OFC Champions League

OFC Champions League

Founded	1987 (1987)
Region	Oceania (OFC)
Number of teams	16 (group stage) 18 (total) (from 11 associations)
Qualifier for	FIFA Club World Cup
Current champions	Hienghène Sport (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	Auckland City (9 titles)
Website	www.oceaniafootball.com
2020 OFC Champions League

The OFC Champions League, also known as the O-League, is the premier men's club football competition in Oceania. It is organized by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), Oceania's football governing body. It has been organized since 2007 under the current format, following its predecessor, the Oceania Club Championship. Twelve OFC Champions League titles have been won by teams from New Zealand, with Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia being the only Pacific nations to have won the competition.

During the 2014–15 season, the tournament became sponsored by Fiji Airways, therefore renaming the competition as the Fiji Airways OFC Champions League. Trophies for OFC tournaments, made by London-based silversmiths Thomas Lyte, are awarded to winners.

History

At first, this competition was played as a single playoff match between champions of New Zealand and Australia. That competition was held in 1987 and Adelaide City won the inaugural season. Then 12 years pause came, until OFC organized next, all Oceania Cup. In January 1999, the Oceania Club Championship was held in the Fijian cities of Nadi and Lautoka. Nine teams took part, with Australian side South Melbourne winning the trophy. They also qualified for the following year's FIFA Club World Cup. The next competition was held two years later, with an Australian team again winning the title. Wollongong Wolves won it, beating Vanuatu representative Tafea in the final. Two more editions were held under this name and format, with Sydney and Auckland City winning titles. OFC decided to change the competition format and name, so that since 2007 the competition is known as the OFC Champions League. The 2019 final marked the first time in the history of the competition that there was no side from New Zealand present.

Format

Oceania Club Championship

The Oceania Club Championship was played in one or two venues, in one host country. There were two or three groups with single round-robin format, semifinals and final. The tournament usually lasted about 10 days, with matches being played every 2 days.

OFC Champions League

OFC decided to change competition format, to make its main competition more interesting and more important to competing clubs.

The first two seasons saw competition with two groups of three teams each, and from the third edition onwards it consists of two groups of four teams each. Group winners progress to the final, played in double playoff format, with the winner taking the title. Unlike its previous format, O-League lasts more than a half year, starting in October and ending the following April. The O-League winner qualifies to FIFA Club World Cup, entering the competition in playoff round.

For the 2012–13 season O-League changed its format with the introduction of qualifying stage, with the champions of the four weakest leagues competing for a play-off spot with the representative of country with the worst record from the previous tournament. Later rather were also scheduling and format changes for the main tournament .That competition was played between March and May 2013 with introduction of semifinal stage and final played on neutral venue. First O-League one-legged final was played in Auckland, and was the first O-League final between two teams from the same country, with Auckland City defeating Waitakere United to win its 5th title.

OFC Champions League saw another change for 2013–14 season with group stage played in a pre-determined location with semifinal and final played on home and away basis. Fiji was selected as host. Preliminary stage was played six months before group stage, and the winner entered the group stage.

Another change came in 2017 when group stage was expanded to 16 teams with whole competition being played in the one year (preliminary stage followed by group stage and later knock-out stage). Each of four groups was hosted by one of teams from the group meaning more countries and teams included. Group winners qualified for the semifinal stage. The semifinals and final were both played on home-away basis. Following success of 2017 season, OFC added quarterfinal round for 2018 edition, meaning the top two teams from each group qualified for the knock-out stage.

In 2014, both finalists of the OFC Champions League participated in the OFC President's Cup, an invitational tournament organized by the OFC. However, President's Cup was held only once.

Records and statistics

Main article: Oceania Club Championship and OFC Champions League records and statistics

Finals

OFC Club Championship era

Season	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Venue	Attendance	No. of Teams	No. of Associations
1987	Adelaide City	1 – 1 (4–1 pen.)	University-Mount Wellington	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide	3,500	9	9
1999	South Melbourne	5 – 1	Nadi	Prince Charles Park, Nadi	10,000	9	9
2001	Wollongong Wolves	1 – 0	Tafea	Lloyd Robson Stadium, Port Moresby	3,000	11	11
2005	Sydney FC	2 – 0	AS Magenta	Stade Pater, Papeete	4,000	13	12
2006	Auckland City	3 – 1	AS Pirae	North Harbour Stadium, Auckland	2,000	11	10

