OFC Nations Cup is a tournament of the international football association. It is held among the teams that make up the Oceania Football Confederation. In short - OFK. The abbreviation is decrypted from the English language and is as follows - Oceania Football Confederation.
History
At first, the tournament was held every two years from 1996 to 2004. Until 1996, there were two stages, held at unequal intervals under the name Oceania Cup of Nations.
No competition was held in 2006, but two years later, in order to determine the participating team in the Confederations Cup 2009 and in the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup, a qualification tournament was held, the winner of which was the New Zealand team.
It so happened that for the entire duration of the competition two main favorites stood out - Australia and New Zealand, which until 2012, when the Tahiti team unexpectedly won, competed exclusively among themselves for the right to own the OFK cup. What is the Cup of Nations and in what format does it take place?
Cup format
The Cup is an interethnic continental competition. The first two tournaments of it were played without any qualifying rounds. In the next three, Australia and New Zealand were automatically approved for participation, and the remaining ten teams went through qualifiers. Within the framework of the Polynesian and Melanesian Cups, each team competed with five participants grouped by geographical principle. The qualification round was held by those who appeared on the first two lines of the final table.
After the abolition of the Cups in 2002, changes were also indicated in the OFK format. What did this change entail? Based on the FIFA rating, 12 teams stood out, 6 of which having a low rating went through the group selection stage. In the competition itself, two groups of 4 teams were formed, the weakest was eliminated in each round.
In 2004, the format changed again - a scheme was returned that was similar to that which was practiced in the OFK period from 1996-2000. What did return mean? Each of the five teams plays in two qualifying rounds, while Australia and New Zealand are eliminated closer to the actual tournament. In group stage games, teams met both at home and away. The tournament became the first qualifier for the World Cup, which was held in 2006. Of course, no one doubted the OFK winner that this would happen; the Australian team became the leadership of which, after the competition, decided to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
For the tournament, held in 2008, the organizers decided to change the format again. The 2007 South Pacific Games qualified for the OFC teams for the first three places. Traditionally, New Zealand was automatically selected as the winner of the 2008 games, having secured at the same time the right to participate in the Confederations Cup in 2009 and a place in the playoffs in the 2010 World Cup.
OFC now
In 2016, the format of the event was as follows.
Group stage: eight teams were divided into two groups of four in each. For the two strongest secured a place in the playoffs. In addition, the first three teams of both groups enter the third round of the 2018 World Cup as part of the qualifying round.
Final stage: four participants in the playoffs play the elimination until a winner is determined.
In 2016, the OFC Cup was held for the 10th time in the period from May 28 to June 11 in Papua New Guinea. The winner is New Zealand, which secured a place in the 2017 Confederations Cup, which will be held in Russia.