OFC Champions League

OFC Champions League
Founded 1987
Region Oceania (OFC)
Number of teams 16 (group stage)
18 (total)
(from 11 associations)
Qualifier for FIFA Club World Cup
Current champions New Zealand Team Wellington (1st title)
Most successful team(s) New Zealand Auckland City (9 titles)
2018 OFC Champions League

The OFC Champions League, also known as the O-League, is the premier men's club football competition in Oceania. It is organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), Oceania's football governing body. It has been organized since 2007 under the current format, following its predecessor, the Oceania Club Championship. Eleven OFC Champions League titles have been won by teams from New Zealand, with Papua New Guinea being the only Pacific nation to have won the competition.

During the 2014–15 season, the tournament became sponsored by Fiji Airways, therefore renaming the competition as the Fiji Airways OFC Champions League.[1] Trophies for OFC tournaments, made by London-based silversmiths Thomas Lyte, are awarded to winners.[2]

History

At first, this competition was played as a single playoff match between champions of New Zealand and Australia. That competition was held in 1987 and Adelaide City won the inaugural season. Then 12 years pause came, until OFC organized next, all Oceania Cup. In January 1999, the Oceania Club Championship was held in the Fijian cities of Nadi and Lautoka. Nine teams took part, with Australian side South Melbourne winning the trophy. They also qualified for the following year's FIFA Club World Cup. The next competition was held two years later, with an Australian team again winning the title. Wollongong Wolves won it, beating Vanuatu representative Tafea in the final. Two more editions were held under this name and format, with Sydney and Auckland City winning titles. OFC decided to change the competition format and name, so that since 2007 the competition is known as the OFC Champions League.

Format

Oceania Club Championship

The Oceania Club Championship was played on one or two venues, in one host country. It was played with two or three groups with single round-robin format, semifinals and final. It usually lasted about 10 days, with matches being played every 2 days.

OFC Champions League

OFC decided to change competition format, to make its main competition more interesting and more important to competing clubs.

The first two seasons saw competition with two groups of three teams each, and from the third edition onwards it consists of two groups of four teams each. Group winners progress to the final, played in double playoff format, with the winner taking the title. Unlike its previous format, O-League lasts more than a half year, starting in October and ending next year, in April. The O-League winner qualifies to FIFA Club World Cup, entering the competition in playoff round.

For the 2012–13 season O-League changed its format with the introduction of qualifying stage, with the champions of the four weakest leagues competing for a play-off spot with the representative of country with the worst record from the previous tournament. Later rather were also scheduling and format changes for the main tournament .That competition was played between March and May 2013 with introduction of semifinal stage and final played on neutral venue. First O-League one-legged final was played in Auckland, and was the first O-League final between two teams from the same country, with Auckland City defeating Waitakere United to win its 5th title.

OFC Champions League saw another change for 2013–14 season with group stage played on pre-determined location with semifinal and final played on home and away basis. Fiji was selected as host. Preliminary stage was played six months before group stage, and the winner entered the group stage.

Another change came in 2017 when group stage was expanded to 16 teams with whole competition being played in the same year (preliminary stage followed by group stage and later knock-out stage). Each of four groups was hosted by one of teams from the group meaning more countries and people included. Group winners qualified to semifinal. Semifinal and final were played on home-away basis. Following success of 2017 season, OFC added quarterfinal round for 2018 edition, meaning top two teams from each group qualified to knock-out stage.

Starting from 2014, both finalists of the OFC Champions League will also participate in the OFC President's Cup, an invitational tournament organized by the OFC. However, President's Cup was held only once.

Records and statistics

Finals

OFC Club Championship era

Season Winners Score Runners-up Venue Attendance No. of Teams No. of Associations
1987 Adelaide City
Australia		 1 – 1
(4–1 pen.)		 University-Mount Wellington
New Zealand		 Australia Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide 3,500 9 9
1999 South Melbourne
Australia		 5 – 1 Nadi
Fiji		 Fiji Prince Charles Park, Nadi 10,000 9 9
2001 Wollongong Wolves
Australia		 1 – 0 Tafea
Vanuatu		 Papua New Guinea Lloyd Robson Stadium, Port Moresby 3,000 11 11
2005 Sydney FC
Australia		 2 – 0 AS Magenta
New Caledonia		 French Polynesia Stade Pater, Papeete 4,000 13 12
2006 Auckland City
New Zealand		 3 – 1 AS Pirae
French Polynesia		 New Zealand North Harbour Stadium, Auckland 2,000 11 10

