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

Ba

Rewa

Magenta (H)

Hienghène Sport (H)

Team
Wellington

Auckland
City (H)

Hekari United

Lae City Dwellers

Tefana (H)

Central Sport

Malampa
Revivors

Utulei
Youth

Puaikura

Lupe o le Soaga

Veitongo (h)

Location of teams of the 2017 OFC Champions League.
Teams entering the group stage
Teams entering the qualifying stage
(H) Group stage host
(h) Qualifying stage host

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

1. The identity of the teams from Cook Islands, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu were not known at the time of the draw.

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

First match(es) will be played on 28 January 2017. Source: OFC
(H) Host.

Utulei Youth v Lupe o le Soaga

28 January 2017 12:00

Utulei Youth	v	Lupe o le Soaga

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Veitongo v Puaikura

28 January 2017 15:00

Veitongo	v	Puaikura

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

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Puaikura v Lupe o le Soaga

31 January 2017 12:00

Puaikura	v	Lupe o le Soaga

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Veitongo v Utulei Youth

31 January 2017 15:00

Veitongo	v	Utulei Youth

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

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Puaikura v Utulei Youth

3 February 2017 12:00

Puaikura	v	Utulei Youth

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Lupe o le Soaga v Veitongo

3 February 2017 15:00

Lupe o le Soaga	v	Veitongo

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

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

First match(es) will be played on 25 February 2017. Source: OFC
(H) Host.

Qualifying stage runner-up v Magenta

February 2017

Qualifying stage runner-up	v	Magenta

Nouméa

Hekari United v Central Sport

February 2017

Hekari United	v	Central Sport

Nouméa

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Magenta v Central Sport

February 2017

Magenta	v	Central Sport

Nouméa

Qualifying stage runner-up v Hekari United

February 2017

Qualifying stage runner-up	v	Hekari United

Nouméa

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Magenta v Hekari United

March 2017

Magenta	v	Hekari United

Nouméa

Central Sport v Qualifying stage runner-up

March 2017

Central Sport	v	Qualifying stage runner-up

Nouméa

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

First match(es) will be played on 25 February 2017. Source: OFC
(H) Host.

Qualifying stage winner v Team Wellington

February 2017

Qualifying stage winner	v	Team Wellington

Koné

Ba v Hienghène Sport

February 2017

Ba	v	Hienghène Sport

Koné

---

Team Wellington v Hienghène Sport

February 2017

Team Wellington	v	Hienghène Sport

Koné

Qualifying stage winner v Ba

February 2017

Qualifying stage winner	v	Ba

Koné

---

Team Wellington v Ba

March 2017

Team Wellington	v	Ba

Koné

Hienghène Sport v Qualifying stage winner

March 2017

Hienghène Sport	v	Qualifying stage winner

Koné

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

First match(es) will be played on 11 March 2017. Source: OFC
(H) Host.

Solomon Islands 2 v Auckland City

March 2017

Solomon Islands 2	v	Auckland City

Auckland

Vanuatu 1 v Lae City Dwellers

March 2017

Vanuatu 1	v	Lae City Dwellers

Auckland

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Auckland City v Lae City Dwellers

March 2017

Auckland City	v	Lae City Dwellers

Auckland

Solomon Islands 2 v Vanuatu 1

March 2017

Solomon Islands 2	v	Vanuatu 1

Auckland

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Auckland City v Vanuatu 1

March 2017

Auckland City	v	Vanuatu 1

Auckland

Lae City Dwellers v Solomon Islands 2

March 2017

Lae City Dwellers	v	Solomon Islands 2

Auckland

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

First match(es) will be played on 11 March 2017. Source: OFC
(H) Host.

Vanuatu 2 v Tefana

March 2017

Vanuatu 2	v	Tefana

Papeete

Solomon Islands 1 v Rewa

March 2017

Solomon Islands 1	v	Rewa

Papeete

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Tefana v Rewa

March 2017

Tefana	v	Rewa

Papeete

Vanuatu 2 v Solomon Islands 1

March 2017

Vanuatu 2	v	Solomon Islands 1

Papeete

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Tefana v Solomon Islands 1

March 2017

Tefana	v	Solomon Islands 1

Papeete

Rewa v Vanuatu 2

March 2017

Rewa	v	Vanuatu 2

Papeete

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.

Semi-finalist 1 v Semi-finalist 2

April 2017

Semi-finalist 1	v	Semi-finalist 2

Semi-finalist 2 v Semi-finalist 1

April 2017

Semi-finalist 2	v	Semi-finalist 1

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Semi-finalist 3 v Semi-finalist 4

April 2017

Semi-finalist 3	v	Semi-finalist 4

Semi-finalist 4 v Semi-finalist 3

April 2017

Semi-finalist 4	v	Semi-finalist 3

Final

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

Finalist 1 v Finalist 2

April 2017

Finalist 1	v	Finalist 2

Finalist 2 v Finalist 1

May 2017

Finalist 2	v	Finalist 1

See also

• 2017 FIFA Club World Cup

References

1. "New expanded format for 2017". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 June 2016.
2. "Live draw for expanded Champions League". Oceania Football Confederation. 23 August 2016.
3. "Group make-up revealed for Champions League". Oceania Football Confederation. 24 August 2016.
4. "2017 OFC Champions League Live Draw". YouTube. 24 August 2016.
5. "Group hosts named for 2017". Oceania Football Confederation. 10 October 2016.

External links

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