HJK is the most famous football club of Finland; they have won 29 times the Veikkausliga, the top-tier of football in the country. The club also took part in several editions of the UEFA Champions League, already playing more than 100 matches in the most important club tournament of the planet.
If Browne suceeds in his trials he will help to rebuild HJK that made a very frustrating season in 2019 ending just 5th out of 12 teams in the Veikkausliga, after winning the league twice in a row. According to some appointments, Browne might be the replacement of their star player Harmeet Singh, that recently departed from the Finnish side.
The defender Taylor Schrijvers resigned for Team Wellington to play the 2020 part of the ISPS Handa Premiership season. The New Zealander is back after a stint in the United Kingdom.
Schrijvers with Team Wellington in UAE – TW Media
The defender played in the thrilling 3-3 match against Al-Ain in UAE for the 2018 FIFA Clubs World Cup when Team Wellington represented Oceania in the tournament – the match ended-up with a defeat for the New Zealand side in the penalty shootout.
He also featured in the OFC Champions League win of the Wellington-based club in 2018, when they beat the Fijian giants Lautoka in the final matches.
TeeDubs is in the run at the top-tier of football in New Zealand and has Auckland City as their biggest rivals in the battle for the national title. A well-experienced player in the continent as Schrijvers can help a lot Team Wellington to hold the pressure of the good attacking teams of the league.
According to reliable sources the Papua New Guinea international David Browne left Auckland City FC in order to attend trials in Europe. The forward still can fly back to Auckland if his trials are not succesful.
Browne turned himself into the first Papua New Guinean player to become a professional player in Europe when he signed for the Netherlands top-tier side PEC Zwolle. He also played in Groningen in the European country before moving back to his former Auckland City.
The nine-time OFC Champions League champions Auckland City added to their squad to very important players. The club is currently at the top of ISPS Handa Premiership and will play the 2020 OFC Champions League.
One of the biggest legends of Auckland City FC history, Emiliano Tade is back to the club. He helped the Navy Blues to win various tournaments and is back to the team after some years of professional football in South Africa – he last played for the top-side Mamelodi Sundowns.
Tade when player of Auckland City FC – ACFC Media
Allongside the 31-year old forwar – according to reliable sources – Auckland City added in the squad the All Whites member Tom Doyle to the squad. The defender that played the last season for Wellington Phoenix has eleven appearences for the national team and played the most recent FIFA Confederations Cup. He last played in German 3rd tier for Chemnitzer FC, but decided to travel back his homeland.
Doyle defending New Zealand collours – NewsHub
Despite the massive additions for the season, Auckland City lost the striker Keegam Linderboom – that did not play a single match since signed last year for the club – as he departed for Thailand.
The Friday starts with very good news for New Zealand and Oceania Football as another player from the confederation enters the Major League Soccer, the most important football league of United States and one of the most imporant in the entire American continent. The full-back Noah Billingsley from UC Santa Barbara was chosen by Minnesota United in the 18th overall pick of the MLS Super Draft.
Billingsley (right) celebrates a goal for OlyWhites – OFC Media
The defender – that is naturally a righ back – can play in various positions, including in the left-side and helped New Zealand U23 side to qualify for Tokyo Olympics playing in full-back position with more offensive freedom. Noah also played 2015 U20 World Cup for New Zealand and has three appearances for the All Whites.
The 22-year old player was praised by Minnesota head coach Adrian Heath in a statement made by the club in social media:
Minnesota United also has the All Whites member Michael Boxall in their squad and the club made a very good season in 2019 – finishing 4th in the Western Conference.
Billingsley is expected to be part of the squad for the upcoming season in United States, although he has still to battle to conqueer his spot in the team in the pre-season.
Lambert Maltock is the current president of Oceania Football Confederation and Vanuatu Football Federation. The 63-year-old Ni-Vanuatu football administrator talked to Oceania Football Center about the next steps of Oceanian Football. You can check the full interview below:
How are the plans for OFC Nations Cup? Are the dates and venues confirmed? I have got all details with me now. New Zealand will host this tournament. It should be around May and June.
Will the format of the competition be the same as the previous editions? There will be a preliminary play-off first and then the winner of the four Polynesian nations will join the other seven nations for the final stage. We have not changed the format this time, but it is still under discussion for the next OFC Nations Cup.
Do Oceania Football Confederation have plans to make the national teams more actives? Yes. We have already made substantial progress in discussions together within the OFC to have all 11 Nations playing regularly against each other every year, if possible. With the proposed format under discussion, we want to include all OFC countries together and group them by ranking and region, so that any activity will be affordable, cost-effective and sustainable.
Is this about the OFC Nations League idea? Yes. It was my idea for improving football performance in the region. It is to be played every year or two years, rather than waiting four years to play a minimum of four international matches.
Current OFC Nations Cup champions New Zealand will host 2020 OFC Nations Cup
Are there other ideas to be put in practice in order to reduce the gap from OFC to the other confederations? We have made discussions and agreements with other confederations like AFC and CONMEBOL to see how they could assist OFC in improving their performance. In June we will sign an agreement with AFC and CONMEBOL. We already have an agreement with UEFA to fund youth football development with exchanges of football and tournament promotions in Europe or in the region that started in 2019.
How they could assist OFC? We focus on all categories with special emphasis on youth football elites to meet our vision for 2026.
Will we see more youth tournaments and more friendly matches against AFC, UEFA and CONMEBOL members in that case? Exactly.
What do you think about the changes made by FIFA in the FIFA Club World Cup? Will it affect OFC? No, it will not affect OFC. It should help OFC by raising our standard of performance. This will allow OFC and other Confederations to introduce new competitions between them to help local clubs better prepare for Club World Cup every year. We will also introduce other tournaments to benefit our clubs in the region.
