2020 OFC U-17 Women's Championship

The 2020 OFC U-17 Women's Championship, originally to be held as the 2019 OFC U-16 Women's Championship, was originally to be the 5th edition of the OFC U-16/U-17 Women's Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for the women's under-16/under-17 national teams of Oceania.

2020 OFC U-17 Women's Championship
Tournament details
Host countryTahiti
CityPapeete
DatesCancelled
Teams9 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)1 (in 1 host city)
2017
2022

The 2019 OFC U-16 Women's Championship was originally scheduled to be held in New Zealand from 30 September to 12 October 2019.[1] It was later rescheduled to be played in Tahiti from 7 to 20 December 2019.[2] However, the OFC announced on 28 November 2019 that it would be postponed to 2020 due to the measles epidemic in the Pacific region.[3] It was later rescheduled to 6 and 19 April 2020, with the name of the tournament changed from "2019 OFC U-16 Women's Championship" to "2020 OFC U-17 Women's Championship".[4] However, on 9 March 2020, the OFC announced that all OFC tournaments were postponed until 6 May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] On 14 May 2020, it was announced that a further decision regarding that tournament would be made on 2 June 2020.[6]

On 5 June 2020, the OFC announced that the tournament would be cancelled due to difficulty in rescheduling the tournament. New Zealand, who were the four-time defending champions, were nominated by the OFC Executive Committee as the OFC representatives for the 2021 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup (originally 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic) in India.[7][8] However, FIFA announced on 17 November 2020 that this edition of the World Cup would be cancelled.[9]

Teams

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Nine of the 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from OFC entered the tournament. There would be no qualification tournament, as it was suggested first.

Team Appearance
(planned)
Previous best performance
  American Samoa 2nd Group stage (2017)
  Cook Islands 4th Third place (2012)
  Fiji 3rd Third place (2016)
  New Caledonia 4th Runners-up (2017)
  New Zealand 5th Champions (2010, 2012, 2016, 2017)
  Samoa 3rd Group stage (2016, 2017)
  Tahiti 2nd Group stage (2017)
  Tonga 3rd Fourth place (2010)
  Vanuatu 2nd Group stage (2016)
Withdrew

  Papua New Guinea

Did not enter

  Solomon Islands

Venue

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The matches were originally to be played at the Stade Pater, Pirae.

Squads

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Players born on or after 1 January 2003 were eligible to compete in the tournament.

Draw

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The original draw of the tournament was held on 17 April 2019 at the OFC Academy in Auckland, New Zealand.[10] The 10 teams were drawn into three groups, with Group A having four teams and Groups B and C having three teams. As the hosts were not known at the time of the draw, all teams were drawn into the group positions without any seeding, with the only restriction that the defending champions New Zealand must be drawn into Group A.[11] The original draw results were:

However, after Papua New Guinea withdrew, a re-draw was held. The nine teams were drawn into three groups of three teams.

Group stage

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The winners of each group and the runners-up of Group A would advance to the semi-finals.

All times are local, TAHT (UTC−10).[12]

Group A

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1   American Samoa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2   Fiji 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3   Tonga 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: OFC
Tonga  Cancelled  Fiji
Report


Group B

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1   New Zealand 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2   Tahiti 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3   Vanuatu 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: OFC


Group C

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1   Cook Islands 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2   New Caledonia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3   Samoa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: OFC


Knockout stage

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Bracket

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Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
Stade Pater
 
 
Winner Group A
 
Stade Pater
 
Winner Group C
 
Winner Semi-final 1
 
Stade Pater
 
Winner Semi-final 2
 
Winner Group B
 
 
Runner-up Group A
 
Third place match
 
 
Stade Pater
 
 
Loser Semi-final 1
 
 
Loser Semi-final 2

Semi-finals

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Winner Group ACancelledWinner Group C
Report

Winner Group BCancelledRunner-up Group A
Report

Third place match

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Loser Semi-final 1CancelledLoser Semi-final 2
Report

Final

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Winner would have qualified for 2021 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Winner Semi-final 1CancelledWinner Semi-final 2
Report

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

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The following team from OFC, nominated by the OFC Executive Committee, would have qualified for the 2021 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup before the tournament was cancelled.

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup1
  New Zealand 5 June 2020[13] 6 (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

References

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  1. ^ "Hosts appointed for 2019 competitions". Oceania Football Confederation. 6 November 2018.
  2. ^ "Vanuatu women U16 prepares for OFC U16 World Cup Qualifiers". Vanuatu Daily Post. 17 October 2019.
  3. ^ "U-16 Women's Championship postponed". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 November 2019.
  4. ^ "Nouvelles dates des éliminatoires de la coupe du monde U17 féminines". Fédération Tahitienne de Football. 12 December 2019.
  5. ^ "OFC tournaments, workshops, training and courses postponed until 6 May". Oceania Football Confederation. 9 March 2020.
  6. ^ "OFC tournaments postponed". Oceania Football Confederation. 14 May 2020.
  7. ^ "Women's U-17 event cancelled". Oceania Football Confederation. 5 June 2020.
  8. ^ "Bureau of the FIFA Council decisions on FIFA events". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 12 May 2020.
  9. ^ "Update on FIFA Club World Cup 2020 and women's youth tournaments". FIFA.com. 17 November 2020.
  10. ^ "Draw for U-16 & U-19 Women's Championships complete". Oceania Football Confederation. 18 April 2019.
  11. ^ "2019 OFC WOMEN'S U-19 & U-16 CHAMPIONSHIP OFFICIAL DRAW". YouTube. 17 April 2019.
  12. ^ "9 teams will be vying for Oceania's sole place at next year's FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in India, when the OFC U-16 Women's Championship gets underway next month in Tahiti". Twitter. 15 November 2019.
  13. ^ "New Zealand to fly the flag for Oceania in India". FIFA.com. 5 June 2020. Archived from the original on 5 June 2020.
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