2023 OFC U-17 Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Fiji
Dates	11–28 January[1]
Teams	9 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	New Zealand (9th title)
Runners-up	New Caledonia
Third place	Tahiti
Fourth place	Fiji
Tournament statistics
Matches played	17
Goals scored	71 (4.18 per match)
Attendance	3,985 (234 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Luke Supyk Titouan Guillemant (6 goals each)
Best player(s)	Nolhann Alabete
Best goalkeeper	Matt Foord
← 2018 2021 2024 →

The 2023 OFC U-17 Championship was the 19th edition of the OFC U-16/U-17 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for the men's under-16/under-17 national teams of Oceania.

The OFC announced on 4 March 2021 that the 2021 OFC U-17 Championship (originally the 2020 OFC U-16 Championship), which would have been hosted by Fiji, had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Fiji would be retained to host the next edition in 2022.^[2]

New Zealand, the seven-time defending champions, successfully defend their title, by won 1–0 the final over New Caledonia and both teams qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia as the OFC representatives.

10 of the 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC were eligible to enter the tournament. Solomon Islands were excluded from taking part by the OFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee in regards to the 2018 OFC U-16 Championship.^[1]

Starting from 2020, male youth tournaments no longer have a four-team qualifying stage, and all teams compete in one tournament.^[3]

Note: All appearance statistics include those in the qualifying stage (2016 and 2018).

Team	Appearance	Previous best performance
American Samoa	9th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2011, 2015)
Cook Islands	10th	Group stage (1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2013, 2015)
Fiji (hosts)	18th	Runners-up (1999)
New Caledonia	12th	Runners-up (2003, 2013, 2017)
New Zealand	17th	Champions (1997, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018)
Papua New Guinea	10th	Semi-finals (2017), Fourth place (1986)
Samoa	9th	Group stage (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2015, 2017, 2018)
Tahiti	14th	Runners-up (2007, 2009, 2011, 2015)
Tonga	10th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2015)
Vanuatu	15th	Runners-up (2005)

Matches are played at HFC Bank Stadium in Suva and Ba Academy in Ba.^[4]

The following officials were appointed for the tournament:^[5]

The draw for the group stage was conducted at the OFC Home of Football on the 28 October 2022. Teams were seeded into three pots based on their 2018 OFC U-16 Championship ranking.^[1]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
New Zealand  Tahiti  Fiji	Papua New Guinea  New Caledonia  Samoa  Vanuatu	American Samoa  Tonga  Cook Islands

Players born on or after 1 January 2006 were eligible to compete in the tournament.

All times are local, FJT (UTC+12).

Papua New Guinea were originally drawn into position A3 of this group but were removed before the start of the tournament due to not submitting their registration on time.^[6]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Fiji (H)	2	2	0	0	6	0	+6	6	Knockout stage
2	Samoa	2	1	0	1	6	3	+3	3
3	Tonga	2	0	0	2	0	9	−9	0

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	New Zealand	2	2	0	0	14	2	+12	6	Knockout stage
2	New Caledonia	2	1	0	1	9	3	+6	3
3	American Samoa	2	0	0	2	0	18	−18	0

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tahiti	2	2	0	0	8	1	+7	6	Knockout stage
2	Vanuatu	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	3
3	Cook Islands	2	0	0	2	1	8	−7	0

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Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	C	Cook Islands	2	0	0	2	1	8	−7	0	Knockout stage
2	A	Tonga	2	0	0	2	0	9	−9	0
3	B	American Samoa	2	0	0	2	0	18	−18	0

The draw for the knockout stage was conducted at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva on the 18 January 2023. Teams were seeded into two pots based on the final group stage overall ranking.^[1]

Pot 1	Pot 2
New Zealand  Tahiti  Fiji  New Caledonia	Samoa  Vanuatu  Cook Islands  Tonga

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	21 January – Suva
	New Caledonia	4
					25 January – Suva
	Samoa	0
					New Caledonia (p)	1 (3)
	21 January – Suva
					Tahiti	1 (2)
	Tahiti	5
									28 January – Suva
	Tonga	0
									New Caledonia	0
	22 January – Suva
									New Zealand	1
	Fiji	3
					25 January – Suva
	Cook Islands	0
					Fiji	1
	22 January – Suva
					New Zealand	4			Third place match
	New Zealand	1
									28 January – Suva
	Vanuatu	0
									Tahiti	3
									Fiji	0

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Winners qualified for 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

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The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.^[7]

Award	Player
Golden Ball	Nolhann Alabete
Golden Boot	Luke Supyk Titouan Guillemant
Golden Gloves	Matt Foord

There were 71 goals scored in 17 matches, for an average of 4.18 goals per match.

6 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

The following two teams from OFC qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA U-17 World Cup1
New Caledonia	25 January 2023	1 (2017)
New Zealand	25 January 2023	9 (1997, 1999, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

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