Oceania Football Center

Galaxy FC: pursuing the domination of Ni-Van football

Galaxy FC is a sensation in Vanuatu. Founded in 2014, the blue team owned by Andrew Leong is having a powerful beginning. Promoted to Port Vila Premier League in 2018, they managed to qualify for Oceania Champions League in their first ever season at the highest level of Ni-Van football.

The team is completely focused on 2019-20 Champions League and it can be checked by taking a look at their powerful squad with five foreign players and many other players that defend Vanuatu National Football Team. This constellation is commanded by Moise Poida, a legendary person in Vanuatu when it comes to football.

They are having a successful year in local football as you can check below:

• 2019 Port Vila Premier League – Top Four: Champion
• 2019 VFF National Super League: Runner-Up
• 2019 Independence Cup: Semifinalist
• 2019 Opening Cup: Runner-Up

Galaxy FC squad that won 2019 Port Vila Premier League Top Four.

Currently in the third position in Port Vila Premier League behind Ifira Black Bird and Tafea, Galaxy was considered the favourite to win the league when the season began. Their powerful wins by 14-0 and 10-0 against Yatel and Mauwia respectively indicated that no one could stop them this season, but things changed after they faced Sia-Raga.

After an unexpected loss by 1-0 to Sia-Raga in the fourth gameweek, Galaxy saw their season suffer a twist in a negative way. Current league topscorer Kensi Tangis got injured in this match and he has not returned yet. They scored only two goals in the last four games, showing that they are really missing Tangis.

Kensi Tangis is the current league topscorer

Even disappointing in last matches they still have chances to win the league once they are just six points behind current leader Ifira Black Bird. The bad moment can not erase the good job that is being done there, specially when it comes to media sources and youth football.

Oceania Football Center recently reported that Galaxy was promoting a mini championship for children. An important point to develop young players to reach the highest level of local football. When it comes to media sources, Galaxy is surely one of the best alongside Erakor Golden Star and Tafea social medias.

They recently tried to livestream a match against Erakor Golden Star but it was not so successful. Anyway it was a great initiative that Oceania Football Center expects that it can be accomplished by Galaxy and other teams soon.

Upoming years must be big for Galaxy. Andrew Leong is a very rich man and he was behind Amicale FC when they reached OFC Champions League final twice in 2011 and 2014. He can surely do the same to Galaxy.

Oceania Football Center and Vanuatu Sport News launch media partnership

Oceania Football Center is honoured to seal a partnership with one the most efficient promoters of sport in Vanuatu – the social media and radio program Vanuatu Sport News. Both brands are focused to promote football in the Pacific and Vanuatu Sport News is instrumental for our initiative to keep well informed about the most important happenings of the sport in the Ni-Vanuatu land.

The partnership consists in the promotion of both Vanuatu Sport News and Oceania Football Center work and the mutual usage of information from both brands.

Oceania Football Center and Vanuatu Sport News logos

Vanuatu Sport News has a well-known radio program in Port Vila and is responsible for most of the sportive updates in the country. Their work is being vital for Oceania Football Center to keep the Port Vila Premier League results and goalscorers updated weekly – as the readers can check in our weekly previews and reviews about the games in each watchweek.

Ifira Black Bird can not stop winning

Ifira Black Bird won the last three matches in Port Vila Premier League against Tupuji Imere, Tafea and Galaxy. This great run took them to the first position in the league as the only unbeaten team in the season.

After losing in the semifinals of the Independence Cup in July and in the Opening Knockout semifinals in August (both against Tafea), Ifira is breaking the predictions standing on top ahead Galaxy and Tafea that were considered the favourites to win the league before the beginning of the season.

Ifira Black Bird players against Tafea. Source: Vanuatu Sport

The biggest point of the team is their defense – they suffered only one goal in the league so far (against Yatel). Goalkeeper Kalo Firiam is performing really well and there are other important players doing important roles in the team like Jonathan Spokeyjack and Jean-Marie Manuriki.

Ifira Black Bird faces Mauwia this weekend to keep themselves unbeaten. They last won the Premier League in 2017.

