OFC U-16 Women's Championship

OFC U-16 Women's Championship
Founded	2010
Region	Oceania (OFC)
Number of teams	varies
Current champions	New Zealand; (5th title)
Most successful team(s)	New Zealand; (5 titles)
	2023 OFC U-16 Women's Championship

The OFC U-16 Women's Championship (previously the OFC U-17 Women's Championship or OFC Women's Under 17 Qualifying Tournament) an Oceanic association football tournament held to determine the team that will appear in the Women's U-17 World Cup. The competition is organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and was first held in 2010.

There was no OFC qualifying tournament to the first world cup in 2008, as New Zealand classified automatically as hosts.^[1]

The inaugural edition, held in New Zealand from 12 to 14 April 2010, was a group stage contested by only 4 of OFC's 11 teams to fill the only spot for the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. It was won by New Zealand, who won all their games without conceding a goal.^[2] The 2016 edition was the first to play a knock-out stage. New Zealand won its third title.^[3]

The edition held in August 2017 was an under-16 edition,^[4] and the tournament was called the OFC U-16 Women's Championship, so was the 2023 edition.

Tournaments edit

Because the 2014 World Cup was already held in March, no sufficient early date could be found for the OFC qualifier. The tournament was cancelled and New Zealand sent to the World Cup by default.

U17 format edit

Year	Host	Final			Third place match
Year	Host	Champions	Score	Runners-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place
2010 details	New Zealand	New Zealand	Group stage	Solomon Islands	Papua New Guinea	Group stage	Tonga
2012 details	New Zealand	New Zealand	Group stage	Papua New Guinea	Cook Islands	Group stage	New Caledonia
2016 details	Cook Islands	New Zealand	8–0	Papua New Guinea	Fiji	3–2	New Caledonia
2020 details	Tahiti	Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic^[5]
2022 details	Tahiti^[6]	Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic^[7]

U16 format edit

Year	Host	Final			Third place match
Year	Host	Champions	Score	Runners-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place
2017 details	Samoa	New Zealand	6–0	New Caledonia	Semifinalists: Cook Islands and Fiji
2023 details	Tahiti	New Zealand	1–0	Fiji	Tahiti	5–3	Tonga

Performances by countries edit

Team	Winners	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place	Losing semifinalists	Total (top four)
New Zealand	5 (2010, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2023)					5
Papua New Guinea		2 (2012, 2016)	1 (2010)			3
Fiji		1 (2023)	1 (2016)		1 (2017)	3
New Caledonia		1 (2017)		2 (2012, 2016)		3
Solomon Islands		1 (2010)				1
Cook Islands			1 (2012)		1 (2017)	2
Tahiti			1 (2023)			1
Tonga				2 (2010, 2023)		2
Total	5	5	4	4	2	20

Awards edit

Tournament	Most Valuable Player	Top goalscorer(s)	Goals	Golden Golves	Fair play award
2010		Hannah Wong	8	Not awarded	Not awarded
2012	Briar Palmer	Hannah Carlsen Jasmine Pereira	6	Moeroa Nootai	New Zealand
2016	Michaela Foster	Hannah Blake	14	Francine Lockington	Cook Islands
2017	Maya Hahn	Kelli Brown	14	Lorenza Hnamano	Tonga

Champion's U-17 World Cup record edit

New Zealand qualified for all the editions of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup:

In 2008, they receive an authomatic berth as host.
In both 2014 and 2022 editions, they qualified by default, as no OFC qualifier was held due to concerns about dates.
For the 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2024 editions, New Zealand qualified as Oceanian champions.
In 2018, New Zealand finished 3rd becoming their best ever finish at any edition.