2017 OFC Champions League

2017 OFC Champions League

Tournament details
Host countries	Qualifying stage:  Tonga Group stage:  New Caledonia  New Zealand  Tahiti
Dates	Qualifying stage: 28 January – 4 February 2017 Competition proper: 25 February – 5 May 2017
Teams	Competition proper: 16 Total: 18 (from 11 associations)

The 2017 OFC Champions League will be the 16th edition of the Oceanian Club Championship, Oceania's premier club football tournament organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and the 11th season under the current OFC Champions League name.

The winners of the 2017 OFC Champions League will qualify as the OFC representative at the 2017 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. Auckland City are the six-time defending champions.

Format change

The OFC decided to expand the tournament and change the format for the 2017 edition:^[1]

• The competition consists of four stages: qualifying stage, group stage, semi-finals, and final.
• For the qualifying stage, like in the previous season, four teams take part in this stage, which include one team each from the four developing associations. The stage is played in round-robin format at a single venue, with the winner and runner-up advancing to the group stage (instead of only the group winner).
• For the group stage, 16 teams take part in this stage (increase from 12 teams), which include two teams each from the seven developed associations, plus the qualifying stage winner and runner-up. They are drawn into four groups of four teams (increase from three groups), where each group is played in round-robin format at a different venue (instead of all groups played at a single venue), with the group winners advancing to the semi-finals.
• For the semi-finals, the four teams are drawn into two ties, which are played in home-and-away format over two legs (instead of a single match).
• For the final, the tie is played in home-and-away format over two legs (instead of a single match).

Teams

A total of 18 teams from all 11 OFC member associations enter the competition.

• The seven developed associations (Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu) are awarded two berths each in the group stage.
• The four developing associations (American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga) are awarded one berth each in the qualifying stage, with the winner and runner-up advancing to the group stage.

Association	Team	Qualifying method
Teams entering the group stage
Fiji	Ba	2016 Fiji National Football League champion
	Rewa	2016 Fiji National Football League runner-up
New Caledonia	Magenta	2015 New Caledonia Super Ligue champion
	Hienghène Sport	2015 New Caledonia Super Ligue runner-up
New Zealand	Team Wellington	2015–16 ASB Premiership Grand Final champion
	Auckland City	2015–16 ASB Premiership regular season premier
Papua New Guinea	Hekari United	2015–16 Papua New Guinea National Champions League winner
	Lae City Dwellers	2015–16 Papua New Guinea National Champions League runner-up
Solomon Islands		2016–17 Solomon Islands S-League champion
		2016–17 Solomon Islands S-League runner-up
Tahiti	Tefana	2015–16 Tahiti Ligue 1 champion
	Central Sport	2015–16 Tahiti Ligue 1 runner-up
Vanuatu	Malampa Revivors	2015 VFF National Super League runner-up
		2016 Port Vila Top Four Super League winner
Teams entering the qualifying stage
American Samoa	Utulei Youth	2015 FFAS Senior League champion
Cook Islands	Puaikura	2016 Cook Islands Round Cup champion
Samoa	Lupe o le Soaga	2014–15 Samoa National League champion
Tonga	Veitongo	2015 Tonga Major League champion

Schedule

The schedule of the competition is as follows.