The first ever OFC Youth Development Tournament was played in 2019 with six teams. Source: OFC Media
What are your plans for VFF after the re-election? Do you have new ideas to develop Ni-Vanuatu football? I have outlined several programmes after the election which can be found on VFF page. We are planning all our activities according to the FIFA Forward 2.0 programme which set specific requirements and targets to meet in order to get access to funding from FIFA. VFF, like any other small OFC nation, rely heavily on FIFA funding. These are the requirements and some other things we are doing: • Minimum of four FIFA international matches for senior men and women; • Four international matches for youth men and women; • The VFF National Youth League Championship has already been launched and must continue for both male and female; • Vanuatu National Super League for clubs will continue and its format may be changed; • Vanuatu Senior National League Championship will be launched on 23 January 2020 for the first time ever; • Strengthening of Northern Region Academy to become a full academy like Teouma Academy; • Create a new Football Forum to include representatives from stakeholders to have in football of the country, this will be hosted in June 2020; • A feasibility to set a task for initiating professional football platform in the country along with OFC in 2021; • Complete the new Fresh Water Stadium (also known as Freswota Stadium) for VFF.
The champions of the first ever VFF National Youth League. Source: VFF Media
The National Super League intends to be played throughout the year. Will the teams from other member associations have more game time against the top teams of the country as Galaxy and Malampa Revivors? We have divided our leagues into two main streams up until now. Port Vila Football League is called the Elite League and the other seven member associations Leagues (including Luganville Football Association) are called Promotional Leagues. It was given a trial period of four years to match up with the Port Vila Elite League. In 2016 Nalkutan FC became Champions of Vanuatu by beating Champions of Port Vila, and in 2019 Malampa Revivors became the Champions by beating Galaxy FC from Port Vila. We are now looking into a new format to embrace the leagues in order to make it more competitive so that clubs can improve their standard. There will be a football forum in June which will talk about all these assessments to explore new horizons on how to move forward.
Are there any new investments in media being made by OFC and the local federations? OFC is little known in the football world and the lack of proper information is one of the main reasons for that. Each federation has its own internal problems. Normally within the funds which are allocated to each member association, media should be included. But each member association set its priorities and apply for funding. With regards to OFC we have MyCujoo that relay all continental matches and our website reports all activities. The OFC Media Officer left last year and we have not yet replaced her. In Vanuatu we brought in a new Media Officer, Matt Temar, at the end of last year.
The main issue comes from the local leagues. People struggle to know reliable information about the leagues like squads, standings, final scores and top scorers. It also happens in other nations, specially at the bottom four ranked Polynesian nations. Yes. I agree with that because we concentrate mainly running the tournaments or activities and there was no specific media officer to relay these activities. That is why we recruited Matt Temar for purpose and with the COMET system, it will become easier. The Congress has raised these concerns because many activities happened in the islands without report updates. Just for information, we (VFF) have registered more players (seniors and youth alike) more than before in the COMET system. We have discussed that information such as fixtures, results, scorers etc. must be updated on a regular basis – weekly at least.
Thanks for your interview it will be very important for the followers of Oceania Football You welcome. This is what we need to let the world know about Vanuatu and Oceania.
Oceania Football Center thank Lambert Maltock for hist availability and patience to answer all these questions.
Hekari United are strengthening their squad for 2020 OFC Champions League. It was already reported that some players like Michael Foster, Anthony Talo had arrived at the club, before they also signed one Portuguese and two Brazilians for the continental championship.
However there is another player with international club experience that people are not paying much attention to: Xinhua Shane Micah. Micah is a 23 years old Papua New Guinean player that can play as a midfielder and striker. He came back to his homeland in 2018 after spending two years playing football in Germany.
Micah played for two teams during his European stint – SV Königsbach and VfB Eppingen. According to a database website he played 22 matches there and scored one goal from 2016 to 2018. Both teams play at Baden regional leagues in the northeastern Germany.
The 23-year old midfielder is having a rare opportunity to expose his football in a much higher level competition. He is set to travel today (09/01) and hopes to keep at the top-tier side and help them in their season goals.
Laugu United helped financially the player and is of public knowledge the club raised donations and fundraisings in the community in order to fund the trip and expenses of one of the best players in the country currently for this golden chance.
Solomon Islander forward Micah Lea’alafa played 38 minutes in Maritzburg United 2-2 draw against SuperSport United.
Lea’alafa was named for Maritzburg’s starting eleven for the second straight match but he was subbed off in the first half. Bandile Shandu replaced him. It is not clear if he was replaced due to injury or technical reasons.
Micah Lea’alafa. Source: Maritzburg United Media
New Zealander Jeremy Brockie also played. He joined the pitch in the second half to replace Bongokuhle Hlongwane.
Maritzburg is currently in the 8th position with 22 points in sixteen matches in 2019-20 ABSA Premiership, the top tier of South African football.
There are some rumours that many players from Vanuatu National Football Team are ready to play for Malampa Revivors in 2020 OFC Champions League.
Some of the released names are Bob Jeffery (Tafea), Azariah Soromon (Tupuji Imere), Gordshem Dona (Tafea) and Kaloram Firiam (Ifira Black Bird). There is nothing confirmed yet but people might see them playing for Malampa Revivors in the next OFC Champions League.
Azariah Soromon is one of the players linked to Malampa Revivors. Source: OFC Media
Jeffery, Dona and Firiam already played for Malampa Revivors in 2019 OFC Champions League so they are probably going to play for Revivors again. Another player that has been linked to Revivors was central defender Jason Thomas. Oceania Football Center keep investigating these rumours in order to bring more accurate information.
