June 7 – The finals tournament for Oceania’s Champions League will be hosted by New Zealand in August, with all eight competing teams to be confirmed at the end of June, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) has announced.
April 29 – Fiji will host the OFC Women’s Nations Cup 2022 in July with the winner earning a spot for the inter-continental playoffs on the road to the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
By Samindra Kunti in Doha
March 28 – New Zealand edged towards a ticket for the international World Cup playoff following a laboured 1-0 victory against Tahiti to set up the OFC qualification final against Solomon Islands.
March 21 – Vanuatu have withdrawn from Oceania’s eight-team World Cup qualifiers because of a Covid-19 outbreak in the squad. The Cooks Islands’ second game was also postponed due to positive coronavirus cases.
March 18 – The Solomon Islands defeated the Cook Islands 2-0 to kick off the eight-team Oceania World Cup qualifiers with a ticket for the intercontinental playoffs at stake, but on the first day of the tournament Tahiti – Vanuatu had to be postponed because of a Covid-19 outbreak.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 17 – Years after being plunged into scandal with a spate of high ranking officials banned for financial wrongdoing, the Oceania Football Association (OFC) has once again become embroiled in chaos and corruption.
January 25 – Support is gathering for the Oceania Football Confederation’s campaign to support Tonga following the devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami which hit the country.
January 4 – Auckland City officials say they are “bitterly disappointed’’ at having to pull out of Club World Cup finals in the United Arab Emirates for a second successive year over Covid-19 quarantine issues.
November 30 – Qatar will host the 2022 Oceania World Cup qualifiers featuring eight participants following the withdrawal of both Samoa and American Samoa, FIFA have announced.
February 14 – A new competition for non-FIFA affiliated Oceania regions is in the pipeline according to local reports.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 30 – Yet another high-profile former FIFA bigwig has been thrown out of the game, making a mockery of the suggestion that corruption is over among those who have served football’s world governing body.
April 3 – Johanna Wood has been elected the first female president of New Zealand Football (NZF) in an overhaul of the ruling body’s governance following a tumultuous 2018.
March 12 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has reportedly promised Oceania a guaranteed place in an expanded Club World Cup if his proposal is approved by the FIFA Council in Miami this week.
March 11 – Interim Oceania Football Confederation president Lambert Maltock has been elected to the role on a permanent basis and has vowed to clean up the region following the recent bans of two high-profile colleagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 4 – Almost a year after resigning as head of the Oceania Football Confederation citing “personal reasons”, David Chung has been banned from the sport for 6.5 years for financial wrongdoing, reportedly over the awarding of contracts for the construction of the OFC headquarters in New Zealand.