Nations Cup set for July

The OFC Women’s Nations Cup will take place in Fiji in July.

New Zealand celebrate winning the 2018 Women’s Nations Cup. (Photo: Shane Wenzlick/Phototek)

The OFC confirmed the news in a press release:

“The OFC Women’s Nations Cup 2022 has been confirmed to take place in Fiji between July 13-30, with nine Member Associations taking part in a bid to earn qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™.

Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga and Vanuatu will play for the chance to join New Zealand – who qualified automatically as the co-hosts – as the Oceania representatives at the World Cup.

American Samoa are unable to take part due to ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tournament format will see three groups each made up of three nations play each other once, before the top two sides from each group, as well as the two best third-placed teams from the group stage, advance through to the quarter-finals.

The draw for the OFC Women’s Nations Cup will take place on Tuesday, May 10 and see competing nations split into three pots based on their FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking as of March 25, 2022.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will all be single-leg matches, with the two losing semi-finalists also contesting a playoff for third place.”