The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

. The OFC has 13 members, 11 of which are full members and two which are associate members not affiliated with

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

. It promotes the game in

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

and allows the member nations to qualify for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

. OFC is predominantly made up of island nations where association football is not the most popular sport, with low GDP and low population meaning very little money is generated by the OFC nations. The OFC has little influence in the wider football world, either in terms of international competition or as a source of players for high-profile club competitions. OFC is the only confederation to have not had at least one international title, the best result being Australia making

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

of the

1997 FIFA Confederations Cup The 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup was the first Confederations Cup to be organised by FIFA. The tournament had previously been played in 1992 and 1995 as the King Fahd Cup. This edition of the tournament was hosted by Saudi Arabia, as with the previ ...

. In 2006, the OFC's largest and most successful nation,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, left to join the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly ...

, leaving

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

as the largest federation within the OFC. The President of OFC is Lambert Maltock since April 2018. The Vice Presidents are Thierry Ariiotima, Kapi Natto John and Lord Ve'ehala while Franck Castillo is the General Secretary. The confederation is headquartered in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

History

The confederation formed in 1966, as a result of Australia and New Zealand's failed attempts to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The founding OFC members were the following: * the Australian Soccer Federation (from 2005: Football Australia) * New Zealand Soccer (subsequently New Zealand Football) * the

Fiji Football Association The Fiji Football Association is the governing body of football in Fiji. It came into existence in 1961. It is the overseeing body of the Fiji National Team and its leagues. History Football started to be played in Fiji ever since the arrival of ...

* the

Papua New Guinea Football Association The Papua New Guinea Football Association, PNGFA is the governing body of football (soccer) in Papua New Guinea. The PNGFA is a member of both FIFA and OFC, having FIFA and OFC affiliation in 1966 after being founded in 1962. The PNGFA is a mem ...

Australia resigned as an OFC member in 1972 to again pursue membership with the AFC, but rejoined the OFC in 1978. Their men's national team (nicknamed the Socceroos) became the first

ns to play at a

in 1974, being drawn in the same group as

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

. They failed to score a goal, but were still competitive in all three of their matches. New Zealand's national team the All Whites played in their first World Cup eight years later. At the 1982 tournament they suffered heavier defeats than Australia previously had.

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by the ...

was an OFC member from 1975 to 1989. In 1996,

confirmed OFC as a full confederation and granted it a seat on the FIFA executive. In 1998 the OFC unveiled a new

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...

and an official magazine, entitled ''The Wave''. Australia meanwhile lost several inter-confederation World Cup playoffs; first to Scotland in 1985, then Argentina in 1993 and then Iran in 1997. Australia's national team were long considered the biggest challenge in Oceania. There were many highly uncompetitive matches involving them, particularly in the 1990s and 2000s. Their June 1997 second round qualification games for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for t ...

included a 13–0 defeat of the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

. The following year they defeated the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

16–0 at the 1998 OFC Nations Cup, while at the 2000 OFC Nations Cup they defeated them 17–0. The uncompetitive results escalated in April 2001, during the first round of OFC qualifiers for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. Australia beat Tonga 22–0, following this result up with a 31–0 defeat of American Samoa and an 11–0 defeat of

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

. The American Samoa game became the largest international victory in the history of the sport (breaking the previous record set in the Tonga game), while Archie Thompson also broke the record for most goals in an international match, scoring 13. Australia's record-breaking form in the early stages of qualifying ultimately couldn't be replicated in their inter-confederation playoff against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

later that year. For the first leg, the Socceroos managed to defeat the

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

ns 1–0 in front of a

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

crowd of 84,656, but they were overwhelmed 3–0 in the away leg. The away leg was marred by an incident at

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern co ...

's airport prior to the game itself, where the Australian players were spat on, punched and abused by a mob of Uruguayan fans. On 24 May 2004,

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

became the 12th member of the OFC. Australia reached another inter-confederation playoff against Uruguay in 2005. Both sides won a game each over the two legs, which led to Australia finally ending their World Cup drought through a dramatic penalty shootout in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

. The Socceroos were granted increased security for the first away leg, as a response to the 2001 airport incident, and in the second leg the Uruguayan team were heavily booed while their national anthem played. In the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

, Australia were eliminated by

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

during the Round of 16. Their 3–1 group stage victory against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

remains the only time a team representing OFC has won at the tournament. Australia left the OFC again that same year and joined the Asian Football Confederation. In 2008, an associate member, the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association, also left the OFC and in 2009 joined the AFC as an associate member. In late 2009, the Palau Football Association, geographically a part of Oceania but with no official ties to the OFC, also applied for the same status with the AFC as the Northern Mariana Islands association but was not successful. New Zealand ended their own World Cup drought in 2009 when they defeated

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and a ...

to qualify for the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. The tournament coincidentally also featured Australia, who were now representing the AFC. New Zealand were the only unbeaten team at the tournament, despite failing to advance past the group stage. With Australia's absence, New Zealand now have a regular presence in World Cup inter-confederation playoffs. They were thrashed by

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

over two legs in 2013, and narrowly missed out to

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

in 2017 and

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

in 2022.

