On Wednesday the 11th New Caledonia and New Zealand will kick off the OFC U-17 Championship. Nine teams (Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, American Samoa, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands) begin the race for two spots in this year’s U-17 World Cup to be held in Peru.
Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea will not participate in the tournament for different reasons. The Solomon Islands are serving a penalty for fielding an over-age player in the 2018 OFC U-16 championship, while Papua New Guinea had problems with their paperwork with the OFC.
There are three groups with three teams, with the best two from each group plus the second best two teams advancing to the quarterfinals, meaning that only one team will be eliminated in the first round.
Group A is Fiji, and Samoa and Tonga.
Group B is New Zealand, New Caledonia, and American Samoa.
Group C is Tahiti, Vanuatu, and the Cook Islands.
You can check the match schedule released by the Oceania Football Confederation by clicking here.
The matches will take place from January 11 to 28 in the cities of Ba and Suva and will be broadcast by the streaming application Eleven.
Oceania Football Center 