OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup

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OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup
OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup logo.png
Founded2006; 16 years ago (2006)
RegionOceania (OFC)
Number of teams5
Current champions Tahiti (2nd title)
Most successful team(s) Solomon Islands
(4 titles)
WebsiteOFC
2021 OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup

The OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup is the main championship for beach soccer in Oceania,[1] contested between the senior men's national teams of the members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). It is the sport's version of the better known OFC Nations Cup in association football.

The winners of the championship are crowned continental champions; the tournament also acts as the qualification route for Oceanian nations to the upcoming edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup[2] and is therefore also known as the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup OFC qualifier.[3] Coinciding with the annual staging of the World Cup, the competition took place yearly until 2009; the World Cup then became biennial, and as its supplementary qualification event, the championship followed suit.[2]

The championship was established in 2006 after FIFA made it a requirement for all confederations to begin holding qualification tournaments to determine the best national team(s) in their region and hence those who would proceed to represent their continent in the upcoming World Cup (previously, nations were simply invited to play).[4] FIFA currently allocate Oceania one berth at the World Cup[5] and hence only the winners qualify to the World Cup finals.[2]

Oceania's governing body for football, the OFC, organise the championship.[6] Cooperation has also come from Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), particularly in the initial tournaments.[7] The competition was held under the title of the OFC Beach Soccer Championship until 2019 when the name was changed to OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup, bringing it in line with the naming of other OFC senior national tournaments.[2]

The Solomon Islands are the most successful nation with four titles.[8] Tahiti are the current champions. These two nations are the only teams to qualify to the World Cup thus far.[2]

Results[]

For all tournaments, the winners qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

Year Location Final Third place match
Champions Score Runners-up Third Place Score Fourth Place
OFC Beach Soccer Championship
2006
details 		French Polynesia Tema'e, Tahiti
Solomon Islands 		6–2
Vanuatu
Tahiti 		12–4
Cook Islands
2007
details 		New Zealand Auckland, New Zealand
Solomon Islands 		5–3
Vanuatu
New Zealand 		5–3
Tahiti
2008 Not held[a]
2009
details 		French Polynesia Tema'e, Tahiti
Solomon Islands 		1–0
Vanuatu
Tahiti 		6–3
Fiji
2011
details 		French Polynesia Papeete, Tahiti
Tahiti 		4–3
Solomon Islands
Fiji 		—
2013
details 		New Caledonia Nouméa, New Caledonia[b]
Solomon Islands 		[round-robin]
New Caledonia
Vanuatu 		—
2015 Not held[c]
2017 Not held[d]
OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup
2019
details 		French Polynesia Papeete, Tahiti
Tahiti 		4–3
Solomon Islands
New Caledonia 		8–7 (a.e.t.)
Vanuatu
2021 Not held[e]
Notes:
a. ^ The OFC was unable to organise the 2008 edition in time, due to a late calendar change bringing the 2008 World Cup forward from November to July. Hence, on the back of their two previous titles, the Solomon Islands were hand-picked by the OFC to be the confederation's representative at the World Cup.[6]
b. ^ The 2013 edition was originally set to take place in Papeete, Tahiti. However, despite being defending champions, Tahiti were unable to compete due to a pre-arranged tour of Europe to play against higher level opposition in preparation as host nation of the upcoming World Cup. Hence the competition was relocated to New Caledonia.[9]
c. ^ The 2015 edition was originally set to take place in Papeete, Tahiti.[10] Due to undisclosed circumstances, the tournament was cancelled. Tahiti were hand-picked by the OFC to be the confederation's representative at the World Cup.[11]
d. ^ The 2017 edition was originally set to take place in February.[10] Due to undisclosed circumstances, the tournament was cancelled. Tahiti were hand-picked by the OFC to be the confederation's representative at the World Cup.[12]
e. ^ The 2021 edition was originally set to take place in January in Tahiti.[13] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was initially postponed[14] and subsequently cancelled entirely. Tahiti were hand-picked by the OFC to be the confederation's representative at the World Cup, based on being the highest ranked Oceanian nation in the then current release of the BSWW World Rankings and being reinging regional champions.[15]
Round-robin ^ Indicates this edition was played as a round-robin tournament. There was no final or third place match.

Performance[]

Successful nations[]

Team Titles Runners-up Third place
 Solomon Islands 4 (2006, 2007, 2009, 2013) 2 (2011, 2019) –
 Tahiti 2 (2011*, 2019*) – 2 (2006*, 2009*)
 Vanuatu – 3 (2006, 2007, 2009) 1 (2013)
 New Caledonia – 1 (2013*) 1 (2019)
 Fiji – – 1 (2011)
 New Zealand – – 1 (2007*)

* = Hosts

Awards[]

Year Top goalscorer(s) Gls Best player Best goalkeeper Fair play Ref.
French Polynesia 2006 French Polynesia Teiva Izal 11 French Polynesia Teiva Izal Vanuatu Chikau Mansale  Cook Islands [1]
New Zealand 2007 French Polynesia Teva Zaveroni 11 Solomon Islands James Naka Vanuatu Chikau Mansale  New Zealand [2]
French Polynesia 2009 Solomon Islands James Naka 7 Solomon Islands James Naka Vanuatu Chikau Mansale  Vanuatu [3]
French Polynesia 2011 Solomon Islands James Naka
Fiji Ratu Dugucagi
Solomon Islands Robert Laua 		4 Solomon Islands James Naka French Polynesia Jonathan Torohia  Fiji [4]
New Caledonia 2013 Solomon Islands Joe Luwi 5 Solomon Islands Samson Takayama Solomon Islands Fred Hale not awarded [5]
French Polynesia 2019 French Polynesia Patrick Tepa 12 French Polynesia Heimanu Taiarui French Polynesia Jonathan Torohia  Solomon Islands [6]

All-time top goalscorers[]

As of 2019

The following table shows the all-time top 15 goalscorers.