Pacific Cup begins today

The 2019 Pacific Cup begins this Wednesday at Bill McKinlay Park, Auckland, New Zealand. Ten teams will fight for the trophy in the main competition while seven teams will take part of the 40’s Cup, a competition for players who are older than 40 years old.

It is a traditional competition played by Fijian clubs yearly. There are also teams from New Zealand, Australia and United States.

Four teams from Fiji are going to take part in the main tournament: Labasa, Lautoka, Nadi and Suva.

Labasa: Current champion of Fijian Battle of The Giants and Inter-District Championship.
Lautoka: Current champion of Pacific Cup.
Nadi: Current champion of FIJI Fact.
Suva: Current runner-up of FIJI Fact and Inter-District Championship.

Nadi is the most successful team in the Pacific Cup’s history with four titles. You can check the full list of champions in the picture below:

Oceania Football Center wishes good luck to all teams!

Samoan League trophy awarded to Lupe o le Soaga

As Oceania Football Center reported, football activities in Samoa are suspended since 19 November because of the measles outbreak that is ravaging the country. It was also reported that the 2019-20 OFC Champions League could be affected because 2019 Samoa Premier Men’s champion is supposed to play the preliminary round of the continental club championship that is scheduled to be played in December.

Football Federation Samoa (FFS) had a meeting with representants of all clubs to decide what should be done with the current football season in the country. According to people who attended this meeting, the season is over and the current league leaders were crowned as champions.

Samoan Premier Men’s League season was very spectacular with Lupe o le Soaga and Kiwi fighting for the trophy but due to the measles outbreak the season was canceled and the trophy was awarded to Lupe. They will represent Samoa in 2019-20 OFC Champions League.

Faleasiu was crowned as Men’s First Division champions while Kiwi won the Women’s League. You can check the list of winners of Premier Men’s League by clicking here.

Henderson Eels reaches the top

After two matches played on Saturday (Kossa 8-0 Guadalcanal and Laugu United 0-0 Marist), the matchweek was finally finished on this Tuesday with two important matches that changed completely the league’s course.

These two matches played on Tuesday were initially schedule to be played on Sunday but they were postponed because Charles, The Prince of Wales was visiting Solomon Islands.

SOLOMON WARRIORS 1-3 ISABEL UNITED

Solomon Warriors lost their first match in 2019 Telekom S-League against Isabel United. An early goal scored by Daiman Gela opened the path for Isabel to win the match and reach the third position in the standings. After a 2-0 loss in the first half, Warriors had an opportunity to score a penalty early in the second half but they missed it and Thomas Amasia scored the third for Isabel a few minutes later. Warriors goal was scored by Gibson Daudau at 65th minutes but it was too late because the match was already 3-0 for Isabel.

Players fighting for the ball. Source: S-League Media

HENDERSON EELS 9-2 MALAITA KINGS

Henderson Eels faced a strong Malaita Kings side in the first half but things changed a lot in the second half. After a 2-2 draw in the first half, Eels thrashed Kings to grab three more points and take the Telekom S-League’s lead.

Raphael Lea’i was the Man of the Match scoring four goals. The 17 years old forward scored ten goals in four matches so far, averaging 2,5 goals per match. Tutizama Tanito and Joses Nawo netted twice both.

You can check the current standings and the topscorers by clicking here.

Nadi FA player appears in court after stabbing girlfriend

Nadi FA player William Valentine appeared in the Nadi Magistrates Court this afternoon for stabbing his girlfriend with a scissor. According to sources, Valentine was drunk when he assaulted his girlfriend.

Valentine is 28 years old and played four matches in 2019 Vodafone Premier League. He also made his debut for Fijian National Football Team this year in a 0-0 friendly against Vanuatu.

William Valentine playing for Nadi FA. Source: Fiji Football Association

According to Fiji Village, he has been released on bail and the case has been adjourned to the 3rd of February next year.

Fiji, where is the head coach?

