The 2021 OFC U-20 Championship, originally to be held as the 2020 OFC U-19 Championship, was originally to be the 23rd edition of the OFC U-19/U-20 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for the men's under-19/under-20 national teams of Oceania.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Samoa |
| Dates | Cancelled |
| Teams | 11 (from 1 confederation) |
← 2018 2022 → | |
The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in the Samoa in July 2020.[1] However, on 14 May 2020, the OFC announced that the tournament had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and would not be held before October 2020 but no later than January 2021.[2] On 28 July 2020, the OFC announced that the tournament would be held in January 2021,[3] provisionally between 23 January and 7 February 2021, with the name of the tournament changed from "2020 OFC U-19 Championship" to "2021 OFC U-20 Championship".[4][5] The OFC announced on 5 November 2020 that a decision on the tournament would be made during the Executive Committee meeting in December.[6] On 16 December 2020, the OFC announced the tournament had been postponed indefinitely until confirmation had been received from FIFA about the status of the 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia, scheduled for May–June 2021, of which the top two teams of the tournament would have qualified for as the OFC representatives.[7]
Following FIFA's decision to cancel the 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup on 24 December 2020,[8] the OFC announced on 18 January 2021 that the tournament would remain on track to be held in 2021, with the new dates to be decided in the coming months.[9] However, on 4 March 2021, the OFC announced that the tournament had been cancelled, and Samoa would be retained to host the next edition in 2022.[10]
New Zealand were the two-time defending champions.
Teams
editAll 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC were eligible to enter the tournament.
Starting from this edition, male youth tournaments would no longer have a four-team qualifying stage, and all teams would compete in one tournament.[11]
Note: All appearance statistics include those in the qualifying stage (2016 and 2018).
| Team | Appearance (planned) |
Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|
 American Samoa |
6th | Group stage (1998, 2011, 2014) |
 Cook Islands |
4th | Group stage (2001, 2016) |
 Fiji |
22nd | Champions (2014) |
 New Caledonia |
13th | Runners-up (2008) |
 New Zealand |
22nd | Champions (1980, 1992, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2018) |
 Papua New Guinea |
15th | Fourth place (1978, 1982) |
 Samoa (hosts) |
10th | Group stage (1988, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007) |
 Solomon Islands |
10th | Runners-up (2005, 2011) |
 Tahiti |
12th | Champions (1974, 2008) |
 Tonga |
7th | Group stage (1998, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2018) |
 Vanuatu |
16th | Runners-up (2014, 2016) |
Squads
editPlayers born on or after 1 January 2001 were eligible to compete in the tournament.
References
edit- ^ "Hosts confirmed for 2020 Youth Tournaments". Oceania Football Confederation. 26 February 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- ^ "OFC tournaments postponed". Oceania Football Confederation. 14 May 2020.
- ^ "OFC tournaments update". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 July 2020.
- ^ "OFC U-20 Championship 2021". Oceania Football Confederation. 10 September 2020.
- ^ "OFC Competitions 2021 Calendar (updated 4/06/2021)" (PDF). Oceania Football Confederation. Fédération Tahitienne de Football. 4 June 2021.
- ^ "OFC announces schedule changes for early 2021". Oceania Football Confederation. 5 November 2020.
- ^ "More calendar changes for 2021". Oceania Football Confederation. 16 December 2020.
- ^ "Update on FIFA Women's World Cup and men's youth competitions". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 24 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
- ^ "Men's youth tournaments postponed". Oceania Football Confederation. 18 January 2021.
- ^ "OFC confirms schedule changes". Oceania Football Confederation. 4 March 2021.
- ^ "OFC male youth tournaments continue to evolve". Oceania Football Confederation. 3 April 2020.
External links
edit- OFC U-20 Championship 2021, at Oceania Football Confederation