The 2016 OFC Nations Cup will be the tenth edition of the OFC Nations Cup organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The tournament will also double up as the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament for the Oceania region, with the winners proceeding to the inter-confederation play-offs in November 2017. In addition, the tournament winners will qualify for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.
For the fifth consecutive tournament, the format of the Nations Cup will change. These were confirmed at both OFC Executive Committee meetings on 29 March and 20 October 2014. As with the 1998 and 2008 editions, the tournament will not have a single host. The defending champions are Tahiti, who won their first title at the 2012 OFC Nations Cup.
Format
The tournament structure is as follows:
First round: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa, and Tonga will play a round-robin tournament at a single venue. The winner will advance to the second round.
Second round: A total of eight teams (Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu, and the first round winner) will be divided into two groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group will advance to the third round.
Third round: The four teams which advance from the second round will play home-and-away round-robin matches in one single group. The winner will qualify for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, and advance to the inter-confederation play-offs in November 2017 where they will play a team from another confederation for a place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals.[5] (An earlier alternative proposal would have the four teams play knockout two-legged semi-finals and finals.)
Will a team from OFC make the World Cup in 2018? I always hope that New Zealand will.