Few months away from Qatar 2022 World Cup Qualifiers, Fiji still does not have a National Football Team coach. Cristophe Gamel left the National Team in August due to personal reasons. He joined the Fiji FA in 2017 and lifted the National Team in FIFA world ranking from 189 to 163.

Christophe Gamel (left) and Roy Krishna (right).

“So we will be looking around those lines to recruit a coach who also has the same football philosophy. So that we don’t have to restart everything we can just continue from here.” said Mohammed Yusuf, the CEO of Fiji Football Association.

“We need a coach from Europe to carry on the type of play, philosophy, set up and the pattern Gamel has been implementing” said Rajesh Patel, Fiji FA president.

Fiji FA has shortlisted the candidates for the position of the head coach but there are some names being taken into consideration. Patel said that Fiji FA will reveal the new National Football Team coach soon.

It has been three months since Cristophe Gamel left Fiji National Team. The long time without a definitive head coach is not a good thing and it may damage Fijian preparation for FIFA World Cup Qualfiers.

Western Cup begins in Solomon Islands

One of the most important and traditional football competitions in Solomon Islands, the Western Cup is back! The 2019 edition began yesterday (November 25) and is scheduled to end on December 9. Eighteen teams are fighting for the trophy and the 50.000 Solomon Islands dollar award.

The eighteen teams were splited in four groups: two groups with five teams and two groups with four teams as you can check here. Current champions Central Roviana is in Group A. All the matches are being played in Gizo, the capital of Western Province.

Two matches were played in the opening day
South Rannoga 3-0 Central Roviana
East Marovo 2-2 South East Vela

Oceania Football Center wishes good luck to all teams!

Keana case – Episode #02: What is behind

Click here to read the first episode

After a first episode talking about the current situation of Maxwell Keana and his absence in U17 World Cup, Oceania Football Center launches the second episode of a series of articles with everything that is related to the case. All information contained in the articles is verified and veridical.

As it was stated in the previous episode, there are some people interested on picking a fight with SIFF. One of these people might be “Puia” Konofilia.

Joel Moffat Konofilia, more known as Puia Konofilia, is a former Solomon Islands National Football Team player. He is banned from football in his country until July/2020 for punching a referee after a match back in 2017. It was not the first time he was penalized for his bad behaviour with referees: He was fined and suspended for one match for threats to referees in a match between Western United and West Honiara FC in the 2016 S-League.

Konofilia is a very known person in Solomon Islands and he is the president of Royals Academy, a football academy that takes Solomon Islanders to play at English Academies. And here starts some big problems between Joel and Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF).

According to local sources, Konofilia tried to borrow some money from SIFF in 2017 to take three players of Royals Academy to England but the request was denied because Konofilia did not disclose details about the trip, saying it was a “secret deal”. According to FIFA regulations, SIFF does not need to participate in Royals agreements as they are not affiliated SIFF. Konofilia also admitted to The Island Sun that the reason for not receiving the money was that he spent a period in jail in February 2017.

Some sources appointed Konofilia as the person behind Maxwell Keana’s letter to OFC but it was denied by Keana’s uncle – He stated that SIFF should stop blaming Konofilia and he also pointed that Keana was forced to lie his age when his passport was issued. SIFF claims that Providing personal information for issuing a passport is the responsibility of the applicant and his family, not the federation because it is a personal document.

Some former footballers advised Maxwell Keana to think twice about all this situation but it seems that he is not going to change his mind.

Oceania Football Confederation is currently running an investigation because Puia Konofilia and his assistant Alick Collins reportedly wrote a letter alleging that all Solomon Islands U17 National Team players were overaged. In this same letter they complain about the absence of Keana in the squad. Konofilia denies this information.

But it is quite interesting to see how much Konofilia and Royals Academy are interested on it. As you can check below, he refers to Maxwell as a son.

Konofilia also stated that Maxwell Keana is going to England in 2020, probably as a Royals Academy player. Maybe it is the reason for so many interest in the whole situation.

It is impossible to claim who is behind Maxwell Keana’s attitudes but it seems that there are some important people interested on it as you could check in this article.

Click here to read the third episode.