OFC Champions League

OFC Champions League

Founded	1987
Region	Oceania (OFC)
Number of teams	8
Current champions	Auckland City FC
Most successful team	Auckland City FC(3 Titles)
2011-12 OFC Champions League

The OFC Champions League is the premier club football competition in Oceania. It is also known as the O-League^[1]. The OFC Champions League has commenced its inaugural season in 2007 and replaced the previous Oceania Club Championship.

Australian teams won all four competitions held before Australia left the OFC in 2006; after that, teams from New Zealand have won consistently, until 2010 when PRK Hekari United of Papua New Guinea defeated New Zealand's Waitakere United in the final.

The Oceania Club Championship

The recent incarnations of the tournament, especially from 1999 onwards, have been organised by the Oceania Football Confederation in order to determine the Oceania representative at the FIFA Club World Cups (formerly called Club World Championships), although the Wollongong Wolves did not participate in a Club World Championship due to the cancellation of that particular tournament.

The 2006 tournament was held in New Zealand and won by Auckland City FC; a qualifying tournament was held earlier in Fiji involving the national club champions in relatively weaker nations in football. Recently there have been calls for New Zealand based A-league franchise Wellington Phoenix to join the competition.

It had been proposed that the Oceania champions would not get direct entry to the main round of the 2006 Club World Championship, instead having to play a preliminary knock out game against the host champions for entry into the main tournament[1]. However FIFA president Sepp Blatter was unable to get the necessary support for the new format and as a result Oceania retained a direct entry into the 2006 Club World Championship. However, in March 2007, the FIFA executive committee introduced a qualifying playoff between the 2007 OFC Champions League champion and the host nation's 2007 J.League champion.^[2]

Format

Previous Formats

The Oceania Club Championships involved playing in a tournament at one location. The clubs played in two groups of three clubs each. The top two clubs from each group played each other in the semi finals. With the semi final winners playing the grand final to decide the winner.

Oceania Champions League

The tournament involves two groups of four clubs each playing each other home and away. The top of each group then play each other home and away to determine the champion. The champion will then play the champion club of the host nation for a berth in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Winners and runners up

Oceania Champions League

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up
2010–11 Details	Auckland City FC New Zealand	6 – 1	Amicale FC Vanuatu
2009–10 Details	PRK Hekari United Papua New Guinea	4 – 2	Waitakere United New Zealand
2008–09 Details	Auckland City FC New Zealand	9 – 4	Koloale FC Honiara Solomon Islands
2007–08 Details	Waitakere United New Zealand	6 – 3	Kossa FC Solomon Islands
2007 Details	Waitakere United New Zealand	2 – 2 away goals	4R Electrical Ba Fiji

Oceania Club Championship/Oceania Champions Cup Finals

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Tournament Venue
2006 Details	Auckland City FC New Zealand	3 – 1	AS Pirae French Polynesia	Albany New Zealand
2004–05 Details	Sydney FC Australia	2 – 0	AS Magenta New Caledonia	Papeete French Polynesia
2000–01 Details	Wollongong Wolves Australia	1 – 0	Tafea F.C. Vanuatu	Port Moresby Papua New Guinea
1999 Details	South Melbourne FC Australia	5 – 1	Nadi F.C. Fiji	Nadi/Lautoka Fiji
1987 Details	Adelaide City Australia	1 – 1 penalties 4 - 1	Mount Wellington New Zealand	Adelaide Australia

Statistics

By club

Team	Won	Runner-up	Years won	Years runner-up
Auckland City FC	3	0	2006, 2008–09, 2010–11
Waitakere United	2	1	2007, 2007–08	2009–10
Adelaide City	1	0	1987
South Melbourne FC	1	0	1999
Wollongong Wolves	1	0	2000–01
Sydney FC	1	0	2004–05
PRK Hekari United	1	0	2009–10
University-Mount Wellington	0	1		1987
Nadi FC	0	1		1999
Tafea FC	0	1		2000–01
AS Magenta	0	1		2004–05
AS Pirae	0	1		2006
Ba F.C.	0	1		2007
Kossa FC	0	1		2007–08
Koloale FC Honiara	0	1		2008–09
Amicale FC	0	1		2010–11

By nation

Nation	Times won	Times runner-up	Winning clubs	Runners-up
New Zealand	5	2	Auckland City FC (3), Waitakere United (2)	Waitakere United (1), University-Mount Wellington (1)
Australia	4	0	Adelaide City (1), South Melbourne FC (1), Wollongong Wolves (1), Sydney FC (1)
Papua New Guinea	1	0	PRK Hekari United (1)
Solomon Islands	0	2		Koloale FC Honiara (1), Kossa FC (1)
Fiji	0	2		Nadi FC (1), Ba F.C. (1)
Vanuatu	0	2		Amicale FC (1), Tafea FC (1)
New Caledonia	0	1		AS Magenta (1)
Tahiti	0	1		AS Pirae (1)

See also

• International club competition records
• Oceania Cup Winners Cup

Links

• OFC Official Website

References

1. ^ http://www.oceaniafootball.com/comphome/1535/o-league
2. ^ "Green light for further special projects in Oceania, India and the Caribbean". Archived from the original on 2007-05-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20070516015702/http://www.fifa.com/en/media/index/0,1369,134250,00.html?articleid=134250. Retrieved 2007-04-05.