Criticism

Throughout its history, there have been numerous calls to either merge the OFC and AFC, or dissolve the OFC and have its members join the AFC, in order to form an Asia-Pacific Football Confederation. The calls grew louder in 2003 when FIFA reversed a decision to grant Oceania an automatic spot at the World Cup. Australia's lack of World Cup participation prior to 2006 has been blamed by many on the OFC qualification process, with football writer Matthew Hall stating in 2003, "For World Cup qualification, the Socceroos will win games by

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

scores and then face a sudden-death play-off against a desperate, battle-hardened opponent given a second, or even third, life."

Presidents

Current leaders

Source:

Member nations

Current members

OFC is made up of 11 full member associations and 2 associate members. Those two are associate members of the OFC, but are not FIFA members.

Notes

Former members

Note

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

entered the FIFA World Cup OFC qualifying tournaments in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal en ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

due to political reasons, though it never became a formal OFC member.

Non-members

AFC Members

Three FIFA members geographically in

are not affiliated with the OFC but are instead members of FIFA's

: * * *

Outside of FIFA

Several other sovereign states and dependencies in

have national teams with no affiliation. All play infrequently and may have been inactive for several years. There are also some which do not have a national team. There are four Oceanian sovereign states, each a member of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

(UN), which are not affiliated with the OFC, FIFA or any other confederations: * (

Marshall Islands Soccer Federation The Marshall Islands Soccer Federation is the governing body of soccer in the Marshall Islands. Marshall Islands is not a member of its regional body, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), or FIFA, but is working on becoming a member in the ne ...

) * (

Federated States of Micronesia Football Association The Federated States of Micronesia Football Association or FSMFA is the governing body of football in the Federated States of Micronesia, and of the national team. They are not an associate member of FIFA. History 1992-1996: Early years Footb ...

) * (

Nauru Soccer Federation The Nauru Soccer Federation is the governing body of soccer in Nauru and is under the auspices of the Nauru Olympic Committee. Nauru is not a member of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and is one of the few sovereign states that is not ...

) * ( Palau Football Association) There are also other associated states, dependencies or territories in Oceania that do not have affiliation with the OFC, FIFA or any other confederations: * Bougainville (

autonomous region An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, entity, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy� ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

) * ( state in free association with

) * ( external territory of

) * ( overseas territory of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

) * (

dependent territory A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency (sometimes referred as an external territory) is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state, yet remains politically outside the controll ...

) * ( overseas collectivity of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) Finally, there are several member associations of the

Confederation of Independent Football Associations The Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA) is the international governing body for association football teams that are not affiliated with FIFA. Competitions Women's football All members of CONIFA are encouraged to i ...

(ConIFA) that represent people or territories associated with

; none of these are affiliated with the OFC or FIFA: * Australian First Nations * * Hawaiʻi *

=Notes

Competitions

National teams

Men's *

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Nations Cup is an international association football tournament held among the OFC member nations. It was held every two years from 1996 to 2004; before 1996 there were two other tournaments held at irregular intervals, under the nam ...

OFC U-23 Championship The OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament is a tournament held once in four years' time to decide the only qualification spot for Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and representatives at the Olympic Games. Unlike other continent, winner of OFC Olymp ...

* OFC U-20 Championship * OFC U-17 Championship *

OFC Futsal Championship The OFC Futsal Championship is the main national futsal competition of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) nations. It was first held in 1992. The competition was initially held every four years. From 2008 onwards, however, it became an annu ...

OFC Youth Futsal Tournament The OFC Youth Development Tournament is an international youth association football, football championship organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). Youth Development Tournament In the first edition of the Youth Development Tournament ...

OFC Beach Soccer Championship The OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup is the main championship for beach soccer in Oceania, contested between the senior men's national teams of the members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). It is the sport's version of the better known OFC ...

Women's *

OFC Women's Nations Cup The OFC Women's Nations Cup (previously known as the OFC Women's Championship) is a women's association football tournament for national teams who belong to the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). It was held every three years from 1983 to 1989. ...

* OFC U-20 Women's Championship *

OFC U-17 Women's Championship The OFC U-16 Women's Championship (previously the OFC U-17 Women's Championship or OFC Women's Under 17 Qualifying Tournament) an Oceanic association football tournament held to determine the team that will appear in the Women's U-17 World Cup. T ...

