The road to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ for OFC hopefuls is now set after the completion of the preliminary competition draw held Tuesday morning NZT at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland.

The OFC qualifiers will be played in a mini-tournament format featuring eight teams and consisting of a round-robin group stage, semi-finals and the final.

Prior to this, a single qualification match will be played between Tonga and the Cook Islands – the two lowest-ranked OFC teams in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking – for the right to take part in the preliminary competition mini-tournament.

All matches will take place in Qatar from 14 to 30 March 2022.

A clash between the 2016 OFC Nations Cup finalists, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, awaits in Group B, with the two nations named alongside New Caledonia and Fiji.

Some mystery remains in Group A after the draw, with one competing nation yet to be decided ahead of Tonga and the Cook Islands playing off for the right to join Tahiti, Vanuatu and two-time OFC qualifying tournament finalists the Solomon Islands.

Group A: 

  1. Solomon Islands
  2. Tahiti
  3. Vanuatu
  4. Tonga or Cook Islands

Group B:

  1. New Zealand
  2. New Caledonia
  3. Fiji
  4. Papua New Guinea

The two group winners and the two group runners-up will qualify for the semi-finals. The winners of the two semi-finals will then meet in the final to determine the OFC representative that will face the Concacaf representative in the FIFA intercontinental play-offs in June 2022 for a place in the final competition.