The draw for the OFC U-17 Championship 2023 will take place on Friday, October 28 with the competition to be hosted in Fiji from January 11-28 next year.
Ten teams will compete for the right to be crowned OFC U-17 champions, with games split between two venues in Ba and Suva.
The two finalists will also earn qualification for next year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup™ in Peru.
Next year’s event marks an exciting return of the competition following the eventual cancellation of the 2020 edition due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, and Vanuatu will all be hoping to prevent reigning champions New Zealand from a ninth title.
Following a decision issued by the OFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee in 2019 in relation to the OFC U-16 Championship 2018, the Solomon Islands are excluded from taking part.
The 10 nations will enter the draw on Friday, which will be conducted from Te Kahu o Kiwa, the OFC Home of Football, in Auckland by OFC Competitions Director Chris Kemp from 1pm NZT.
Teams will be drawn into three groups, one consisting of four teams and two consisting of three teams.
The group stage will then be followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and the OFC U-17 Championship 2023 final, to be staged at HFC Bank Stadium, Suva on January 28.
The draw will be livestreamed and available to watch at OFC’s official YouTube channel.