The 2013/14 OFC Champions League will be the 8th edition of Ocenia's premier club tournament. Tournament of the season will be held on the new format as opposed to past years. First, now the winner of the preliminary round on direct access to the main tournament. Secondly, the main event has been increased from 8 to 12 teams. Additional seats were given to the second teams from Fiji, Tahiti, Vanuatu (as the best countries for the previous tournament) and the winner of the preliminary round. New Zealand as one of the top four countries in the last tournament retained the two teams. Third, the main tournament will be held on the territory of one country - Fiji. And it will be in April 2014. Fourth, because of the expansion of the main tournament took place and the expansion of the number of groups. Now there will be 3 to 4 teams each. The winners of each group and the best will come from second place in the semi-finals. Then the teams will determine the finalists and winner of the final will have the right to represent Oceania at the FIFA Club World Cup 2014, which will be held in December in Morocco. Participating teams: Fiji - Ba(champion); Nadi(runner-up) New Zealand - Waitakere United(champion); Auckland City(runner-up) Tahiti - AS Dragon(champion); AS Tefana(runner-up) Vanuatu - Tafea(champion); Amicale(runner-up) New Caledonia - AS Magenta(champion) Papua New Guinea - PRK Hekari United(champion) Solomon Islands - unknown American Samoa - Pago Youth FC(champion) Cook Islands - Tupapa Maraerenga(champion) Samoa - Kiwi(3rd place - selected by Samoan FA) Tonga - Lotoha'apai United(champion)
Just recently became known details of the preliminary round of the Champions League. All matches will be held in the capital of American Samoa - Pago Pago from 15 to 19 October. Participates will take the champions of American Samoa(Pago Youth FC), Cook Islands(Tupapa Maraerenga) , Samoa(Kiwi - not champion but selected by Samoan FA) and Tonga(Lotoha'apai United) . The winner will be released in the main tournament of the Champions League. Match Schedules: 15 october : Lotoha'apai United - Pago Youth FC; Kiwi - Tupapa Maraerenga 17 october : Lotoha'apai United - Kiwi; Tupapa Maraerenga - Pago Youth FC 19 october : Tupapa Maraerenga - Lotoha'apai United; Pago Youth FC - Kiwi
Huh? I haven't seen the format per se . . . but it looks like someone in the OFC has been stalking my previous posts about giving the final stage nation cup countries two teams in the Champion League and increase the number of teams participant.
Here, even the link on the official source http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/...b317-98136290fe62/language/en-US/Default.aspx. But I think these innovations will be interesting. We'll see. Though it is a pity that the tournament will only cover Fiji and other countries do not see the fights of their teams.
Ok, I see now. It is based on the club performance in the Champions league rather than countries performance in the Nations Cup. On the side, with NZ having one of the teams as current champ and the other NZ team being runner-up you could almost argue a third NZ team except the NZ Championship only has 8 teams and having 3 out of it's 8 teams in the Champion League is not best for the OFC when the number of teams in the Champions League nor the quality of the teams is not enough to justify it. Expansion based on the spread across the various countries is top priority. I don't think you can have more than three until the tournament is double the number of teams as well as needing to be fully professional. I like it because it means that playing to get into the top four has meaning to the country to get twice the bite of the cherry.
OFC released today the draw for the group stage of the competition to be held in Fiji in April 2014. Group A Waitakere United SOL 1 [TBA] Preliminary Round Winner TAH 2 [AS Tefana] Group B Auckland City TAH 1 [AS Dragon] VAN 2 [Amicale] FIJ 2 [Nadi] Group C VAN 1 [Tafea] FIJ 1 [Ba] NCL 1 [AS Magenta] PNG 1 [Hekari United] On a side note, I personally do not like the timing of the competition. With the ASB Premiership due to finish in March 2014, New Zealand's representatives have a 13 month gap between qualifying and playing in the OFC Champions League!!! Given all but one team is known (I can not find any information as to when the Solomon Islands domestic season is due to finish), surely they can play it earlier in 2014.
I also dislike that. It would be best that all leagues finish by, let's say, late March/early April (some can finish earlier, depending on their climate condition and stuff) and that best teams from that season play in that season's OCL in, let's say, early May. This format, where team in NZL wins league and must wait more than a year to play in OCL is ridiculous. BTW, only group stage is played in Fiji. Semifinal is home/away, final is again at neutral venue.
Just wondering out loud: if there are 15 teams total in the tournament, why not just add one more to make it a traditional-looking round-of-16 (single-round-robin)? Worried about those bottom four teams getting clobbered? [I had advocated a 32-team first-round for Concacaf, played as a single-r-r in eight different cities, but nobody agreed with me.]
I was kinda wondering about a 16 team tournament the other day... I think that is something that will happen in the near future, with the 16th team being from the title holder, host, SOL, PNG or NCL (or even Tuvalu; they were allocation a spot in the 2008/9 edition, but team withdrew according to wiki!!!) The OFC Champions League I believe is developing nicely. Slow expansion from 6 teams to having all countries entering a team. Playing groups on a neutral venue is probably a step backwards, but I am sure that when the books start to balance, home and away will return. The last thing they want to do is make too many changes too quickly, because that can have a negative effect. Their current pace if fine at the moment. [This is also something I have been thinking about for a few years now, but not applied to the Champions League, instead as a secondary competition. But this is probably better discussed in the CONCACAF forums.]
