2018 OFC U-16 Championship

The 2018 OFC U-16 Championship was the 18th edition of the OFC U-16/U-17 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for the men's under-16/under-17 national teams of Oceania. The qualifying stage was held in Tonga between 14 and 20 July 2018, and the final tournament was held in the Solomon Islands between 9–22 September 2018.^[1]

2018 OFC U-16 Championship

Tournament details
Host countries	Qualifying stage: Tonga Final tournament: Solomon Islands
Dates	Qualifying stage: 14–20 July 2018 Final tournament: 9–22 September 2018
Teams	Final tournament: 8 Total: 11 (from 1 confederation)
Venue	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (8th title)
Runners-up	Solomon Islands
Third place	Tahiti
Fourth place	Fiji
Tournament statistics
Matches played	22
Goals scored	100 (4.55 per match)
Attendance	48,200 (2,191 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Raphael Lea'i (8 goals)
Best player	Raphael Lea'i
Best goalkeeper	Alex Paulsen
Fair play award	Solomon Islands
← 2017 2021 2023 →

Before the last tournament the age limit was reduced by a year to 16 years of age. However the last tournament remained the name U-17 Championship. For this tournament, the name has changed to U-16 Championship. So players who want to participate in the tournament needed to be born on or after 1 January 2002. At an OFC Executive Committee meeting held at its Auckland headquarters in November 2013 the competition format was modified. The competition was brought forward a year and the age limit was lowered to 16 years of age. The changes were made in order to allow the winner of the competition plenty of time for preparation and player development for upcoming World Cups at Under 17 level.^[2]

In March 2015, FIFA decided that the OFC gets two slots at every FIFA U-20 and U-17 World Cup.^[3] So the top two teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil as the OFC representatives. New Zealand, the defending champions, won the title for the eighth time, and qualified together with runners-up Solomon Islands.

Format

The tournament structure is as follows:^[3]

• Qualifying stage: The four teams from the "developing associations" (American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga) play in the qualifying stage. The winner of the round-robin tournament qualify for the final tournament.
• Final tournament: A total of eight teams (Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu, and the qualifying stage winner) play in the final tournament. For the group stage, they are divided into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group advance to the knockout stage (semi-finals and final) to decide the winner of the OFC U-16 Championship and the two teams that qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The draw for the tournament was held on 2 February 2018 at the OFC Headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand.^[4] In both the qualifying stage and the final tournament, the hosts (Tonga and Solomon Islands) were assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the remaining teams were drawn into the other positions without any seeding.^[5]

Teams

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC entered the tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include those in the qualifying stage (since 2017).

Team	Stage	Appearance	Previous best performance
Fiji	Final tournament (Group stage)	17th	Runners-up (1999)
New Caledonia		11th	Runners-up (2003, 2013, 2017)
New Zealand		16th	Champions (1997, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017)
Papua New Guinea		9th	Semi-finals (2017), Fourth place (1986)
Solomon Islands (hosts)		9th	Runners-up (1993)
Tahiti		13th	Runners-up (2007, 2009, 2011, 2015)
Vanuatu		14th	Runners-up (2005)
American Samoa	Qualifying stage	8th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2011, 2015)
Cook Islands		9th	Group stage (1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2013, 2015)
Samoa		8th	Group stage (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2015, 2017)
Tonga (hosts)		9th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2015)

Venues

The hosts of the qualifying stage and final tournament were announced by OFC on 31 October 2017.^[1]

• The qualifying stage was played at the Loto-Tonga Soka Centre in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga.
• The final tournament was played at the Lawson Tama Stadium in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

Tonga	Solomon Islands
‘Atele	Honiara
Loto-Tonga Soka Centre	Lawson Tama Stadium
Capacity: 1,500	Capacity: 20,000
‘Atele	Honiara

Squads

Main article: 2018 OFC U-16 Championship squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2002 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team can name a maximum of 20 players.

Qualifying stage

The winner advance to the final tournament (group stage).

All times are local, TOT (UTC+13).^[6]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Samoa	3	3	0	0	22	3	+19	9	Final tournament (Group stage)
2	American Samoa	3	1	1	1	8	13	−5	4
3	Tonga (H)	3	0	2	1	2	11	−9	2
4	Cook Islands	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1

Source: OFC
(H) Hosts

14 July 2018 (2018-07-14)

11:00

Samoa	3–0	Cook Islands
Filimalae 37', 75' Belcher 45'	Report

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Attendance: 200

Referee: Campbell-Kirk Waugh (New Zealand)

14 July 2018 (2018-07-14)

14:15^{[note 1]}

American Samoa	2–2	Tonga
Tiatia 51' Taumua 53'	Report	Tuiono 58' Muavesi 79' (pen.)

