2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)

Tournament details
Dates	6 September 2024 – 24 March 2025
Teams	11 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	18
Goals scored	73 (4.06 per match)
Attendance	77,489 (4,305 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Chris Wood (9 goals)
← 2022 2030 →

The Oceanian section of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification process took place from 6 September 2024 to 24 March 2025.^[1] The 2026 tournament was the 16th edition of Oceanian qualifiers and marked the first time OFC had a direct qualification slot into the FIFA World Cup.^[2]

Format

The qualification structure was as follows:^[1][3]

• First round: The four lowest-ranked teams in the FIFA Men's World Rankings played a three-match knockout round in September 2024. The winner advanced to the second round.
• Second round: The winning team from the first round joined the seven highest-ranked teams in two four-team groups in October and November 2024. The top two teams from each group advanced to the third round.
• Third round: The four teams advancing from the second round played a three-match knockout round in March 2025 with the winner qualifying for the 2026 World Cup and the runner-up advancing to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants

All eleven eligible OFC nations entered qualification.

•  American Samoa
•  Cook Islands
•  Fiji
•  New Caledonia
•  New Zealand
•  Papua New Guinea
•  Samoa
•  Solomon Islands
•  Tahiti
•  Tonga
•  Vanuatu

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Round	Matchday	Date	Venue(s)
First round	Matchday 1	6 September 2024	Samoa
	Matchday 2	9 September 2024
Second round	Matchday 3	10–12 October 2024	Fiji and  Vanuatu
	Matchday 4	14–15 November 2024	New Zealand and  Papua New Guinea
	Matchday 5	17–18 November 2024
Third round	Semi-finals	21 March 2025	New Zealand
	Final	24 March 2025

The inter-confederation play-offs are scheduled to be played in March 2026.

Draw

The draw for the first two rounds was held at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland on 18 July from 9:00 CEST (UTC+2).^[1][4] Although announced prior to their official release, the seeding for the draw was based on the FIFA Men's World Rankings of 18 July 2024 (shown in parentheses below).

For the first round, the four lowest-ranked teams competed in a single-elimination play-off to determine which team advanced to the second round. The highest-ranked team faced the lowest-ranked team and the second-ranked team faced the third-ranked team in the semi-finals, and the winners of those matches faced each other in the final.

For the second round, each group contained one team from Pot 1, two from Pot 2 and one from Pot 3 (which also included a placeholder for the first round winner).

From the July 2024 FIFA World Rankings^[5]

Bye to second round			Competing in first round
Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
New Zealand (94)  Solomon Islands (141)	Fiji (153)  Tahiti (158)  New Caledonia (160)  Vanuatu (162)	Papua New Guinea (168) First round winner[a]	Cook Islands (186)  American Samoa (187)  Samoa (192)  Tonga (200)

Note: Teams in bold qualified for the third round. Teams in italics competed only in the first round.

1. The first round winner was not known at the time of the draw.

First round

First round matches were played 6–9 September 2024 in Samoa.^[6] The four lowest-ranked teams competed in a knockout series, and the winner advanced to join the seven highest-ranked teams in the second round.^[1]

Bracket

	Matchday 1				Matchday 2 (final)
	6 September 2024 – Apia
	Cook Islands	1
					9 September 2024 – Apia
	Tonga	3
					Tonga	1
	6 September 2024 – Apia
					Samoa (a.e.t.)	2
	American Samoa	0
	Samoa	2

Matchday 1

6 September 2024 (2024-09-06)

11:00 UTC+13

Cook Islands	1–3	Tonga
Kumsuz 63'	FIFA[7] OFC[8]	Tikoipau 27' Polovili 39' (pen.) Kefu 79'

FFS Football Stadium Field 1, Apia, Samoa

Attendance: 300

Referee: Calvin Berg (New Zealand)

---

6 September 2024 (2024-09-06)

15:00 UTC+13

American Samoa	0–2	Samoa
	FIFA[9] OFC[10]	Tumua 59' (pen.) Vaai 90+8'

FFS Football Stadium Field 1, Apia, Samoa

Attendance: 600

Referee: Norbert Hauata (Tahiti)

Matchday 2

The winner advanced to the second round.

