Oceania League?

I don't know much about it, but I think most of the clubs in the OFC have enough trouble affording the cost of travelling for the existing Champions League.

 

Its all an very nice idea and I for one would like to advocate it but at the moment, the cost of traveling and having the resources to cope wage a serious problems for the islands. They are struggling with their own under-resourced fields for the domestic league. Let alone producing ones capable of holding a pacific ocean wide league. Unlike other countries, the use of air travel for every second match is a too higher price in a 12-14 team-based league. In most countries, traveling by bus is capable especially for professional teams that has money, but in oceania it would not be the case. But for people for long trips over water and needing to go back to their jobs for their income, it is impractical and time consuming.

Even for the O-League (the OFC champions league) there was a struggle for some countries to be represented and only 8 teams are involved, two of which are from New Zealand and PNG team had only just entered a team for the last two years. Originally (2007) the O-league had asked for PNG to enter a team but PNG just started to restructured a domestic league then and couldn't put a team in due to the lack of resources. It was only the last two years they are able to put a team out. At that time, because they turn it down, the OFC O-league asked NZF to place a second NZFC team at short notice (the team was the leading NZFC team after the first set of matches before the return games). Pre-2007, it was the Oceania Club Championships in which case it was a tournament based competition at one location.

At the present, the O-league is split into two groups of four with home and away matches in each. Giving each team at least 6 matches to play. The winner of the two groups then play an home and away final that determines the club that represents OFC at the Club World Cup.

There are only two groups of four. The final is the only knockout stage. I can't imagine that we can produce actual league-based competition since, I would think that each domestic league would like to keep their top team in the local competition. For the two New Zealand teams, the NZFC is occasionally better quality of matches for them. For the other domestic league, their top team is the standard to which they need to measure themselves.

Ideally, if the pacific business forum could fund the competition and increase the interest among the near 18 million people in oceania region (minus Australia), then it would be a totally professional league. But it may still struggle with the infrastructure. Only Vanuatu is the only country that declares football as its national sport. So it is a hard point to sell.

Also, I imagine that maybe having variable weather patterns during the winter months would have an unseen cost impact to the competition. So the real decent time to have them would be in the summer time which happens to be the time that most national domestic leagues are playing and asking amateur teams to be playing locally and then also internationally in a league format is asking too much.

It can only be done as professional arrangement and then there would be differences between the professional team playing in the Oceania League and then playing against amateurs in the domestic league. The chances are that the one club domination would soak up the best players in the country and there would be nothing left to grow at the domestic level.

In an ideal world and as a long term goal, maybe but not in the near future.

 

The best way to expand the OFC champions league ( i.e. increase the number of participants) would to increase from two groups of four teams to four groups of four teams, have a decent knockout stage with 8 teams in the quarters finals, then semi-finals and final. Having 16 teams format like it was in the original world cup finals. Group runner-ups always playing group winners. A group winner and the same group runner-ups could even end up in the final to repeat a match if they survive the knockout stages.

It would be only one or two trips extra for the knockout teams but the competition is geographically spread to the islands. I also see it as a better outside chance for the Island teams to knock over the stronger NZ teams. If this happens, I think that there would be probably three NZ teams and maybe some of the islands would have two teams at that level.

Besides this, I can't see home and away league format.

Maybe another avenue of interest would be for the OFC to fund a football league cup similar to the F.A. Cup that is open invite to only the clubs (who can afford to complete) from the top domestic leagues in Oceania with a knockout (single elimination). You can have the teams from the OFC Champions League entering into the tournament at a later round. Later on, it maybe only a question of the losing teams that didn't reach the OFC champions league knockout stages that can enter only. This would also mean that nothing in Oceania can top the OFC Champion League and that the winner of OFC Champions league is the regions representative for FIFA's Club World Cup.

I haven't seen anything that would relate to this but nevertheless, if a FA Cup of sorts for Oceania is looked at, it could spark a decent second tier competition that can appeal to the public. That way, the top domestic teams would not hog the headlines and gives another chance for the other teams to get tougher and increase the football level.

 

It would be hard to poach them unless there are some financial benefits involved. OFC has not the money to splash about and these AFC countries has the AFC Challenge Cup competition that was designed for 2nd tier AFC countries that would not be directly involved with the AFC Asian Cup Competition. Incorporating them in the OFC WCQs, where would they go? After the South Pacific games (where they are not included) but before the 3rd stage qualifiers? They are not good enough for the 3rd stage either. Maybe there would have to be 4 stages but the calender schedule is tight as it is.

In order to poach some of the AFC countries to go the other way, you need a good bunch of them to move and form a separate prelim group that runs a competition along side the South Pacific games. And then decide that the winners to go into the 3rd stage and then rearrange the 3rd stage playing schedule.

Not sure whether that it can be pulled off. As it is those AFC countries are getting plenty of games in the AFC and will end up having less matches in the OFC. Which does not benefit them. The reasons that Australia moved to AFC was more matches and more higher quality opponents. Moving to OFC would do the opposite.