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Attendance: 300

Referee: Joel Hopken (Vanuatu)

---

17 July 2018 (2018-07-17)

11:00

American Samoa	3–10	Samoa
Taumua 41' (pen.), 45' Lauvao 70' (pen.)	Report	Saofaiga 3', 8' Tumua Leo 14', 74' Nanumea 22', 44' Mano 77' (pen.) Belcher 90' Filimalae 90', 90+6'

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Attendance: 100

Referee: Ben Aukwai (Solomon Islands)

17 July 2018 (2018-07-17)

14:00

Tonga	0–0	Cook Islands
	Report

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Attendance: 200

Referee: Joel Hopken (Vanuatu)

---

20 July 2018 (2018-07-20)

11:00

Cook Islands	1–3	American Samoa
Mateariki 50' (pen.)	Report	Taumua 31' (pen.) Lauvao 67' (pen.) Leatualevao 86'

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Attendance: 150

Referee: Ben Aukwai (Solomon Islands)

20 July 2018 (2018-07-20)

14:00

Tonga	0–9	Samoa
	Report	Nanumea 8' (pen.), 30', 37', 45+1', 75' Belcher 22' Saofaiga 23' Filimalae 39' Mano 52'

Loto-Tonga Soka Centre, Nukuʻalofa

Attendance: 200

Referee: Campbell-Kirk Waugh (New Zealand)

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.

All times are local, SBT (UTC+11).^[7]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Solomon Islands (H)	3	3	0	0	15	0	+15	9	Knockout stage
2	New Zealand	3	2	0	1	12	8	+4	6
3	Papua New Guinea	3	1	0	2	8	9	−1	3
4	Vanuatu	3	0	0	3	0	18	−18	0

Source: OFC
(H) Hosts

9 September 2018 (2018-09-09)

10:00

Vanuatu	0–8	New Zealand
	Report	Verney 9', 24' Wilson 25' Hamilton 37', 45+1' van Hattum 55' (pen.), 76' Lee 90+3'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 700

Referee: Norbert Hauata (Tahiti)

9 September 2018 (2018-09-09)

15:00

Papua New Guinea	0–5	Solomon Islands
	Report	Lea'i 12', 30' (pen.), 41', 90+2' Satu 70'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 3,500

Referee: Salesh Chand (Fiji)

---

12 September 2018 (2018-09-12)

10:00

Papua New Guinea	5–0	Vanuatu
Beschel 7', 79' Ila 19' Devi 56' Wadunah 70'	Report

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 200

Referee: Sione Mau (American Samoa)

12 September 2018 (2018-09-12)

15:00

Solomon Islands	5–0	New Zealand
Wae 18' Lea'i 41', 85' Kofana 55' Keana 87'	Report

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 6,000

Referee: Norbert Hauata (Tahiti)

---

15 September 2018 (2018-09-15)

10:00

New Zealand	4–3	Papua New Guinea
Hamilton 47', 55' Wilson 48' Old 83'	Report	Beschel 37', 75', 90'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 2,000

Referee: Salesh Chand (Fiji)

15 September 2018 (2018-09-15)

15:00

Solomon Islands	5–0	Vanuatu
Wae 4' H. Pao 20' Lea'i 47' Mani 53', 64'	Report

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 8,000

Referee: Sione Lelenga (Tonga)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tahiti	3	3	0	0	10	2	+8	9	Knockout stage
2	Fiji	3	2	0	1	4	5	−1	6
3	New Caledonia	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2	1
4	Samoa	3	0	1	2	4	9	−5	1

Source: OFC

10 September 2018 (2018-09-10)

12:00^{[note 2]}

Samoa	2–3	Fiji
Mano 7', 18'	Report	Kumar 45+2' Sela 63', 79' (pen.)

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 200

Referee: Hamilton Siau (Solomon Islands)

10 September 2018 (2018-09-10)

15:00

New Caledonia	1–2	Tahiti
Matha 76'	Report	Sangue 10' Kaiha 52'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 1,000

Referee: Cory Mills (New Zealand)

---

13 September 2018 (2018-09-13)

10:00

Fiji	0–3	Tahiti
	Report	Kaiha 36', 56' Gitton 47'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 200

Referee: George Time (Solomon Islands)

13 September 2018 (2018-09-13)

15:00

Samoa	1–1	New Caledonia
Filimalae 44'	Report	Kutran 23'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 250

Referee: Joel Hopken (Vanuatu)

---

16 September 2018 (2018-09-16)

10:00

Fiji	1–0	New Caledonia
Kumar 45'	Report

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Referee: David Yareboinen (Papua New Guinea)

16 September 2018 (2018-09-16)

15:00

Tahiti	5–1	Samoa
Hanere 11' Labaste 45+4' (pen.), 50' Gitton 45+6', 55'	Report	Filimalae 2'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 1,000

Referee: Joel Hopken (Vanuatu)

Knockout stage

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	19 September – Honiara
	Solomon Islands	3
					22 September – Honiara
	Fiji	1
					Solomon Islands	0 (4)
	19 September – Honiara
					New Zealand (p)	0 (5)
	Tahiti	1
	New Zealand	4
					Third place
					22 September – Honiara
					Fiji	1
					Tahiti	2

Semi-finals

Winners qualify for 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

19 September 2018 (2018-09-19)

10:00

Solomon Islands	3–1	Fiji
Mani 1', 29' Lea'i 90+1'	Report	Pillay 45+3'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 8,000

Referee: David Yareboinen (Papua New Guinea)

---

19 September 2018 (2018-09-19)

15:00

Tahiti	1–4	New Zealand
Sangue 79'	Report	van Hattum 2' Hamilton 13', 24' Garbett 82' (pen.)

