Auckland FC v Real Kakamora? How the seemingly absurd fixture could potentially become reality by next year

Things could not be going any better for A-League newcomers Auckland FC and Telekom S-League standouts Real Kakamora. Auckland’s Black Knights, only in their first season of competition, have risen six points clear at the top of the A-League table with a match in hand. Just recently, they thoroughly dominated their Kiwi rivals in Wellington Phoenix to the tune of a 6-1 victory, and they’ll have a chance to add on to their advantage when they play 9th-placed Newcastle Jets on 9 March.

Real Kakamora, who had failed to obtain a single point just a season ago and suffered abysmally horrific defeats such as a 14-0 bashing at the hands of now-in-hiatus Solomon Warriors, have seen arguably one of the most dramatic and impressive reversals of fortune in the modern era of the sport—the club, catapulted by a mix of newly-signed young talent and veteran stars, rose all the way to a club-best third-place finish in the 2024 S-League season! At the same time, the club’s now-famous account on Instagram completely exploded in growth by means of a rather unfiltered and unconventional humorous style of posting, gaining roughly 33,000 followers in under a single year of activity, and giving Kakamora a luxury that has not been granted to virtually any other OFC club—they have a large, dedicated base of supporters outside the confines of their home nation.

The club have since signed a kit manufacturer deal with American corporation JerseyBird, and is in a relatively strong position to greatly expand its prestige in line with their ultimate vision— to qualify for the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup.

And that brings us to the OFC Professional League. The revolutionary venture aiming to establish an 8-club continental fully-professional competition—first of its kind in the region and backed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, recently had its expression of interest process come to an end, with an unprecedented 24 clubs from nine different nations applying in hopes of taking part in the league’s inaugural season. Auckland FC chief executive Nick Becker informed Wellington newspaper The Post on Tuesday that his club had submitted an expression of interest. Auckland were one of six clubs from New Zealand to apply, and is presumably the only one to already participate in fully-professional competition, as Wellington Phoenix did not publicly express any intention regarding their interest to participate, while perennial OFC Champions League winners Auckland City declined to participate outright.

With eight-time S-League champions Solomon Warriors announcing a temporary hiatus from the league in 2025 due to serious funding issues from club ownership and current champions Central Coast abstaining from application, Kakamora became the only club from the Solomon Islands to express interest for the competition, and publicly announced their intentions in an Instagram post on 4 May in what they believed was a necessary step to ensuring the fulfillment of their PROJECT2029 vision. The week prior, Kakamora had announced an ambitious new initiative to open up official club membership to any follower who wished to apply, without any fee for registration. In its first week, the club approved over 350 members across 45 different nations.

As the confederation seeks to “expand the tournament’s audience and marketability,” including the only fully-professional A-League club to apply in addition to the most-followed club currently participating in OFC competitions (who are the only applicants from a nation currently ranked 2nd in the OFC in FIFA’s world rankings) seem like a virtual no-brainer, and as of right now, Auckland and Kakamora are likely to be the only two clubs whose participation in the competition is all but guaranteed. As the 8-club league is expected to begin next season, there is a very high chance the newly-founded New Zealand giants and the now-incredibly popular Solomon Islands outfit will face off against each other—turning a seemingly-improbable matchup to a virtually-inevitable showdown that may just mark the beginning of a new era in Oceanian football. Based on the two clubs’ unbelievable ascension to prominence over the course of the past year, that era may have already begun.