OFC Nations Cup
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The OFC Nations Cup is a football competition held among the Oceania Football Confederation member nations. It was held every two years from 1996 to 2004; before 1996 there were two other tournaments held at irregular intervals, under the name Oceania Nations Cup. No competition was held in 2006, but on the 2008 edition, which also acts as a qualification tournament for the Confederations Cup and for a play-off for the 2010 World Cup, emerged as winners the New Zealand side.
Historically, a very large gulf separated Australia and New Zealand from the smaller island competitors, and little attention was paid to the tournament by the rest of the football world.
Australia ceased to be a member of the OFC on January 1, 2006, having elected to join the Asian Football Confederation, and hence will no longer be involved in this competition.
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[edit] History
This tournament began in 1973 as the "Oceania Cup". A second edition took place in 1980, then the tournament was discontinued.
In the early editions non-FIFA members were allowed to participate such as New Hebrides, which became Vanuatu after gaining independence in 1980.
In 1996 it reappeared as the "Oceania Nations Cup" and served as a qualifier for the Confederations Cup, as the Oceania Football Confederation had recently become a separate FIFA confederation.
[edit] Format
For the first three tournaments, Australia and New Zealand were seeded into the tournament automatically, while the remaining ten nations played to qualify. The Polynesian and Melanesian Cups, each played between five nations grouped on a geographical basis, served as qualifications via a round-robin tournament, with the highest ranked two teams in each competition qualifying for the actual OFC Nations Cup, in a six-way round-robin tournament.
With the postponement and then cancellation of the Melanesian Cup, and a similar fate befalling its Polynesian equivalent, the format of the tournament changed in 2002. FIFA rankings determined the seedings of all twelve teams, and the lower six teams played a group stage for two qualifier positions into the main tournament. The 2002 Cup tournament proper was played with two groups of four teams (again in round-robin style), which led into a 4-way knockout stage, playing for the top four positions.
In 2004, the format changed once again, returning to a format similar to that of the 1996-2000 tournaments, with five teams each playing in two qualifying groups and Australia and New Zealand seeded to the actual tournament, played as a group stage of six, with a home and away Final played between the two highest-placed teams.
For the 2008 tournament, the format altered again. The 2007 South Pacific Games football tournament served as a qualification tournament, with the gold, silver and bronze winning nations progressing to the main, round-robin format, tournament, for which New Zealand qualified automatically. New Zealand emerged as winners of the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, and thus qualified for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and a playoff with the fifth placed team from the AFC for a place in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
