https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360652331/auckland-city-win-oceania-champions-league-13th-time
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360652290/auckland-city-fc-play-two-matches-one-day-venues-3400km-apart
Auckland City FC were crowned champions of Oceania for the 13th time on Saturday night, beating Hekari United 2-0 in the 2025 Champions League final in Honiara in the Solomon Islands.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360652290/auckland-city-fc-play-two-matches-one-day-venues-3400km-apart
Auckland City FC were crowned champions of Oceania for the 13th time on Saturday night, beating Hekari United 2-0 in the 2025 Champions League final in Honiara in the Solomon Islands.
Four hours earlier, however, they suffered a 1-0 defeat at their Kiwitea St home in suburban Auckland, where they played Western Springs in round four of New Zealand’s Northern League – one of the three amateur men’s regional leagues that feeds into the National League Championship at the end of the year.
Playing two matches in the same day is not unprecedented in club football, but it is extremely rare, and other known cases didn’t involve a distance of 3400km between the venues for the two matches.
The match against Western Springs was originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 14, but with a dozen City first-team players not travelling to the Champions League – in some cases because they needed to save annual leave to attend the Club World Cup – they approached their opponents about bringing it forward to ease fixture congestion as they get closer to the marquee tournament.
The match against Western Springs was originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 14, but with a dozen City first-team players not travelling to the Champions League – in some cases because they needed to save annual leave to attend the Club World Cup – they approached their opponents about bringing it forward to ease fixture congestion as they get closer to the marquee tournament.