Rank Player Team Goals
1 James Naka  Solomon Islands 30
2 Teva Zaveroni  Tahiti 18
3 Raimana Li Fung Kuee  Tahiti 15
Seule Soromon  Vanuatu
5 Henry Koto  Solomon Islands 14
Patrick Tepa  Tahiti
Teva Izal  Tahiti
8 Loic Boulet  Vanuatu 11
9 Fenedy Masauvakalo  Vanuatu 10
10 Ken Masauvakalo  Vanuatu 9
Tearii Labaste  Tahiti
12 Antoine Roine  New Caledonia 8
Don Mansale  Vanuatu
Heimanu Taiarui  Tahiti
Seimata Chilia  Vanuatu

Sources:
2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2019

All-time table[]

As of 2019

Pos Team App Pld W W+ WP L GF GA GD Pts
1  Solomon Islands 6 22 17 0 0 5 112 63 +49 51
2  Tahiti 5 20 12 0 0 8 131 79 +52 36
3  Vanuatu 5 19 9 2 0 8 117 90 +27 31
4  New Caledonia 2 7 2 1 0 4 32 46 –14 8
5  New Zealand 1 4 1 0 0 3 21 26 –5 3
6  Fiji 2 6 0 0 0 6 23 47 –24 0
7  Cook Islands 1 4 0 0 0 4 6 49 –43 0
8   1 4 0 0 0 4 6 55 –49 0

Key: Appearances App / Won in normal time W = 3 points / Won in extra-time W+ = 2 points / Won on penalty shoot-out WP = 1 point / Lost L = 0 points

Appearances & performance timeline[]

The following is a performance timeline of the teams who have appeared in the OFC Beach Soccer Championship and how many appearances they each have made.

Legend
Timeline
Year
Team
 2006
French Polynesia
(4) 		2007
New Zealand
(4) 		2009
French Polynesia
(4) 		2011
French Polynesia
(3) 		2013
New Caledonia
(3) 		2019
French Polynesia
(5) 		Apps
⁄6
 Cook Islands 4th × × × × × 1
 Fiji × × 4th 3rd × × 2
 New Caledonia × × × × 2nd 3rd 2
 New Zealand × 3rd × × × × 1
 Solomon Islands 1st 1st 1st 2nd 1st 2nd 6
 Tahiti 3rd 4th 3rd 1st •• 1st 5
  × × × × × 5th 1
 Vanuatu 2nd 2nd 2nd •• 3rd 4th 5

Performance of qualifiers at the World Cup[]

Main article: National team appearances in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

The following is a performance timeline of the OFC teams who have appeared in the Beach Soccer World Cup since being sanctioned by FIFA in 2005.

Legend
Team \ Years Brazil
2005[†] 		Brazil
2006 		Brazil
2007 		France
2008[†] 		United Arab Emirates
2009 		Italy
2011 		French Polynesia
2013 		Portugal
2015[†] 		The Bahamas
2017[†] 		Paraguay
2019 		Russia
2021[†] 		Total
 Australia R1 Member of AFC 1
 Solomon Islands R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 5
 Tahiti R1 4th 2nd 2nd R1 q 6
Total no. of unique qualifiers 3
Notes
  1. ^
    In 2005, 2008, 2015, 2017 and 2021, no OFC qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup were held and teams were selected to represent OFC (2005: Australia; 2008: Solomon Islands; 2015, 2017 and 2021: Tahiti).

References[]

  1. ^ "BEACH SOCCER > TOURNAMENTS". Oceania Football Confederation. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e "History of the OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup". Oceania Football Confederation. 27 May 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  3. ^ "Solomons edge closer to Tahiti". Beach Soccer Worldwide. 31 August 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  4. ^ "FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2006 qualifiers to start in Brazil on 5 March". FIFA. 3 March 2006. Archived from the original on 13 May 2006. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  5. ^ "World Cup gets bigger". FIFA. 25 August 2005. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  6. ^ a b oceaniafootball (31 July 2009). "OFC Beach Soccer Championship 2009" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  7. ^ oceaniafootball (2006). "OFC Beach Soccer Championship 2006" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  8. ^ "Mexico claim the 2019 Concacaf Beach Soccer Championship". CONCACAF. 9 October 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Sport: Oceania Beach Soccer qualifier moved to New Caledonia". RNZ International. 6 August 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-09-03.
  10. ^ a b "OFC Executive Committee decisions". oceaniafootball.com. 2014-04-23. Archived from the original on 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  11. ^ "Teams". FIFA.com. 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-10-08.
  12. ^ "Competition calendar outlined". Oceania Football Confederation. December 10, 2015. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016.
  13. ^ "OFC tournaments update". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 July 2020.
  14. ^ "OFC announces schedule changes for early 2021". Oceania Football Confederation. 5 November 2020.
  15. ^ "OFC cancels upcoming Beach Soccer Nations Cup". Oceania Football Confederation. 6 May 2021.

External links[]

  • OFC, official website
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