OCEANIA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
As the 2024 OFC Champions League prepares for kick-off, a new tournament is on the horizon for Oceanian clubs
Tahiti will host the16th modern iteration of the Oceania Champions League in May but just as the competition is showing signs of maturing, its future as the region’s premier club tournament is under threat.
First staged back in1987 as the Oceania Club Championship, the competition became the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) Champions League in 2007 and has since been dominated by clubs from New Zealand.
Since Australia’s move to the Asian Football Confederation in 2006, clubs from New Zealand have won13 out of15 titles including last year when Auckland City won their second consecutive title and their11th in all.
Since 2011, only a solitary success by New Caledonian club Hienghene Sport in 2019 and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the Kiwi dominance. New Zealand’s representatives, Auckland City, will be favourites again for this year’s tournament at the11,700-capacity Stade Pater in Papeete.
Previous tournaments were also not helped by an over-reliance on New Zealand as hosts, but three out of the last four tournaments have been staged elsewhere.
Over the course of these events, the competition has shown signs of maturing with Hienghene Sport winning as hosts in 2019 and Fiji’s representatives Suva taking Auckland City to extra-time in a thrilling final in Vanuatu last year before going down 4-2.
Last year’s tournament also benefitted from a strong performance by the home side, Ifira Black Bird, who finished runners-up in Group B and only lost in the semi-finals to eventual champions Auckland City on penalties after a 2-2 draw. The champions of the Port Vila Football League return again in 2024 but face a tough group.
Only two clubs from Vanuatu have ever reached the final in the various iterations of the competition – Tafea in 2001 and the now defunct Amicale a decade later – and Ifira will bring a squad comprised solely of players from Vanuatu with attacking midfielder Godine Tenene the player to watch.
Tahiti will be represented by Pirae – who narrowly saw off Tefana on penaties in their national play-off – and the OFC and Tahitian Football Federation will be hoping for another strong performance by the host side to boost crowds.
No club from Tahiti has ever won any of the competition’s different iterations. Runners-up back in 2006, Pirae won Group B last year without losing a game but could not emulate Venus in 2022 by reaching the final, which was the first appearance by a Tahitian club in the showpiece match since Tefana lost to Auckland City a decade earlier.
AS Magenta from New Caledonia are likely to be the main threat to Pirae in Group B. AS Magenta were runners-up in 2005 and 2019 and have a number of players in the New Caledonia squad including experienced goalkeeper Mickael Ulile and exciting striker Gilbert Kugogne, who was given his first full international cap last year at the age of19.
The other side in Group B are Samoa’s Vaivase-Tai, who emerged triumphant from a qualifying round staged in the Tongan capital of Nuku‘alofa in February against the champions of the hosts, the Cook Islands and American Samoa.
Apart from a 0-0 draw with home side Veitongo, Vaivase-Tai were barely tested in the qualifiers and will hope not to emulate last year’s representatives from Samoa. Half a dozen of Lupe ole Soaga’s
players were ruled unfit by the competition’s local medical officer after their second game and, with such a weakened side, opted not to take to the field for their final game, leading to all three of their fixtures retrospectively ruled as 3-0 walkovers.
The introduction of a qualifying round makes sense in reducing the potential of one-sided games with the “best of the rest” taking part. The OFC will hope that Vaivase-Tai – seven-times champions of the Samoa National League – will be better prepared than Lupe ole Soaga were last time around.
In Group A, Auckland City are the obvious favourites, but face three difficult matches and will certainly not underestimate Fiji’s representatives after their experience in the 2023 final.
Last year’s runners-up Suva will not return, with Rewa – national champions for the first time in 2022 and runners-up in 2023 – representing Fiji instead. The Nausori-based club’s only appearance in the OFC Champions League was as one of three Fijian representatives in 2017, when the competition was played under a different format. In Tahiti, Fijian international midfielder Tevita Waranaivalu and promising young winger Asivorosi Rabo will be players to watch for Rewa.
Hekari United of Papua New Guinea are the only other club outside of New Zealand and New Caledonia to have won the title since 2006. Their triumph over two legs against Waitakere United back in 2010 was one of the competition’s great upsets.
Hekari were subsequently overtaken domestically and after 2016 did not return to the Champions League until last year, when they fell in the group stage. After strolling past Port Moresby Strikers 5-0 on aggregate in this year’s play-offs, Hekari will also present a strong challenge in Group A.
With a large number of players in the PNG national squad, such as the promising midfielder Yagi Yasasa and his midfield counterpart Joseph Joe, Hekari are in the ascendancy and experienced striker Ati Kepo will be looking to get on the scoresheet.
Winners of the S-League for the last two seasons, Solomon Warriors from the Solomon Islands were frustrated at losing their final-game showdown with Suva in last year’s group stage and will be eager to progress this time around.
With Tahiti also hosting the surfing competition in this year’s Olympic Games, the hosts will be well organised and the 2024 OFC Champions League promises to be another tight competition just as its future comes into question.
The lucrative prize for the winners was a place at the FIFA Club World Cup, but Auckland City have already bagged Oceania’s spot at the expanded 2025 event after winning the last two Champions League titles. The winners in Tahiti will instead play in FIFA’s new Intercontinental Cup for the champions of each confederation due to be staged in December 2024.
These changes come as plans for a proposed professional league across the Pacific – that could overshadow the Champions League – edge forward. The plans date back to 2019 and the formation of a taskforce to investigate its viability, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to intervene. In October 2022, FIFA pledged support at the OFC’s congress in New Zealand and a month later, the OFC Executive Committee approved plans for the league with a 2025 start date.
Gianni Infantino said that he was “200 per cent” behind the plans last summer, but details remain scarce other than a pledge to use the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for the games as development has been slow. In December 2023, Tonga Football Association president Lord Ve’ehala told “The plan is still on
the planning side, and it is slow to implement. The plan is for all the11 members associations. There have been some countries showing some interest but the implementation of the plan is the most challenging phase.”
OFC clubs and leagues manager Steven Dillon has been working on the plans and has recruited an external consultant, Paul Woodland, who travelled to the Pacific in March for meetings with member associations.
Some OFC members, such as Fiji and Vanuatu, have already begun exploring the viability of professionalising their own domestic competitions to take part in the mooted Pro League. One concern among members is that the Pro League will provide qualification to FIFA’s Club World Cup.
The OFC plans to launch an extensive Expression of Interest process soon to allow interested clubs to explore the viability of taking part. In a statement, the OFC told World
“The OFC Professional League is a new standalone competition that would run in addition to the current OFC Champions League as well as the National Domestic Leagues from the Member Associations of OFC.
“The eventual formation and composition of the league would be established in a way which would enhance the current National Domestic League set up across each Member
Association and ensure players can play at the highest possible level for longer.
“The number of teams and club types will be determined by the ongoing research that is taking place from the OFC Pro League Taskforce. The intention is to ensure that club management capabilities and management structures can maintain the long-term commitment required for the successful establishment and launch of the league.”
As laudable as the concept certainly is in aiding local development and boosting national teams in the
World Cup qualifiers in a region often dominated by both rugby codes, funding will be a sticking point.
FIFA appears willing to underwrite what would be a costly project, not least in terms of travel, but what remains unclear is how many clubs will take part from each country. If only a handful of clubs from each country are able to participate and can then provide opportunities for players to turn professional, those sides would dominate domestic competitions, leaving football in Oceania in a similar state to Europe.
“The OFC Professional League is a new standalone competition that would run in addition to the current OFC Champions League as well as the National Domestic Leagues from the Member Associations of OFC” Oceania Football Confederation