OFC Champions League era

Season Champions Score Runners-up Venue Attendance No. of Teams No. of Associations
2007 Waitakere United
New Zealand		 2 – 1 Ba
Fiji		 Fiji Govind Park, Ba 10,000 6 5
0 – 1 New Zealand Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland 9,000
2 – 2 (a) 19,000
2007–08 Waitakere United
New Zealand		 1 – 3 Kossa
Solomon Islands		 Solomon Islands Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara 20,000 9 8
5 – 0 New Zealand Trusts Stadium, Waitakere City 6,000
6 – 3
 26,000
2008–09 Auckland City
New Zealand		 7 – 2 Koloale
Solomon Islands		 Solomon Islands Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara 20,000 6 6
2 – 2 New Zealand Kiwitea Street, Auckland 1,250
9 – 4
 21,250
2009–10 Hekari United
Papua New Guinea		 3 – 0 Waitakere United
New Zealand		 Papua New Guinea PMRL Stadium, Port Moresby 15,000 8 7
1 – 2 New Zealand Fred Taylor Park, Auckland 3,000
4 – 2
 18,000
2010–11 Auckland City
New Zealand		 2 – 1 Amicale
Vanuatu		 Vanuatu Municipal Stadium, Port Vila 7,925 8 7
4 – 0 New Zealand Kiwitea Street, Auckland 3,000
6 – 1
 10,925
2011–12 Auckland City
New Zealand		 2 – 1 AS Tefana
French Polynesia		 New Zealand Kiwitea Street, Auckland 1,500 8 7
1 – 0 French Polynesia Stade Louis Ganivet, Faaa 1,900
3 – 1
 3,400
2012–13 Auckland City
New Zealand		 2 – 1 Waitakere United
New Zealand		 New Zealand Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland 3,000 12 11
2013–14 Auckland City
New Zealand		 1 – 1 Amicale
Vanuatu		 Vanuatu Municipal Stadium, Port Vila 10,000 15 11
2 – 1 New Zealand Kiwitea Street, Auckland 3,000
3 – 2
 13,000
2014–15 Auckland City
New Zealand		 1 – 1
(4–3 pen.)		 Team Wellington
New Zealand		 Fiji National Stadium, Suva 3,000 15 11
2016 Auckland City
New Zealand		 3 – 0 Team Wellington
New Zealand		 New Zealand QBE Stadium, Auckland 1,500 15 11
2017 Auckland City
New Zealand		 3 – 0 Team Wellington
New Zealand		 New Zealand Kiwitea Street, Auckland 1,000 18 11
2 – 0 New Zealand David Farrington Park, Wellington 1,000
5 – 0
 2,000
2018 Team Wellington
New Zealand		 6 – 0 Lautoka
Fiji		 New Zealand David Farrington Park, Wellington 1,200 18 11
4 – 3 Fiji Churchill Park, Lautoka 1,000
10 – 3 2,200

Performances by club

Past winners are:[3][4]

Club Titles Runners-up Winning Seasons Runner-up Seasons
New Zealand Auckland City 9 — 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 —
New Zealand Waitakere United 2 2 2007, 2008 2010, 2013
New Zealand Team Wellington 1 3 2018 2015, 2016, 2017
Australia Adelaide City 1 — 1987 —
Australia South Melbourne 1 — 1999 —
Australia Wollongong Wolves 1 — 2001 —
Australia Sydney FC 1 — 2005 —
Papua New Guinea Hekari United 1 — 2010 —
Vanuatu Amicale — 2 — 2011, 2014
New Zealand University-Mount Wellington — 1 — 1987
Fiji Nadi — 1 — 1999
Vanuatu Tafea — 1 — 2001
New Caledonia Magenta — 1 — 2005
French Polynesia Pirae — 1 — 2006
Fiji Ba — 1 — 2007
Solomon Islands Kossa — 1 — 2008
Solomon Islands Koloale — 1 — 2009
French Polynesia Tefana — 1 — 2012
Fiji Lautoka — 1 — 2018

Performances by country

Club Titles Runners-up
 New Zealand 12 6
 Australia 4 —
 Papua New Guinea 1 —
 Fiji — 3
 Vanuatu — 3
 Solomon Islands — 2
 Tahiti — 2
 New Caledonia — 1

Notes:

All-time table (Top 10 Clubs)

Pos
 Team
 Pld
 W
 D
 L
 GF
 GA
 GD
 Pts
1 New Zealand Auckland City (13) 75 53 14 8 211 65 +146 173
2 New Zealand Waitakere United (8) 48 25 12 11 99 57 +42 87
3 Fiji Ba (10) 45 22 6 17 67 76 −9 72
4 Vanuatu Tafea (9) 39 19 8 12 98 64 +34 65
5 Papua New Guinea Hekari United (8) 39 16 9 14 67 58 +9 57
6 New Caledonia Magenta (7) 23 16 6 1 71 48 +23 54
7 Vanuatu Amicale (6) 35 16 5 14 50 40 +10 53
8 French Polynesia Pirae (4) 18 9 1 8 48 36 +12 28
9 Australia Wollongong Wolves (1) 7 7 0 0 43 2 +41 21
10 New Zealand Team Wellington (3) 8 7 0 1 34 14 +20 21

* Number in brackets show number of participations.

All-time table (Countries)

Pos
 Team
 Pld
 W
 D
 L
 GF
 GA
 GD
 Pts
1 New Zealand New Zealand 155 98 32 25 418 155 +263 326
2 Fiji Fiji 92 40 12 40 147 186 −39 132
3 Vanuatu Vanuatu 84 36 16 32 158 145 +13 124
4 French Polynesia Tahiti 78 26 11 41 166 165 +1 89
5 Solomon Islands Solomon Islands 72 24 10 38 141 166 −25 82
6 Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea 64 24 10 30 109 145 −36 82
7 New Caledonia New Caledonia 58 19 9 30 98 117 −19 66
8 Australia Australia 17 16 1 0 90 9 +81 49
9 Samoa Samoa 39 14 3 22 68 124 −56 45
10 Cook Islands Cook Islands 25 11 3 11 65 52 +13 36
11 Tonga Tonga 26 5 3 18 34 119 −85 18
12 American Samoa American Samoa 16 1 1 14 18 98 −80 4
13 Palau Palau 1 0 0 1 2 6 −4 0

See also

References

  1. ↑ "OFC teams up with Fiji Airways". OFC. 2 April 2015. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  2. ↑ New silverware awarded for victors Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ "Past tournaments". oceaniafootball.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  4. ↑ "Oceania Club Cups - Overview File". RSSSF. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
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