OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup

OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup

Founded	2006 (2006)
Region	Oceania (OFC)
Number of teams	5
Current champions	Tahiti (2nd title)
Most successful team(s)	Solomon Islands (4 titles)
Website	OFC
2019 OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup

The OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup is the main international championship for beach soccer in Oceania, mirroring that of the OFC Nations Cup organised by the OFC in association football. The tournament was called the OFC Beach Soccer Championship before the name was changed in 2019, and was also known as the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers for OFC. The championship was established in 2006 after FIFA made requirements for all confederations to begin holding a qualification tournament to determine the best national team(s) in the region and hence those who would go on to represent their continent in the World Cup.

Oceania was awarded just one spot at the finals under FIFA's new changes to the organisation of the World Cup and hence only the winners of the championship proceed to the succeeding World Cup finals. Before 2006, there was no consistent method of qualification or number of spots at the World Cup for Oceanian nations, with countries often simply being invited to play in the finals, without competing for a regional crown beforehand.

The Solomon Islands are the most successful nation having dominated the championships, winning four of the five that have taken place. However, Tahiti have emerged as a global force in more recent years.

Now that the World Cup takes place every two years, so does the championship which started with the qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup.

Tournaments

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

Year	Location	Final			Third place match
		Champion	Score	Runner-Up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
2006 details	Moorea, Tahiti	Solomon Islands	6–2	Vanuatu	Tahiti	12–4	Cook Islands
2007 details	Auckland, New Zealand	Solomon Islands	5–3	Vanuatu	New Zealand	5–3	Tahiti
2008	Not held[A]
2009 details	Moorea, Tahiti	Solomon Islands	1–0	Vanuatu	Tahiti	6–3	Fiji
2011 details	Papeete, Tahiti	Tahiti	4–3	Solomon Islands	Fiji	-
2013 details	Nouméa, New Caledonia[B]	Solomon Islands	6–0	New Caledonia	Vanuatu	-
2015	Not held[C]
2017	Not held[D]
2019 details	Papeete, Tahiti	Tahiti	4–3	Solomon Islands	New Caledonia	8–7	Vanuatu
2021 details	Tahiti

Notes:

A ^ Due to a late calendar change bringing the World Cup forward from November to July, the OFC judged that it would be too difficult to reorganise the Championship in time, and hence on the back of their two previous titles, the Solomon Islands where hand-picked by the OFC as the continent's representative at the World Cup.

B ^ Tahiti, despite being defending champions, 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 World Cup. Hence the competition was moved from Tahiti to New Caledonia.

C ^ Due to undisclosed circumstances, the tournament scheduled to take place in Papeete, Tahiti in February was cancelled with the Tahitian national team picked by the OFC to go to represent Oceania at the World Cup.

D ^ The 2017 edition was set to take place in February of 2017 but for the second-scheduled edition running, the championship was cancelled for undisclosed reasons, with OFC in favour of nominating Tahiti as representatives having demonstrated being the best nation in the region through their performance at the preceding World Cup.

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

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	Tonga	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

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• 5th – Fifth place

• × – Did not enter
• •• – Entered but withdrew
•     – Hosts
• Apps – No. of appearances

Timeline

Year Team	2006 (4)	2007 (4)	2009 (4)	2011 (3)	2013 (3)	2019 (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
Tonga	×	×	×	×	×	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 gone on to appear in the World Cup, having successfully qualified from the above events.^[†]

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
•    – Hosts

• QF – Quarter-finals
• R1 – Round 1 (group stage)
• q – Qualified for upcoming tournament
• Total – Total times qualified for World Cup

Timeline

Year Team	2006	2007	2008	2009	2011	2013	2015	2017	2019	2021	Total
Solomon Islands	R1	R1	R1	R1		R1					5
Tahiti					R1	4th	2nd	2nd	R1		5
Total no. of unique qualifiers											2

†. ^ Note that in 2008, 2015 and 2017, no team "qualified" for the World Cup as such because the OFC qualifiers were not held; the OFC hand-picked a team to represent the confederation.

External links

• OFC Official Website