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.

OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup

Founded	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 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	Tema'e, 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	Tema'e, 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	^[round-robin]	New Caledonia		Vanuatu	—
2015	Not held^[c]
2017	Not held^[d]
OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup
2019 details	Papeete, Tahiti		Tahiti	4–3	Solomon Islands		New Caledonia	8–7 (a.e.t.)	Vanuatu
2021 details	Papeete, Tahiti[9]

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.[10]

c. ^ The 2015 edition was originally set to take place in Papeete, Tahiti.[11] 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]

d. ^ The 2017 edition was originally set to take place in February.[11] 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.[13]

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.
2006	Teiva Izal	11	Teiva Izal	Chikau Mansale	Cook Islands
2007	Teva Zaveroni	11	James Naka	Chikau Mansale	New Zealand
2009	James Naka	7	James Naka	Chikau Mansale	Vanuatu
2011	James Naka Ratu Dugucagi Robert Laua	4	James Naka	Jonathan Torohia	Fiji
2013	Joe Luwi	5	Samson Takayama	Fred Hale	not awarded
2019	Patrick Tepa	12	Heimanu Taiarui	Jonathan Torohia	Solomon Islands

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	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

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

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

Team \ Years	2005^[†]	2006	2007	2008^[†]	2009	2011	2013	2015^[†]	2017^[†]	2019	2021	Total
Australia	R1	Member of AFC										1
Solomon Islands		R1	R1	R1	R1		R1					5
Tahiti						R1	4th	2nd	2nd	R1		5
Total no. of unique qualifiers												3

Notes

1. ^
   In 2005, 2008, 2015 and 2017, 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 and 2017: Tahiti).

References

1. "BEACH SOCCER > TOURNAMENTS". Oceania Football Confederation. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
2. "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. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
6. 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. "OFC tournaments update". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 July 2020.
10. "Sport: Oceania Beach Soccer qualifier moved to New Caledonia". RNZ International. 6 August 2013.
11. "OFC Executive Committee decisions". oceaniafootball.com. 2014-04-23. Archived from the original on 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
12. "Teams". FIFA.com. 2015.
13. "Competition calendar outlined". Oceania Football Confederation. December 10, 2015. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016.

External links

• OFC, official website