OFC preliminary competition to be played in Qatar from 14 to 30 March 2022
Mini-tournament to deliver one ticket for the intercontinental play-offs in June 2022
The road to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ for Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) hopefuls is now set after the completion of the preliminary competition draw held today at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland.
The OFC qualifiers will be played in a mini-tournament format featuring eight teams and consisting of a round-robin group stage, semi-finals and the final. Prior to this, a single qualification match will be played between Tonga and the Cook Islands – the two lowest-ranked OFC teams in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking – for the right to take part in the preliminary competition mini-tournament. All matches will take place in Qatar from 14 to 30 March 2022.
As a result of the draw, the teams were allocated to two groups for the round-robin group stage:
Group A:
Solomon Islands
Tahiti
Vanuatu
Tonga or Cook Islands
Group B:
New Zealand
New Caledonia
Fiji
Papua New Guinea
Group A is headlined by 2012 continental champions Tahiti and 2004 runners-up Solomon Islands, while a clash between 2016 OFC Nations Cup finalists, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, awaits in Group B.
The two group winners and the two group runners-up will qualify for the semi-finals. The winners of the two semi-finals will then meet in the final to determine the OFC representative that will face the Concacaf representative in the FIFA intercontinental play-offs in June 2022 for a place in the final competition.
