 in OFC football 2018–19 in OFC football 2018 in Tongan sport 2018 in Solomon Islands sport 2018 OFC U-16 Championship 2018 OFC U-16 Championship July 2018 sports events in Oceania September 2018 sports events in Oceania 2018 in youth association football 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup qualification