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2023 OFC U-17 Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Fiji
Dates	11–28 January
Teams	9 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (9th title)
Runners-up	New Caledonia
Third place	Tahiti
Fourth place	Fiji
Tournament statistics
Matches played	17
Goals scored	71 (4.18 per match)
Attendance	3,985 (234 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Luke Supyk Titouan Guillemant (6 goals each)
Best player(s)	Nolhann Alabete
Best goalkeeper	Matt Foord
← 2018 2021 2024 →

The 2023 OFC U-17 Championship was the 19th 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 OFC announced on 4 March 2021 that the 2021 OFC U-17 Championship (originally the 2020 OFC U-16 Championship), which would have been hosted by Fiji, had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Fiji would be retained to host the next edition in 2022.

New Zealand, the seven-time defending champions, successfully defend their title, by won 1–0 the final over New Caledonia and both teams qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia as the OFC representatives.

Teams

10 of the 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC were eligible to enter the tournament. Solomon Islands were excluded from taking part by the OFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee in regards to the 2018 OFC U-16 Championship.

Starting from 2020, male youth tournaments no longer have a four-team qualifying stage, and all teams compete in one tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include those in the qualifying stage (2016 and 2018).

Team	Appearance	Previous best performance
American Samoa	9th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2011, 2015)
Cook Islands	10th	Group stage (1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2013, 2015)
Fiji (hosts)	18th	Runners-up (1999)
New Caledonia	12th	Runners-up (2003, 2013, 2017)
New Zealand	17th	Champions (1997, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018)
Papua New Guinea	10th	Semi-finals (2017), Fourth place (1986)
Samoa	9th	Group stage (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2015, 2017, 2018)
Tahiti	14th	Runners-up (2007, 2009, 2011, 2015)
Tonga	10th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2015)
Vanuatu	15th	Runners-up (2005)

Venues

Matches are played at HFC Bank Stadium in Suva and Ba Academy in Ba.

Match officials

The following officials were appointed for the tournament:

Group stage draw

The draw for the group stage was conducted at the OFC Home of Football on the 28 October 2022. Teams were seeded into three pots based on their 2018 OFC U-16 Championship ranking.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
New Zealand  Tahiti  Fiji	Papua New Guinea  New Caledonia  Samoa  Vanuatu	American Samoa  Tonga  Cook Islands

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2006 were eligible to compete in the tournament.

Group stage

All times are local, FJT (UTC+12).

Group A

Papua New Guinea were originally drawn into position A3 of this group but were removed before the start of the tournament due to not submitting their registration on time.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Fiji (H)	2	2	0	0	6	0	+6	6	Knockout stage
2	Samoa	2	1	0	1	6	3	+3	3
3	Tonga	2	0	0	2	0	9	−9	0

Fiji	3–0	Samoa
Khan 28' Kumar 49' Rao 60' (pen.)	Report

Samoa	6–0	Tonga
Edward 20', 40' Trainor 23', 25', 70', 85'	Report

Tonga	0–3	Fiji
	Report	Seninawanawa 7' Azafal 50' Khan 90'

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	New Zealand	2	2	0	0	14	2	+12	6	Knockout stage
2	New Caledonia	2	1	0	1	9	3	+6	3
3	American Samoa	2	0	0	2	0	18	−18	0

New Zealand	3–2	New Caledonia
Supyk 9', 72' (pen.), 75'	Report	Nganyane 16' Hnaissilin 69' (pen.)

American Samoa	0–11	New Zealand
	Report	Edwards 4' Sloane-Rodrigues 11', 68' Flowerdew 38', 45+2', 70', 88' D'Hotman de Villiers 42', 76', 90+1' Supyk 87' (pen.)

New Caledonia	7–0	American Samoa
Alebate 4' Levy 27' (pen.) Ue 53' Cahma 59' Saiko 64' Qaeze 68', 70'	Report

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tahiti	2	2	0	0	8	1	+7	6	Knockout stage
2	Vanuatu	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	3
3	Cook Islands	2	0	0	2	1	8	−7	0

Tahiti	2–1	Vanuatu
Guillemant 24' Timothy 36' (o.g.)	Report	Judah 82'

Cook Islands	0–6	Tahiti
	Report	Colombani 22', 45+2' Guillemant 53' Rota 66' Cadousteau 74' (pen.) Martin 78'

Vanuatu	2–1	Cook Islands
Chilia 1' Moso 47'	Report	Williams 45+2'

Ranking of third-placed teams

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	C	Cook Islands	2	0	0	2	1	8	−7	0	Knockout stage
2	A	Tonga	2	0	0	2	0	9	−9	0
3	B	American Samoa	2	0	0	2	0	18	−18	0

Knockout stage

Draw

The draw for the knockout stage was conducted at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva on the 18 January 2023. Teams were seeded into two pots based on the final group stage overall ranking.

