Tahiti reshapes domestic football as new Super Ligue opens path to OFC Champions League

Football in French Polynesia is preparing for a significant structural change, with the Fédération Tahitienne de Football introducing a new domestic format that will separate the championships of Tahiti and Moorea before bringing their leading clubs together in a new Super Ligue.

The reform will come into effect for the 2026/27 season and changes not only the organisation of domestic football, but also the route through which French Polynesia will determine its representative for the 2028 OFC Champions League.

Under the new system, clubs from Tahiti and Moorea will compete in their own island championships rather than sharing the same top-level competition.

The decision effectively ends the arrangement that had allowed some Moorea clubs to compete alongside Tahiti teams. According to the FTF, logistical difficulties were among the reasons for returning to separate competitions.

The major innovation, however, comes at the end of the domestic season.

The top two teams from Tahiti and the top two from Moorea will qualify for a four-club Super Ligue. Those sides will contest semi-finals before a champion is crowned, with the winner earning the right to represent Tahiti at the 2028 OFC Champions League, provided the club meets the applicable OFC licensing and eligibility requirements.

It creates a much clearer pathway towards Oceania’s premier club competition for teams from Moorea.

Historically, Tahiti’s major clubs such as AS Pirae, AS Tefana, AS Vénus and AS Dragon have dominated the territory’s representation on the continental stage. Under the new format, a Moorea club could now defeat Tahiti’s leading sides in the Super Ligue and claim the OFC Champions League place.

The president of the Moorea league, Pare Salmon, described the reform as an important opportunity for clubs from the island, where qualifying for Oceania competition had previously been extremely difficult.

Prize money will also be distributed to all four teams reaching the Super Ligue, adding another incentive for clubs from both competitions.

Tahiti’s own championship will also undergo a major transformation.

The new season will begin with 17 clubs competing together in an initial phase, with every team facing the others across 16 rounds.

At the conclusion of that stage, the competition will split.

The top eight clubs will advance into Ligue 1, where they will continue the fight for the Tahitian championship, while the remaining nine teams will move into Ligue 2.

The FTF opted for the system partly because the second division did not previously contain enough clubs to sustain what the federation considered a satisfactory full-season competition.

It means Tahiti football will effectively begin with one large field before sporting performance determines which clubs form the two divisions for the decisive part of the season.

The 17 clubs beginning the Tahiti competition are Arue, Tefana, Vénus, Olympic Mahina, Mataiea, Manu Ura, Papara FC, Excelsior, Dragon, Papeno’o, Pirae, Jeunes Tahitiens, Central Sport, Pueu, Tamarii Punaruu, Taiarapu FC and Vaiete.

The calendar will be demanding. All 16 rounds of the initial stage are scheduled to be completed before the end of the year, meaning clubs could occasionally face more than one match in the same week.

The new season is scheduled to begin on the weekend of September 12 and 13.

AS Tefana enter as defending Tahiti champions and will once again be among the leading candidates, although established contenders including Pirae, Vénus and Dragon will now first need to secure their place among the top eight before concentrating on the championship itself.

Moorea, meanwhile, will stage an independent eight-team competition involving Tiare Tahiti, Mira, Tapuhute, Tiare Anani, Tiare Hinano, Tearaa, Temanava and defending champions Tohie’a FC.

For those clubs, finishing in the top two now carries significantly greater importance.

A strong domestic campaign would take them directly into the Super Ligue, placing them only two knockout victories away from potentially representing French Polynesia on the continental stage.

That element could prove to be the most important consequence of the reform.

Rather than the OFC Champions League pathway being concentrated almost entirely among Tahiti’s traditional powers, the new structure provides clubs from Moorea with a realistic sporting route to Oceania’s biggest club competition.

The FTF has also confirmed that the structure introduced for 2026/27 is intended to remain in place for the following 2027/28 season, suggesting the Super Ligue is being introduced as a longer-term part of French Polynesia’s domestic football system rather than as a one-season experiment.

For Tahiti’s established clubs, the reform introduces additional competition and another knockout stage between domestic success and continental qualification.

For Moorea, it represents something considerably bigger: an opportunity to challenge Tahiti’s strongest teams directly for a place on the Oceania stage.

With 17 clubs beginning the new Tahiti championship, an independent competition returning to Moorea and the inaugural Super Ligue waiting at the end of the season, 2026/27 will mark the beginning of a very different era for domestic football in French Polynesia.