The eight qualified teams have been separated into their two groups for the OFC Champions League 2023. The draw took place today at the OFC Home of Football – Te Kahu o Kiwa in Auckland.
This year’s OFC Champions League will be held in Vanuatu in May, with games split between Port Vila and Luganville. It’ll be an exciting chance for Vanuatu to host a major OFC competition, it will be the first time the nation has held a full OFC Champions League.
OFC pre-determined that Ifira Black Bird will play their group matches in Port Vila and was therefore drawn automatically into Group B. The groups are as follows:
Each team will play each other once in the group stage with the two highest placed teams from each group advancing to the semi-finals. Here is the match schedule, with kickoff times to be confirmed:
Tiga Sport coach Leanardo Lopez is excited for the action to get underway.
“Because this is the first time to compete in the Champions League for Tiga Sport, we will approach this competition with humility and respect,” he said.
“The objective by the beginning of the competition will be to try and work on training and progress during our New Caledonia Super League championship matches, in order to be able to honour the colours and football of New Caledonia.”
Hekari United coach Erick Komeng is looking forward to his side competing in the prestigious competition for the first time in seven years.
“its exciting for my players. We are looking forward to play the other teams and hopefully we can be better and get a good result. But they are good teams and we are looking forward to playing them.”
The winner of the OFC Champions League 2023 will advance to the FIFA Club World Cup 2023, to be held this December in Saudi Arabia. This will be the last time the FIFA Club World Cup will be played under its current format.