OFC Champions League 2018

https://www.oceaniafootball.com/hosts-announced-fo...

From the 24 February to 4 March, eight-time regional champions Auckland City will host their group for the second year in a row. Lautoka FC, Madang FC and AS Venus will travel to New Zealand in the hopes of unseating the competition’s most successful club.

Group D plays out concurrently in Honiara where three-time finalists Team Wellington will travel with AS Magenta and the Qualifiers runner-up to join the runner-up of the Solomon Islands S-League.

I am hoping Auckland City chose Mangere to host Group C again it was really good there last season. 

So what are the chances of more OCL games being played in Wellington? Does TW need to make it to the semis again for that to happen?

Yep. Need to get out of the group.

Hope they don't get rid of the Confederations Cup. Is the only chance we have to see the AW playing quality opposition right now

Slight format change from last year with the introduction of quarter finals TeeDubs will get home games if they get out of the group,

⚽️ 28' | Nissan SILAO finds the back of the net from his own half. WHAT AN EFFORT. You'll want to watch that again! https://t.co/Uk5tLwmwE4 #OFCCLQ #VEIPAG 1-1

— OFC Champions League (@OFCChampsLeague) January 21, 2018

Some quality keeping on that goal ...

By the way, the OFC tv has a pretty neat youtube channel.  If you subscribe, you get to see a lot of highlights and features on teams/games.

Hope they'll be doing some streaming of games this year, especially the TW ones!

they are doing all the group games and there is no geoblocking in NZ

That's right up there with Italiano's efforts this season...

quarters and semi final draw being done at 4pm apparently. 

A little weighted for Island ? teams to make final if I read right

Not sure it's weighted as much it's just the luck of the draw?

Three possible combinations and they hit the one in three where it's an AC v TW semi, rather than two in three where they'd make the final. So if anything, the odds were in favour of a no-PI team final.

How do we get a TW vAC final  #Confuussed

You don't. If they both win their QFs, they meet in the semis.

Do you think TW will do a ticket pre-sale for the QF like they did for the semis last year? Keen to get myself a ticket.

EDIT: Bump?

Probably still focused on Handy Prem season.

given the game is on Saturday the 7th April, which will have a full round of Central League, W-League and Capital leagues, its unlikely that there would be the same demand as there was last year, so probably just buy on the day

I'll wait a few days, then I'll hit them up on FB and see what they say. Excited to see OCL football in Wellington once again!

Seems likely that the Confederations Cup will no longer be played according to many news reports.

Infantino wants an expanded Club World Cup held every four years instead.

Infantino sees more potential in this as attracting public interest and financial returns. 

Leaked story from the Spanish media:

 http://www.marca.com/en/football/international-foo...

24 team Club World Cup 2021 will have 12 European clubs, five from CONMEBOL, two each from Africa, Asia, CONCACAF, and either one full place for Oceania or half a place (team to enter a play-off).

Bad for NZ and Oceania on two fronts:

1. Confederations Cup provided us with decent competition at little expense every four years and helped with our World Cup  play-off preps.

No Confederations Cup = no more Oceania Nations Cup which was only revived in the 1990's after decades in abeyance because of the prize of the Confederations Cup. The cost wouldn't merit continuing with it.

2. No annual Club World Cup = no annual OFC Champions League. It would only need to be played every four years to determine which Oceania club side had a tilt at the Club World Cup. The Oceania club might not even get direct entry and have to face a play-off against  a club from another Confederation.

Also that lucrative yearly source of income from Club World Cup money for Auckland City and the ISPSHanda Premiership sides will dry up.

A quadrennial Champions League would certainly help from a costs POV, so would be a welcome move, but would like to think an annual Champions League might have merit in and of itself, outside of being a qualifying vehicle for a Fifa tournament.

The O-league has only been annual in the CWC era, but it would be a real shame if they decided it's only worth it in CWC years. Continental club competitions existed before the Inter-Continental Cup and the CWC because there is merit in the idea of finding the best club in the confederations for its own sake.

It would be interesting to know if there has been funding coming from FIFA to ensure the competition happened. If not, then it's hard to see why it wouldn't continue.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/...

Irregularities? Oceania? Really?

https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/sports/soccer/fifas-vice-president-david-chung-resigns.amp.html

this could get interesting!..

This is not related to the Champions League and there is already discussion in the general OFC thread, keep the chat in there please.

There's an OFC thread? ok.

https://www.yellowfever.co.nz/categories/general-football-discussion/topics/oceania?page=3#post_1236313

With the semi final first legs on the weekend, here are some OFC Club Rankings that I've put together (based on those UEFA use for their competitions, with some of my own tweaks):

Rankings are based on a 5-year period, taking the total points each team has earned over that time.

A team's points in a year are a combination of Bonus Points, depending on how far they go (Qualifiers 2pts, Group Stage 4pts, Quarter Final 5pts, Semi Final 6pts, Final 7pts) and Match Points for each result from the group stage onwards (2pts for a win, 1pt for a draw).

So, Auckland City have 14 points this year, as 6 points for reaching the semi final and 8 match points from 4 wins.  Team Wellington are on 13 for this year, with 6 points from making the semi final and 7 match points from 3 wins and a draw.

Not surprisingly, New Zealand is miles ahead in the Country rankings...

Here, the points a country earns is the total number of points divided by the number of teams in the OFC Champions League in the year.

One difference here is that qualifying results are included, earning 1pt for a win and 0.5pts for a draw.

So, New Zealand has 13.5 points so far this season from Auckland City and Team Wellington having earned a total of 27 points between them.  

This ranking seems to work pretty well, with the exception of Samoa being above Papua New Guinea, with Samoa's qualifying stage victories enough to lift them above PNG despite having taken only 1 point in the group stages in the 5 years...I might need to revise the value of qualifying wins and draws.

Nice work.

If you made a league table of the number of different clubs qualifying from each country, it might show us where leagues are monopolised by an elite few and where leagues are more open.

Just realized I'm filling in for a friend's team at 1230 on Saturday - will I be able to watch the game on mycujoo once I get back home?

The game's on Sunday.

Then I can watch it live :D

Game streaming at David Farmington Park 

Not sure best place for this but here is some 

OCEANIA FOOTBALL BLOOPERS for 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TycN1CeddJ4

Oceania Champions League draw done today

Team Wellington off to Vanuatu, ACFC off to Solomon Islands

Group A (New Caledonia)

Hieghene Sport (NCL)

Lae City Dwellers (PNG)

AS Tefana (TAH)

Malampa Revivors (VAN)

Group B (Fiji)

Lautoka (FIJ)

AS Central Sport (TAH)

Solomon Islands S-League runner up

Morobe Wawens (PNG)

Group C (Vanuatu)

Erakoe Golden Star (VAN)

Team Wellington (NZL)

Ba (FIJ)

Qualifier runner up

Group D (Solomon Islands)

Solomon Islands S-League winner

Auckland City (NZL)

AS Magenta (NCL)

Qualifier winner

Games will be held in Feb & March

On the face of it, looks like Auckland has a tougher group than TeeDubs.