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 2,500

Referee: George Time (Solomon Islands)

Third place match

22 September 2018 (2018-09-22)

10:00

Fiji	1–2	Tahiti
Naresh 89'	Report	Gitton 28' Holozet 78'

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 1,500

Referee: Sione Lelenga (Tonga)

Final

22 September 2018 (2018-09-22)

15:00

Solomon Islands	0–0	New Zealand
	Report
Penalties
Satu Keana Taebo Mani Lea'i	4–5	van Hattum Stamenic Garbett Lee Bright

Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara

Attendance: 12,000

Referee: Norbert Hauata (Tahiti)

Winners

2018 OFC U-16 Championship
New Zealand Eighth title

Goalscorers

In the qualifying stage, there were 33 goals scored in 6 matches, for an average of 5.5 goals per match. In the final tournament, there were 67 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 4.19 goals per match. In total, there were 100 goals scored in 22 matches, for an average of 4.55 goals per match.

8 goals

• Raphael Lea'i

7 goals

• Jarvis Filimalae (5 in qualifying)
• Falaniko Nanumea (in qualifying)

6 goals

• Henry Hamilton

5 goals

• Siegfried Beschel

4 goals

• Gabriel Taumua (in qualifying)
• Lotial Mano (2 in qualifying)
• Charles Mani
• Tehotu Gitton

3 goals

• Oskar van Hattum
• Fetuao Belcher (in qualifying)
• Kawasaki Saofaiga (in qualifying)
• Denji Kaiha

2 goals

• Peter Lauvao (in qualifying)
• Josaia Sela
• Ryan Verney
• Bradley Wilson
• John Tumua Leo (in qualifying)
• Javin Wae
• Ariiura Labaste
• Tekaki Sangue

1 goal

• Xavior Leatualevao (in qualifying)
• Milo Tiatia (in qualifying)
• Toru Mateariki (in qualifying)
• Eshan Kumar
• Nikhi Pillay
• Rahul Naresh
• Ruben Kutran
• Andre Matha
• Matt Garbett
• Joseph Lee
• Benjamin Old
• Morris Devi
• Renagi Ila
• Akaya Wadunah
• Maxwell Keana
• Leon Kofana
• Hamilton Pao
• Chris Satu
• Heihau Hanere
• Tehauarii Holozet
• Joseph Muavesi (in qualifying)
• Henry Tuiono (in qualifying)

Awards

The Golden Ball Award is awarded to the most outstanding player of the tournament. The Golden Glove Award is awarded to the best goalkeeper of the tournament. The Golden Boot Award is awarded to the top scorer of the tournament. The Fair Play Award is awarded to the team with the best disciplinary record at the tournament.

Award	Recipient
Golden Ball	Raphael Le'ai
Golden Glove	Alex Paulsen
Golden Boot	Raphael Le'ai (8 goals)
Fair Play Award	Solomon Islands

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 World Cup

The following two teams from OFC qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA U-17 World Cup1
Solomon Islands	19 September 2018[9]	0 (debut)
New Zealand	19 September 2018[9]	8 (1997, 1999, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Age fraud controversy

The Solomon Islands, which originally finished second, were found by the OFC to have deliberately fielded overage player Chris Satu during the tournament and would forfeit all results and their place in the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.^[10] The decision was reviewed under appeal from the Solomon Islands Football Federation.^[11] The OFC Executive Committee announced on 3 May 2019 that Solomon Islands would keep their spot for the FIFA U-17 World Cup on the grounds that the federation had not knowingly broken the rules as Satu had a government issued passport showing his eligibility.^[12][13]

On 11 December 2019, it was found that Solomon Islands' player Maxwell Keana played in five games with a "false birth certificate and passport to improperly seek eligibility" for the competition. As a result, the Solomon Islands Football Federation was sanctioned and the Oceania Football Confederation banned the Solomon Islands from entering a team in the 2023 OFC U-17 Championship.^[14]

Notes

1. Kick-off of the match between American Samoa and Tonga was delayed from 14:00 to 14:15 due to "unforeseen circumstances".
2. Kick-off of the match between Samoa and Fiji was delayed from 10:00 to 12:00 due to Samoa's disrupted flight schedule.^[8]