OFC Champions League era

Season	Champions	Score	Runners-up	Venue	Attendance	No. of Teams	No. of Associations
2007	Waitakere United	2 – 1	Ba	Govind Park, Ba	10,000	6	5
		0 – 1		Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland	9,000
		2 – 2 (a)			19,000
2007–08	Waitakere United	1 – 3	Kossa	Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara	20,000	9	8
		5 – 0		Trusts Stadium, Waitakere City	6,000
		6 – 3			26,000
2008–09	Auckland City	7 – 2	Koloale	Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara	20,000	6	6
		2 – 2		Kiwitea Street, Auckland	1,250
		9 – 4			21,250
2009–10	Hekari United	3 – 0	Waitakere United	PMRL Stadium, Port Moresby	15,000	8	7
		1 – 2		Fred Taylor Park, Auckland	3,000
		4 – 2			18,000
2010–11	Auckland City	2 – 1	Amicale	Municipal Stadium, Port Vila	7,925	8	7
		4 – 0		Kiwitea Street, Auckland	3,000
		6 – 1			10,925
2011–12	Auckland City	2 – 1	AS Tefana	Kiwitea Street, Auckland	1,500	8	7
		1 – 0		Stade Louis Ganivet, Faaa	1,900
		3 – 1			3,400
2012–13	Auckland City	2 – 1	Waitakere United	Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland	3,000	12	11
2013–14	Auckland City	1 – 1	Amicale	Municipal Stadium, Port Vila	10,000	15	11
		2 – 1		Kiwitea Street, Auckland	3,000
		3 – 2			13,000
2014–15	Auckland City	1 – 1 (4–3 pen.)	Team Wellington	National Stadium, Suva	3,000	15	11
2016	Auckland City	3 – 0	Team Wellington	QBE Stadium, Auckland	1,500	15	11
2017	Auckland City	3 – 0	Team Wellington	Kiwitea Street, Auckland	1,000	18	11
		2 – 0		David Farrington Park, Wellington	1,000
		5 – 0			2,000
2018	Team Wellington	6 – 0	Lautoka	David Farrington Park, Wellington	1,200	18	11
		4 – 3		Churchill Park, Lautoka	1,000
		10 – 3			2,200
2019	Hienghène Sport	1 – 0	AS Magenta	Stade Numa-Daly Magenta, Nouméa	7,000	18	11

Performances by club

Past winners are:

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Winning Seasons	Runner-up Seasons
Auckland City	9	—	2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017	—
Waitakere United	2	2	2007, 2008	2010, 2013
Team Wellington	1	3	2018	2015, 2016, 2017
Adelaide City	1	—	1987	—
South Melbourne	1	—	1999	—
Wollongong Wolves	1	—	2001	—
Sydney FC	1	—	2005	—
Hekari United	1	—	2010	—
Hienghène Sport	1	—	2019	—
Magenta	—	2	—	2005, 2019
Amicale	—	2	—	2011, 2014
University-Mount Wellington	—	1	—	1987
Nadi	—	1	—	1999
Tafea	—	1	—	2001
Pirae	—	1	—	2006
Ba	—	1	—	2007
Kossa	—	1	—	2008
Koloale	—	1	—	2009
Tefana	—	1	—	2012
Lautoka	—	1	—	2018

Performances by country

Club	Titles	Runners-up
New Zealand	12	6
Australia	4	—
New Caledonia	1	2
Papua New Guinea	1	—
Fiji	—	3
Vanuatu	—	3
Solomon Islands	—	2
Tahiti	—	2

Notes:

• Australia is no longer an OFC member.

All-time table (Top 10 Clubs)

• From 1987 to 2017.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Auckland City (13)	75	53	14	8	211	65	+146	173
2	Waitakere United (8)	48	25	12	11	99	57	+42	87
3	Ba (10)	45	22	6	17	67	76	−9	72
4	Tafea (9)	39	19	8	12	98	64	+34	65
5	Hekari United (8)	39	16	9	14	67	58	+9	57
6	Magenta (7)	23	16	6	1	71	48	+23	54
7	Amicale (6)	35	16	5	14	50	40	+10	53
8	Pirae (4)	18	9	1	8	48	36	+12	28
9	Wollongong Wolves (1)	7	7	0	0	43	2	+41	21
10	Team Wellington (3)	8	7	0	1	34	14	+20	21

Source:

* Number in parentheses show number of participations.

All-time table (Countries)

• From 1987 to 2017.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	New Zealand	155	98	32	25	418	155	+263	326
2	Fiji	92	40	12	40	147	186	−39	132
3	Vanuatu	84	36	16	32	158	145	+13	124
4	Tahiti	78	26	11	41	166	165	+1	89
5	Solomon Islands	72	24	10	38	141	166	−25	82
6	Papua New Guinea	64	24	10	30	109	145	−36	82
7	New Caledonia	58	19	9	30	98	117	−19	66
8	Australia	17	16	1	0	90	9	+81	49
9	Samoa	39	14	3	22	68	124	−56	45
10	Cook Islands	25	11	3	11	65	52	+13	36
11	Tonga	26	5	3	18	34	119	−85	18
12	American Samoa	16	1	1	14	18	98	−80	4
13	Palau	1	0	0	1	2	6	−4	0

Source:

See also

• Oceania Cup Winners' Cup

External links

• OFC Official Website