Stage	Host cities	Dates	Matchday	Matches
Qualifying stage	Nukuʻalofa, Tonga	28 January – 4 February 2017	Matchday 1	Team 4 vs. Team 1 Team 2 vs. Team 3
			Matchday 2	Team 1 vs. Team 3 Team 4 vs. Team 2
			Matchday 3	Team 1 vs. Team 2 Team 3 vs. Team 4
Group stage	Group A: Nouméa, New Caledonia Group B: Koné, New Caledonia Group C: Auckland, New Zealand Group D: Papeete, Tahiti	Groups A & B: 25 February – 4 March 2017 Groups C & D: 11–18 March 2017	Matchday 1	Team 4 vs. Team 1 Team 2 vs. Team 3
			Matchday 2	Team 1 vs. Team 3 Team 4 vs. Team 2
			Matchday 3	Team 1 vs. Team 2 Team 3 vs. Team 4
Semi-finals	No fixed venue (home-and-away)	8–15 April 2017	First leg	Semi-finalist 1 vs. Semi-finalist 2 Semi-finalist 3 vs. Semi-finalist 4
			Second leg	Semi-finalist 2 vs. Semi-finalist 1 Semi-finalist 4 vs. Semi-finalist 3
Final	No fixed venue (home-and-away)	29 April – 5 May 2017	First leg	Finalist 1 vs. Finalist 2
			Second leg	Finalist 2 vs. Finalist 1

Draw

The draw of the qualifying stage and group stage was held on 24 August 2016, 12:30 NZST (UTC+12), at the OFC Headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand.^[2][3][4]

For the qualifying stage, the four teams were drawn into each of the four positions 1–4 to determine the fixtures.

Qualifying stage draw

Pot 1
Lupe o le Soaga Puaikura[note 1] Utulei Youth Veitongo

For the group stage, the 16 teams (14 teams which entered the group stage and two qualifiers from the qualifying stage) were drawn into four groups of four, with each group containing one team from each of the four pots 1–4, which also represented the positions in each group to determine the fixtures. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. The teams were seeded based on the following:

• The teams seeded 1–11 were based on the team results of the 2016 OFC Champions League.
• The teams seeded 12–14 were based on the association results of the 2016 OFC Champions League.
• The teams seeded 15–16 were the qualifying stage winner and runner-up respectively, whose identity were not known at the time of the draw.

Group stage draw

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Auckland City Team Wellington Magenta Tefana	Vanuatu 1[note 1] Hekari United Ba[note 1] Solomon Islands 1[note 1]	Rewa[note 1] Lae City Dwellers Hienghène Sport Central Sport	Vanuatu 2[note 1] Solomon Islands 2[note 1] Qualifying stage winner Qualifying stage runner-up

Notes

Qualifying stage

In the qualifying stage, the four teams play each other on a round-robin basis. The winner and runner-up advance to the group stage to join the 14 direct entrants.

Matches will take place between 28 January – 4 February 2017 in Tonga. All times are local, TOT (UTC+13).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Puaikura	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Group stage
2	Utulei Youth	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Lupe o le Soaga	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Veitongo (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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Group stage

In the group stage, the four teams in each group play each other on a round-robin basis. The four group winners advance to the semi-finals.

The hosts of each group were announced on 10 October 2016.^[5]

Group A

Matches will take place between 25 February – 4 March 2017 in New Caledonia.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Magenta (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Knockout stage
2	Hekari United	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Central Sport	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Qualifying stage runner-up	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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Group B

Matches will take place between 25 February – 4 March 2017 in New Caledonia.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Team Wellington	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Knockout stage
2	Ba	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Hienghène Sport (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Qualifying stage winner	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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Group C

Matches will take place between 11–18 March 2017 in New Zealand.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Auckland City (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Knockout stage
2	Vanuatu 1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Lae City Dwellers	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Solomon Islands 2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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Group D

Matches will take place between 11–18 March 2017 in Tahiti.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tefana (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Knockout stage
2	Solomon Islands 1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Rewa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Vanuatu 2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, the four teams play on a single-elimination basis, with each tie played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. A draw will be held to determine the semi-final pairings.

Bracket

	Semi-finals							Final
	Semi-finalist 1
	Semi-finalist 2
								Finalist 1
								Finalist 2
	Semi-finalist 3
	Semi-finalist 4

Semi-finals

Matches will take place between 8–15 April 2017.

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Final

Matches will take place between 29 April – 5 May 2017.

See also

• 2017 FIFA Club World Cup

References

External links

• oceaniafootball.com
• 2017 OFC Champions League Qualifier, oceaniafootball.com