Pot 1	Pot 2
New Zealand  Tahiti  Fiji  New Caledonia	Samoa  Vanuatu  Cook Islands  Tonga

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	21 January – Suva
	New Caledonia	4
					25 January – Suva
	Samoa	0
					New Caledonia (p)	1 (3)
	21 January – Suva
					Tahiti	1 (2)
	Tahiti	5
									28 January – Suva
	Tonga	0
									New Caledonia	0
	22 January – Suva
									New Zealand	1
	Fiji	3
					25 January – Suva
	Cook Islands	0
					Fiji	1
	22 January – Suva
					New Zealand	4			Third place match
	New Zealand	1
									28 January – Suva
	Vanuatu	0
									Tahiti	3
									Fiji	0

Quarter-finals

New Caledonia	4–0	Samoa
Angexetine 13' Alebate 45+3' (pen.) Saiko 88' Hmuine 90+6' (pen.)	Report

Tahiti	5–0	Tonga
Hutia 18' Guillemant 32', 90+5' Faure 68' Vonbalou 78'	Report

Fiji	3–0	Cook Islands
Maivalenisau 45+2', 90+3' Matapo 50' (o.g.)	Report

New Zealand	1–0	Vanuatu
Supyk 90+1' (pen.)	Report

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

New Caledonia	1–1	Tahiti
Alebate 14'	Report	Guillemant 30'
Penalties
Hanye Alebate Diko Saiko	3–2	Cadousteau Guillemant Cuneo Tamarii Teuira

Fiji	1–4	New Zealand
Ravonokula 14'	Report	Watson 7', 50', 80' Supyk 72'

Third place match

Tahiti	3–0	Fiji
Seguy 51' Guillemant 56' Tama 68'	Report

Final

New Caledonia	0–1	New Zealand
	Report	Bruce 24'

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.

Award	Player
Golden Ball	Nolhann Alabete
Golden Boot	Luke Supyk Titouan Guillemant
Golden Gloves	Matt Foord

Goalscorers

There were 71 goals scored in 17 matches, for an average of 4.18 goals per match.

6 goals

• Luke Supyk
• Titouan Guillemant

4 goals

• Luke Flowerdew
• Pharrell Trainor

3 goals

• Nolhann Alebate
• Matthew d'Hotman de Villiers
• Adam Watson

2 goals

• William Khan
• Petero Maivalenisau
• Sipane Qaeze
• Jean-Yves Saiko
• Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues
• Ethelbert Edward
• Tiahiti Colombani

1 goal

• Jeremiah Williams
• Ibraheem Azafal
• Prashant Kumar
• Vinayak Rao
• Sailimone Ravonokula
• Jacob Seninawanawa
• Jean-Philippe Angexetine
• David Cahma
• Iwatro Hmuine
• Joseph Hnaissilin
• Anthony Levy
• Ronald Nganyane
• Simon Ue
• Niko Bruce
• Jesper Edwards
• Eden Cadousteau
• Keanan Faure
• Dylan Hutia
• Teriitaumatatini Martin
• Tuarii Rota
• Vaitea Seguy
• Ariiheivarau Tama
• Turerearii Vonbalou
• Augustine Chilia
• Delickson Judah
• Jimmy Moso

1 own goal

• Dwayne Matapo (against Fiji)
• Albert Timothy (against Tahiti)

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 World Cup

The following two teams from OFC qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA U-17 World Cup
New Caledonia	25 January 2023	1 (2017)
New Zealand	25 January 2023	9 (1997, 1999, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)

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

References

1. ^ "Draw for OFC U-17 Championship to be set today". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 October 2022.
2. "OFC confirms schedule changes". Oceania Football Confederation. 4 March 2021.
3. "OFC male youth tournaments continue to evolve". Oceania Football Confederation. 3 April 2020.
4. "Teams discover OFC U-17 Championship 2023 opponents". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 October 2022.
5. "Match officials confirmed for OFC U-17 Championship 2023". Oceania Football Confederation. 13 December 2022.
6. "'Best' shot for juniors". Fiji Times. 4 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
7. "New Zealanders among award winners at end of OFC U-17 Championship". friendsoffootballnz.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.

External links

• oceaniafootball.com

• OFC U-17 Championship
• 2023 in OFC football
• 2023 in youth association football
• 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup qualification
• International association football competitions hosted by Fiji
• January 2023 sports events in Fiji