2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)

The Oceanic section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification will act as qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams which are members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). A total of 0.5 slots (i.e. 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament is available for OFC teams.[1]

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
Tournament details
DatesJune 2021 – TBD
Teams11 (from 1 confederation)

Format

On 28 July 2020, the OFC announced that they had submitted a proposal to FIFA for the qualifiers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

  • First round: The 11 OFC teams will be split into two groups based on their FIFA Ranking, and play single round-robin matches at centralized locations. The top two teams of each group advance to the second round.
  • Second round: The four teams will play knockout two-legged home-and-away matches, consisting of the semi-finals and final. The winner advances to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC will enter qualification.

From the November 2020 FIFA World Rankings[3]
Team
  1.  New Zealand (118)
  2.  Solomon Islands (141)
  3.  New Caledonia (156)
  4.  Tahiti (161)
  5.  Fiji (164)
  6.  Vanuatu (164)
  7.  Papua New Guinea (166)
  8.  American Samoa (192)
  9.  Samoa (194)
  10.  Tonga (203)
  11.  Cook Islands (Unranked)

Schedule

Qualifying was initially expected to begin in September 2020.[4] However, the FIFA international window in that month for the OFC was postponed on 25 June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]

Also on 25 June, FIFA announced that the inter-confederation play-offs, originally scheduled to be played in March 2022, were moved to June 2022.[5]

The OFC also announced on 5 November 2020 that the qualifying process, which would originally start in March 2021, was delayed until June that year.[6] The OFC will discuss with the member associations and FIFA about the new schedule.

The schedule of the competition is expected to be as follows, according to the FIFA International Match Calendar.[7]

Stage Matchday Dates
First round Matchday 1 June 2021
Matchday 2 TBD 2021 (originally 22–30 March 2021 and 31 May – 15 June 2021)[8][9]
Matchday 3
Matchday 4
Matchday 5
Second round Semi-finals first leg TBD (originally 30 August – 7 September 2021)
Semi-finals second leg
Final first leg TBD (originally 4–12 October 2021)
Final second leg

First round

The 11 participating nations will be split into two groups based on FIFA rankings. Matches would take place in June 2021 with each group being held in a central location.

Group A
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 A1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to second round
2 A2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 A3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 A4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 A5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on a day in June 2021. Source: OFC

Group B
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 B1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to second round
2 B2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 B3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 B4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 B5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 B6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on a day in June 2021. Source: OFC

Second round

Semi-finals
Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
–
–

Final

Winner advances to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
–

Inter-confederation play-offs
Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (inter-confederation play-offs)

The inter-confederation play-offs will be determined by another draw to be held at a later date. They are scheduled to be played in June 2022.

References
  1. "Current allocation of FIFA World Cup™ confederation slots maintained". FIFA.com. 30 May 2015. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
  2. "OFC tournaments update". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 July 2020.
  3. "FIFA Men's Rankings – November 2020 (OFC)". FIFA.com. 26 November 2020.
  4. "New Zealand Football successful with bid to host the 2020 OFC Nations Cup". Stuff. 10 January 2020.
  5. "FIFA Council unanimously approves COVID-19 Relief Plan". FIFA.com. 25 June 2020.
  6. "OFC announces schedule changes for early 2021". Oceania Football Confederation. 5 November 2020.
  7. "INTERNATIONAL MATCH CALENDAR 2020-2024" (PDF). FIFA.
  8. "FIFA World Cup Qatar™ 2022 OFC Qualifier – Group Stage". Oceania Football Confederation.
  9. "FIFA World Cup Qatar™ 2022 OFC Qualifier – Group Stage". Oceania Football Confederation.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.