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OFC 2006 World Cup qualifying format announced
The road to the 2006 World Cup in Germany for the Oceania nations has been announced and it's vastly different to any other format they have used in recent years.
Australia and New Zealand have been seeded and are automatically placed in the second and final stage of the qualification as they are the two top nations from the region. The remaining ten nations (Tahiti, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, American Samoa and the Cook Islands) will be split into groups of five and play a group tornament, in two venues, with the winner and runner-ups of the two groups progressing to the final stage.
The teams have been divided into groups based on their 2002 OFC Nations Cup placings and will be shown at the end of this article.
The final stage will consist of Australia, New Zealand and the teams progressing from the first stage. They will play a home and away series of matches (ten games per side) with the team finishing on top progressing to the World Cup in Germany.
The OFC have nominated June 2004 for the first group stage to take place with stage 2 set to be played on five FIFA fixed double dates. They are as follows:
2004: 4 & 8 September, 9 & 13 October
2005: 26 & 30 March, 4 & 8 June, 3 & 7 September, 12 & 16 November.
(All dates still to be confirmed)
First group stage groups:
Group A - Tahiti, Fiji, PNG, Samoa, American Samoa
Group B - Vanuatu, Solomon islands, New Caledonia, Tonga, Cook Islands |
