Southern United won Tasman United by 4-0 in the ISPS Handa Premiership Week 1. However the match is declared to be forfeited by Southern United and shall be recorded as a 3-0 win for Tasman.
According to local sources, Cameron Mackenzie signed with Southern United but he was not in the official team squad so he could not play. He entered in the second half in the 4-0 win.
Southern won by 4-0 but they lost the three points because they fielded an irregular player
Tasman United protested and New Zealand Football competitions manager found that Southern United fielded one player not named on the club’s official list of players. Southern lost three points while Tasman won three points from this match. Both teams have six points now
Roy Krishna wins “Hero of the month” award in Indian Super League. He was elected by fans as the best player of November in the league.
Krishna is the winner of Hero of the Month award. Source: ISL Website
Krishna scored three goals in three matches during the month, helping ATK to keep the first position in the table. He is 32 years old and this is his first season with ATK.
This is his second appearence in five matchweeks in the Team of The Week. Kaltak is 26 years old and he is the Vanuatu National Team captain. He is an inspiration for Pacific Islanders.
Vanuatu is set to be given a new football stadium in the next upcoming years. In 2018 FIFA approved Qualao Consulting Limited as engineers for the new planned stadium in Freswota, a residential community of Port Vila.
Freswota Stadium is a 200 million Vatu (1,8 million USD) project funded by FIFA and it is orignially projected to be ready in 2021. However there has been some delays recently due to water connection on the field.
An outline of the project. Source: VFF Media
According to local sources workmen are currently working on field and drainage. There are no reports about the Freswota Stadium’s capacity but some news can be released soon once Freswota Stadium is one of the agenda subjects in the 29th VFF Meeting that is being held in Sanma Province.
Port Vila already counts on some stadiums like Korman Stadium and Port Vila Stadium.
As everybody already knows, Lionel Messi won the Ballon D’or for the sixth time in his career. Ballon D’or is an annual football award presented by France Football and it is voted by one journalist from each country/territory. The 2019 edition had almost 200 voters and four of them are from Oceania.
Messi won the Ballon D’or award for the 6th time
Check the Oceanian votes below:
🇨🇰 Cook Islands (Rashneel Kumar – Cook Island News) 1- Messi 2- Cristiano Ronaldo 3- Salah 4- Mbappé 5- Hazard
🇳🇨 New Caledonia (Anthony Fillet – Les Nouvelles Calèdoniennes) 1- Messi 2- Van Dijk 3- Cristiano Ronaldo 4- Mané 5- De Jong
🇳🇿 New Zealand (Gordon Watson – OFC TV) 1- Messi 2- Van Dijk 3- Cristiano Ronaldo 4- Mané 5- Salah
🇵🇫 Tahiti (Olivier Hue – Tahiti Nui Télévision) 1- Van Dijk 2- Messi 3- Mané 4- Cristiano Ronaldo 5- Salah
Lambert Maltock won the Vanuatu Football Federation’s presidential election and he is going to be the VFF president until 2024. The election took place in the VFF 29th congress heldin Hog Harbour, Sanma Province.
Maltock has beaten Stephen Felix in the final poll to remain as VFF President.
The 2019-20 World Rugby Sevens is the 21st annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for national men’s rugby sevens teams. This season is going to have ten events in five different continents and the first event will take place in Dubai this weekend. You might be asking yourself why Oceania Football Center is writing about it, but it is just an introduction to talk about a specific person: Paul Scanlan.
Scanlan is a 23 years old rugby player from Samoa that is currently in Dubai to play this tournament. One year ago he was getting ready to play another important champioship: The OFC Football Champions League.
Scanlan playing for Kiwi FC in 2019 OFC Champions League.
He was one of the most promising footballers in Samoa being part of the National Football Team with just 19 years old. Scanlan also has a great record at OFC Champions League with seven goals scored in six matches – including preliminary round and group stage. He was a key player for Kiwi FC in the preliminary round of 2019 OFC Champions League helping his team to qualify for the group stage. However he did not take part of Kiwi’s squad in the group stage because he stopped playing football.
Football is a millionaire sport around the world but it is not the reality in Oceania. Rugby is the most popular sport in the region so players can be more recognized as a rugby player. While Oceania fights for a spot in Inter-Confederation Play-off for FIFA World Cup, they have five direct spots for Rugby World Cup. Scanlan is not the first and he will not be the last player to leave football to play rugby in Oceania.
Paul Scanlan playing rugby for Samoa National Team
Scanlan is having a huge opportunity in rugby, playing against the best players of the world and probably earning an amount of money he would not earn in football. He has really taken the right decision for a Samoan player.
Football popularity is increasing slowly in Oceania. Anyway it seems that it is going to take a long long time for Oceanian football develop to a proper level.
Two referees from Solomon Islands took part of world stage championships in the past weeks. Hugo Pado was one of the 24 referees selected for 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup held in Paraguay while George Time worked at FISU World Cup – an universitary championship held in China.
Hugo Pado at Paraguay for 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. Source: SIFF Media
Pado is an experient referee and it was his fifth straight appearence in FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019).
Huang Xuehu – the Head of Chinese Diplomatic Working Group – told that the squad includes 23 men and 23 women. They will also have two media personnel and one representative from Betio (BTC) and Abaiang.
They are going to stay at Zhejiang Province, a province near Shanghai.
Oceania Football Center 