9 September 2024 (2024-09-09)

15:00 UTC+13

Tonga	1–2 (a.e.t.)	Samoa
Sonasi 45+1'	FIFA[11] OFC[12]	Salisbury 82' Faamatau 105+3'

FFS Football Stadium Field 1, Apia, Samoa

Attendance: 500

Referee: Mederic Lacour (New Caledonia)

Second round

The second round took place from 10 October to 18 November 2024 with two groups of four teams playing each other once in a league format.^[1] Matches were played in Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu.^[13]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	New Caledonia	3	2	1	0	7	4	+3	7	Advance to the third round		—	—	—	3–1
2	Fiji	3	1	2	0	5	4	+1	5			1–1	—	—	—
3	Solomon Islands	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3			2–3	0–1	—	—
4	Papua New Guinea	3	0	1	2	5	8	−3	1			—	3–3	1–2	—

Source: OFC^[14]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

10 October 2024 (2024-10-10)

16:00 UTC+12

New Caledonia	3–1	Papua New Guinea
Athale 20' (pen.) Gope-Fenepej 45' Haewegene 83'	FIFA[15] OFC[16]	Semmy 78'

HFC Bank Stadium, Suva, Fiji

Attendance: 1,000

Referee: Campbell-Kirk Waugh (New Zealand)

10 October 2024 (2024-10-10)

19:00 UTC+12

Solomon Islands	0–1	Fiji
	FIFA[17] OFC[18]	Krishna 13'

HFC Bank Stadium, Suva, Fiji

Attendance: 2,000

Referee: Norbert Hauata (Tahiti)

---

14 November 2024 (2024-11-14)

13:00 UTC+10

Solomon Islands	2–3	New Caledonia
Lea'i 9' J. Alick 39'	FIFA[19] OFC[20]	Athale 6' (pen.), 59' (pen.) Waia 69'

PNG Football Stadium, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Attendance: 1,000

Referee: Calvin Berg (New Zealand)

14 November 2024 (2024-11-14)

16:00 UTC+10

Papua New Guinea	3–3	Fiji
Joe 2' Kepo 45' Gunemba 90+4'	FIFA[21] OFC[22]	Dunn 42' Krishna 54' (pen.) Nand 90+5'

PNG Football Stadium, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Attendance: 1,428

Referee: Matthew Conger (New Zealand)

---

17 November 2024 (2024-11-17)

13:00 UTC+10

Fiji	1–1	New Caledonia
Krishna 45+4' (pen.)	FIFA[23] OFC[24]	Katrawa 59'

PNG Football Stadium, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Attendance: 877

Referee: Norbert Hauata (Tahiti)

17 November 2024 (2024-11-17)

16:00 UTC+10

Papua New Guinea	1–2	Solomon Islands
Semmy 90+2'	FIFA[25] OFC[26]	David 41' Lea'alafa 68'

PNG Football Stadium, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Attendance: 1,284

Referee: Campbell-Kirk Waugh (New Zealand)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	New Zealand	3	3	0	0	19	1	+18	9	Advance to the third round		—	3–0	8–1	—
2	Tahiti	3	2	0	1	5	3	+2	6			—	—	2–0	—
3	Vanuatu	3	1	0	2	5	11	−6	3			—	—	—	4–1
4	Samoa	3	0	0	3	1	15	−14	0			0–8	0–3	—	—

Source: OFC^[14]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

11 October 2024 (2024-10-11)

13:00 UTC+11

New Zealand	3–0	Tahiti
Just 2' Wood 67' Waine 89'	FIFA[27] OFC[28]

VFF Freshwater Stadium, Port Vila, Vanuatu

Attendance: 1,000

Referee: Médéric Lacour (New Caledonia)

12 October 2024 (2024-10-12)

14:00 UTC+11

Vanuatu	4–1	Samoa
Cooper 7' Alick 36', 57' Kalo 90+1'	FIFA[29] OFC[30]	Viliamu 55'

VFF Freshwater Stadium, Port Vila, Vanuatu

Attendance: 3,000

Referee: Ben Aukwai (Solomon Islands)

---

15 November 2024 (2024-11-15)

16:00 UTC+13

Samoa	0–3	Tahiti
	FIFA[31] OFC[32]	Kaspard 59' Mathon 65' T. Tehau 87'

Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, New Zealand

Attendance: 638

Referee: Kavitesh Behari (Fiji)

15 November 2024 (2024-11-15)

19:30 UTC+13

New Zealand	8–1	Vanuatu
Garbett 11' Wood 23', 24' Bindon 32' Kaltak 38' (o.g.) Just 74' Singh 82' McCowatt 89'	FIFA[33] OFC[34]	Tasip 17'

Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, New Zealand

Attendance: 10,113

Referee: Ben Aukwai (Solomon Islands)

---

18 November 2024 (2024-11-18)

16:00 UTC+13

Tahiti	2–0	Vanuatu
Spokeyjack 8' (o.g.) Mathon 67' (pen.)	FIFA[35] OFC[36]

Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand

Attendance: 395

Referee: Médéric Lacour (New Caledonia)

18 November 2024 (2024-11-18)

19:30 UTC+13

Samoa	0–8	New Zealand
	FIFA[37] OFC[38]	McCowatt 24' Wood 28', 34', 60' Stamenić 62' De Vries 75' Just 87' Waine 90+2' (pen.)

Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand

Attendance: 5,327

Referee: Veer Singh (Fiji)

Third round

The third round took place in New Zealand on 21 and 24 March 2025.^[1] The winner qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the runner-up advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.^[13]

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	21 March 2025 – Wellington
	New Caledonia	3
					24 March 2025 – Auckland
	Tahiti	0
					New Caledonia	0
	21 March 2025 – Wellington
					New Zealand	3
	New Zealand	7
	Fiji	0

New Zealand defeated New Caledonia 3–0 and qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. New Caledonia advanced to the inter-continental playoffs.

Semi-finals

21 March 2025 (2025-03-21)

15:10 UTC+13

New Caledonia	3–0	Tahiti
Gope-Fenepej 50', 76' Waya 90+1'	FIFA[39] OFC[40]

Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand

Attendance: 1,948

Referee: CK Kawana-Waugh (New Zealand)

---

21 March 2025 (2025-03-21)

19:10 UTC+13

New Zealand	7–0	Fiji
Wood 6', 56', 60' Singh 16' Bindon 23' Payne 32' Barbarouses 73'	FIFA[41] OFC[42]

Sky Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand

Attendance: 20,947

Referee: Norbert Hauata (Tahiti)

Final

The winner qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The loser advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

24 March 2025 (2025-03-24)

19:10 UTC+13

New Caledonia	0–3	New Zealand
	FIFA[43] OFC[44]	Boxall 61' Barbarouses 66' Just 80'

Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand

Attendance: 25,132

Referee: Ben Aukwai (Solomon Islands)

Inter-confederation play-offs

Main article: 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (inter-confederation play-offs)

The runner up team, New Caledonia, will join one team each from AFC, CAF, and CONMEBOL and two from CONCACAF in the inter-confederation play-offs. The teams will be ranked according to the FIFA Men's World Ranking, with the four lowest-ranked teams playing in two single-elimination matches. The winners will meet the two highest-ranked teams in another set of single-elimination matches, with the winners of these matches qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup ^[45]

Qualified teams

  Qualified for the World Cup

  Can qualify for the World Cup

  Failed to qualify

  Not an OFC member

The following teams from OFC qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup
New Zealand	Third round winners	24 March 2025	2 (1982, 2010)

Goalscorers

There were 73 goals scored in 18 matches, for an average of 4.06 goals per match.

9 goals

• Chris Wood

4 goals

• Elijah Just

3 goals

• Roy Krishna
• Joseph Athale
• Georges Gope-Fenepej

2 goals

• Kosta Barbarouses
• Tyler Bindon
• Callum McCowatt
• Sarpreet Singh
• Ben Waine
• Tommy Semmy
• Benoit Mathon
• John Alick

1 goal

• Taci Kumsuz
• Thomas Dunn
• Merrill Nand
• Germain Haewegene
• Jean-Jacques Katrawa
• Gérard Waia
• Lues Waya
• Michael Boxall
• Francis de Vries
• Matthew Garbett
• Tim Payne
• Marko Stamenić
• Raymond Gunemba
• Joseph Joe
• Ati Kepo
• Jefferson Faamatau
• Luke Salisbury
• Dilo Tumua
• Jarvis Vaai
• Nathan Viliamu
• Javin Alick
• Junior David
• Micah Lea'alafa
• Raphael Lea'i
• Eddy Kaspard
• Teaonui Tehau
• Christopher Kefu
• Hemaloto Polovili
• Ulafala Sonasi
• Viliami Tikoipau
• Mitch Cooper
• Bong Kalo
• Jordy Tasip

1 own goal

• Brian Kaltak (against New Zealand)
• Johnathan Spokeyjack (against Tahiti)

References

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