2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)

The Oceanic section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification will act as qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams which are members of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). A total of 0.5 slots (i.e. 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament is available for OFC teams.[1]

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
Tournament details
DatesMarch – October 2021
Teams11 (from 1 confederation)

Format

On 28 July 2020, the OFC announced that they had submitted a proposal to FIFA for the qualifiers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

  • First round: The 11 OFC teams will be split into two groups based on their FIFA Ranking, and play single round-robin matches in March and June 2021 at centralized locations. The top two teams of each group advance to the second round.
  • Second round: The four teams will play knockout two-legged home-and-away matches, with the semi-finals in September 2021 and the final in October. The winner advances to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants

All 11 FIFA-affiliated national teams from the OFC will enter qualification.

From the July 2020 FIFA World Rankings[3]
Team
  1.  New Zealand (122)
  2.  Solomon Islands (141)
  3.  New Caledonia (156)
  4.  Tahiti (161)
  5.  Fiji (163)
  6.  Vanuatu (163)
  7.  Papua New Guinea (165)
  8.  American Samoa (192)
  9.  Samoa (194)
  10.  Tonga (203)
  11.  Cook Islands (Unranked)

Schedule

Qualifying was expected to begin in September 2020.[4] However, the FIFA international window in September 2020 for the OFC have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]

On 25 June 2020, FIFA announced that the inter-confederation play-offs, originally scheduled to be played in March 2022, were moved to June 2022.[5]

The schedule of the competition is expected to be as follows, according to the FIFA International Match Calendar.[6]

Stage Matchday FIFA international dates
First round Matchday 1 22–30 March 2021 and
31 May – 8 June 2021
Matchday 2
Matchday 3
Matchday 4
Matchday 5
Second round Semi-finals First leg 30 August – 7 September 2021
Semi-finals Second leg
Final First leg 4–12 October 2021
Final Second leg

First round

The 11 participating nations will be split into two groups based on FIFA rankings. Matches would take place in March and June 2021 with each group being held in a central location.

Group A
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 A1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to second round
2 A2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 A3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 A4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 A5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on a day in March 2021. Source: OFC

Group B
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 B1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Advance to second round
2 B2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 B3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 B4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 B5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 B6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on a day in March 2021. Source: OFC

Inter-confederation play-offs
Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (inter-confederation play-offs)

The inter-confederation play-offs will be determined by another draw to be held at a later date. They are scheduled to be played in June 2022.

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gollark: And what if everyone wants to do a job which isn't that useful?
gollark: Again, how are you going to quantify that in every job ever without there being some financial incentive for it to make a little sense?
gollark: I was asking about King's proposal. Yours is different.
gollark: So I do in fact still have to work?

References
  1. "Current allocation of FIFA World Cup™ confederation slots maintained". FIFA.com. 30 May 2015. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
  2. "OFC tournaments update". Oceania Football Confederation. 28 July 2020.
  3. "FIFA Men's Ranking – July 2020 (OFC)". FIFA.com. 16 July 2020.
  4. "New Zealand Football successful with bid to host the 2020 OFC Nations Cup". Stuff. 10 January 2020.
  5. "FIFA Council unanimously approves COVID-19 Relief Plan". FIFA.com. 25 June 2020.
  6. "INTERNATIONAL MATCH CALENDAR 2018-2024" (PDF). FIFA.
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