Football at the Pacific Games

Association football has been regularly included in the Pacific Games, the multi-sports event for Pacific nations, territories and dependencies, since 1963. Until 2011 the competition was known as the South Pacific Games.^[1]

Football at the Pacific Games

Founded	1963
Current champions	New Caledonia  Men (2023)  Papua New Guinea  Women (2023)
Most successful team(s)	New Caledonia  Men (8 titles)  Papua New Guinea  Women (6 titles)
Football at the 2023 Pacific Games Men's  · Women's

Since 1971 the men's tournament has been held every four years, but was not played in 1999 due to contractual issues. In 2007, the men's competition doubled as the Oceania Football Confederation's preliminary qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[2] The men's tournament also became the Olympic qualifier for Oceania for the 2015 edition.

The women's tournament was introduced in 2003, and has doubled up as the preliminary qualifying competition for the Olympic Games since 2007. Football was a compulsory inclusion at the Pacific Games for men's teams for many years but was made a core sport for both men's and women's teams in 2017.^[3] Football has also been held at several editions of the Pacific Mini Games, starting with the first tournament in 1981.^[4]

Men's tournament

The Tuvalu men's team at the 2007 South Pacific Games

Participating nations

Numbers refer to the final placing of each team at the respective Games. Host nation is shown in bold.– See also the §Key to symbols within this section below the two tables.

	Games Nation		63	66	69	71	75	79	83	87	91	95	99	03	07	11	15	19	23	Years played
American Samoa			–	–	–	–	–	–	P	6	–	–	–	–	P	P	–	P	12	6
Cook Islands			–	–	–	6	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	–	P	P	–	–	8	5
Fiji			2	–	4	5	4	2	2	–	1	3	–	1	2	4	4	3	3	14
Guam			–	–	–	–	P	6	–	–	P	P	–	–	–	P	–	–	–	5
Kiribati			–	–	–	–	–	9*	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	P	–	–	†	3
Micronesia			–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	–	P	–	–	2
New Caledonia			1	2	1	1	2	4	3	1	3	P	–	2	1	1	1	2	1	16
New Zealand U-23			–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	‡	1	–	2
Niue			–	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1
Northern Mariana Islands			–	–	–	–	–	–	†	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	10	1
Papua New Guinea			P	4	3	4	P	9*	4	3	P	P	–	P	–	P	3	4	6	15
Samoa			–	–	–	–	–	9*	5*	–	–	–	–	–	P	–	–	P	7	5
Solomon Islands			4	P	6	–	3	3	P	–	2	2	–	P	4	2	P	P	2	14
Tahiti			3	1	2	3	1	1	1	2	P	1	–	4	P	3	2	P	5	16
Tonga			–	–	–	–	–	7*	P	–	–	–	–	P	P	–	–	P	11	6
Tuvalu			–	–	–	–	–	7*	–	–	–	–	–	P	P	P	–	P	9	6
Vanuatu			P	3	5	2	P	5	P	4	4	4	–	3	3	P	P	P	4	16
Wallis and Futuna			–	P	–	–	–	9*	5*	5	P	P	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	6
Number of teams All-time total: 18			6	6	6	6	7	12	11	6	8	9	–	10	10	11	8#	11	12	16 Editions

Legend

Key to symbols
1	Gold medal for first place	n	nth place (e.g. 5 is fifth place)
2	Silver medal for second place	P	Pool or group stage elimination
3	Bronze medal for third place	*	Asterisk for shared placing (e.g. 5* is equal fifth)
4	Fourth place	#	Contested by under-23 national teams only
–	Did not play	†	Withdrew before competition (did not play)
‡	Played in the tournament (FIFA qualification) but excluded from the Pacific Games placings

Results

The table below is a summary of the finals matches in men's football at the Pacific Games since 1963: ^[4]

Year	Host city			Final			Third place match
			Gold	Score	Silver		Bronze	Score	Fourth place
1963	Suva		New Caledonia	8–2	Fiji		Tahiti	7–2	Solomon Islands
1966	Nouméa		Tahiti	2–0	New Caledonia		New Hebrides	5–2	Papua New Guinea
1969	Port Moresby		New Caledonia	2–1	Tahiti		Papua New Guinea	2–1	Fiji
1971	Papeete		New Caledonia	7–1	New Hebrides		Tahiti	8–1	Papua New Guinea
1975	Tumon		Tahiti	2–1	New Caledonia		Solomon Islands	3–2	Fiji
1979	Suva		Tahiti	3–0	Fiji		Solomon Islands	3–1	New Caledonia
1983	Apia		Tahiti	1–0	Fiji		New Caledonia	2–1	Papua New Guinea
1987	Nouméa		New Caledonia	1–0	Tahiti		Papua New Guinea	3–1	Vanuatu
1991	Port Moresby		Fiji	1–1 (5–4 .pen.)	Solomon Islands		New Caledonia	3–1	Vanuatu
1995	Papeete		Tahiti	2–0	Solomon Islands		Fiji	3–0	Vanuatu
1999	No football tournament in 1999
2003	Suva	Fiji	2–0	New Caledonia	Vanuatu	1–0	Tahiti
2007	Apia	New Caledonia	1–0	Fiji	Vanuatu	2–0	Solomon Islands
2011	Nouméa	New Caledonia	2–0	Solomon Islands	Tahiti	2–1	Fiji
2015	Port Moresby	New Caledonia	2–0	Tahiti	Papua New Guinea	2–1	Fiji
2019	Apia	New Zealand U-23	2–1	New Caledonia	Fiji	1–1 (4–2 .pen.)	Papua New Guinea
2023	Honiara	New Caledonia	2–2 (7–6 .pen.)	Solomon Islands	Fiji	4–2	Vanuatu

Performances by countries

Below are the 7 nations that have reached at least the semi-final stage in the Pacific Games.