I have to agree. There are about 10 or 11 nations in the OFC, so having 16 team in the champions league may be fine, you have to consider the weaker teams being totally smashed and the top nations justifying having more than 2 of their own champion teams in the competition. Having the preliminary teams straight into the OFC Champion League will see a blow-out score-line which would affects the final table results and eventually affects the knock out stages in seedings. Maybe one day there will be a 16 team competition but definitely not now because we only just increased to 12 teams and there still be a good chance that there will be some blow out score-lines. Not a good look on keeping the intensity and quality of the competition. Also, the budget cost for the competition is fairly expensive when you expand for more teams, especially when the OFC is travelled on long distances. This would explain the tournament taking place in the one locality. . .. baby steps however.
Winning start for favourites Tupapa Maraerenga, 3-0 winners over Lotoha'apai. Both teams played out a 3-3 draw in the last edition, in May 2012.
Results Preliminary Round: Game week 1: Lotoha'apai United - Tupapa Maraerenga 0-3 Kiwi - Pago Youth 5-1 Game week 2: Lotoha'apai United - Kiwi 2-4 Pago Youth - Tupapa Maraerenga 1-11 --- 1. Tupapa M.(Cok) 6 2.Kiwi(Sam) 6 3.Lotoha'apai Untd.(Ton) 0 4.Pago Youth(Asa) 0 ticket to the next round will be determined in an internal duel between Tupapa Maraerenga and Kiwi. Other game (Lotoha'apai - Pago Youth) will be played between the already relegation teams and will be held purely for the sake of prestige for both teams.
Kiwi defeated Tupapa 3-0 and qualified to Group stage. Other match was cancelled due to bad weather and possibility of destroying pitch. I am very surprised with this result. Good luck to Samoans, they will need it.
Results after the first round of matches: Group A Kiwi FC 0-2 Waitakere United Solomon Warriors 1-2 AS Pirae Group B Amicale FC 1-0 AS Dragon Auckland City 3-0 Nadi FC Group C Tafea FC 3-1 Hekari United AS Magenta 0-2 Ba FC
I expected more convincing win from Waitakere. Nice to see Vahirua playing for Pirae, I hope to see them through. Hekari continue to struggle, they are surely out. BTW, OFC covers this live via youtube... shame that Fijian internet infrastructure is weak so picture is not good as it should be.
Same here, but I think they have been poor lately. They only finished 4th in the regular season standings in New Zealand, and subsequently lost the semi-final plays to Auckland 8-1 on aggregate. That means however we wont see them in next years OCL. Should New Zealand receive a second spot (I cant see how they wont!!!), Auckland City will be join by Team Wellington.
Group C Ba FC - Tafea FC 4-0 Hekari United - AS Magenta 2-2 1 Ba 6 2 Tafea 3 3 Hekari 1 4 Tafea 1 I think we can say Ba qualified to semi final.
Group B Dragon - Auckland City 0-3 Nadi - Amicale 0-6 1 Amicale 6 (7-0) 2 Auckland City 6 (6-0) 3 Dragon 0 4 Nadi 0 For the Amicale scored two Serbs. Nicola Vasilic a hat-trick (played in Albania, Serbia and United States). Marko Djordjevic (played in Serbia and Kazakhstan) scored first in the match began defeat an opponent. Here it skidded guys. Play itself such in Europe and suddenly you're on the mysterious and exotic Vanuatu.
Amicale looked request for the Champions League. Squad quite interesting as part of the region. 3 Serbian players (Vasilic, Djordjevic, Milan Matic); Italian (Davide Talone); Scottish footballer (Colin Marshall); Nigerian (Sanni Issa). unless you consider the teams from New Zealand that no other team in Oceania there is no such set of legionaries from different continents.
I think that's awesome, they sure get fine money there and will be there for only short notice, and can win continental title. I think we'll see great match in last matchday against ACFC, I might even wake up early in the morning to watch it.
But were in such great heavenly places. I think it one of pleasure to play there. And play football regularly where you little if indispensable team player and plenty of exotic landscapes you can see a lot. But I think that is more than 1-2 years, they will not stay. I do not know how Matic and Talone, but Marshall and Djordjevic just wander off to another continent. First in Asia and the second back to the Balkans
But if I were a football player - would not mind a couple of seasons to move to Samoa, Fiji or Vanuatu))) Play for fun, and then when it is weary transit through Thailand (Indonesia, Vietnam), or any other exotic country to return to their homeland.
Group A AS Pirae 8-0 Kiwi FC Waitakere United 1-1 Solomon Warriors AS Pirae: 6 Pts, +9 Waitakere: 4 Pts, +2 Solomon W: 1 Pt, -1 Kiwi FC: 0 Pts, -10 Waitakere have to beat Pirae on Monday to progress. Lose or draw and they are out!!!
I think they can't defeat Pirae. Shame for Solo Warriors to concede late goal, considering their last game against Kiwi. If Amicale and Auckland City draw, both progress. It's a long shot, but it might even happen that both NZL teams go out - if Amicale win, Pirae win or draw, Tafea win with big margin (Amicale's win margin + Tafea win margin = at least 8 goals).