Clubs

Men's * OFC Champions League *

OFC Futsal Champions League The OFC Futsal Champions League is a futsal competition for Oceanian club teams organized by the Oceania Football Confederation The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international associati ...

Former tournaments

National teams *

OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament The OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament is a tournament held once in four years' time to decide the only qualification spot for Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and representatives at the Olympic Games. Unlike other continent, winner of OFC Olymp ...

OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament The OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament is an association football tournament held once in four years to decide the only qualification spot of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and representatives at the Olympic Games. The tournament ...

Clubs *

Oceania Cup Winners' Cup Oceania Cup Winners Cup was one of the two main Oceania tournaments for clubs, the other one is Oceania Champions League. It was only played in 1987 and Sydney City (Australia, qualified as NSL Cup winners in 1986) emerged as winners in a single m ...

OFC President's Cup The OFC President's Cup was an association football competition organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) between clubs and national teams. A decision to create this competition was confirmed at the OFC's Executive committee in March ...

Current title holders

FIFA World Rankings

Overview

Historical leaders

;Men's ImageSize = width:150 height:500 PlotArea = left:40 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2006 till:23/06/2022 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2006 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:FIJ value:white id:NZL value:red id:NCL value:green PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:01/01/2006 till:19/09/2007 shift:(20,-12) text:"

" color:NZL from:19/09/2007 till:24/10/2007 shift:(20,-4) text:"

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), 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 consis ...

" color:FIJ from:24/10/2007 till:22/11/2007 shift:(20,-13) text:"

" color:NCL from:22/11/2007 till: end shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:NZL

Major tournament records

;Legend * – Champion * – Runner-up * – Third place * – Fourth place *QF – Quarter-finals (1934–1938, 1954–1970, and 1986–present: knockout round of 8) *R2 – Round 2 (1974–1978, second group stage, top 8; 1982: second group stage, top 12; 1986–2022: knockout round of 16) *R1 – Round 1 (1930, 1950–1970 and 1986–present: group stage; 1934–1938: knockout round of 16; 1974–1982: first group stage) * — Did not qualify * — Did not enter / withdrawn / banned / disqualified * — Hosts For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

FIFA World Cup

has sent representatives to the

four times:

in 1974 and 2006, and

in 1982 and 2010. Of these, only Australia in 2006 progressed beyond the first round. The OFC is the only

confederation that does not have a guaranteed spot in the World Cup finals (a major reason for the Australians leaving the confederation in 2006 to join Asia). Between 1966 and 1982, OFC teams joined the Asian zone qualification tournament, while from 1986 onwards, the winners of the Oceanian zone qualification tournament have to enter the intercontinental play-offs against teams from other confederations in order to gain a spot in the

. Beginning in 2026, the OFC will have a guaranteed spot in the FIFA World Cup for the first time in history, result of the competition's expansion from 32 to 48 teams.

OFC play-off record

1970 AFC–OFC Final Round 1974 AFC–OFC Final Round 1986 UEFA–OFC play-off 1990 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off Israel played in the OFC zone for political reasons. 1994 CONCACAF–OFC play-off 1994 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off 1998 AFC–OFC play-off 2002 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off 2006 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off 2010 AFC–OFC play-off 2014 CONCACAF–OFC play-off 2018 CONMEBOL–OFC play-off 2022 CONCACAF–OFC play-off

FIFA Women's World Cup

Olympic Games For Men

Olympic Games For Women

OFC Nations Cup

OFC Women's Nations Cup

Notes

FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

FIFA Futsal World Cup

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

;Notes

Former tournaments

FIFA Confederations Cup

;Notes

References

External links

Official website

Oceania Football Confederation
SoccerLens.com. Retrieved: 10 September 2010. {{Navboxes , title = OFC , bg = #21A2C6 , fg = white , list = {{OFC associations {{OFC competitions {{OFC Leagues {{OFC teams {{OFC women's teams

Foot The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg mad ...

FIFA confederations 1966 establishments in Oceania Sports organizations established in 1966

History

Criticism

Presidents

Current leaders

Member nations

Current members

Notes

Former members

Note

Non-members

AFC Members

Outside of FIFA

=Notes

Competitions

National teams

Clubs

Former tournaments

Current title holders

FIFA World Rankings

Overview

Historical leaders

Major tournament records

FIFA World Cup

OFC play-off record

FIFA Women's World Cup

Olympic Games For Men

Olympic Games For Women

OFC Nations Cup

OFC Women's Nations Cup

FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

FIFA Futsal World Cup

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Former tournaments

FIFA Confederations Cup

See also

References

External links