Team	Winner	Runner-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
New Caledonia	8 ('63, '69, '71, '87, '07, '11, '15, '23)	4 ('66, '75, '03, '19)	2 ('83, '91)	1 ('79)
Tahiti (French Polynesia)	5 ('66, '75, '79, '83, '95)	3 ('69, '87, '15)	3 ('63, '71, '11)	1 ('03)
Fiji	2 ('91, '03)	4 ('63, '79, '83, '07)	3 ('95, '19, '23)	4 ('69, '75, '11, '15)
New Zealand U-23	1 ('19)
Solomon Islands		4 ('91, '95, '11, '23)	2 ('75, '79)	2 ('63, '07)
Vanuatu (New Hebrides)		1 ('71)	3 ('66, '03, '07)	4 ('87, '91, '95, '23)
Papua New Guinea			3 ('69, '87, '15)	4 ('66, '71, '83, '19)

Golden boot awardees

Year	Player	Goals
1963–1995	Unknown	-
2003	Esala Masi	11
2007	Osea Vakatalesau	10
2011	Bertrand Kaï	10
2015	Jean Kaltak	17
2019	Gagame Feni Tony Kaltak Jean-Philippe Saïko	9

Women's tournament

Participating nations

	Games Nation		03	07	11	15	19	23	Years played
American Samoa			–	P	P	–	P	9	4
Cook Islands			–	P	P	3	4	10	5
Fiji			5	3	3	P	3	2	6
Guam			2	–	P	–	–	–	2
Kiribati			7	–	–	–	–	–	1
New Caledonia			–	P	2	2	P	3	5
Papua New Guinea			1	1	1	1	1	1	6
Samoa			–	P	–	4	2	4	4
Solomon Islands			–	P	P	P	P	6	5
Tahiti			4	4	P	–	P	8	5
Tonga			3	2	4	P	P	7	6
Vanuatu			6	–	–	–	P	5	3
Number of teams All-time total: 12			7	9	9	7	10	10	6 Editions

Results

The table below is a summary of the finals matches in the women's football competition at the Pacific Games since 2003.

Papua New Guinea won the first four tournament finals, including against hosts New Caledonia in 2011 ^[5] and as hosts against New Caledonia in 2015.^[6]

Year	Host city		Final		Third place match
		Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze	Score	Fourth place
2003	[7] Suva	Papua New Guinea	round-robin	Guam	Tonga	round-robin	Tahiti
2007	[8] Apia	Papua New Guinea	3–1	Tonga	Fiji	1–0	Tahiti
2011	[9] Nouméa	Papua New Guinea	2–1	New Caledonia	Fiji	1–0	Tonga
2015	Port Moresby	Papua New Guinea	1–0	New Caledonia	Cook Islands	2–0	Samoa
2019	Apia	Papua New Guinea	3–1	Samoa	Fiji	3–1	Cook Islands
2023	Honiara	Papua New Guinea	4–1	Fiji	New Caledonia	3–1	Samoa

Performances by countries

Team	Winner	Runner-up	Third Place	Fourth Place
Papua New Guinea	6 ('03, '07, '11, '15, '19, '23)
New Caledonia		2 ('11, '15)	1 ('23)
Fiji		1 ('23)	3 ('07, '11, '19)
Tonga		1 ('07)	1 ('03)	1 ('11)
Samoa		1 ('19)		1 ('15, '23)
Guam		1 ('03)
Cook Islands			1 ('15)	1 ('19)
Tahiti				2 ('03, '07)

Golden boot awardees

Year	Player	Goals
2003	Unknown	-
2007	Penateti Feke	4
2011	Christelle Wahnawe	12
2015	Christelle Wahnawe	10
2019	Ramona Padio	9
2023		11

All-time medal table

• Total medals won (men's and women's)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	New Caledonia	7	6	2	15
2	French Polynesia	5	3	3	11
3	Papua New Guinea	5	0	3	8
4	Fiji	2	4	5	11
5	New Zealand	1	0	0	1
6	Solomon Islands	0	3	2	5
7	Vanuatu (includes New Hebrides)	0	1	3	4
8	Tonga	0	1	1	2
9	Guam	0	1	0	1
	Samoa (includes Western Samoa)	0	1	0	1
11	Cook Islands	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		20	20	20	60

Pacific Mini Games

Men

The table below is a summary of the medal matches played in the men's competition at the Pacific Mini Games:

Year	Host city		Final		Third place match
		Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze	Score	Fourth place
1981	Honiara	Tahiti	1–0 (a.e.t.)	New Caledonia	Papua New Guinea	1–0	Vanuatu
1993	Port Vila	Tahiti	3–0	Fiji	New Caledonia	2–1	Vanuatu
2017	Port Vila	Vanuatu	round-robin	Fiji	Solomon Islands	round-robin	Tuvalu

Women

As of 2019^[update], women's football has only been hosted once at the Pacific Mini Games – at Vanuatu in 2017. The table below is a summary of the medal matches played in the women's competition:

Year	Host city		Final		Third place match
		Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze	Score	Fourth place
2017	Port Vila	Vanuatu	2–1	Fiji	Tonga	1–0	Solomon Islands