The MSG Prime Minister's Cup, formerly known as Melanesia Cup, is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

competition played between the Melanesian countries. It was formerly used (along with the

Polynesia Cup The Polynesia Cup () was a football tournament for Polynesian nations within the Oceania Football Confederation. It acted along with the Melanesia Cup as a qualifying tournament for the OFC Nations Cup The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as t ...

) for qualification to the

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as the OFC Nations Cup before the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup, 2024 edition, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's natio ...

. The original tournament used a round-robin format involving every team playing each other once at the tournaments location.

History

Melanesia Cup (1988–2000)

The Melanesia Cup was founded in

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

, with

Fiji Fiji, 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 of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

becoming the inaugural champions following a 3–1 victory against

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. The tournament was played on an annual basis until the 1990 tournament saw the Melanesia Cup become a biennial tournament. It was then played every two years until 2000 except for 1996. The 1996 Melanesia Cup was cancelled for unknown reasons, and the scheduled 2002 Melanesia Cup was cancelled due to security issues in

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 lies ...

as the tournament was moved from July to September 2002. The tournament also served as

qualifiers, first doing so in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

2002–2022

In 2008, the Wantok Cup was established as a competition between

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, the

and

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. It was described 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 ...

as "a tournament reminiscent of the now defunct Melanesian Cup". This tournament was also abolished, with the last two editions played in 2011.

MSG Prime Minister's Cup (2022–present)

In 2022 the tournament was revived under the current name, the MSG Prime Minister's Cup, after more than twenty years. The name was changed at the impetus of

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

. It is organised by the

Melanesian Spearhead Group The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) is an intergovernmental organization, composed of the four Melanesian states of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front of New Caledonia. In ...

. The inaugural tournament was won by first-time champions

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, and the 2022 MSG Prime Minister's Cup also saw the introduction of "B" teams into the tournament.

Participants

The seven the competition is currently played between are: * * * * * Solomon Islands "B" * * Vanuatu "B"

Total wins

Total

Melanesia Cup

MSG Prime Minister's Cup

Results

Source
RSSSF
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References

Defunct international association football competitions in Oceania OFC Nations Cup qualification Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2000 Recurring sporting events established in 1988 {{Oceania-footy-competition-stub