OFC U-20 Championship – Media Accreditation
Download media accreditation here
All media who wish to attend the OFC U-20 Championship 2014 in Suva, Fiji, from Friday 23 May to Saturday 31 May are kindly requested to fill out the attached application form and return it via email to [email protected] by Wednesday 21 May.
For the latest news on the OFC U-20 Championship visit www.oceaniafootball.com
To view the match schedule click here
Background information
The OFC U-20 Championship will be held at ANZ Stadium in Suva from May 23 to 31 with the participating teams being hosts Fiji, American Samoa, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
All six teams will compete for OFC’s second qualification spot at the FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015, set to be held from May 30 to June 20 next year.
The teams will play each other once in a round robin tournament based on a league system with the team that finishes top of the table qualifying for New Zealand 2015.
The OFC U-20 Championship was first held in Tahiti in 1974 when the hosts became the inaugural champions. Tahiti faced a long wait for their second title, which they picked up on home soil in 2008, but did not get the chance to defend it as they were not involved in the 2011 tournament. Hosts New Zealand took full advantage of the champions’ absence to earn their fourth continental crown at U-20 level.
Since that first championship 39 years ago, the tournament has been held another 18 times, making this the 20th edition of the Pacific’s premier event for U-20 players. It has been held at various intervals in the past but now takes place once every two years to find OFC’s qualifier for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Australia (which left OFC for the Asian Football Confederation in 2006) and New Zealand have dominated the competition since its inception, Australia earning 12 title wins to New Zealand’s five. The only team to break that stranglehold has been Tahiti with its pair of triumphs, although Fiji have finished runners-up on five occasions, and Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands have also featured in the top placings.
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